It requires no faith to see poverty.
North America, I ask you, what is poverty? No clothes, shoes, food or money? Living in the slums? Struggling to get by? A lack?
That was my answer.
Was.
The way we define poverty—either implicitly or explicitly—plays a major role in determining the solutions we use in our attempts to alleviate that poverty (Fikkert, 2009).
I propose that there is more than one kind of poverty and that all poverty is the result of broken relationships. There is material poverty and there is also a poverty of being. Both are the result of brokenness no matter that status of your education or income. And until I embrace this mutual brokenness, my work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good. In the book, When Helping Hurts, the author Brian Fikkert Argues that “research has shown that shame—a form of a "poverty of being"—is a major part of the brokenness that low-income people experience in their relationship with themselves. Instead of seeing themselves as being created in the image of God, low-income people often feel they are inferior to others. This can paralyze the poor from taking initiative and from seizing opportunities to improve their situation, thereby locking them into material poverty”
(2009).
I am learning how people in poverty, perceive poverty. I am learning to recognize my own poverty. It is a staggering experience. But it is one that I believe was appropriate to experience in this first month.
The lifestyle of World Racers is one that easy to be infatuated with. However, it is not an easy one to live joyfully all the time. Still between the ugly reality of life I am witnessing of those in poverty and the joy that comes from ministering and living in community, there is no place I’d rather be.
I will be leaving Guatemala on the 10th of this month. At 3:45 am on Thursday, I will be boarding a bus for a 13 hour ride to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for a new ministry. All I know is that I will be living in my tent next month.
Pray today for:
Squad Unity-that they will know we are Christians by our love
For safety of our material belongings.
For sustained health.
Fikkert, Brian (2009). When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself (Kindle Locations 855-857). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.
