I have been feeling challenged lately to get closer to the heart of Compassion, where we interact with sponsors, churches and children. I recently read a quote from a top executive of a large retail chain (I can’t remember which one — maybe Best Buy). He said, “I have never wasted a day visiting a store.”

Now, of course we don’t have stores but, I believe that sentiment is true for me — especially with visiting the field. I always learn something when I spend some unhurried and unplanned time in the field where I can really observe and learn and listen.

Heroes

It is especially valuable when our church partners are not aware of my position, and we can avoid a lot of the protocol and formalities. But those opportunities are rare and difficult to come by.

So, I planned a trip to do just that. I arranged a trip to Honduras where I spent six days at two different child development centers in the central zone of the country. I wasn’t sure how successful I could be as an “Undercover Boss,” but I’m very grateful to the Honduras Country Office who did a marvelous job of setting this trip up so that I could be a regular guy without any fanfare or protocol.

I slept on the floor of the center facilities and ate at the centers with food lovingly prepared by church staff. The purpose of my trip was to spend time “up close and personal” with our primary customers — the beneficiaries of our programs and our Implementing Church Partners (ICPs). I wanted to learn how they experience Compassion.

I also wanted to shadow a Partnership Facilitator (PF) for several days and gain a more intuitive and experiential understanding of how they fulfill their responsibilities and what their day to day life is like. And I wanted to be open to what God wanted me to see and hear and feel.

So, without trying to give you six days’ worth of journaling, I’ll highlight a few impressions, observations, realizations, affirmations and God-messages for you.

Lots Going On

There is so much going right with Compassion’s ministry.

OK, that may sound simplistic, but it is not. It was actually quite profound to see the number of things that are working as they are designed to work, and to observe numerous changes enacted over the last five years to create improvements that are now implemented and working!

Our ICP pastors and center staff are heroes.

We know this, but it is so inspiring to see time and again. These are passionately dedicated men and women who live day in and day out to help Compassion-supported children and their families and to reach out with God’s love to their communities. I met some incredible people of faith, people we can be proud to have wear the name “Christian” and the name “Compassion.”

I was able to spend a couple of hours walking through a very poor community with Pastor Guillermo late one afternoon. We saw the “underbelly” of the community as we visited homes of Compassion-assisted children and talked about the overwhelming social problems in the neighborhood, but I never once heard discouragement in his voice. Our ICPs are relying on God to provide for their immense needs and to sustain them with hope. And we play a part in that hope.

They are so thankful for our partnership (and here I don’t just mean money). Yes they need the money, but they really appreciate the support and guidance that our PFs and the local office provide. They appreciate the prayers of the sponsors and know that they are part of a global movement of God’s people.

Field-based Facilitation Works

Field-based facilitation is the best move we have made since going direct to the local church (instead of working through missions or denominations). This is work that is carried out by facilitators who live in the area of the centers instead of working out of the Field Offices.

OK, I probably can’t prove that statement, but that is how I feel. Honduras has gone 100 percent to field-based facilitation and they love it! The PF whom I shadowed was remarkable. Her name is Lastenia and she is the Compassion brand for the 13 centers/ICPs in her cluster, as well as for the other churches in the area and the local government.

Lastenia lives our brand fully and represents us wonderfully. We would be highly fortunate to have more PFs like her. She lives a few blocks from one of her churches, and her farthest centers are two hours away. Most are within one hour’s drive. She visits her best-functioning centers once every three months, her “needs improvement” centers every month, and her “needs significant improvement” centers every 15 days. (She took me to centers of all types, not just to her stellar centers.)

She is in constant contact by phone, text and e-mail with her centers (I saw this instantly for five days!), and is very much a part of their lives and community. She is seen as a friend, a mentor, an expert and yes, at times, a supervisor. Her focus is definitely on her ICPs. She connects with the Compassion Honduras office and is very much part of Compassion, but she is definitely a field person.

Lastenia’s closest contacts and friends are at the centers, not at the office. This is huge! She is closer to the center staff than to the office staff. Those are her colleagues and friends. This is an enormous paradigm shift and I can see that it bears amazing fruit.

Rapidly Becoming Outcome-driven

We are rapidly becoming an outcome-driven organization.

In Honduras, the center directors talk about outcomes. The PF talks about outcomes. Other field staff talk about outcomes. The Project Planning and Budgeting Form / Annual Opportunity Plan process focuses on outcomes.

