Although we often think of poverty in terms of physical hunger or lack or adequate resources to sustain healthy living, we’ve come to realize through our various experiences in the developing world, there are actually FOUR KINDS OF POVERTY
Spiritual Poverty
This means people who do not know God and are in poverty of spirit
Relational Poverty
Refers to those whose focus is on themselves at the expense of the community they are a part of
Motivational Poverty
People who experience hopelessness due to the lack of ability or confidence to handle the challenges in their lives
Material Poverty
Those who lack the basic necessities
Here we are, on the other side of the world with nothing familiar about our surroundings. This country is far from following Christ and yet in the midst of all the clamor, if you look closely you can see how God is moving here in Indonesia. What Brother Andrew wrote about in Secret Believers is what we are seeing and experiencing here. Believers in Yeshua remaining to their cultural yet serving and believing in Yeshua as they visit the mosque for prayer. A fascinating story of countless millions across the world who retain their witness while keeping their culture in order to be a witness to others. People are having encounters with Yeshua and are being completely transformed, pray for our brothers and sisters here in Indonesia as they continue to serve the Lord wherever he has placed them.
We have successfully completed taking the Leadership Matters Course in Kanchanburi, Thailand. It was quite the intensive 2 weeks of study, but for great results!
We were able to work through some strategic planning with people who have had quite a lot of experience in the world of non-profits and ministry, etc. Since we are just a couple of months from the close of Paradigm Shift’s Phase One research trip, we are putting together 6 more months of travel within the US to raise funds and partners for the pilot program. It was great to have the time to work through some of that planning and preparation such as public relations plans of action and so forth.
Tomorrow we head to Indonesia for one week, then we will be in the Philippines for a month, then to the Marshall Islands to study and minister for a few weeks before heading back to the States. So the traveling continues! Keep your emails and comments coming…they are precious and inspiring!
We met with missionaries doing some incredible work here in Asia. I can’t list the countries, but it suffices to say they are closed countries that are not open to the Gospel or the advancement of the Christian faith.
But in the midst of the adversity, the stories we heard from people translating the Bible into languages that have never been written, establishing churches where one doesn’t exist, to training nationals to take on the risk and reward of communicating God’s love in their own culture.
This group of people was incredibly diverse as some previously were architects, teachers, pilots, doctors, nurses and a host of other professions. All of them are using their talent to impact the lives of those living in these difficult places. The reward is far greater than the cost and these are people who believe that wholeheartedly and it challenges us to not give up when things get tough.
A friend recently pointed out this interesting website: http://www.prec.com/
I thought I would share it here because the premise of the study is quite fascinating, below is an excerpt from their about us page:
The goal of the Project on Religion and Economic Change is to evaluate the effect of religion on economies around the world at the national, community, and individual levels.
PREC is unique in its scope and design. Our data sets, based on missionary documents, permit an unprecedented look at the cumulative effect of religious influence on economies over 190 years and in every non-Western society.
