The marketplace is alive, buzzing with the hum of shuffling feet and bartering voices. No one is buying housewares today, but down the rows of sellers offering spices, nuts, teas and tobacco is a steady stream of faces and animated exchanges.

Slipping out a back entrance to this outdoor extravaganza, we cross a street of small restaurants and maneuver through a parking lot of buses that will soon head off in every direction that offers a road. Around another corner and up some dusty stairs, we find ourselves among a collection of bright second-story rooms that beam from direct sunlight and the radiant smile of the staff director.

This is STEP, a small NGO (non-governmental organization) hidden behind a marketplace in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan, in northern Iraq. It exists for one purpose: to provide a safe space for young boys who spend their days as sellers in the bazaar.

The director’s grin covers his entire face as he grabs our hands and welcomes our small band of Americans to his country. He proudly shows off his humble surroundings — the artwork of the boys who spend time here, a TV propped up in the corner, a small music room that consists of a little keyboard and a chair, and a space for a tutor and social worker.

We hear the story of STEP:

“Many young children, sometimes as young as 6 or 7, come here to the market to sell something. They start off selling chewing gum or maybe plastic bags. Later they will sell bigger things. Many of them drop out of school. They get tired after a couple of hours of working but don’t have anywhere to go.

“We provide that space. This entire place was built around the design of the kids themselves. They told us what they wanted — a place to get away, a safe place. They write the rules of the center. They draw the artwork. They tell us what they need from the staff.

“We provide a place with adults who can be trusted and who believe that every child is worthy of respect and is just as important as an adult. This is the most important thing, I think. So many people just look down on kids, like they are worth less than an adult. Like they don’t deserve anything.

“But that is not true. Why, I learn something from a child every single day. They are worth just as much as I am. And they need someone to tell them so.”

Then the director shared a little of his story:

“I dropped out of school when I was young. I never went to high school. But I realized after I started working here that I can only ask these kids to do things that I have been willing to do myself. We are a model for them, you know. They watch what we do in addition to what we say.

“So several years ago, I went back to high school. Last year, I graduated. I am over 40 years old, I have a wife and three children, and I just graduated from high school. It was a really hard thing to do.

“But now these kids know that it can be done. That sometimes you have to have the strength to do something that feels embarrassing, because it is the right thing to do. That an education is important. That it doesn’t matter what anyone tells you — you are important, you have skills and abilities, and you need to use them.”

Iraq is a corner of the world that we as Americans are quick to stereotype, but kids and adults are not so different here than they are anywhere else. Children bear the brunt of bad choices. They work early, either out of necessity or because it is culturally more honorable to spend time working than getting an education.

They spend so much time on the streets that they become easy victims of abuse and violence. It is hard for them to find an adult they trust to share their stories with and get help when it is needed.

Here in Kurdistan, one man and a small staff have found their niche. They are reaching out to the working boys of the marketplace to give them a safe haven, get them back into school, and provide counseling and a trusting relationship.

They take this calling so seriously that they change their lifestyles to be better models for these kids, whether that means going back to school, quitting smoking, or a number of other things.

Each of us needs to take seriously the call to be an advocate for children. Kids watch us, and we have a responsibility to model fully the life we encourage them to walk.

I encourage you to find your niche! Identify how you can be an advocate for children, and throw everything you are into that calling. It can change the lives of the children you come in contact with, whether they live in your house, your own neighborhood, or halfway around the world.

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Villages destroyed by chemical weapons. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) by the thousands who still migrate from their homes every spring and autumn in order to protect their families from the seasonal bombs that are dropped on their villages and farmlands.

A hike into the mountains can bring you in touch with lush vegetation and flora species such as you have never seen, and it can also thrust you into fields of land mines. The people here are ever so hospitable and welcoming, but they are slow to trust too deeply.

The Kurdish Province of Iraq is not alone in having a desperate history. Many other countries sing the song of their homeland in the painstaking melody of a minor key.

Think of places where Compassion works – places like Rwanda and Colombia. The people of those nations recount stories with tears and heartache. Many resort to a cycle of violence that binds their communities like a chokehold – tribal warfare, gangs, drug lords, etc.

Yet some are able, ever so carefully, to move past their devastating and violent histories and rebuild community.

Which people do this? The few who are willing to embrace forgiveness, reconciliation and grace. Where do we find these characteristics that surpass human wisdom in their scope and power? We find them in the person of Jesus Christ.

