Our ministry often refers to the “opposite of poverty.” And you might think that we are referring to wealth. The opposite of poor is obviously rich, right?

Actually, in order to answer the question, we first must be able to understand what poverty really is.

There is spiritual poverty … having no access to the gospel or never hearing about our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sadly, millions of people around the world do not know that Jesus loves them. So the opposite of spiritual poverty is obviously having access to the gospel. It means knowing who Jesus is and how much He wants a relationship with everyone.

There is educational poverty. For hundreds of millions around the world, education is a luxury they cannot afford.

Think about that statement, “education is a luxury.” And imagine what that means for those who are trying to keep up in a changing world.

Lack of education creates a lack of options, difficulty in finding employment. So the opposite of educational poverty is the opportunity for advancement, new learning and practical training.

There is social poverty. In many parts of the world, there are people groups who are simply “undervalued.” Women have few or no rights, children have no voice, no platform … few or no rights.

So the opposite of social poverty is obviously a world where everyone is valued. Where there is community, or at least opportunity for community, and where governments recognize the value of every citizen.

There is health poverty. It may sound foreign to most of you reading this blog, but there are many, many people around the world who don’t even know the importance of brushing their teeth, or making sure the water they drink is clean.

There are men, women and children throughout our planet who believe that debilitating, crippling pain is just part of life — not knowing that it could be cured or treated, if only given the opportunity.

We’ve hear stories of village mothers who deprive their children of water when the children have diarrhea … believing that diarrhea means the child has has too much water. Not understanding that the very thing a child with diarrhea needs is more fluids.

We teach kids how to care for their bodies. Health poverty also includes those millions of people around the world who have no access to health care. So the opposite of health poverty may be the opportunity to get basic medical/health needs taken care of. It means the ability to learn how to take care of your own body.

There is environmental poverty. I have walked in parts of the world where families live in parched land, with dirt floors, where sewage trenches trickle outside their front doors.

Not every person in the world needs a mansion or even a 2,000 square foot, carpeted home. But every person should have safe shelter. Every person should have access to clean air and clean water. That’s the opposite of environmental poverty.

And, of course, there’s economic poverty. Can you believe there are millions of people around the world who do backbreaking work for 8 to 12 hours per day, for less than $2 pay?

Seriously? How can you feed a family on that kind of money? You can’t.

But the opposite of economic poverty isn’t for each of these people to suddenly become wealthy. The opposite of economic poverty is to have enough. Enough income to feed your family. Enough income to provide shelter for your family. That’s hardly too much to ask.

So, as you partner with us or your church or another ministry organization to fight poverty, it’s good to have a better understanding of what that really means.

We’re not called to make the poor become rich, uber-athletes, Ph.Ds or super-theologians. We’re not called to give them the opportunities to live in paradisaical environments. We’re called to make sure they have enough in each of these categories. So the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth. It’s simply … enough.

LINK UP: Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (a.k.a. World Poverty Day). Don’t be silent. Take some time to make some noise. Write a post about extreme poverty and then share it with us by linking up below.

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I just had my first baby shower, at which I was showered with love and presents. Now I’m back home, trying to elbow and squeeze all my new-found baby possessions into my sweet little baby room — which is now looking more like a storage unit. And I have three more showers to go. (Yes, I’m loved and just a little bit spoiled.)

Preparing for a baby can be overwhelming for many reasons, one of which is the tremendous amount of STUFF that seems to accompany it. When you register for gifts you have to make endless choices such as:

• What kind of car seat should I get?
• Do I need fleece seatbelt covers with teddy bears on them to accompany the car seat?
• Do I need a clip-on blanket or a zip-over blanket for the car seat, or can I just throw any old blanket on top?
• Which toy should I buy to dangle from the handle of the car seat — the giraffe or the bunny?

And that’s just the decisions surrounding car seats. There is a gadget or gizmo for absolutely everything. Sometimes I wish for the “simpler” days like those I see pictured of moms in rural Africa today whose “car seat” is a baby sling. But then I remember indoor plumbing and quickly change my mind.

And yet, there needs to be some balance between a glut of stuff and unnecessary asceticism. I saw this picture today of two boys racing donkeys. It was taken by a coworker in Colombia. What fun the boys are having (even without indoor plumbing):

I’m not an ascetic; I fully plan to have a car seat with a dangling giraffe toy.

But how do you find the balance between what you want and what you need? Especially when it comes to your kids, whom you and the grandparents and aunts and uncles want to shower with good things?

When it comes to children, how do you decide what is a legitimate expense for the betterment of their lives and what is just more stuff?

How do you help your children find joy in everyday things like a donkey race (or your own local equivalent) rather than in the next game platform?

How do you help your children be thankful for what they have and generous to those who have not?

