Local Partnerships - Evaluation of Project/Ministry

One of the greatest challenge for the missions' strategist is to hear heart-rending yet simple requests for ministry that is so much needed in the Third World. On the one hand we would like to fulfill these cries for help but felt constrained by lack of experience, funding and resources.

However, here are some constraint-busters:

1) Think out of the ordinary. We need to imagine beyond the debilitating control of our limiting mind-set acquired from seasons of lack and bad experiences in our work. This is perhaps the saddest of all as the ministry will be curtailed.

2) There is always a first time. Not being there before is an often used excuse. Pioneering  leaders bashed through the jungles and sailed the seven seas to prepare toe-holds and beach-heads for the ministry to prosper.

To break-out one must have lots of love and magnanimity towards the locals. It is not an emotional thing. It is a conscious effort to surmount the glass-ceilings. Many of these require a personal price to be paid. Take time to let the locals articulate their needs, even if they are going to impinge into our comfort zone, carefully laid-out plans and budget.

Listening is an art as well as a discipline. 

Let us be honest. In our best intentions, we are still the benefactors. We have more of 'everything' and is supposed to know better. The locals are supposed to listen and we speak and not the other way around. Are we going to say, "Let us bake the cake and let them eat." But then have we considered this question? Have we asked the locals what they want to eat in the first place?

However, without listening how can we evaluate with out heart and our minds. Is there a case for their ministry plans (mind)? Are they carrying a genuine burden and vision (heart evaluation)?

It is the locals that can best speak about their lives and context. They have the same God and they will know their locale better than anyone especially those that come by a few times a year. It is intended to be that way. Let us listen carefully to understand the local needs. Let us have their local knowledge and local wisdom.

By listening and observing we can spot genuine local leaders and their ministries.

Here are some pointers:

1) They are offering their best people in that ministry category for us to train.

2) There is a sharing of their dreams and visions. The need for finance recedes to the background.

3) Great Commission mandate is always in the fore-front.

4) An openness for a partnership budget where they are willing to supply a portion of it.

5) Their families are part of this ministry and partnership equation. We sometimes see three generations where their lives and concerns are an open book.

6) Failures in their families were never hidden but always bathed with much prayers and request for the same.

7) Their young people is vibrant and energetic and have a vision to reach their kind and people.

8) A love for their people and society are expressed through a good grasp their locality and nation's in socio-economic, legal, political, cultural and societal challenges like drugs, corruption, gambling and alcoholism.