I wrote this for one of my friends back at home who is doing a Theology project for school… so I’m doubling it as a blog 🙂 Enjoy!
Matthew 6: 2-4 ” So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. They your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
After traveling through 4 continents and over 11 countries in under a year… I have personally come to conclusion that there is only one answer to the question of “What can we do to end world poverty?”
To me the answer is simple… but I didn’t find it… God taught us Himself in Matthew 22:37-39- “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And second is equally important ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” That’s it. We need to love each other. How can this end world poverty? Let me explain.
The main problem we are facing as a world is the fact that more people, usually unknowingly, are taking care of themselves and their own needs and neglecting the needs of others. We are called by God, our creator, to love each other. When you love someone, that means you will do anything for them to make them happy and to be sure they are safe and taken care of, right? It’s easier said than done, though. I never realized there was such a huge gap between rich and poor until I went on the World Race and saw it with my own eyes. In almost every country, one thing was always true. You either had a lot of money and lived comfortable, or you had very little money and struggled to survive. There wasn’t much ‘in between.’ It’s not balancing out.. and to me, that is the problem. It’s a touchy subject really because in America, it’s different than in many of the third world countries I’ve been to. Every country is different and every country has a specific struggle with poverty. In America we work very hard for our degrees, education and strive to excel in our jobs to ultimately… make more money. But, what about the people who can’t afford college or have no hope because they struggle in school. What about the people who don’t have those opportunities because their family wasn’t there for them to bail them out when they went through a hard time. What about the people who needed to stay home and take care of a family member or a child and couldn’t have the same opportunities? One interesting fact that many ‘struggling’ Americans do not know is that even if you have $0 in your bank account, but you have clothes on your back and a guaranteed next meal, you are in the top 10 percentile of the world concerning wealth.
I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t know anyone that has to walk 2 miles for a meal. I don’t know anyone who has to sell their body for sex to make the rent, and I certainly don’t know anyone who is dying because they couldn’t get a simple shot or bottle of medicine that would have cured it. Well, I didn’t know anyone with those struggles until this year… My mind was blown when I saw the way people live in the slums in India, or in a small village outside of a city in Africa. I couldn’t understand why I could walk into a huge air-conditioned home with running water, electricity and plenty of food in one town, then drive 20 minutes to a village where people literally made their houses out of wood, mud and straw. Why such a huge gap? There are lots of people sending food and money into these poor villages, why is there still starvation and sickness?
Many people are aware of these statistics and are trying to do their part. There are plenty of things we can do to support people around the world. We can donate money to a great charity, we can send food, we can support children to go to school, buy school supplies. But is that going to solve the problem? Since I believe in the Bible, it’s where I turn to find the answers. How about in Luke 18:22-25 “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” I had to ask myself if I was like the man in this story. Do I love people enough to give up my comfort and all of the things I ‘earned’ to help save their lives?
Sure, it’s nice to give a little money here and there to a charity, but is it working in the long run? Of course it’s solving the immediate need of the people. Huge things are being done around the world. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve seen the boxes of corn meal and rice shipped from the United States to a tiny village in Swaziland. I’ve seen the faces of children in Nepal who look forward to receiving Operation Christmas Child boxes for their next set of crayons or colored pencils. I’ve held dozens of African children wearing tattered clothes that were shipped from other countries and given to them for free. Kids are eating, families are clothed, schools are built … but is it making a lasting impact? In my mind, giving to the poor doesn’t just mean giving them money, or clothes, or supplies. It’s about giving TIME, it’s about giving them CARE, teaching them, loving them, showing them hope. There’s an old quote that everyone knows, but it is the absolute truth: “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” It’s time these communities, slums, and villages change from the inside out. It’s time we start preferring others over ourselves. This is what Jesus teaches us to do, and this is what will have a lasting impact on a community and ultimately restore lives. They need hope, they need to see that there is a way out of their life of suffering. They need Jesus.
