Here are some interesting thoughts from a Christian Alliance for Orphans paper on Orphan Statistics. Priorities in Response to Orphan Need The Christian Alliance for Orphans affirms the historic Christian understanding— conveyed in Scripture and affirmed by social scienceviii—that God intended the family as the essential environment for children. We believe the ideal outcome for every orphan is to know the love and nurture of a permanent family. Our world’s brokenness at times makes this goal unattainable. Thus, alternative forms of care are sometimes necessary. This reality calls us to affirm two seemingly opposing truths at the same time. First, … Continue reading Linkable

I don’t really like the word “poor.” I think one of the problems I have with the way it is commonly used is that it almost always is used to refer to only one kind of poverty. I guess another problem is that when it is used that way it seems to reinforce the idea that having more material possessions always automatically puts a person in a superior and enviable position (those “poor poor people”) when the reality is it doesn’t. In fact, sometimes it is the opposite way around. The materially poor person who is working with the materially … Continue reading Poor isn’t always poor

I am often shocked by the variety of life experiences of the people in our church. It is a small example, I know, but yesterday I was sitting and drinking sodas with two of our interns. One said he remembered when he was a child that he was only allowed to drink one soda a day. The other smiled and said he remembered how he was only able to drink one soda a year and he and his brothers tried to make it last all day. The fact of the matter is that many of us are unaware of just … Continue reading Helping those with more to love those with less…

“..the first responsibility of the church towards the poor is to offer them a place of welcome. That does not necessarily mean inviting them to a Sunday meeting. It means including them in the network of believing relationships. In this way we offer them dignity, belonging and inclusion. We empower them by valuing their contribution and their role within the community. They are no longer isolated, but people with connections and people with a contribution to make. So you don’t need to start big projects with government funding. You need to welcome the poor, eat with them, drink tea with … Continue reading Welcome the poor

Why we shouldn’t need to argue with someone to get them to want to do good to someone else: “It is an invaluable honor to do good; it is an incomparable pleasure. A man must look upon himself as dignified and gratified by God when an opportunity to do good is placed into his hands. He must embrace it with rapture as enabling him directly to answer the great end of his being. He must manage it with rapturous delight as a most suitable business, as a most precious privilege…we ought to be glad when any opportunity to do good … Continue reading An invaluable honor