Let me give an example of Bolivia, because that’s where I lived for altogether 7 months. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. I worked there in very poor neighborhoods. A lot of the problem of the poverty there is spiritually based. It’s not physical. Yes, there is obvious physical poverty there and it should be met. But the physical poverty issues like a lack of water, a lack of food, a lack of education, etc…. are symptoms of underlying spiritual problems.

Let me give an example of what happens all the time over there. A mother has to work 12-14 hours/day for around $2/day. She has a little girl that she has to leave home in her shack. This girl is there with a little beat up television and in the area there are many gangs. She never hears her mother tell her that she is loved. For all intents and purposes, she is being raised by the television, which is like American television, i.e. most of it pretty much a bunch of garbage. When she is 14 years old, she meets some boy, who tells her that he loves her. These words become very powerful and a year later, she is pregnant and the boy has run away to somewhere else.

Thus she gives birth to a little child and now she has to work 14 hours/day and the cycle started again.

Now, if you were to just “feed” this little girl and took care of her medicine, then that would be great. There is nothing wrong with that, but what this little girl really needs is to be in an healthy environment, to know about the love of Christ and to accept the Gospel. Then she knows she is being loved, then when a sponsor on top of that demonstrates that same type of love by praying for her, writing her letters, showing how much he cares for this girl, then you can see the cycle of poverty in this family broken. Then when she grows up, she will make a huge impact on her family. Then she can make a difference in her community. Now, you’ve really affected not just that girl, but you’ve affected that whole community. I’ve seen this happen so many times. Does that make sense? I can give a lot of examples of this, but I really believe that it is the Gospel in conjunction with the help to eliviate those symptoms that will ultimately break the cycle of poverty in those countries. Without that wholelistic approach you’ll just be putting on “bandages,” and you’ll have to do it in the next generation again and again, and again.

I would have to say that there is nothing wealthy about dependence when there are countless others who will actively shape their own futures and that of their complacent peers.

Too many people live in this state and too many people are ignoring the issue. Who ever gave the right for humanity to think that it is okay that we divide those poor and those rich, is a dick head. If we can’t look after each other then our world will fall apart. Wait, it already is!

I am no preacher of God or any other form of religion. I just have strong beliefs in what i can do and in what humanity can do, to save what is left of Mother Earth.

What I’m actually saying is that what we consider the “poor” in those countries are really the rich, because they are rich with dependence on God.

See, in reality, material possessions here on earth are very temporal. We have an eternity in front of us. Our lives here on earth are just like an entrance into eternity. Some people have been given a nice entrance, some a not so nice entrance. What we do with our entrance has an effect on the rest of eternity.

The most important thing is to realize that none of us deserve to enter heaven. We have all broken God’s laws and if it were dependent upon our performance here on earth, we would all end up seperated from God in a place called hell. To go to heaven, we must have the righteousness of God or must be perfect. Rev. 21:27 says that even someone, who lies can not enter heaven. So, no matter what a person does, they can never enter heaven. You can sponsor 500 children, which would be a good thing to do, but it will never get you to heaven.

God saw that situation and He sent His Son, Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins. He was our substitute. In other words, Jesus took all of the blame of my sins on Himself and He paid for them on the cross, when He died. Then 3 days later, He rose from the dead, proving that your and my sins have been paid for.

Now, all He asks us to do to go to heaven, is to simply put our trust in what He did on the cross and all of our sins are forgiven.

John 3:16 is a famous passage. It sums it up nicely: “For God so loved the world (that’s you and I), that He gave His only begotten Son (that’s Jesus Christ), that whoever believes (That means to trust or to rely upon) should not perish (spend eternity away from God), but have eternal life.

If you have never placed your trust in Christ, you can do that right there where you are sitting. Simply rely upon what Jesus did for you on the cross. Some people do this by saying a prayer to God, like this (though saying a prayer is not necessary) “God I know I’m a sinner, but I believe that Jesus came to earth and die on the cross for my sins and I want to place my trust in Jesus as the One, Who paid for my sins. Thank you for dying for me. Amen.”

If you just placed your trust in Christ, then you can know on the basis of God’s Word, the Bible that you have eternal life. I John 5:13 says: “These things have I written to you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.”

Now, here on earth we can continue this trusting relationship for other things too. And that’s why many poor people are really rich. Because if they placed their trust in what Jesus did for them on the cross, they are going to heaven and their eternity is secure. I told a Compassion child not too long ago that the biggest mansion here on earth is a dump compared to what they will get when they get to heaven. (This Compassion child had placed his trust on Jesus to save him)

Kees