Giving - Advent, 2014

Advent (and through the Christmas Season, which, contrary to the our consumer culture, starts with Christmas) is a time in which we focus on giving. Food Banks ask for help in feeding the hungry. Who is sponsoring the Coat and Clothing Drive this year? Cold weather shelter is in need (and provided through community support). Even the TV (for those of us who have one) hit the viewers up for giving to children in far flung places. Then disaster strikes: a civil war in Syria with displaced refugees facing a cold winter, a typhoon in the Philippines, ... our frame of reverence switches to the "new" disaster. The old one is forgotten. 

Are these people still suffering after the media attention has gone? Sometimes it feels like the following video:

[I wanted to insert a video my friend Paul recently posted here, but it is not yet available. Instead, picture a Sudanese toddler sitting in the sand, around the child are the media reporters, film and camara crews. As the media chatter away asking,  "What's your name?" "How old are you?" "What happened here?", a woman with a camera in hand offers a glass of water. Just as the child is reaching for it, just as it is almost in the child's hand, a helicopter flies over announcing a typhoon in Tahiti. The glass is dropped and the media rush away. The video fades out as the child is soundlessly crying and the water soaks into the sand. ]

While on one level this video is profound in its simplicity, on amount level the video comes across as rather simple and missing some of the nuances of reality. For instance, the aid "receivers" are never really this helpless. I do wonder if this is somewhat a projection of our own feelings helplessness in dealing with the issues. We would rather not stick around for all the hard work that systematic change takes. Would we rather just offer a glass of water and rush off to the next crisis?

In this time of giving I would encourage you to give. I would encourage you to give to an institution. Preferably an institution  that is already on the ground working with people in partnerships that are mutually benificial and rewarding. In such a way, we "givers" can join in a partnership not only with the "receivers" put also with the aid "workers/suppliers." As you give, I hope you would also give an ear, to hear the stories: the triumphs and disasters, the successes and failures,  the experiments and hopes. 

Then maybe we'll be aware that even after the media blitz, there are still partnerships continuing on, like this video shows.

Maria's breakfast recipe:

Blessed be,

Joel