The Indigenous Church again

<---We are working in Kacgae to establish an indigenous church among the San.

I'm sure you've heard the old proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime. That's kind of the principle behind the indigenous church. I read an article in Time magazine some weeks back that illustrates the principle of "teaching a man to fish." Or rather, it illustrates what happens when you FAIL to teach a man to fish. [This is in Time, August 18, 2008, the same issue where the interview with Rick Warren appeared.]
On page 34: "In Ethiopia, 4. million people are at risk, and 75,00 children have severe acute malnutrition. Nearly a quarter-century ago, an outright famine led to Live Aid, an international fund-raising effort promoted by rock stars, which produced an outpouring of global generosity: millions of tons of food flooded into the country. Yet, ironically, that very generosity may have contributed to today's crisis. "Over time, sustained food aid creates dependence on handouts and shifts focus away from improving agricultural practices to increase local food supplies. Ethiopia exemplifies the consequences of giving a starving man a fish instead of teaching him to catch his own. . .Why bother with development when shortfalls are met by aid? Ethiopian farmers can't compete with free food, so they stop trying. Over time there's a loss of key skills, and a country that doesn't have to feed itself soon becomes a country that can't."
On page 35: "Why do we get aid so wrong? Because it feels so right. 'The American people,' says U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto, 'are simply not going to sit tight while they see children dying.'" [emphasis mine]

What is true of food aid to the starving is also true of "aid" that American churches send overseas for the spread of the gospel. Thousands of American Christians are sending "fish" to the lost and dying in Africa because it's so much harder to teach them to fish.