If you have gained insight with your own family on how to balance what you want with what you need, what is practical with what is wise, and generosity to your own family with generosity to others in need, please share your insights with us!

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We see a fish, think ichthys and chuckle that even a random algorithm gets our spiritual inspiration.

Tell us what connection you make from the Wordle word cloud and you’ll be entered to win this Compassion tee shirt. (Yes, we’re fishing for ways to transition to the free tee.)

You can also order the shirt, or see what it looks like all put together, from the Compassion store.

If you don’t like fish (eating it, thinking about it, looking at it, whatever.) ’cause not everyone does, just leave a comment letting us know you visited and you’ll be entered into the drawing.

We’ll announce the randomly selected winner next Monday.

The winner of last week’s photo caption contest is Sherry W. for this rough paraphrase of Mark 10:15.

“I tell you the tooth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

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Have you ever seen a photo of a Compassion-assisted child and thought, “That kid doesn’t look poor. Does he really need Compassion?”

If so, you’re not alone. Those thoughts even enter my mind – The Poverty of ME.

I have a preconceived notion of what abject poverty in the developing world should look like, and it doesn’t involve a DVD player, television or refrigerator.

My preconception doesn’t mean the child isn’t in need. It just means that the child doesn’t seem to be in the type of need that I feel as rewarded in fighting, when compared to other children’s needs.

To me, this is the same thing I face when I look at all the other needs in the world I’m not helping with — the homeless in America, the persecuted church in China, etc.

I can’t help with everything, so I have to make judgment calls based on something, and sometimes that something happens to be appearances.

So in light of this,

Would your child’s easy access to e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. affect the level of poverty you perceive your sponsored child enduring?

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When those with nothing are given enough, they will give back to those who have nothing. This is a foundational belief of Compassion as an organization, and nowhere does it resonate deeper than in South Korea, which is unique as a partner country because of its former status as Compassion’s original field country.

Compassion South Korea CEO Justin Suh articulates that, “As Koreans who got help from the outside world in the past, it is time for us to give to the other side of the world.”

Not only do they give back to the world, but they have a few lessons to teach about engaging communities in the fight against poverty.

This June marked Compassion South Korea’s third annual photo exhibition. The purpose of this year’s exhibit was to thank sponsors and donors for their commitment to the ministry. An array of pictures was displayed highlighting the impact a one-on-one relationship with a sponsor has on a child living in poverty.

Compassion South Korea staff explained that their photographer, Hur-ho, from South Korea’s advocacy network Friends of Compassion, “captured the ordinary lives of the sponsors in a positive light,” demonstrating that sponsorship is for anyone that believes in the importance of children, not just for the elite and religious few.

The photo exhibition was not only a creative and original way to promote Compassion but also succeeded incredibly in gaining public support, resulting in 1,400 new sponsorships! It occurred at an opportune time, just days after Compassion South Korea was featured in a documentary by the National Broadcasting Channel that raised 4,000 additional sponsorships.

Given these numbers, it is no surprise that Compassion South Korea grew in sponsorship by 74.7 percent in the last fiscal year.

Events like this add to the astronomical growth that South Korea has been experiencing. Justin Suh expressed about the photo exhibition that “We would like to thank the Lord for the blessings,” he said. “The staff of Compassion South Korea was busy, yet we were grateful for being able to experience the miracle that God has made possible.”

The Korean office continually demonstrates a driven attitude and strong work ethic which allows them to impact more children around the world each day. Another explanation for Compassion South Korea’s tremendous growth brings us back to its history.

The apostle Paul speaks of their attitude in 1 Corinthians 1.28-29, “He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (NIV)

South Korea received God’s grace and love through Compassion years ago, and the last thing they are doing now is boasting. The effort Compassion South Korea put into the photo exhibition and the extent to which God blessed it reiterate Paul’s words and Compassion’s belief that when grace is extended and received, it is returned in kind.

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But I didn’t have to travel to ME, the abbreviation we use when referring to Mexico, to see it. I only had to look at me.

I was in Mexico for the wrong reason. I didn’t go for the children, to become a stronger, more passionate voice for them. To serve them better. To serve you better. I went because I like to travel. I went for me.

There certainly are solid business reasons for me to have gone on the trip, but I didn’t get out of my own way long enough to realize them. I hate that.

How do I redeem the opportunity God gave me and that I squandered?

I dunno. Analyze? Internalize? Theorize?.

Take a look at the poverty wheel. The hub represents absolute poverty – living on less than $2 a day. The rim represents the opposite of poverty – enough. And the spokes represent the different needs of those in poverty.

But what is poverty?

Compassion exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.

Poverty is spiritual. Poverty is economic. Poverty is social and physical. It’s not limited to the developing world. And this is nothing new to you. Right?

