house help and ministry opportunities

In America, someone who has someone else do their laundry and dishes is considered very rich. In some parts of the world, this person is considered lazy. In other parts of the world, like Kenya, this person is considered generous. It really has taken me a long time to get used to the idea of house help. Growing up in an American culture, I assume anyone with house help is rich. So to be a missionary, someone who is there to serve the people, why on earth would they want to put forth such an extravagant display of wealth?

You have to take a step back and put it into a cultural perspective. In Kenya, the unemployment rate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 35%. Those who do work usually don't make enough money for the average American to consider survivable. So many AIM missionaries hire house help, because it helps everyone. If the house helper didn't work for a missionary, she wouldn't have that income at all. Kenyans see people who do not have house help when they can afford it as greedy.

In addition to ministering to the locals, it allows this house helper to be a part of the missionary's ministry. One of my friends here loves to tell her house helper what she has been doing in her ministry. She always finishes by saying, "without you, I would not be able to do this." The house helper is just as much a part of my friend's ministry as she is.

After realizing this, I decided that house help isn't such a bad idea, if it is culturally acceptable. Yes, I do feel spoiled to have someone wash my dishes and do my laundry. I guess that is one more thing I will have to adjust to when I get back to the states :) only 2 and a half weeks!