- A CHRISTIAN STRATEGY FOR MISSIONS I
THE BEGINNING: A CHRISTIAN CONCERN FOR THE POOR
The American made helicopter hung lazily in the sky like a hesitating dragon fly, its whirling propeller barely visible to the naked eye. Suddenly, it began to descend. When it reached an altitude of approximately three thousand feet, it released two powerful rockets that zoomed across the valley and struck their target halfway up a mountain, less than a kilometer from where we were working. The explosions of those rockets and their reverberations caused the physician and me to rush from our workstation, on the steps of city hall, to the town plaza. As soon as we had positioned ourselves in the shade of a group of date palms several more copters whirled overhead. They headed toward the smoke rising from the place on the side of the mountain where the rockets had exploded. Suddenly, their sixty caliber machine guns began to blaze. They did not sound like the ratatattat of G3s and M16s that I had often heard in the city, but rather, the helicopter machine guns sounded like well-balanced engines. These helicopters had just attacked a mountain camp of the FMLN (Frente Militar Farabundo Marti) guerrillas, near the village of Jutiapa in the little Central American country of El Salvador.
The people of Jutiapa were scared citizens. Their faces reflected the years of struggle. Though the hot war had only begun in 1979, these people had endured previous years of Marxist activists organizing rural workers and the reaction of the government sponsored organization, ORDEN (Organizacion Democratica National). These organizations reportedly were responsible for the disappearance and murder of hundreds of rural organizational leaders. The people of Jutiapa had heard stories of the tragedies that had occurred at the hands of both ORDEN and the FMLN guerrillas. Their faces reflected their experiences and their losses. As the planes flew overhead, the people in the plaza appeared dazed for a moment, then to my surprise, went on with their daily activity as though nothing important was happening. As early as October 1982, they had already become accustomed to the sounds and fury of war. Since this action was outside their city, they were not involved; therefore, they went on with their buying and selling, their conversations, and their journeys.
However, for this North American gringo, this was not an ordinary day. I had often heard the sound of battle during the previous year that I had lived in San Salvador, but this was the first time to watch the machinery of war in action. This was also the first time to be so far from the Capitol, so far into territory supposedly controlled by the guerrillas. This would also be the first day that I would feel frightened in El Salvador. But it was also another first; this was the first day that God would speak to me about the needs and the plight of the Salvadoran poor. It was a day of beginning.
Jutiapa is a mountain village, lost in the deep mountain greenery that so beautifully landscapes the Salvadoran countryside. A Salvadoran relief agency medical doctor had invited me to travel with him to this remote mountain village where he was to attend the city’s sick and malnourished children. As Dr. Carlos and I topped the ridge overlooking the picturesque red tiled roofs of Jutiapa, my heart and spirit jumped within my breast. I had often read stories of famous missionaries who traveled to remote cities and villages to carry the gospel message. These missioners told of God’s guiding hand that led them to special people who would be unique keys that opened doors, allowing the missionary to carry out his ministry. Often, these special nationals aided the missionary in his called assignment and were vital to the success of the missionary’s mission. On that October day, God was leading me to an encounter which for me was a burning bush experience. Though this was my first encounter of this type, it would not be the last. God would use this experience to direct my path into a ministry that I had never anticipated.
Since 1971, I had served as a Latin American missionary and missions’ consultant. In 1981, God redirected my path to San Salvador to serve as pastor of the Union Church of San Salvador. Exactly how I had arrived in San Salvador to pastor this prestigeous congregation was peculiar. Though not a large congregation, the church was a very visible body in the international community. Maybe it was due to the church’s visibility that I had been asked to serve as an advisor to one of the many relief and development agencies that worked in this tiny Central American nation. Or maybe it was also the dedication of this young Salvadoran medical doctor that piqued my interest in his work. Most likely, it was God who had used Union church and this young doctor to redirect my Christian trajectory. Indeed, Union Church was the reason that I was in El Salvador, and it was Dr. Carlos who that day invited me to go with him to Jutiapa. It was this day in Jutiapa that changed my life and my Christian commitment.
