The Picture I Promised I'd Never Show

It was a stereotypical African missions scene...

Riding in a white SUV through a dusty impoverished village in sub-Saharan Africa...

Two white Americans, a black Xhosa, and a Coloured.

As soon as the SUV stopped, little kids came running towards from every direction, yelling, "Photo! Photo!"

So what did the white American pastor say? "Hey, let's get a picture!"

I caught the look on the face of the national pastor who was hosting us, whose truck we'd been riding in, and whose church plant leadership team we were about to meet.

Typical American missionaries.

Typical abuse.

Typical misuse.

Typical stereotypical [sic] approach to missions.

Find poverty, drama, need... Take pictures with the poor children... then go home and use them to raise money - for OUR projects, for OUR programs.

Go home and back to work... eat your food... sleep in your nice bed - never mind that you just embarrassed the heck out of an entire village, a new church plant in that village, and the very pastor who is hosting you.

So I promised our friend, the national pastor, that I would not use that photo.

We had no relationship with these kids.

No ministry took place with them.

We didn't know their names, their parents, their language, their needs - it was a total hit and run.

To use that photo would have been hypocrisy at it's finest.

I'm breaking my promise...

Here's the photo... with the proper caption:


Exploitation is not just for colonialists anymore.

American short term missions teams have perfected the art, to the detriment of the Name of Christ.

Not cool, dude.