Not as easy as it first appears

How hard it is for an institution or organisation to “do good” here and to do it well! We recently had a review, or more accurately post mortem, of a project in a camp for people displaced by floods and landslides. Lots of blame flying around, lots of wisdom in hindsight.
The people were living in small shelters made of tarpaulins and straw. We built houses of mud bricks for 20 of the most needy families. It was never a “best” solution, simply a hand up out of very basic living conditions and there were undoubtedly problems with the quality of construction of some of the houses. Prompted by our work and that of other churches, the government has decided to build houses for the remainder of the families. The problem is that they are bigger and stronger than ours (they use interlocking bricks made of compacted mud which requires the use of a machine). Now the families in our houses, once the privileged, feel “cheated” (the word is not too strong!) and some are very unhappy.
Our meeting brought out how difficult even apparently simple projects can become. It is not that we have failed in our original objectives, but simply that perspectives have changed and fickle human nature has come into play, or just plain sin.
So, a little checklist for future development projects. We had most of these this time around, except perhaps thick skin.
ß Local knowledge, to understand the real needs and priorities
ß A good plan
ß Management skills to make sure that things happen
ß A warm heart, because these are not just “projects”, but people, mostly living in very poor conditions
ß A cool head – choosing to help some people means choosing not to help others and it can be hard to make these choices
ß Regular site visits – there is nothing like being there
ß A thick skin, to ignore the inevitable criticism
ß Open ears, to listen to other perspectives and to advice
ß Wisdom from the Holy Spirit to know how to handle difficult people
ß The ability to predict the future would also be invaluable, but is not usually available!
As usual, Jesus can put it more simply. The first and greatest commandment, comes to mind : “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all of your strength”. It will take nothing less to do our work well.