Improving Lives Through Seeking First to Understand

This session will look at the “best practices” of learning to learn from others and their experiences. In a world full of “techno-diddies,” as development workers, we often overlook the local knowledge and wisdom source of the very people and communities we are called to serve. How do we “put the first last” in a practical way? How do we overcome our own biases and, frankly, learned patterns, and seek to understand before trying to make ourselves understood. And what difference does this all make with sustainable development?

Follow-up notes from Jeff Palmer:

1. We have a CD/DR practical blog that we are sharing with those who are implementing hands on CD/DR. It is embedded in our BGR website and can be found at:www.gobgr.org\blog. It is an on-line resource for practical topics related to disaster response and community development. More on the "soft ware" and less on the technology side.
2. We have a new book just being printed entitled: "Community Development for Kingdom Impact: Helping People from Here to Eternity" It explores the strategy and methodology of community development in a Kingdom-based framework. It looks at community, poverty and mercy ministries from a Biblical perspective but also highlights our experience in the CD process.