You know that the emotional disconnection we in the developed world struggle with is a form of poverty, right?

But why is it, with this enlightened consciousness, many of us still struggle with these chains? Why is it that with “enough” opportunity to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults, most of us don’t act like Jesus and aren’t fulfilled?

Yeah. I know. We’re fallen. But for me, that isn’t acceptable! I despise that answer. It feels like an excuse. I want a better answer. I want to overcome that answer.

Hmm. Where’s God in that last statement?

HEY! Watch out! Fallen soul coming through fast.

I went on a house visit last Tuesday. The child’s family had nice wood furniture. It wasn’t just nice for their circumstances, you would’ve wanted it. The family also had electricity. A television. A DVD player. A refrigerator. A stove.

They aren’t poor like the poor I saw in Kenya. Dirt floors. Tin roofs. A 5’ x 5’ house that sleeps five. Raw sewage outside the door. And I thought, “Do they really need our help?” Just like many sponsors think when they see a child photo for the first time, that child doesn’t “look poor.”

The families I saw in Mexico were indeed poor in the things of this world. But in that moment, I was poor in the things of the Lord. I was full-on fallen. Self-absorbed and judging. Ugh!

But this post isn’t about me inviting you into my confession, and it’s not about me laying a guilt trip on you. Those may be outcomes … but they’re not why I’m writing this.

This post isn’t about saying how “evil” we in the developed world are or anything other than:

Last week, I was in Mexico. On a sponsor tour. And I saw the deepest, darkest poverty of my life. It wasn’t the first time though, and it probably won’t be the last.

It’s about the only message that I could pull out of the poison, Satan laced his flaming arrows in, before shooting them in my heart.

That was my trip to Mexico.

I’m not sure how this post squares with “doing my best to make you feel like you’re in Mexico with me,” because it doesn’t tell you anything about sponsor fun day, when the sponsors on the trip met their children for the first time.

And it doesn’t tell you about our shopping and boat ride experiences, or how easy the customs declaration form was to fill out on the return flight home. But maybe you can get all that from the photos I uploaded to Flickr the other night; the whole trip is there now.

I should have some brief and very simple video for you to watch some time next week too.

¡Dios te bendiga! May God bless you.

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“The opposite of poverty is enough.”

Have you heard us say this before?

Answer first, before reading on.

Wess talks about it in his book, mentions it in The Lie of Poverty video and alluded to it in a blog post.

It can be seen on the poverty wheel, is threaded throughout many other blog posts and can even enhance your body.

But despite all that, my mind still leaps toward wealth when I get the prompt:

The opposite of poverty is …

It’s like speaking another language. I think in wealth — in Western abundance — and translate into poverty.

Is that emotional disconnection or just cultural inculcation? Is it a symptom of something else? A life in transition, perhaps.

Those questions are mostly rhetorical, feel free to address them if you want, but I’m really interested in whether the phrase has any emotional punch for you.

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• What do you think is the largest challenge in eradicating poverty on the earth? (Allan)

The biggest challenge of eradicating poverty in the world isn’t finding enough money to throw at it. We often think that poverty is a lack of money. That’s a big piece of it, but it’s not the whole of it, or even the most critical part of it. If it was, I think we could probably organize our world to throw enough money at it to make it go away.

But poverty is much more complicated than that — it’s not about the kind of house that you live in or whether a sewer runs in front of your house. It’s not about the amount of calories you take in or the amount of money you have. Those are only the symptoms of poverty. That’s not real poverty. Real poverty is much more complicated than that and it doesn’t just happen overnight. It rolls down through the generations.

At Compassion we realize that the biggest challenge of poverty is a mindset — a lie that says to a child:

Look around you, nothing works, nothing is pretty nothing smells good — you don’t matter. Look at you. It’s all garbage and so are you. So give up. There’s nobody coming to your rescue. Nobody cares about you, just give up.

We must go into the midst of that abject poverty and breathe hope and love and life. We can meet the critical needs, but there’s no end of that. Scripture says, “So what does a man profit if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”

What I think is the hardest thing is mobilizing God’s people around the world to not only send their money but to send their hearts and enter into the hurt of a little child and breathe hope:

Don’t give up. I’m watching you grow. I got your report card. I got your picture. I pray for you every night. I think you’re wonderful. Don’t give up.

If we could get enough people in the western world — this rich world that you talk about, Allan — to do that, we could absolutely end poverty on our planet. It’s not going to end with more effort. It’s not going to end with more money. It’s going to end with more heart.

Those of us who have been blessed have been blessed for one reason and one reason only, and that is to be a blessing. Anything God gives you beyond enough ought to be given away to lift someone else up to enough.

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