Roland Hoksbergen - Serving God Globally: Finding Your Place in International Development

Servants at Work in International Development

Working in the slums of Nairobi was the greatest thing I ever did and the best job I ever had. I loved every minute of it. It was not easy, but I consider it the greatest privilege of my life to have been there.

Christine Bodewes, human rights lawyer, after eight years working in the slums

What kind of people work in international development? What is their overall mission? What do they do day to day? How do they get to where they are? What makes them effective? How does one prepare for service in the broad field of international development?

If you read the rest of this book, you will find answers to these questions and many others that might be on your mind if you have personally felt God tugging at your heart to join him in the mission of being an ambassador of global reconciliation.

As a professor, I have learned that most people listen to good stories better than they do to carefully crafted ten-point lectures. This book has some lectures, and I hope you will read them and learn from them, but the book is also filled with stories of Christian development workers who are out there trying to be faithful to Gods call to care for people he loves. Maybe the stories, and even the lecture parts, of this book will inspire you and help you think more clearly about your own life of service.

Lets begin with a few stories. I would like to tell you more about Christine, a high-profile Chicago lawyer who heard the call to global service and shortly thereafter found herself in the slums of Nairobi. Right after that comes a story about Dirk Booy, who started as a college graduate with a global vision but no clear sense of how to put that into practice. He began his career living in a mud-and-stick home in a village in Sierra Leone and is now one of the global leaders of World Vision International. Who knows? Maybe your own vocational journey will look something like theirs.

Christine Bodewes: From Cook County to Kibera, a Lawyers Journey

After receiving a law degree, Christine Bodewes was an up-and-coming lawyer in one of those high-rise buildings on the Chicago skyline. Combining the twin values of professionalism and service, Christine specialized in securities litigation for a prestigious Chicago firm. She also did pro bono work for worthy causes and people in need. Christine made partner after six years, but her path changed radically when she answered what she sees as an unmistakable spiritual call to overseas service.

It started with a surprise phone call from a college friend who was now a lay missioner with Maryknoll in Cambodia. Following a brief detention by the Khmer Rouge for participating in a peaceful march to plant trees, Christines friend called and asked her to come. She flew to Cambodia and was introduced for the first time to mission work in a developing country. Christine became especially proud that her Roman Catholic tradition had birthed a group like Maryknoll, for even as most other humanitarian groups were abandoning the country in this time of serious need, the Maryknoll missionaries decided to stay. As Christine tells it, This was probably my real baptism as a Catholic, because it was the first time I really understood what it meant to be a Catholic and to take an option for the poor.

The next four weeks in Cambodia were a time of intense spiritual encounter that set her on a completely different career track than the one she had originally envisioned. She came back to Chicago, but after a year of prayer, consultation, and spiritual discernment, Christine signed on with the Maryknoll lay mission program. One year later, Christine joined a team of Kenyan lawyers in a local legal-aid clinic for slum dwellers. Many of their clients lives and livelihoods were seriously threatened during President Mois campaigns of slum burning and landgrabbing. Her colleagues were arrested, but, as a foreigner, Christine never was. She found herself working to get innocent people released from prison and building legal cases to protect them and their homes.

After four years of this intense grassroots human rights experience, Christine joined the pastoral team in Kibera, the largest and most densely populated slum in Nairobi. Her assignment was to coordinate their Office of Human Rights. Christine hoped that this ministry would thrive and that one day she could leave and hand it over to Kenyan lawyers. Everyone laughed at her. Settle down, get married, and have children, they said, because youre going to be here for a very long time. It would have been so easy to give up. Slums have that effect on people.

Christine kept at it, supported by a strong sense of calling, her abilities to love and serve, and a wonderful spiritual director. A few years later, two talented and committed women lawyers unexpectedly offered to work in the Office of Human Rights, and it was not long before the transition took place. Human rights work is extremely difficult where respect for rights is so low, but it is a central component of development work. Today the Office of Human Rights in Kibera still serves as a beacon of hope in a troubled part of the world as it provides free legal services, civic education, and advocacy for human rights.

With the human rights work in good hands, Christine studied for a PhD in African Christianity and researched how Catholic parishes can promote the rule of law, democracy, and human rights at a grassroots level in slum environments. She now works with a private foundation supporting faith-based work in Africa.

One might focus on Christines tangible contributions, such as helping people keep their homes through her legal work or establishing a human rights office, but Christine is more inclined to talk about love: I learned to put love first. It is the single most important thing and the single most difficult thing to learn. Putting love over your profession and desired goals, achievements, or assumptions is to me the heart of the mission experience.