Exodus 16 Part 2: Empower the people!

What is Empowerment?



When I decided to do this “quick and little” Exodus 16 series I managed to underestimate the wealth of knowledge regarding the topic of empowerment. In fact I feel like I have read so much about empowering people and the different types of empowerment that I may be starting to dream about it. EEEEK!! So I have learned plenty about this topic for the time being and rather than write a 300 page report on what I have learned I am going to break this down so that it only meets the needs of our specific situation here in Kesennuma, Japan…and maybe a little bit more than that.



There are many different ways to demonstrate and define empowerment. Empowerment can be found in business, social services, religion, and in this situation, people with a need. When I am talking about “this situation” I am referring to providing aide to people who have been affected by a natural disaster. When I am talking about aide I am defining it as providing for basic needs, not military aide from a safety threat other than a natural disaster.



In the past few years as a Case Manager in Milwaukee’s Child Welfare system I had the opportunity to be trained on empowerment within the first few weeks of being on the job. To be honest I don’t remember anything about that training. Everything I learned about empowerment came from being on the job and having people above me who demonstrated effective, and sometimes ineffective, empowerment. I use to explain it to my clients in this way, “One of my roles is to empower you.  Pretty much the way I look at it is that I am here to help move certain road blocks so that you can make the effort and decisions on your own to reach your own goals.”



Maybe you are wondering why empowerment is so important that I felt a post needed to be designated to it. When one empowers another to meet their goal or to make a decision it results in an educational opportunity that will have a much longer effect on the individual than if someone were to just meet the goal or make the decision for them.



I have always had amazing supervisors. From working at Starbucks, to behind the bar, to Jesus Cares, to Child Welfare. The supervisors in those programs empowered the people they were in charge of and because of that the benefits were immeasurable. Some allowed me to make decisions even if they knew it was wrong. Because of this I learned much more and I was able to defend my decision making in the future.



So how does this apply? We here at the LECC center are not able to rebuild the life of a Japanese person affected by the Tsunami. Despite not having the manpower and the monetary funds to rebuild a whole city, doing something like that would actually cause more harm than good. Rather, as a center we have to recognize how we can empower the people of Kesennuma. If we do this correctly the effect will last much longer and the relationships built will be much more fruitful. Just giving them a gift card or a new house does nothing but meet a basic need for a short time. Even giving them a blanket only meets a need for a short time until the hot and humid summer comes around. The amount that people learn and take away from a situation where things are just given to them is miniscule compared to the education received when they are empowered to reach their own goals.



At this point many of you are probably thinking, “I can’t believe he just dissed our quilt making”. Before you really develop a hatred for what I just said I urge you to continue reading and listen to the explanation. The LECC recognizes that we have to in some way meet needs and empower people.  First they recognized that there are many people that still need things like blankets and clothes. So they provide that to those people. This is generally what gets people in through the center door. This gives the volunteers an opportunity to make a good first impression as well as figure out if there is a way that we can make a second, third, fourth impression and in doing so build a relationship between that person and the Church here in Japan. That is not all. Providing for the basic need does have a connection to building English class participation. Many of my students had their first interaction with the center when they received a blanket. They may not have come here had it not been for their basic needs being met.





The LECC also identified an open market to provide English classes to people who may want to acquire employment or become more valuable to their company as a bilingual employee. The LECC also realized that this was a way that the center could have repeated interaction with people in the area. This is where we apply that bread and butter empowerment stuff. The volunteers help an individual remove roadblocks that are possibly preventing them from acquiring employment since the tsunami. This means that the person receiving the service has to make their own decisions to apply themselves and find their own motivation to succeed. It is them doing it we are just here to help along the way. While this empowerment stuff is going on you also have a volunteer having multiple interactions with the individual. This isn’t all that easy actually. It’s vital that the volunteers have positive interaction with the person and demonstrates Christian love during these interactions. This will eventually cause people to ask why the volunteer is the way they are, opening the door to talk about Christ. It is also difficult because it is vital that the volunteer does not build too strong of a relationship with the person. The relationship needs to be built with the LECC, not the volunteer. This is even more difficult because old Japanese culture doesn’t support this per say.



