Handouts and relief work make us feel good, but don't actually accomplish much.
For the last 20 years or so missions and charity work has been mostly based on what makes us feel good as the giver. Unfortunately after years of this we've expended an absurd amount of energy, money, and thought without accomplishing much in the realm of moving communities beyond poverty... but we definitely feel good about it.
Maybe what feels good to us is actually causing apathy and disinterest among the people we are trying to help. It's holding them back from owning their own communities and being the change they want to see. What's the point? If I work hard I can save money and paint my own house. If I do nothing but sit around and wait and look poor enough some organization will come and paint my house for me.
Robert Lupton says it well in his book, Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life,
"Doing for a community what it is capable of doing for itself is charity at its worst." (PG 31)The focus has to be on community members seeing themselves as the solution, not some government program or outside group that is going to be their salvation.
The richest man in the world is a Mexican. He doesn't believe in charity for some of the same reasons.
Without teaching capability and responsibility all the money and good intentions in the world won't end poverty.