Including the time we watched the air strike against the guerrilla camp, Carlos and I worked less than five hours and attended one hundred and twenty-six patients, all children and infants. I worked as a pharmacist that day; Carlos would write down on his prescription pad the medicines that he wanted each patient to receive, and I simply gave to each patient the medicine prescribed and explained the dosages. A little after noon we finished with the last patient and began repacking all the remaining medicines for the two-hour return trip to the Capitol. As we were putting all these items back in the old jeep vehicle, a little boy, maybe ten or eleven years of age, pulled on my guayabera shirt. He looked hesitatingly into my face, and asked, “Doctor, do you have anything for the pains in my stomach?” I looked at Carlos, and he looked helplessly back at me and then to the malnourished boy as he replied, “Hijo, lamento, pero, no tenemos nada para la enfermedad que tu tienes.” (Son, I am sorry, but we do not have anything for the sickness that you have.) The boy dropped his head and humbly walked off. Later, Carlos explained that the boy only had stomach parasites like most of the one hundred twenty-six patients that he had seen that day; it was something so simple, yet so very deadly without proper and corrective medicines. It was unfortunate, but, according to Dr. Carlos, neither his organization nor, for that matter, any other organization had Mebendazole, Thiabendazole, Diethylcarbamazine or similar antiparasitic medicines.
Certainly, it was not my fault that we did not have any antiparasitic medicines, yet the look that boy gave me, the look of passive acceptance was an expression that I would see repeatedly. I would see that expression on the faces of other children, a resignation to their fate. They accepted death as though it were an everyday occurrence. But I would also see that boy’s expression in the midnight hours. I would see it in dreams. Without doubt the boy would die a painful death without proper medical attention. Nightly I would see that passive acceptance of my answer time and time again. And I would think, why did I not pray for him; I could have at least offered prayer. Finally, after days of this expression and a face that would not go away, God said, “I’ll give you another chance; I’ll give you the nation and its children.”
The Jutiapa experience was extremely meaningful to me. Not just the experience of working with the poor, but rather, it was through this event that God let me see into His heart and His concern for the poor. God let me see through just a very small crack in His heart’s door that He did have a special concern for the world’s poor and their miserable plight. Liberation theologians would have us believe that God is only concerned about the poor. Many teach that only the poor are the inheritors of God’s salvation and that the rich are oppressors and deserve God’s wrath. These teachers proclaim that this punishment will be applied by liberating guerrilla forces who would free the oppressed from the clutches of the rich. However, God receives all, the poor and the rich, based on His grace and not on the merit of our richness or our poverty. Jesus’ message to Nicodemus is His message to the rich and the poor, “You must be born again.”
God’s Preparation
For the following year God began teaching me something within my spirit that only He and the Holy Spirit could accomplish. He began to awaken me as early as three o’clock in the morning. For the following eighteen months, I would start my day at 4:00 A.M. I would pray, meditate, and read the Scripture until seven each day. It was a time of becoming aware who God really is. God wanted me to develop a relationship with Him so that He could confide in me.
There were several issues that God wanted me to learn. First, He wanted me to understand that prayer is the power of His church. The Holy Spirit wanted to teach me that it was not the amount of time that I spent in prayer, nor all that I could say in prayer that was important to Him. The point that God wanted me to learn was simply that prayer was the means through which God could speak. He wanted me to express my needs and my thoughts to Him. More important, He also wanted me to get quiet and listen to Him, not in my intellect, but rather, in my spirit. God is a Spirit, and at creation He gave a spirit to man. God, the creator, speaks to man, the created, in spirit, that is, Spirit to spirit. “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). “I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind” (I Corinthians 14:15). The result of this type of prayer is “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them” (Psalm 25:14). The Lord was simply teaching me to be quiet so He could speak to me. I could not tell Him anything that He did not already know; therefore, He wanted me to learn to be still and quiet and let His Spirit speak to my spirit.
A second issue that God wanted me to realize was that His vision, although shared with me, was His vision and not mine. It was a very hard learning experience to face the fact that when He confided to me something from His heart, that it was not my job nor responsibility to proclaim that vision to the world. My task was simply to submit to the vision only as far as it affected my life.
God wanted me to know that as Christians, our responsibility is to hear His voice and obey while He effects His purpose in our life. Christians administer His vision, but we are generally not responsible for fulfilling His vision. God will fulfill His vision. The purpose of sharing heavenly secrets, or vision, with His earthly church is because He wants that we discern what actions on earth are in accord with His will. This was important, for it saved me from spending countless hours in projects that were good but were not in God’s plan for my life. God taught me in that year to be patient and wait for His timing.
