An African Christian leader shared the following story about his experience with receiving "help" from well-meaning American mission partners:

Elephant and Mouse were best friends. One day Elephant said, "Mouse, let's have a party!" Animals gathered from far and near. They ate. They drank. They sang. And they danced. And nobody celebrated more and danced harder than Elephant. After the party was over, Elephant exclaimed, "Mouse, did you ever go to a better party? What a blast!" But Mouse did not answer. "Mouse, where are you?" Elephant called. He looked around for his friend, and then shrank back in horror. There at Elephant's feet lay Mouse. His little body was ground into the dirt. He had been smashed by the big feet of his exuberant friend, Elephant.

[The African leader concluded], "Sometimes, that is what it is like to do mission with you Americans," the African storyteller commented. "It is like dancing with an Elephant." Elephant did not mean to do harm, but he did not understand the effects he was having on Mouse.

Possible Preaching Angles: Missions; Short-term Missions; Poverty; Poor People; Service; Servanthood—This story was originally used to help American Christians understand how short-term missions trips can sometimes actually do more harm than good. But it could also illustrate how our insensitivity about helping the poor and vulnerable can hurt rather than help them.