Installed in 1961 by John F. Kennedy, the U.S. Agency for International Development has more than just displayed mercy to suffering under developed nations. It has brought good will as perception from those countries needing help toward American citizens. Even conservative administrations like George W. Bush’s saw merit in it’s outcomes. In 2019 I traveled to Tanzania with a local church for a week to engage in mission work. Looking over my Facebook friends list I have around 4 natives which I have kept in contact. Of all the amazing things I experienced over there, there were primal feelings of angst concerning being in a foreign country where so many things were out of my control. It is common occurrence when moving through a developing nation’s airport that Americans get stopped and shaken down for money. Because of poverty everyone in nations like most in Africa are on the take to try to extort money.
I remember the trepidation our group leader had in regards to my traveling back to America by myself. Our team was engaged in a two week assignment, yet I had to get home after one week to not use up all of my vacation days. I understood why he was slightly concerned. We knew the native team of Tanzanians fairly well having served with them multiple years prior. Yet, did we know them well enough? That was certainly my personal concern a couple of days prior to having to be transported back to the airport three hours away from the last village where we ministered. Who’s to say our Tanzanian contact wouldn’t have driven me somewhere else to hold me hostage for more money? God was merciful as I made it to the airport. I can remember how relieved I was to land in the Netherlands to change planes to fly to Atlanta. I told myself boarding the plane in Tanzania that if I could just get to a developed country I’d feel safer. Even if that country was still an ocean away from home! Reader take in my last two sentences very carefully. Translation: A lot can happen to Americans in developing countries even when America is seen as the ‘shining beacon on the hill’ it should be to the world.
What if citizens of third world nations see Americans by proxy, fair or not, as a reason that some of their family members died or starvation, Ebola or AIDS? What if sanitation is at a wane where visiting Americans are exposed to those diseases more so than in the past? With the internet these types of citizens of those nations may know that American Christian voters more than likely voted for the administration which mandated such suffering over more secular voters. It would be merciful if native leaders of ministries all over the world would send emails to American mission team leaders rescinding their invitation to visit and serve during the next four years. Because, what could happen to an American mission team who comes to serve in a foreign country where they are met with hostility they did not see in the past?
Of course these are things many Christian voters don’t consider when they hear the catch phrase ‘America First’ It is my hope that they don’t become endangered by hostility in foreign nations simply due to their unwitting vote last November. Because of their posts on social media that anyone and everyone can read anywhere in the world in a split second. Because of the unwitting actions of DOGE, mercy work to developing countries has gotten a little more dangerous for Americans abroad.
-John
#USAgencyforInternationalDevelopment
#DOGE
#AmericaFirst
