{"id":3191,"date":"2013-07-10T16:27:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T21:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/?p=3191"},"modified":"2013-07-10T16:27:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T21:27:56","slug":"looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By Brittani Lamb<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">One thing that struck me in the book <i>When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself <\/i>is the author\u2019s statement that \u201cone of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make \u2013 by far \u2013 is applying relief in situations in which rehabilitation or development is the appropriate intervention\u201d (p. 101). It made me think \u2013 of all the service projects and volunteer opportunities I participated in through my church growing up, how many were something other than relief? Of course, there is definitely a time and place for relief. But how many meals do we need to serve at a soup kitchen before we do something more about hunger in our community? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">One of the most memorable service projects I participated in was cleaning up the water-filled ditches of New Orleans\u2019 St. Bernard Parish in 2009.\u00a0 The waterways were still filled with debris from Hurricane Katrina four years earlier. It was amazing because we were able to make so much visible progress and the residents of the neighborhood were very appreciative. Many came out of their homes to thank us and tell their stories. But looking back, I have to wonder \u2013 could we have done something else that would\u2019ve been more helpful? What we did was essentially relief. I feel fairly confident that what we did didn\u2019t <i>hurt <\/i>anyone, per se, but was cleaning out the ditch what they needed from us? How could we have involved the people of the neighborhood more? We did do some research about New Orleans beforehand and heard several people\u2019s stories about their experience with Katrina. However, as far as I know, we didn\u2019t ask people what their needs were or include them in our service. <\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">I think service learning is a great way to make sure we aren\u2019t applying relief when rehabilitation or development would be more appropriate. The Service and Learning leadership team based out of Trinity Lutheran College has integrated<a href=\"http:\/\/sallt.org\/overview\/index.html#fourstep\"> a four step learning process with service learning<\/a>. This process of <i>Preparation-Action-Reflection-Celebration<\/i> really resonates with me. Laying some groundwork before an experience and doing some intentional processing afterward make for an amazing growth experience. Furthermore, meaningful <b>preparation<\/b> that goes beyond planning logistics makes a big difference in the attitudes toward a service opportunity. I like the idea of creating goals and assessing strengths, both within the group who is doing the service and the group or individual they plan to work with. That makes the action of service that much more meaningful and enables participants to be intentional about their involvement and find meaning in tasks that can seem meaningless, like pulling garbage out of a pond. I think the \u201cseeking God\u2019s presence\u201d component of the <strong>a<\/strong><b>ction<\/b> step of service learning is one of the best parts. If we are really supposed to be doing God\u2019s work with our hands, we should think about how we are doing that! Beyond the service, the <b>reflection<\/b> and celebration steps of service learning really enhance the experience. Processing the service through the lens of scripture and the goals that were set ahead of time can be a deeply meaningful way to think about how the experience will shape your future actions and beliefs. Finally, <b>celebrating<\/b> and sharing the experience with partners and the congregation is another step of processing and learning. The more people who hear about the service as a learning experience, the more people start to understand the bigger picture and what service and helping should be, which is not always relief!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Brittani Lamb is an intern for ELCA World Hunger.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; By Brittani Lamb One thing that struck me in the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself is the author\u2019s statement that \u201cone of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make \u2013 by far \u2013 is applying relief in situations in which rehabilitation or development is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning - ELCA World Hunger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning - ELCA World Hunger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; By Brittani Lamb One thing that struck me in the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself is the author\u2019s statement that \u201cone of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make \u2013 by far \u2013 is applying relief in situations in which rehabilitation or development is [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ELCA World Hunger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-10T21:27:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"henrymartinez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"henrymartinez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"henrymartinez\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6a1018dc9fc22a555bce363e07989f79\"},\"headline\":\"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-10T21:27:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":612,\"articleSection\":[\"Post\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/\",\"name\":\"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning - ELCA World Hunger\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-10T21:27:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6a1018dc9fc22a555bce363e07989f79\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/\",\"name\":\"ELCA World Hunger\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6a1018dc9fc22a555bce363e07989f79\",\"name\":\"henrymartinez\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9b8f1671a5f7baf00bb22d4674aa64b4ae004a9c18f675eedce0b5d73a5f1d07?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9b8f1671a5f7baf00bb22d4674aa64b4ae004a9c18f675eedce0b5d73a5f1d07?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9b8f1671a5f7baf00bb22d4674aa64b4ae004a9c18f675eedce0b5d73a5f1d07?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"henrymartinez\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/worldhunger\\\/author\\\/henrymartinez\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning - ELCA World Hunger","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning - ELCA World Hunger","og_description":"&nbsp; By Brittani Lamb One thing that struck me in the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself is the author\u2019s statement that \u201cone of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make \u2013 by far \u2013 is applying relief in situations in which rehabilitation or development is [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/","og_site_name":"ELCA World Hunger","article_published_time":"2013-07-10T21:27:56+00:00","author":"henrymartinez","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"henrymartinez","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/"},"author":{"name":"henrymartinez","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/#\/schema\/person\/6a1018dc9fc22a555bce363e07989f79"},"headline":"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning","datePublished":"2013-07-10T21:27:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/"},"wordCount":612,"articleSection":["Post"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/","name":"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning - ELCA World Hunger","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-10T21:27:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/#\/schema\/person\/6a1018dc9fc22a555bce363e07989f79"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/looking-at-relief-in-the-context-of-service-learning\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Looking at Relief in the context of Service Learning"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/","name":"ELCA World Hunger","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/#\/schema\/person\/6a1018dc9fc22a555bce363e07989f79","name":"henrymartinez","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b8f1671a5f7baf00bb22d4674aa64b4ae004a9c18f675eedce0b5d73a5f1d07?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b8f1671a5f7baf00bb22d4674aa64b4ae004a9c18f675eedce0b5d73a5f1d07?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b8f1671a5f7baf00bb22d4674aa64b4ae004a9c18f675eedce0b5d73a5f1d07?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"henrymartinez"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/author\/henrymartinez\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}