Kindness - Periclean Scholars & Fruits of the Spirit Series

In continuing with the fruits of the spirit series, today’s topic will be kindness and how the Periclean program helped to make this fruit bountiful in the program’s participants.

Kindness can be summarized as acting for the good of others regardless of what they do. An act of kindness, or the action that you show toward those who test your patience, could be considered a fruit of a fruit (the offspring of patience). The expression of this fruit comes to mind as with those who have power (or the illusion of power) over another, such as a kind and benevolent king. It may seem that their treatment of those beneath them does not matter, but kind people will act in the best interest of those they dominate (or appear to dominate). Kindness does not refer to being a nice person. In fact, sometimes it can be the opposite, if you act in someone else’s best interest but what they ask for is the opposite of what you give.

For people who spent a lot of time and money to build in Zambia, the urge to give, give, give remains heavy while on the ground. This includes the urge to give of our possessions, as we saw how little each family had compared to the opulence of America. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to lighten our load of some items from our suitcases before returning to America. We were certainly in a position of instant power, to create positive change - or to create chaos.

On one of the first days in the village, we attended a meeting with the village adults and elders. This meeting set the ground work for our stay in Kawama and what was expected of both groups. During a prior build with volunteers from Ireland, some of the volunteers had given donations, such as mattresses, to specific families in the village. Of course, during the meeting those who had received the gifts spoke out in favor of wanting to receive more gifts, from a new group of Westerners that had arrived. Yet, the village leaders had the wisdom to know that the cycle of jealousy and argument would begin anew if we had given gifts to only a few people. Therefore, at this meeting it was decided that no gifts would be asked for by the villagers and that no gifts would be given by the volunteers.

The tent where the village held meetings.

After this meeting, we spoke with our team leaders and our Habitat coordinators. We still wanted to give and had items to give, but we wanted to act out of kindness and not chaos or pride. Therefore, it was decided that donation would be given to HFHZ’s headquarters in Lusaka, and the staff would distribute the items based on greatest needs. This limited the amount of pride that was invested into the donations themselves. Our goal at the build was to learn from the villagers and construct houses, not to determine our favorite families to bestow with blankets and t-shirts.

Even though we couldn't give tangibles, we could still give hugs!

Kindness comes in many different packages. My experience in Zambia showed me that acting in the best interest of others may seem counterintuitive at times, but listening to the wisdom of the leaders kept our moral and spiritual compasses in check. We had to show patience by not giving immediately, but by holding off and letting donations be distributed by those who know the village best.

I am thankful to the Periclean program for allowing the fruit of kindness to grow within me, in a way that may not seem apparent to most at first.