I visited a hospital in West Africa several weeks back. It has nice facilities and the staff I
met are good people. But there was
a problem. Two of the four floors
were closed and the second floor barely used at all. The hospital did not have functioning equipment and, though
there is a steady stream of patients every day, if a person has to have an
x-ray or blood test they are referred to another hospital. Great potential, tremendous opportunity
for outreach to a predominantly Muslim community, all lost reduced down to
one word…overreach.
It’s a classic example of what I see in missions in many
places throughout the world. The
person or persons responsible for launching the medical facility were trying to
do too much. Their reach exceeded
their grasp. Vision is of course
vital in moving forward on any endeavor and if a person or organization has no
vision they prefer managing what they have rather than leaning forward toward
growth. It’s a fine balance,
managing and vision. The “bean
counters” in the organization are forever telling us that we can’t afford it
while the visionary argues that we walk by faith, not by sight. Finding the balance between status quo
and entrepreneurship boils down to one simple rule, defining your purpose. The hospital in West Africa is heavily
in debt and on the verge of collapse for two reasons.
First, by trying to do too much and in the process they lost their way on what they were suppose to be doing. The hospital was never the foundational project. The organization began with reaching
neighboring villages with water projects, schools and establishing
churches. Health care is always an
issue in the village so a medical clinic was introduced, which then led to
establishing the hospital in the major city in the area. Rather than concentrating on one village
and meeting the local needs they branched out to other villages, which drove
the vision for a major medical facility.
By the time I observed the projects neither the villages nor the
hospital programs were functioning well and all in financial stress. They were just trying to do too much;
they were not doing one thing well.
The second reason for the lack of focus relates to “chasing
the money” rather than building a strong foundational purpose. When analyzing this project it was easy
to see that the whole system was a house of cards, a social ponzi scheme. I am not suggesting that there was evil
intent on bilking anyone, but rather money from the west was underwriting
projects and short-term teams were giving time and money to programs they were interested
in. Staff was hired, wells
dug, construction on churches and hospital were initiated. However, because the main thing no
longer was the main thing, the tail chased the dog. Well meaning donors drove the agenda, which in-turn drove
the people in Africa to try and follow-up all the projects launched. In the end money designated to feed
school kids ended up paying the salaries at the hospital, and money earmarked
for a well project supplied support for a church building; a classic case of robbing
Peter to pay Paul. Eventually donors
wanted to know why the wells weren’t being dug and what happened to the wheel
chairs the church in America bought? (They are stored in the third floor of the hospital
storeroom.) Designated money still comes in, leaving the general operational
funds in the red.
I know some of the people in this project quite well. They are good people. However, due to overreach many have
lost a lot sleep, some on the verge of emotional breakdown. There is not one project started that is
not worthy of support, but we (western missionaries, short-term teams and
national workers) need to understand we can’t do everything. Do one thing well; don’t be sidetracked
to do twenty other things.