One of the center directors we visited has started tracking his own milestones and indicators on an individual child basis because he wants and “needs” that information! In terms of the primary value of outcomes (clarifying intent), we have made enormous progress.

Using Local Resources Is a Must

Centers are leveraging local resources.

This PF has mobilized her centers to garner other resources outside of Compassion, and they are doing that quite successfully. The ones we visited had relationships with other international funders and were gaining significant advantage from partnerships with local governments. All of this strengthens the church and the center and provides additional opportunities for the children.

Leaping Into Technology

Honduras has taken leaps into technology at the center level.<

Part of the effectiveness of the Honduras model is the use of technology. Nearly all of their child development centers have Internet access. They do their planning and much of their work on computers. Honduras has contracted one cell phone plan for all the centers, staff and Leadership Development Program (LDP) students, so there is no extra cost for calls between those parties. This allows for free and direct communication. Center workers who had no previous experience with computers now take pride in their technological savvy.

Creatively Using CIVLatin America can make good use of Complementary Interventions (CIVs).

Our experience has showed a lower use of CIVs in Latin America. If this PF is the wave of the future, that will turn around quickly. The PF I shadowed is a CIV queen! She knows how to spot complementary needs and she knows how to make the system work. And she is relentless! I saw an HIV/AIDS peer activation project, income-generating projects, water projects, sanitation projects, computer labs, vocational training and more. All seemed very appropriately targeted to child development outcomes and were greatly appreciated by the center staff and pastors.

Desperately Poor Situations

We are working with children in desperately poor situations.

It had been seven years since I had been in Honduras. Development has clearly taken place in those years. Globalization of retail is everywhere. Infrastructure is improving. The use of technology is ubiquitous. (Everyone has a cell phone!)

At first glance, it may appear that we don’t need to be working in Honduras anymore. But just beyond the main paved roads lies the real Honduras where most people still live very difficult lives and many, many children are denied the basics that they need to develop healthily. We visited desperately poor homes and heard many a story of hopelessness and despair.

We met a 10-year-old boy forced to act as the head of household because his mother had died and his dad was an alcoholic who had taken in a 13-year-old girl as his new mistress. We met a family of 13 who live in one room, and visited three families that are sharing the same house. We heard of the immense pressure on teenagers to quit school and go to work, of young girls being given away at 13 or 14 years old to any men who are willing to feed them.

One of our hero child development center directors, Yanira, just registered 20 new children, and she is scared. These are the most “at-risk” kids they have registered yet (compared even to the ones I just spoke about!).

These are the children of gang members, murderers and prostitutes. These are the children of people who break in and steal from the center, who steal tilapia from their CIV-funded fish pond.

But Yanira is trusting God to guide them and protect them, and to transform not only the children but their entire families. We are meeting very real needs.

Children Need to be Known, Loved and Protected

Children need to be known, loved and protected.

Child abuse is a huge issue in this area of Honduras. Children fall victim to physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. The centers serve as safe havens. The center workers are lovers and protectors.

Scott Todd wrote in the introduction to our new Compassion publication, Shared Strength, that “Compassion is committed to the local church and maintains long-term partnerships with more than 5,000 indigenous churches in more than 25 countries for the shared mission of protecting and developing children.”

I like the way that is said, and it very aptly describes what I observed in the centers I visited. They are “protecting and developing children.” Pastor Guillermo (whom I mentioned above) has visited the homes of every sponsored child in his center. He knows them. He knows their families. He knows their struggles. This allows him and his team to be relevant to the needs of the children.

Highly Vulnerable Children (HVC) Coming Just in Time

One ICP recently took a huge “step of faith” and started a “cottage” for abused and abandoned sponsored children. They were suddenly confronted with seven children who had no place to live for a variety of horrible reasons.

The church had access to a home, so they set up what we have called a “cottage” with a child development center tutor serving as the live-in house mother, but they had no idea how they were going to sustain it. They didn’t have the needed money, but they felt compelled to take the step of faith anyway, praying that God would provide for their needs along the way. They stepped into the Jordan and the waters had not yet parted.

