Feet on the Ground

While living in the “bush” of eastern Upper Volta/Burkina Faso, we made family trips to the capital city every four to six weeks. Ouagadougou was the only place to buy most of our groceries and other supplies. It was always a treat for the kids as they would get to see the children of fellow workers. They also looked forward to staying in the mission guesthouse because it had a window unit air conditioner. It was a huge treat for us coming from the bush to get to sleep in an air-conditioned room. We did not have electricity unless the generator was running much less an air conditioner.

There was an American Club that had a pool, but it was always crowded with families of American Embassy staff. On one particular trip we decided to splurge and pay to swim in the pool at the nicest hotel in the city.

After a four-hour trip to Ouagadougou on dusty roads with all the windows rolled down on the Land Cruiser (no A/C either), we had all eaten so much dust that we could not wait to get to the pool. Upon arriving at the pool, we were excited because we were the only people at the pool.

After about 30 minutes of alone time at the pool, we saw four men headed to the pool. These were white men, so we knew they were foreigners. One of them had on a Tee shirt and swimsuit, and oddly enough, the other three had on suits—and it was over 100 degrees.

The one with the swimsuit sat down on the side of the pool with his feet in the water while the other men just stood around him. I was playing with the kids and overheard them speaking English, so I decided to wade over and talk with them.

I introduced myself, and the swimmer said, “You don’t recognize me?” I replied that I am sorry, but I did not recognize him. One of the men on the side of the pool said, “This is Rev. ____, the famous tele-evangelist.” I responded with a “Nice to meet you.”

The Reverend asked me questions about our family and what we were doing in Ouagadougou. I explained how we were working with villagers while living among them.

I asked him what they were doing in Ouaga. He said that he wanted to have feet on the ground to raise money to help hungry people. A film crew had accompanied them to Ouagadougou. They had rented a helicopter to take the Reverend to a village for filming. I did not even know there was a helicopter in the country! As he talked, I realized that the three “bodyguards” were his “yes men.” They were eager to please the Reverend.

The Reverend’s party was spending a great deal of money for him to have his feet on the ground for a couple of hours of filming time so that they could buy television time in the USA to show how benevolent he was. All that money was spent so that people would see his compassionate work in villages and be moved to give generously to his ministry.

I have no idea how much of what people gave would actually wind up feeding hungry people, but the irony of this encounter is that at the same time we were actually feeding hungry villagers with money from Baptist church members in the USA who had given generously knowing that 100% of what they gave would go to actually feed these hungry people, and none of it would be used to rent a helicopter, pay for the team members’ and filming crew’s travel expenses, pay for television broadcast,  and on and on.

Faithful people in our Southern Baptist churches give today though Send Relief International knowing that the missionaries who will utilize those funds are taken care of through the Cooperative Program, so all the money given for hungry or needy people will be used to help them.

Be careful where you invest your charitable dollars. Many Christian mission or relief organizations keep administrative and fundraising dollars in the USA and then have additional admin costs in offices overseas.

Those feet on the ground can gobble up much of what you intend to help people who are hurting.