After teaching last night, a woman walks up to me and says, “Why haven’t you told us this before?” The topic was money, covering the basics of stewardship, borrowing, investing and giving. She was floored by how debt worked. When I walked them through exactly how the shop owner makes money out of them when they buy that TV on credit, she couldn’t believe it.
She was floored by how debt worked.
I use monopoly money to really spell it out for them. To use real money would be inappropriate and probably not safe to be walking around with in the townships at night.
I taught in a church where they speak Afrikaans so I was able to teach in my own language. It made it much easier to connect with them when I can speak in their first language without a translator. We laughed alot.
Afterwards, a few of them came and told me about how they plan on saving a little bit every month and breaking out of the hand to mouth cycle of spending everything they make every month. They wanted to talk about problems and scenarios.
“Should we be teaching about money in these communities? What do we really know about poverty?”
Last night, seeing how hungry people were to take in the information made me wonder… how much would the townships and the poverty be changed if people were just educated to handle money wisely?
I was asked to come back and teach about money again. Could God actually use me to influence the financial situation of this community?
I came home and talked with Marysol about how people really do perish for lack of knowledge.
Literally.
Sometimes you ask yourself, “Should we be teaching about money in these communities? What do we really know about poverty?” We wrestle with that.
And then one question reminds of the mandate to teach. “Why haven’t you told us before?”