Compassion’s very strategic approach of working exclusively in partnership with the local church assures that its holistic child development programs — designed to release children and ultimately families, communities and nations from poverty — always bring with them the hope of the gospel of Jesus.

As the gospel exemplifies the power of redemptive grace, people are given the power to break not only the cycle of poverty, but also the cycle of violence.

Being in this area and contrasting what I see here with what I have seen throughout my travels to Compassion countries, I am increasingly thankful for Compassion’s clarity of vision and acute understanding of the importance of the local church in truly changing the lives of our sponsored children around the world.

The hope of Christ in tandem with the education, health care, nutrition and social development provided by the child development centers in Compassion countries is a powerful force against the hopelessness and lies that violence and poverty tell their victims.

It is why I am proud to be part of this ministry that releases children from poverty: because we unabashedly do this work “in Jesus’ name.”

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Are you still with me? Still tracking with these thoughts on eliminating poverty? Good.

Now, I’ll share with you some data – data that show the Millennium Development Goals are on target.

We used to say that 40,000 children under age 5 die every day of hunger or preventable diseases. Then about 6 to 7 years ago this number was 30,000. Today, 24,000 children under 5 die every day of hunger or preventable diseases.

These statistics show that in 20 years the number of children who die every day of hunger or preventable diseases has been cut in half. Yet, the birth rate is actually going up. The population is increasing.

The blue line represents the years 1800 to 2000. In 1800, 85 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today it’s around 22 percent.

Between 1950 and 2000 there was a dramatic decline from 55 percent to 22 percent.

From 1981 to 2001 the population living in extreme poverty in China dropped from 60 percent to about 10 percent. And the same dramatic decline can be seen in India; the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty has dropped from over 60 percent to about 34 percent.

Between 1990 and 2005 the death rate for children under 5 in the Middle East and North Africa was cut in half. It is on target for the fourth Millennium Development Goal, to reduce by two thirds the mortality of children under 5.

And the same is true for Central America and the Caribbean. The death rate of children has been cut in half in the past 15 years.

Scott proceeded to show graphs from South Asia, Europe, Central Asia and East Asia and the Pacific. All showing that the death rate of children under 5 has drastically decreased.

In fact, the only area where we are behind for decreasing the mortality rate for children under 5 is sub-Saharan Africa, and yet there is still a decline.

All over the world sanitation and water quality have been improving.

As this graph represents, the spread of HIV in Africa has been curbed; it is not increasing as it had in years past; in fact, it seems to be flat-lining.

All these statistics strongly support what Jeffery Sachs (a world-class economist with a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard) has said,

“Ending extreme poverty* is a practical, achievable objective and is an objective that can be completed by our generation.”

He is making this statement through the lens of an economist, as someone looking at the numbers. He is saying this from a secular viewpoint. How much more true his statement is when adopted by us whose belief is rooted in the Creator of the universe. The One who stated, “There shall be no poor among you.”

To bring us to a close, Scott brought us back to Judas’ life. A man who walked with Jesus, who witnessed the miracles and the love of the Lord, yet he betrayed Jesus because of his greed and love for money. He sold Jesus for about half the value of the perfume Mary anointed Jesus with.

Scott states,

“The wealthy church today, the American church, has been entrusted with a purse of the Kingdom. The majority of Christ’s followers live in the developing world. What do they think of us as treasurers? Are they assuming that we would put the treasuries of the Kingdom to celebrating God’s goodness or caring for the poor? How are we doing?”

He then shared a fact that is, to say the least, haunting.

The annual income of Christian American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion. The amount of money needed to end global poverty is about $74 billion a year.

Did you crunch the numbers?

Basically, 1 percent of our annual income a year is what is needed to end extreme poverty.

Can you imagine? It could be said of our generation, “And there were no needy persons among them.”

To add a little perspective, Americans spend ten times more on entertainment ($705 billion) than what is needed to end poverty.

Is it just a matter of priorities?

As Scott ended he pointed out that there are only a few important questions:

1. What does God want? Do we have any doubt about that? Does he want children suffering?
2. Are we willing to join Him in His work?

This is a path that has already been paved by Christ-followers who have gone before us. We have a model to follow. We are not alone. We are fighting with the Lord.

Surely, that was quite a bit to take in. And now I am eager to know, was there that shining light of revelation for you? What is the state of your heart?

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