A third issue that God took up with me during those months of prayer was the church. The Lord gave me insight, through His Salvadoran church body, which allowed me to see that His church was not an organization, but rather, a true koinoniaof Christians; the church was a fellowship of loving Christians who acted as preservative salt in a decaying world. He began showing me that His Church was a dwelling place in which He lived by His Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-22). His church was the realization of the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. As Paul expressed, these were but shadows, models, and examples, of the church that Christ would build. Christ wanted His church to manifest His Spirit and by that, act as salt on a world ready to decay. He wanted the church to share His principles with the world, even to the rulers of this world. In this way, He began to show me that His Word was good for all men, not just for Christians in the church, but His principles were appropriate for all men in all positions. God’s principles applied by worldly men to worldly situations will bring success and positive resolution. Non-Christian, government rulers who apply God’s principles can expect to see success from their tenure of office, not because of their goodness, but because of God’s faithfulness to his Word.
There was still another issue that God wanted me to address in my own life; God wanted me to recognize that His creation, all of His creation, was wonderfully made and precious in His sight. God helped me recognize that His creation, animals and plants, law (what we know as spiritual and natural), earth and its fullness, including humankind were all wonderfully made. He was proud of them at creation and called them “good.” The earth and its fullness are not bad, rather they are good. God made the earth and all that is in it; therefore, it is good. We humans, however, pollute even God’s goodness. As an example, man has taken the products of the coca plant and made an intoxicating drug known as coke. God intended that man use this plant as a medicinal healer and not as a drug to bend and destroy man’s mind. Other examples are some industries that produce many consumable items on which North Americans depend. Household appliances, paper, medicine, and electricity are items that we use and consider essential to our way of life. Many industries, while producing items that Americans use, also produce waste products that contaminate the earth and air around us. Yet many companies that produce these needed products also produce smog filled air that often causes cancer and other sicknesses.
Evangelical Protestants generally miss this real concern of God; He created the world and if He created it, then of course, He is interested in it. However, we have often been guilty of subscribing to the idea that God is only interested in “spiritual” matters, like salvation and church growth. These are concerns with which God is indeed vitally concerned; however, these do not negate His concern about the planet earth, about the arts, education, history, health, poverty, science, and all events that touch man’s life. God is concerned about our spiritual relationship with Him, but He is also concerned about our relationship with all His creation. Too often, Evangelicals have emphasized only a vertical and pious relationship with God while excluding the spiritual, horizontal relationship between man and his God created environment.
God brought me to this reality through two very important lessons. In January of 1983, I invited several pastors, an attorney, a couple of medical doctors, a professor, and several other friends to a mountain top retreat for a week of prayer and fasting. As the days passed, God impressed me to reread the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, and the Chronicles. This time something new began to come into sharp focus. I noticed that many Old Testament heros had come from the smallest or weakest families, or smallest tribes, or smallest clans. Saul, David, and Gideon are examples. This was not new to me, rather, the Holy Spirit’s application was quite revealing. He wanted me to see that El Salvador’s future strength would come from the ranks of the poor and needy. This was absolutely against all that I had been taught and had believed.
History reveals that the Salvadoran wealthy gave up its position of leadership in 1932 when General Maximiliano Hernández Martinez came to power. Behind the scenes, the wealthy continued to exercise control in most government levels, in land ownership, and in the financial institutions. In 1948, young middle grade officers overthrew the oligarchy supported government and inaugurated a new era in El Salvador. The new government gave space for an industrial community to develop. Manufacturing and commerce needed lawyers, accountants, professional managers, medical doctors, and the like. These professions were filled by students from poor families who devoted their time to study. These new professionals became the basis of a Salvadoran middle class. From the 1950s through the 1970s, it was this new middle class that ruled El Salvador, making rules and laws that protected themselves and their new positions. These new rulers emulated the rich and generally found favor in the eyes of the wealthy and powerful.
Though the middle class had its roots in the poorer classes, it was not this middle sector about whom God was speaking. God wanted me to see that He was concerned about the present poor and powerless of El Salvador. The Holy Spirit wanted me to see that He was concerned about their salvation, their poverty and their health, but deep in my heart, I knew that He was interested in much more. God was interested in His church providing a step on which the poor could stand and see hope in their future. Although the Evangelical church had traditionally only provided spiritual care for the poor, God impressed me deeply that He wanted the church to provide that step for the poor. God placed in my heart a declaration that the poor would truly arise again in political power, and that the involvement of the Evangelical church in their lives would decide the political future of these masses. They would arise from the dust of humiliation and the captivity of poverty seeing a mighty God as provider and example. Or, if the Evangelical church chose not to be involved, they would arise from abuse and oppression seeing man and Marxism as their liberator. This was a powerful scene that God put before my eyes early one morning.