So here it is simply. LECC needs to get people to walk in the door. They provide free basic needs (blankets for warmth). Those people receive basic needs and then find out that they could also learn English. If they learn English they may be able to get a whole range of other jobs. If they learn English they could do some of the things they have always wanted…like reading a book about magic so that they could increase their trick portfolio. This works because there is a market need, primarily in the younger generation, to learn English. Jobs are scarce here so being bilingual is an excellent way to get yourself noticed at the job fairs. Understand, though, that many of my students would not be able to come to class if they were worried about their family being cold or not having warm clothing to wear. I have one student who doesn’t come to class when it gets extremely cold, not because he is worried about himself but rather because he is worried about his mother being alone in a very cold house. Making sure she had a warm quilt met that need, and now I am able to meet with him six days a week for class. He is learning English so that he can get a job.

Here is the other purpose of the center. It is not only to empower the people in Kesennuma but also to empower the LECC Church in Japan. What is happening up in Kesennuma is a ton of first impressions. To be honest the volunteers coming here should know about God, but more important than that they should be willing and excited to make the best possible Christian first impression. I am talking about a legitimate good first impression. When we do this we have the opportunity to create a base for the Japan church to start from. It is not the volunteer’s job to build strong relationships with these people. In fact if we did we would end up doing much more bad than good. Seriously we would. If you want to have a discussion about grief and loss and building/ending relationships my Skype name is “Jesse Hieb”. I would love to hear your argument supported by facts on how having someone build a relationship in two months with a victim of a natural disaster and then leaving them is good for the person and the organization you are representing.



Up here in Kesennuma we are identifying people and making first connections so that people of the church in Japan can be the ones to develop the relationship with them because they are the ones who are going to be here for much longer than us. For those of you familiar with cold calling you can think of us like that. We are the ones making the appointments… making the first contact so that someone else can make the “sale”.



Yes we are open to talking about God and spreading the news of His love is our primary goal, but we are working as part of a team here. And as volunteers this is our role in the team. There is much more to it than that but that is the general picture. I am sure there are many people that disagree with the use of funds for Humanitarian Aide and Relief. There always is. But once you understand how it works and what the vision and mission is I think you won’t have a problem with sending volunteers over to make first impressions.



I wanted to bring this all back to the Bible for you. Some of you may need this, for others maybe you get the point already..but keep reading. You might be surprised what you read. In Exodus 16 God gives us a great lesson in what empowering looks like in an aide and relief situation. In Exodus 16 the people of Israel are hungry. They had nothing to eat. So God gives them food. But He doesn’t just fill up their bags of food for them. No, actually He makes them go out and gather it. Maybe you are thinking…that's not empowering. But it is. It’s providing an opportunity for someone but requiring them to utilize personal motivation and decision-making to make efforts to meet their needs or goals. In this case the Israelites had to get up and get their food. If they decided not to then they went hungry. We adopt that same principal here when we make people come to our location. We provide the need but they have to put in the effort and motivation to come here to get the blankets or clothes.

Another example that was presented to me while doing my research was when Jesus left his disciples and gave them that command to go baptize a whole bunch of people… know what I am talking about? Before He left the earth Christ trained His disciples and gave them all of the tools they needed including the Holy Spirit. Christ empowered them by giving them the gifts and talents they needed to go and empower others to do the same thing. There is so much more to this whole empowering others thing but we are just going to end it there for now.

I’m going to end this post with this last thought. The anniversary of March 11, 2011 is just a few days away. It will mark one year since that devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. In that time the Church in Japan has been busy. They have also had to deal with numerous other challenges. Empowering is not a one-time thing. It requires ongoing effort and support. Think about how you can help empower the Church in Japan so that they can bring the love of Christ to the victims here in Kesennuma and the whole country. They have the tools; the same ones that Christ gave to his disciples. But that doesn’t mean they don’t need your encouragement, prayers, and gifts.


Have a wonderful weekend everyone.