Temporary Relief vs. Wholistic Restoration to Help Those in Need
Years ago, I learned a hard lesson about how ineffective, or even harmful, it can be to give money to persons in poverty without any measure or system of accountability. It was when I was on staff at the church. One of the families in the church wanted to donate a car to one of the struggling families that came to the outreach service we started. I had the perfect match: a mom of two little ones working full time and helping take care of her in-laws while her husband had trouble keeping a job.
Every Sunday night, she would push the stroller down the street behind the church and through the parking lot to get her and those little ones to worship, and she would walk a good distance to the bus stop and ride the bus every day to and from work. I thought about what a blessing this would be for her and her family. I had some concerns about the dynamic of three out of four of the adults in the house not regularly working, but what could be wrong with giving a poor family a car, right?
Less than a month later, I was outside the back door on a Sunday night and there she came pushing her kids in the stroller to the service. I waited for her and frustratedly said, “Hey there, where is the car?” to which she replied embarrassedly, “I had to sell it to pay the electric bill.”
From this experience, I learned a couple of very valuable lessons. I learned that at the time, I lacked the wisdom to take in the whole situation and get involved in a way that would lead to a restorative outcome. I also learned how heartbreaking it is to watch the heartfelt gift of a good family not bring blessing to its intended recipient. Maybe I was as innocent as a dove, but I was definitely not as wise as a serpent. Regardless, I learned that when serving those in extreme poverty, naiveté can cause people to get hurt. Not only did the person who gave the car feel slighted, but also the woman who sold it felt ashamed.
This is where it is clear that restoration better serves both the giver and the receiver and then fans out to benefit society as a whole. The accountability principle of restoration is about more than just giving money and possessions, but with that being such a huge area of their lives needing restoration, let’s start there.
When giving money or material possessions to those in (or just coming out of) extreme poverty, there must be accountability to how the money is used or spent. In the relief process, what are intended as long-term goals end up as short-term relief. In the restorative process, it is essential to have a spending limit that, if exceeded, requires approval beforehand and a receipt afterward. Even after the experience with the young mom selling the donated car to pay an electric bill, I still struggled with requiring that level of accountability for grown men and women in their financial lives, but it is imperative that we do so.
Men and women who find themselves needing a long-term, wholistically restorative process are very likely not to have the life skill of wise financial management so these skills must be taught.
In the Restoration Program out line in Change for the Poor, participants in Phase 1 can only have up to $10 on them per week and are required to keep receipts for money spent. In Phase 2, purchases over $100 require approval and verification of major purchases, and bank account balances are required. For Phase 3, the amount requiring approval increases to $150, and regular verification of those purchases and bank account balances are also still required.
While helping someone in a tight spot with short-term relief may seem like the best and easiest way to help, ultimately you (and most likely they) want to have the tools and knowledge to help them get out of that spot and hopefully never get back in it again.
About Mark McKnelly
Mark McKnelly is an author, motivational speaker and wholistic life restoration minister and coach. McKnelly develops and helps other organizations develop programs for men and women reentering society from incarceration or recovering from addiction. He shares his practical process in his book Change for the Poor to teach others how to help individuals in extreme material and relational poverty restore their own spiritual, relational, personal, vocational and financial lives. His personal journey through addiction and recovery led him to his ministry.