This leads me to the only conclusion I’ve drawn this year that makes sense. We not only have to donate money and food to the needy, but we need to donate our time and efforts to guarantee that our efforts will change the community. This doesn’t mean that Americans need to travel overseas to work at care points in Africa. This doesn’t mean that we have to pack our suitcases full of clothes and deliver them to children in Moldova who need warm clothes for the winter. No, I’m talking about doing all of these things in our OWN communities. People in Mozambique reaching out to the poor in small villages surrounding their city. People living comfortably in America reaching out to the homeless, jobless, or lonely people. Since we are talking about ‘world’ poverty here… it’s going to take a ‘world’ effort to make any sort of difference. People need to know that it’s not about ‘rich’ countries sending supplies to ‘poor’ countries. It’s about everyone in the whole world learning to live out the Gospel of Jesus: to love others and prefer them… to take the time to make sure everyone’s needs are being met. It’s time we become one big family that takes care of each other.
I will give you a few examples of what this looks like.
In Thailand, I had the opportunity to work with an organization called SHE (Self Help and Empowerment). The name sums it up, right? This organization was targeted at reaching the women trapped in the sex industry. We actually went out into bars to meet these women and befriend them. In the small town in Thailand called Patong, there are over 200 bars on the main strip with an average of 6 women ‘selling’ themselves in each bar. You do the math. I bet you can guess the reason why most of them were there… money. They did not have enough money to survive in their small towns and villages so they would work under contracts for the bars for months at a time to provide for themselves and their families. The mission of SHE is to offer these women a way out. If the women decided they did not want to work in the bars anymore, they had the option to come to SHE to receive training in a trade. Another way to make money. Things such as learning how to cook, making jewelry, learning English, etc. Meanwhile, they learned about God and about Jesus and His love for them. They learn about self-worth and they learn what it is like to turn their lives around and break this bondage they had. We believe this will have a lasting impact on their lives, their families, and prayerfully for their villages and communities. It would have been easy to give any given woman working in a bar money to get out of that situation and get back to her ‘life’ but she would be in danger of falling back into the same situation when the money runs out. Learning a trade and learning how to make money can change her life. While prayers are being answered by generous people donating money to this organization, none of this could happen without the people who love these women and who volunteer at this organization.
Another example is one I was blessed to experience in Africa. We worked at a care point in a small village called Thembeni, in Swaziland. I actually got to serve the kids food that had been shipped from Minnesota by an organization called Kids Against Hunger. While receiving the food is half of the part, the other half is cooking it every day and feeding it to the children. Meanwhile, the children are being taught about God and given hope for a future. See, in this village the people not only need the food and supplies that are provided to them, they need training, care and teaching to be able to support themselves. This will be the only way to end poverty and hunger once and for all. So, on top of feeding the community, the women are taught how to sew and make things to sell, and the men are taught construction and given tools to help them earn a living. Since statistics say that Swaziland will not exist in the year 2050 because of HIV, the people in this organization have taken steps in providing free clinics. A main reason that HIV is spreading so rapidly is because the people can not afford to go to the doctor so they don’t even find out if they are infected. People are not only being fed, but also loved, taught, trained, cared for and given Hope in God.
Here is a list of Injustices I’ve experienced this year that can ultimately be prevented if we strive toward this goal of love and preference:
Women having to sell their bodies for sex to make money.
A woman with a 2 year old child about to die of tuberculosis because she could not afford the medicine to treat it.
Children going to school in an apartment with no supplies to learn.
A school with a temporary leaking roof, because there are not enough funds to finish building it, whose classrooms flood every time it rains.
Dozens of children in Africa who have to walk 2 miles a day to receive one hot meal.
Women and children who walk miles each day to fill up water jugs from a water pump in a small village in Africa.
If we don’t start living out the Gospel, loving each other, taking time to care for others, and change communities from the inside out, world poverty will continue. It seems like such a huge task, but it can happen if we start in our own communities and spread throughout our own countries and into the nations!
Proverbs 14:31 “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Proverbs 22:9 “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”
Deuteronomy 15:11 “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhearted toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”
