When we travel to countries we know nothing about and perform work we are unqualified to do, we reinforce the idea that local people are helpless and need privileged people from America or other developed nations to solve their problems. That message is counterproductive for fighting poverty.

The local church should start thinking of volunteer service trips as ways for people from different cultures to learn alongside one another. He also recommends that the goal change from relief work — doing things to and for people — to development work, which acknowledges that these are long-term issues that must be solved locally, by tapping into people’s strengths to help them solve their own problems. All missions should support, and be invited by, local organizations or ministries that are effectively doing the work.

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