Joel Main has weathered two worlds, from shoveling snow in Mississauga, Ontario to facing blistering sand storms in the heart of Africa. Joel, the pastor of Freshwater Christian Church, recently partnered with World Vision to support a community in Mali, the fourth poorest country in the world.
Africa has always been close to Joel’s heart. A number of years ago, Joel and his wife were at a restaurant in Guelph. They began reading a pamphlet about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. The sheer magnitude of that reality moved them to tears.
Since Freshwater Christian Church had an on-going relationship with World Vision, the aid organization contacted him about the opportunity to join the Globalink program. Globalink is a World Vision program that partners churches in Canada with developing communities in other countries. Joel met Ron Weber, the Globalink director over coffee. Ron outlined what the program involved. Joel immediately saw it as an opportunity for Freshwater to assist an under-developed third-world community in a specific way.
“It was an eye-opening, gut-wrenching experience, that challenged my outlook and philosophy of life,” said Joel. “It was an adventure. It was amazing to meet new people [with] smiling faces, but also to see faces that weren’t smiling as well.”
On Sunday afternoon, January 14, 2008, Joel left Pearson airport heading to France, where he would then travel to Bamako, the capital city of Mali.
He arrived in the middle of a hot night. He could smell a thickness in the air and the exhaust fumes of the airplane.
When he arrived at customs there was, “a kid letting people through by stamping their passports. He looked like he was 12 years old, but he had a military gear on and a machine gun on his side,” he chuckled nervously. “It was a bit weird.”
As Joel left the airport, “a mass of humanity,” engulfed him, from children begging to street merchants hawking their goods.
World Vision Canada’s director of church relations, Willard Metzger, was also on the trip with Joel. His role is to connect with Christian churches across Canada and to help strengthen their understanding and response to issues of poverty and social justice. “I am quite excited about this new partnership and look forward to working with Joel and Freshwater Christian Church. It is thrilling to see a pastor who has such a strong vision of engaging his congregation with these issues,” said Metzger.
The first day was full of meetings in a hotel in Bamako. Joel met a number of World Vision staff explained where he would be going and told him stories about the people he would meet. They educated him on the cultural differences he would face, from unfamiliar foods and languages to what was and was not considered rude.
That night the staff took Joel on a tour of the local markets. “Going through the markets, seeing the extreme poverty, my mind was trying to imagine an existence in that setting,” he said, shaking his head. “It was so different: dirt, mud, urine and animals everywhere.” There were people lying on the ground surrounded in garbage.
Joel took a bus to the top of the hills that surround the city. “On top you can look down and see and hear this buzz of people,” said Joel as his smiled. The city and the trees all looked beautiful. “I was separated from reality, from what was really going on and I thought the same thing from Canada to Africa. From a distance things look beautiful, but when you get close you see the raw humanity.”
Culture shock struck Joel when he first arrived in Mali. “I felt like I was going crazy. I couldn’t sleep,” he said. He was angry with God for letting Africa become the poverty stricken nation it is. It wasn’t fair that people were suffering and hungry.
“There is so much we have to share and so much we can do in helping build the capacity and dignity of communities across the globe,” Metzger said.
By day three Joel’s mind switched to a different position. He thought to himself, “I can go crazy trying to figure out why and the reasons for it, but I need to focus on the positive and what I can learn from this.” He acknowledged that the issues were too big for him to handle. He decided to glean what he could from the people around him and take it back home so he could make a difference now and in the future.
World Vision took Joel to some of the areas they have worked in over the past few years. He saw the gratitude and response of the villagers. “One village we went to,” said Joel getting excited, “the people lined the streets clapping. They had traditional dancing going on. There were hundreds of people and kids.”
The chief spoke to the whole community and to Joel as he represented World Vision. “It was incredibly honouring. They talked about how their lives have been changed by money and assistance from the West. They were so thankful,” said Joel. “It was really moving for me.”
Joel also got to meet his sponsor child, Kadia. “I didn’t receive an emotional response from her. She was very stoic and stone-faced, and probably scared out of her mind,” he chuckled. “But to see this child, it puts flesh and bones on what we’re doing.” He received a chicken from Kadia’s parents, and being the city boy he is, Joel could barely hold on to the squirming bird, let alone know what to do with it. He was able to take the chicken to another community he was visiting and gave it to them for food.
“It was a delight to travel with Joel. I found him to be a thoughtful, visionary leader. He traveled well in Mali and displayed great respect for the local people and was keenly interested in their culture and perspectives,” said Metzger.
Returning home was a relief for Joel. It was obviously a sacrifice to leave his loving family and he was thrilled to be back with them.
Joel and Freshwater Christian Church have been matched with the community of Sogou-Yeguem, in Mali. Freshwater has committed to raising awareness about this community as well as raising $25,000 a year for three years through child sponsorship. Within the past couple of weeks, they are already halfway to their goal of getting 52 children in the community sponsored.
“I definitely want to go back and to take a team into that community and to do something specific and positive, and to work with the people. Not telling them what we want to do, but just to say, what can we do to help? I’m looking forward to that,” said Joel enthusiastically.