There was another specific lesson that God wanted me to learn; God had placed me in El Salvador to give vision, not to lead a revolution of poor people. What God wanted accomplished in El Salvador would be done by Salvadorans, not by foreigners. The Lord made this perfectly clear to me through the Scripture found in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “if my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray…. I will…heal their land.” God wanted to use me to give vision, not to be the leader of revolution nor of a new church. Simply, God wanted to give the Salvadorans a vision of their possibilities in Him. But first, God wanted me to understand something about the problems of the Salvadoran poor:
* Two percent of the population controls sixty percent of the land.
* Ninety-six percent of the rural population has twelve acres of land or less.
* In 1975, fifty-eight percent of the population earned $10 per month or less.
* Seventy percent of the children under five years of age are malnourished.
* The per capita calorie consumption rate is the lowest in the western hemisphere.
* Illiteracy affects forty-three percent of the population.
* The infant mortality rate is sixty per thousand births.
* Sixty-four percent of the urban population lacks sewage facilities.
* Forty-five percent of the population has no potable drinking water on a regular basis.
* The per capita income in El Salvador is the lowest in Central America.
* Eight percent of the population receives fifty percent of the national income.
* Most of the rural population has work for only one-third of the year.
* Unemployment and under-employment in the rural areas are a permanent forty-five percent.
* In some displaced persons camps, it has been reported that fifty percent of all children die before the age of five years.
* In most rural areas, one out of ten infants die by the age of six months due to dysentery.
These statistics helped focus my thoughts on some difficulties with which the Salvadoran poor lived. The conditions that these horrible statistics represented indicated the conditions of life for much of the country’s poor, especially those who had been displaced by the acts of war.
These conditions begged for an answer. However, the answer to the poor’s dilemma is not Marxism, nor is it socialism. The answer to their problem is twofold. First, they must receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and obey and comply with the principles of the Scripture. Secondly, they must be taught that in Christ, they have value as human beings; their dignity must be reestablished, and their humanity reaffirmed. The Marxists and Socialists want us to think that the answer to the problems of poverty is a redistribution of wealth. That simply means taking from the rich and giving it to the poor. They believe that the world has a limited amount of wealth that can be exchanged between inhabitants. This is not the answer to the poor and needy’s problems.
The answer to the poor’s dilemma is understanding that it is God who creates wealth, and it is He who gives man the ability to produce wealth. God creates through His laws of creation; man produces through his labor. Corn seeds planted in the ground give the planter a return of 100 seeds for each seed planted. Man, plants and waters (this is production); God brings forth the increase through His principles of creation (this is creation). Money and labor wisely invested in an economic enterprise produce a return on the investment. This is capitalism at work and is an example of man’s productive capacity using God’s principles of creation. Therefore, it is not necessary to rob or steal, for when man obeys God’s principles, production is possible from God’s principles of limitless creation. (Deuteronomy 8:18; Matthew 25: 14-30)
But also, the church needs to understand that it has a responsibility for the community in which it exists. The Salvadoran Evangelical church, besides the North American church that supports its sister churches in El Salvador, must understand that first there is the need for the message of salvation. Yet, this is not enough. According to the World Bank, El Salvador is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. This means that there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and that many people lack access to basic services such as health, education, and sanitation. In addition, El Salvador has been plagued by violence and insecurity with a very high homicide rate, one of the highest in the world. These conditions create a cycle of poverty, despair, and hopelessness for many Salvadorans, especially the young and the rural.
In contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ offers hope, peace, and joy to those who believe and follow him. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Jesus also demonstrated his love and compassion for the poor and the oppressed, by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. He also commanded his followers to do the same, saying, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
This is why I felt a strong calling from God to do something for the poor of El Salvador, after witnessing their suffering and their faith in Jutiapa, a small town in the eastern part of the country. I was in Jutiapa at the invitation of a community development physician, and I was amazed by the resilience and the generosity of the people, despite their hardships. I also saw the need for more holistic and sustainable solutions to their problems, beyond the occasional relief and aid that we could provide. I felt that God was speaking to me through a burning bush, just like he did with Moses, and telling me to go and serve his people in El Salvador.
