Some friends of mine and I had the privilege of serving in the Sichaun earthquake affected area this past Summer. I personally could not go into the heart of the quake zone myself, being sick and all. But my friends could. A local family had a favourable arrangement with the government, and the members of our team were allowed to go and help with an education project.

What I could do while staying behind with others (mostly prayer and connecting with the variety of projects back in the main cities), and what my friends in the zone could do was basically serving, rather than helping. Our reasoning was that, as a servant, you lay down your rights and do what is needed. Your host is helping the people, and you are serving your host. That’s it. One of the local foreign workers said it so well: “We foreigners are basically only the coolies carrying the water for the Chinese who are getting on with the long-term building themselves and doing a pretty good job of it.” What a refreshing thought!!

Seeing as we were short termers and working alongside Chinese locals who were already super-competent, our work could only really be significant inasmuch as we served them. That took so much pressure off us. They know their people. They have all the right relationships, and they know what is right or not in their context. We basically just had to follow their lead and things would be OK. So our time was safe, and productive.

Another perspective I gained while there was that, after the Sichaun earthquake, churches all over China rallied to help. ALL types of churches. At one point, more than half of the Chinese who responded to the crisis with hands-on help, were believers… Wow!! I was impressed with these people.

Through the response of the Chinese church, and also the Chinese nation, I could see that compassion is truly a unifying language that is easily understood by others. I wanna learn that language more, and I am glad I could learn some of it from non-Westerners.

Besides seeing this language of compassion in action, the perspective of just being a coolie, changed my perspective on short term outreaches forever. For these and many other reasons, I thank God that I could go and serve in Sichuan.