May 2008
Friends,
It’s Saturday morning. I am thinking about a busy week of teaching just past here at LCC. I am thinking about how difficult it may be to conceive of teaching as mission. The news here is dominated by the horrific images of the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China. The tragedy is difficult to comprehend; thousands upon thousands have perished. In these days of catastrophic natural disasters, wars and disease pandemics, what can be said about teaching? It seems to be such a privilege is the face of such human misery.
Here’s my experience in a day of teaching. This May I am teaching an upper-level course in international economics. The room is full with 31 students, 29 women and two men. Five countries are represented: Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. We are busy slugging through some sophisticated economics for three hours every day. A goal of the course is greater awareness of the issues of justice in a fast-paced global economy.
Graduation day at Lithuania Christian College in May 2008. Eric (in the middle) with students from Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia and Belarus. Romans 12 gives good advice on Christian behavior. It takes energy to teach. Paul exhorts us: “With unflagging energy, in ardor of spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11). We faithfully seek to use the gifts for teaching that God’s grace allotted to us.
The issues in international economics are very complex. We use a standard international text, International Economics by Paul Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld. The theories of trade are challenging to any undergraduate. The graphic representation of trade patterns can take hours to absorb. Much of this economics comes from Nobel laureates. The vocabulary is quite advanced. On Friday we focused on a key word at the end of a long section on trade in commodities: “fastidiousness.” None knew the meaning; my students were driven to the dictionary.
For her senior project Olesya Boreyko, a student from Russia, prepared a business plan for an NGO to import cut flowers from Kenya. Fastidious means “hard to please; requiring or characterized by excessive care or delicacy.” The text claims that activists can do more harm than good. It highlights international disputes to illustrate “in particularly stark form the dilemmas and moral ambiguities of the debate over globalization.” Poor people are hurt by international trade. Worker exploitation in the name of low-cost competition seems all too common. None of my students wants these kinds of miserable lives. Yet the economists caution that using inappropriate developed-country standards may make “it all too easy for people to do harm when they are trying to do good.” The result can be the loss of any work at all when basic economic principles are ignored.
Anthony Gittins, in Ministry at the Margins, also cautions mission workers in cross-cultural settings that good intentions are not enough. “Even by people who truly seek the well-being of others and who truly believe that goodwill is not enough” must be careful about the “unintended and dangerous consequences of missionary activity.” Doing good requires good preparation and good judgment. This good preparation is what I hope is going on in my class.
Many of you will be familiar with fair trade in coffee and “no-sweat” T-shirts. My students each have been given a project on fair trade. Each of the topics focuses on the “losers” of free trade: small coffee growers paid less than the costs of production, women garments workers paid meager wages for long hours in sweatshops. The issues are not simple. Some of the new economics challenges the results of the fair trade movement. The analysis says the benefits can be smaller than the costs; all that may be accomplished is to make us feel good when we purchase a sweat-free T-shirt or drink fair-trade coffee after church. The final section of the students’ papers requires them to describe an action they personally will take in response to what they have learned about those hurt by international trade. Students are now struggling to sort out both the economic and the moral issues of international trade.
After a week in the classroom I’m drawn to the Gospel descriptions of Jesus as a teacher. Matthew 24-25 tells of Jesus teaching his disciples on the Mount of Olives. He answers their questions about what is going to happen. The centerpiece of Jesus’ teaching is the last judgment. This week I quoted the words of Matthew 25:31-46. “When did we see you?” the righteous ask. Jesus responds that the Kingdom belongs to those who see and help the least of these, our brothers and sisters.
I cautioned the students to be aware of their own fastidiousness. Actions need to be taken with understanding of the consequences for those we want to help; otherwise, the economist says, unschooled advocates can be “depriving desperately poor people of much-needed opportunities in order to satisfy their own fastidiousness.” No longer can my students say that they did not know. And more so I hope that their actions might be not only well intended but well informed. We teachers want our students to be well prepared and to use good judgment. I hope that this course influences their choice of further study and research. We talk about career choices, about working for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and mission agencies. We trust that students hear something meaningful about compassion and justice for the least of these our brothers and sisters. Christian colleges like Lithuanian Christian College hope to turn out responsible citizens and leaders who have the insights to take effective action in the complex global economy.
Here we strive for the integration of faith and learning. Teaching as a mission means that the seeds are planted. We never quite know the result. In a prayer Archbishop Oscar Romero reminded us that we’re workers, not the master builder. It’s God’s grace that completes the work.
Becky & Eric Hinderliter
PC(USA) Mission Co-workers, Lithuania
The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
158 |
