Someone came to me with an interesting proposal recently: for my church to sponsor an African native in the U.S. while he gets Information Technology training for two years.
There are several unique pieces to this proposal. First, we would sponsor someone who is a Christian, but not someone who is officially engaged in the life of the church in Sierra Leone, where he’s from. In other words, he’s not a seminarian, missionary or pastor. Second, that we would not only give some money to help someone in need, but we would full-scale sponsor a person with only the hope that he would proclaim the gospel in Africa through his business. And this is no small proposal; the total would be at least $50,000 for the two-year program.
This is an example of how churches help people in need all over the world. It might also be an example of how churches mis-use money given to them with too few questions and not enough oversight. It takes a great deal of boldness to ask an institution for a gift of $50,000 with no obvious list of reasons that the recipient has any particular merit. Who is this guy? How did he get such special connections? Can he succeed? What guarantees that he won't get a degree and stay in the US rather than return to a poor African nation that the church is trying to help. Churches often to great work through charity. The people in those churches are often robbed by the same means.
Tags: charity, africa, religion, church, faith
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1 comment:
Thanks to linking to our site. When I read my co-blogger's post, I was suspicious of the proposition described. My father has dealt with many West African "businessmen", and from his own experience 9 out of ten of them are simpy scammers. It's tragic that one can't just trust people to do well with your money. It seems to me that it's just better to have complete oversight over the entire giving process.
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