Mandate eNewsletter, 2007 - Issue No. 2

Giving Credit No More Credit Than It's Due

Smoke from the burning herbs fills the church as the women sing and clap their hands in an act of spiritual warfare. On the floor at the front of the church lays a smoldering bag of "medicines," the entire inventory from a witchdoctor's lucrative business going up in flames.

Next to the fire stands the witchdoctor, her body bruised and scarred by the beatings that she has received over the years from others in this slum in urban Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The Anglican pastor lays hands on the witchdoctor, asking God to deliver her from demonic oppression, to help her forsake her witchcraft, to free her from the scourge of alcohol, and to follow Jesus Christ.

All of this had happened so quickly. Just a few minutes earlier, the pastor had said, "Would anybody like to share anything that they took away from last week's lesson?" In response to the pastor's question, a lady had raised her hand and said, "I am a witchdoctor. I have not been to church for twenty years. After last week's lesson I went to church. What do I do now?" The pastor had then instructed the witchdoctor to go and retrieve her "medicines" so that they could be burned right there on the floor of the church. The witchdoctor had complied, and was now standing in the front of the class with the fire burning at her feet.

Facing the rest of the ladies in the class, the witchdoctor explains that she had been drinking 50,000 Ugandan Shillings (approximately $27 US) of alcohol per day to satisfy the demands of the demon dwelling within her. The average income of the other ladies in the room, some of whom are clients of the witchdoctor, hovers around $1 per day. Hence, the flames that are burning up the herbs are also destroying a highly profitable business—indeed an entire way of life. But she is getting a new life—one that will last for eternity—in exchange. Not a bad investment!

The microenterprise development industry is predicated on the notion that the primary obstacle facing low-income people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is their inability to access the capital needed to operate their own small businesses. As a result, billions of dollars are being spent to create microfinance programs which make small loans to the poor. Lack of access to capital is indeed a major constraint facing low-income entrepreneurs, but surely the causes of poverty go deeper than this. Does anybody really believe that the primary problems facing this witchdoctor can be solved by giving her the equivalent of a credit card? Oh that it were so easy! How wonderful it would be if worldwide poverty could be solved by simply dropping credit cards out of airplanes as they fly over Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The Chalmers Center believes that the causes of poverty are deeply rooted in the comprehensive effects of the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Amongst other things, the fall has deeply affected the worldviews of the poor, entrapping them in paralyzing thought processes: "I am less than human; I cannot do anything; the demons have all the power; life can never be better for me." 

In this light, the Chalmers Center is thrilled to be embarking on a three-year project to develop curricula designed to combat the lies in animism, a worldview that has contributed to the entrapment of the poor around the world. A highly-respected, secular development organization has given the Chalmers Center a vast array of curricula in the areas of small business management, household financial stewardship, and a range of health topics. The Chalmers Center is now integrating biblical worldview messages into these curricula and contextualizing them for various regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In His great mercy, God used the testing of the first lesson from these curricula to draw this witchdoctor out of darkness and into His light!

Please pray for the Chalmers Center as it seeks to complete the writing and testing of these curricula over the next three years. Please pray that God will use this effort to call many more witchdoctors unto himself for the glory of His name alone.

For more information about the Chalmers Center, visit us at www.chalmers.org.