Brief word and some pictures on
recent projects.
“The measure of a life, after all; is not its duration but its donation”
Corrie Ten Boom
60 Orphan Families
1 John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. |  |
 | Deuteronomy 10:18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.  |
Water Tanks
Matthew 22: 37, 38, 39 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  |  |
Matthew 25: 34—36
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
 | Isaiah 58:6 & 7 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Amos 5:24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! |
Let’s clear the air—five questions.
In referring to these projects—invariably five questions lurk in the background. Let us face them as clearly as we can so to the best of our ability, misunderstanding can be removed.
5 Questions (there may be more: but these we feel
are the foundational ones).
1. Are we seeking to justify or even advertise ourselves?
Answer:
The Scripture verses undergird our thinking. As to ‘advertising’ - we are so grateful to God for the little we were able to achieve. Humility, not pride is our watchword.
2. Are we preparing you for future requests/appeals?
Answer:
No, not at all. The day we feel we have something that you may want to share in, then we’ll tell you. Remember though what Samuel Johnson said: “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” So, stay in touch...remember the quote from Corrie.
3. Isn’t development better than aid?
Answer:
Without a doubt! To put our “little” into perspective, the thinking was first empower them—in the one instance a village, the other of near destitute families—as an event, the next step would be to empower them as a process. Aid first, then development or from the analogy of walking: first help them to take a step before they are encouraged to help others to walk.
4. Are we not perpetuating a perception of the wealthy West again?
Answer:
The gifts were mediated with no western face in sight! One or two knew of the donors, but to all intents and purposes, the happy event transpired between the locals. So the media were not swarming all over the place!
5. Are we not “buying converts” again?
Answer:
This insinuation is continually coming around in mission circles...does this mean tracts and Bibles were smuggled in the gifts? Were the ‘converts’ whisked off to a Church…? C.H. Dodd wrote that ‘Love is the willingness to surrender that which has value for our own life, to enrich the life of another.’ That, in essence, is where we rest our case.
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
Martin Luther King
Directors