This experience taught me that the church needs to show a kind of Biblical love that moves beyond words. In the book of John, Jesus spoke to Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman of their spiritual needs, but immediately afterwards he healed a royal official’s son and a poor invalid. Then he fed five thousand people. Jesus had a love and compassion that the church needs to imitate. The major issue that needs to be addressed by churches is one of priority. Which of the following alternatives should have higher priority: faith for God to heal the sick, give food to the hungry, and cloth the naked; or faith that teaches people how to avoid sickness, how to provide food and clothing for one’s family? (Later books will more completely describe the church’s responsibility.)
A Vision
After what I might call a “burning bush experience” in Jutiapa, God began speaking to my heart about doing something for the poor of El Salvador. God began putting into my heart a vision for a Christian organization that would operate from Christian principles to develop people rather than simply relieve human suffering. This organization would be evangelistic, yet simultaneously, it had to display to the poor a church with a human face, that is, a church that had a genuine concern for the poor who lived in miserable conditions. This organization would show its concern for the Salvadoran needy, but also it had to establish itself as a professional organization that understood the causes of poverty, sickness, and ignorance as well as their solution.
During these days I began to see that the average Evangelical church (in El Salvador and in the United States) was primarily interested in its Sunday morning or Sunday evening attendance. Its primary concern was the number of members, and the number of conversions per annum. Few of these churches were interested in the miserable social and environmental conditions in which the poor of its neighborhood lived. Often Christians and their churches were so involved building their church that they forgot that God put Christians in the world to be salt, to be a preservative acting upon the world. I saw the Scriptures speaking more frequently about the economically poor and Christianity’s responsibilities to this segment of society than it does about the Christian’s responsibility to win the unsaved. Yet with this Biblical model, many churches spend hundreds of dollars on church growth seminars, while spending relatively little to reach out to the poor in their own neighborhoods.
Often when Evangelical churches attempt to reach out to the poor, they are unequipped to handle the responsibility. As a rule, North Americans think that helping the poor means supplying food and clothing. However, these efforts are mostly evangelistic programs aimed at enlarging church membership. Many of these poor people see through these mercy acts and consider them evangelistic efforts by the church rather than a genuine concern for the poor.
I do not want to belittle evangelism, but I do have to speak to the point. The church has more than just the responsibility of winning the lost. Evangelism should be a prime responsibility of the church, but the Scripture also gives the church responsibilities for the poor of its environment. For instance, read Deuteronomy 15: 7-11; Proverbs 19:17; 21:13; Luke 4:18; James 2. These verses condemn Christian egotistical selfishness, promote Christian charity, affirm church ministries to the poor, and advocate actions of faith that provide for the needy. Actions that benefit the poor are not optional, rather, they are imperative responsibilities of the church. These responsibilities mean more than just a handout of food or a little money. (In later books I will deal with various programs that adequately help the poor.)
God began showing me that the church has a responsibility of being His hand extended, reaching out to those in spiritual and material need. This act of reaching out to the poor and sick is a slow process that may take years to complete. Generally, North Americans want to give money and expect that the problems of the poor will just go away. God wants to teach the church how to give of itself just as Christ gave of Himself for us. This is a slow, sometimes painful experience.
God began revealing to me an organization that would reach out to the immediate needs of the sick and hungry, but at the same time, would help in the human development of the poor. This meant reaching out with medical attention, food, and with programs of development that would train the Salvadoran needy and those displaced by acts of war while also demonstrating ways to care and provide for themselves. This meant doctors, nurses, feeding programs, teachers, schools, and development and preventive health programs that instruct. It also meant pastors, evangelists, and teachers who share the gospel message of God’s principles for productive living. The vision that I could see developing in my heart was a microcosm of God’s kingdom planted as a Christian community development organization among the needy of El Salvador.
THE PURPOSE OF PARALIFE INTERNATIONAL
Paralife International was legally founded in April of 1983. Believing that God’s ultimate purpose for man includes the earth and its redeemed residents, Paralife took its compound name from the Greek word “para,” which means “called alongside of,” and the common English word “life.” This is the only inalienable gift given to humanity. Paralife has been called alongside of life to give vision, hope, and love to those persons in the world whose gift of life has been threatened by sin, oppression, injustice, and by earthly disasters.
The purpose of Paralife International is to bring glory to God by manifesting His sovereignty on earth through a homogeneous balance of Worship, Community, and Witness. The original idea was that a balance of these three elements in Christ’s universal body would result in local church evangelism and a process of community social reconciliation. Paralife International’s development was the direct result of a vision to demonstrate a spiritual balance in the church while socially reconciling the earth to the sovereignty of Christ’s kingdom. But this process of reconciliation challenges most major world systems.
