Jack Voelkel
Steve Hawthorne: A missionary's struggle with issues of power
Missionaries to the Highland Quechua Indians, Bolivia
(This guest article, excerpts from a prayer letter written by Steve Hawthorne, M.D., shares a contemporary missionary experience that illustrates some of both the privileges as well as the complexities of missionary life. Steve and his wife Mary have been serving in Bolivia for 16 years with SIM. They are fluent in both Spanish and Quechua. They have three children. Steve’s former article in Great Cloud of Witnesses is entitled “Come Ride with Me.”)
Any set of social relations necessarily involves power and resistance, domination, subordination, and struggle. Fiske
Gerry is our community health worker, a native of our town and a Christian. He worked alone at the government clinic in Yawisla for 20 years be¬fore we arrived in 1998. He has a jolly laugh that makes me laugh, too, whenever I hear it. He also has an innate ability to problem-solve, though his schooling ended with 5th grade. Before I came he managed breech deliveries and repaired a cleft lip. So many people came to him with dental problems that he learned to pull teeth and to make dentures. He mounted a bicycle into a frame so that with pedal-power he could spin a disc to shape the den¬tures. Once when crossing a river my right rear tire sank deep into a hole. Gerry used a long pole and Archimedes' principles to lever me out.
The impact of a “new” computer
I noticed that at the end of each month Gerry spent nearly a week just filling out forms the health department required. So we saved up our clinic funds to buy a used computer, and he learned word processing and spread sheeting just as fast as everything else. The time saved on repetitive paperwork delighted him, but neither of us recognized the stakes involved in my empowering him to use a computer.
Until I came, Gerry had operated safely under the radar screen of the district hospital; his many abilities known only to the community where he worked. When his monthly reports began to arrive in neat tables on crisply printed sheets that looked nicer than headquarters', he suddenly became a "tall poppy": his stalk rose above the others and caught the reaper's eye.
Dr. William is the chief medical officer at the district hospital 15 miles away and is "over" our clinic in the health department's hierarchy. All ten health posts in our region meet each month, and in these meetings he began to make vague warnings against taking unauthorized initiatives, becoming too independent, etc. He ordered all health workers to report to him by radio twice a day, so he could verify they were at their posts. Most importantly, he slowed up the reimbursement for the free care we give to mothers and children. After several months of treating patients without compensation, we had a cash flow problem in Yawisla. So we wrote him a letter (on the new computer) requesting to be paid. No response.
Exercising Power
Then one day Dr. William and I were at a conference in the big city. Also there was the person in charge of the whole Maternal-Child Care program at the state level. I saw my chance to go right to the top with my problem. Over a coffee break I told her that in Yawisla we were six months behind in being paid. She called over Dr. William and ordered him on the spot to pay what he owed.
Two days later I visited him at the district hospital and he handed over $1,000+ dollars that we had billed. I smugly thought my problem was solved. I did not realize I had displaced the balanced boulder of power, and so was unprepared for it to rock back into place.
A couple weeks later Dr. William called us on the radio to say he would be coming to do a supervision of the clinic in Yawisla. These visits are rare and generally unpleasant as they focus purely on fault-finding, but Gerry and I were confident we had everything in order. When Dr. William arrived, he got out of the vehicle with an older woman neither of us had seen before. He introduced her as the head of Dentistry for the state health department, and began by giving her a tour of our clinic.
We got no further than the room where Gerry cared for the dental needs of our patients. Then she started screaming: "What's this? Who's doing this? Where's your license to practice dentistry? You think just anyone is allowed to do this? You think just because you 're working with Indian rabbits it's OK to mutilate their mouths? #@&$H! I'm decommissioning this dental office right now!" And then and there she gathered up all of Gerry's instruments and supplies and put them in her handbag.
Experiencing Impotence
I was speechless. I had never seen another professional so out of control, so insulting. Then I noticed the smirk on Dr. William's face in the background and realized it was a set-up. I tried to reason with her that our patients had no other options; that Gerry was careful and knew his limits, etc. But she would hear none of it. They stalked to their car and drove off in a cloud of dust.
In a red fog I sat down at our new computer and wrote an incandescent letter to the head of the health department, denouncing both of them. Fortunately I had the wits to show it to Gerry first. He understood that Dr. William was just reminding us who was in control. If I kept resisting the message it could end up costing Gerry his job. I listened to him and tore it up, then took a walk to calm down.
Lessons Learned
That happened five years ago. Gerry never got his instruments back and we haven't been able to offer consistent dental care ever since - only occasionally when an intern comes to visit. Why am I telling you about this now? I share it to remind you to ask God to give us wisdom in our daily work, so that we don't make things worse when trying to help. Also to say that we do learn from our mistakes!
Bolivian culture operates under the concept of the "limited good". This means that when someone progresses in some way, his neighbors perceive his progress as a threat to their own aspirations, by decreasing the amount of the total abstract "good" available to them. They therefore work against the one who progresses. Power is also a limited good, especially in a poor province in a poor country. One person or group cannot be "empowered" without another feeling "depowered" and reacting. I know now how important it is to go through the right channels; respect established authorities and build them up first so they don't feel threatened in their position.
I don't feel like a power-broker. My mental image of myself closely resembles Barney Fife. Yet when I move through our rural Quechua town my white face, my gender, nationality, age, profession, clothes, car, glasses, even the tip of my Parker pen peeking out of my shirt pocket - all radiate the sym¬bols of power in that culture.
In the Quechua churches when I give out certificates to individuals for Bible courses they have completed, I realize I am altering the power relations in the group. Sometimes those certificates empower ambitious and un-Christ-like people. How did Jesus have "all authority" and give away power to his followers in life-giving instead of self-defeating ways?
We continually seek opportunities to improve our health care and education in Bolivia, which could be translated: we try to increase our knowledge, power and influence. The tricky part is learning how to relinquish these; to pour them out, give them away freely and joyously to friends and adversaries alike.
We are still learning!
Reflections on Steve’s experience with power
- What did Steve learn through his “power encounter” with Dr. William?
- How do you think he would handle an issue of this kind in the future?
- Steve comments on Jesus having “all authority” and giving power to His followers in a life-giving instead of self-defeating ways.
- What do you think he means by this statement?
- Can you think of any illustrations in Jesus’ teaching that would illustrate this concept? - What problems so you have with power, either exercising it or being under it? Does Steve’s story give you any insights for your own situation?
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Steve’s prayer letter, “By the Bolivian Post,” was published in October 2005. Used by permission.
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