I found the theme of this book to be poverty alleviation. I really like the definitios they give . First, looking as poverty being more than material poor they say, poverty alleviation is the ministery of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.
They also give a definition of material poor alleviation as working to reconcile the four foundational relationships so that people can fulfill their callings of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their familes with the fruit of that work.
There are three steps to this process: relief, rehabilitation, and development. No one can do all three. The point is to find out what you do best and what the people you are trying to help need. I wanted to be a part of the relief effort in Haiti, but it is too late for that now. They need to be moving into the rehabilitation and development stages. In these stages they don't necessarily need my money to build up their community. It is now about working on building that third relationship, with others, working together and helping each other.
After reading this book I have formed some goals for my time in Haiti:
- To build realationships with the kids I will be living with
- To teach the youth at the church about God
- To build relationships with the women I interact with on a daily basis
- To be seen positively in the community
P.P.S. I have a friend who is planning on going to Egypt for nine months to minister to the Muslim community but with everything going on there right now he doesn't know if that trip will still be able to happen. Please pray that God will lead him to where He wants work done.