Most of the world’s systems, such as the legal, educational, religious, social, health care, art, and the sciences, are presently being guided by a determined humanistic design. From the Renaissance and the Reformation, through the Age of Reasoning and including modern times, man has cleverly devised ways to promote himself as the originator, provider, and caretaker of the world as well as his own standard of excellence. This flow of history and philosophy puts man at the top of the pinnacle of glory. That position of glory belongs only to God.
The only institution on earth that has the power to interdict this flow of history is the Church of Jesus Christ. God gave to His Church all power and dominion and its commission to win the lost. As this crucible of God’s power on earth, the Church, manifests His kingdom on earth, Christ’s influence over earthly systems will be displayed. This demonstration of power will be manifested only through prayer and practice of kingdom principles by the local church. This will result in the reconciliation of man to God and then man to man. The hope of the earth is that the Sons of God will be revealed with power reconciling all creation to the creator. The process of reconciliation can and will halt the flow of history and philosophy by which Christ will be proclaimed Lord of heaven and earth.
God created Paralife International to be an instrument of reconciliation on earth. Each year, Paralife ministers to thousands of people through its highly trained staff of physicians, technicians and Christian workers. Christian workers, pastors, and evangelists share the gospel with those who come to the central clinic and in the rural communities where Paralife has ongoing projects. An average of 150 people is seen daily at the downtown clinic in San Salvador. Besides this facility are other rural health facilities that aid the poor and needy of El Salvador, not only with curative healing, but also with preventive health education. These classes are offered weekly to help mothers with childcare information, pre and post birth care of mother and infant, nutritional aid for the severely malnourished, as well as gardening and other complimentary feeding programs. This is in addition to the pastoral training program, construction of church buildings and the Christian school programs that Paralife provides to several communities. These are the remedies that Paralife provides for the unfortunately displaced and poor of this tiny Central American nation.
The past years have left El Salvador with approximately 500,000 homeless and displaced people. To save their own lives, these people fled their original homesites to the safety of the city or to the many displaced persons camps located throughout the country. This forced mobility left thousands of people destitute, unemployed, sick, homeless, and without much hope for the future. The church that preaches and practices kingdom principles must take the initiative and manifest God’s love to these needy people. Communists, Marxists, Socialists, and others are spending great amounts of time, energy, and money to convince these unfortunate people that help is just around the political corner, just beyond the present government. The poor must be trained to face the future and not be left to become hopeless dependents of the state or whoever would take advantage of their plight. The commission of Jesus to the church was to “make disciples of all nations.” The Church of Jesus Christ should be at the side of the hurting and helpless, evangelizing and saving their souls while preparing them to live on the earth that the Lord prepared. This is true discipleship that follows the examples of Jesus and those of His disciples. Paralife has made this commitment of helping the Salvadoran poor become productive people.
Paralife has developed a compassionate program that encourages production and discourages dependency. This is done by understanding the idea of compassion. Compassion is a result of love where the only action that is taken is for the ultimate benefit of the needy. “Samaritan Compassion,” as exampled by the story of the Good Samaritan, is shown only in relief and emergencies where life and death are uncertain. This is humanitarian action that demands nothing of the beneficiary nor any continuing help by the donor. This kind of compassion is shown to humanity as the extended hand of God. “Developmental Compassion,” on the other hand, is exampled by the Old Testament law of gleaning. People were given the opportunity to provide for the needs of their family by working. This type of compassion-built dignity and encouraged work habits. The result of this type of compassion is a work ethic that appreciates private property, builds families, and provides protection for the community. It also encourages individual responsibility while allowing the community the opportunity to serve the poor.
Consequently, Paralife makes a token charge for medical and educational services given to the displaced. Paying for these services, although it is a token payment, gives the family dignity; for instance, parents are given the opportunity to provide needed services for their family. This is an example of contemporary “gleaning.”
The educational system that Paralife developed in El Salvador is another example of its commitment to the rebuilding of Central America. The major resource of El Salvador and Central America is its youth. These young minds need training in schools that are administered by Biblical principled people. They must understand the principles that will lead their country to economic self-sufficiency. These young people need to be taught morality based on absolute principles rather than arbitrary relativism. They need examples of social development founded on Biblical truth and not sociological statistics. They need a Christianity that is more concerned about man and his environment than theological systems. The integral educational system that Paralife International is developing attempts to face these developmental issues.
Revised August 10, 1992
Revised January 20, 2024
Pages 119 Words 6,095
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