It was a God moment for us to be able to share that as of the new fiscal year they would have access to financial support from the Highly Vulnerable Children’s fund to help support these desperately needy children! They were overjoyed! And I was overjoyed that God let me see this little glimpse of how the hard work of staff at the GMC and throughout Compassion is meeting real needs in a timely fashion. This was a God message to me: “Your labors are not in vain!”

Well, if you got all the way to the end of this “undercover report,” you get a gold star! I share these highlights with the hope of encouraging you that your labors are not in vain. Our work is bearing good fruit and much fruit.

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Then over the next several weeks we’ll publish a series of posts to help clearly establish what our definition and understanding of the problem is and explain to you the basis of our holistic approach to ministry.

You might expect that such a fundamental and heavily studied concept as poverty would have a universal definition; however, such is not the case.

Common definitions, such as those from Merriam-Webste’s Online Dictionary, define poverty as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.”

Professional and academic descriptions of poverty often include non-income aspects such as health, security/vulnerability, self-respect/identity, justice, access to services, political voice, freedom, social connectedness and so on.

Unfortunately, the absence of a clear definition is a serious problem for organizations whose missions are to eradicate poverty or, in Compassion’s case, to release children from poverty.

- Scott Todd, Senior Ministry Advisor, Compassion International

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Saturday, Jan. 30 – We had the chance to meet eight leadership students today. We sat in a circle in the parking lot listening to their stories as ashes drifted like snow upon us and the smell of burning plastics scorched the air.

They spoke of how important Compassion’s work has been in their lives. Some shared with tears about being selected for the Leadership Development Program. I don’t know whether the tears flowed from joy, gratitude or something sad.

Like the dream that almost came true. They had climbed so high. From the slums to the universities. But when we asked how many went to schools which had been damaged in the earthquake all of them raised their hands.

We asked how many had lost friends or loved ones and all raised their hands again.

At one school 90 percent (180 out of 200) of the students were killed. With buildings collapsed, professors and administrators dead, its hard to imagine how those dreams can come true now.

May God have mercy on us if we fail to find a way forward for them. They are Haiti’s future.

I’ve been saying that this disaster is not about the earthquake. It’s about poverty. Most of those who died would have lived if their nation was not too poor to afford rebar in their concrete, too poor to have heavy equipment to rescue the many who were trapped, too poor to provide the needed health care.

And as tragic as this disaster is, an even greater tragedy looms. The tragedy of the American media getting bored, Haiti leaving the front pages and the world forgetting – the American Christian forgetting – this country and her people. Again.

It’s already happening. Mid-week I saw the headlines. No Haiti.

What replaced it as “news”? A controversial gay kiss in a television ad.

That would normally make me angry, but I was hurting too much to be angry. It just hurts.

We must awaken the sleeping giant of the American church. Awaken her to her God-given mission. Her calling.

That she would radiate light in her good works and that rivers of justice would flow from her for the sake of the poor and oppressed.

That she would not be trapped and anesthetized any longer by our culture of… call it what you will… lusts and self-satisfaction.

If the energy with which we pursue our own entertainment and appetites were deployed on behalf of the poor instead, then the world could be a much better place and we would find the life Jesus promised.

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I’m in my tent. Too tired to go up to the place where I can connect to Internet on the sloping desk and wobbly chair in the parking lot – so I know this won’t go out tonight.

Today (Jan. 29) we returned to the area we visited on day two. Leogone. Almost a two-hour drive. It is an absolute war zone of destruction. Nearly the whole town is rubble. I felt a deeper sadness than the other places – a community completely broken. Yet, they were clearing away the debris from the streets and already beginning to rebuild.

We arrived at the church, a partner in our program, to find a group of people under a tarp canopy. We assumed they were patients waiting for our arrival as had been the case on previous days. They weren’t.

They were the people of the church who had gathered for fasting and prayer. They sang, “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our hopes and griefs to bear.”

We set up the clinic with greater proficiency today – larger tarps, larger ropes, higher anchors so the heat radiating under the plastic didn’t bake the people (and us).

Another day of broken bones and infected wounds. A few unexpected cases – a man with polio who had fallen and needed surgery, a young boy whose foreskin was nearly sealed, preventing urination, creating back pressure and infection risk.

Half the team has suffered intestinal problems, but they carry on despite their misery. It didn’t help that there were no latrines available today. We “stood guard” for one another.

The person I will be specifically praying for tonight is Chantal. Mother of five. We saw her two days earlier and I believe it is by God’s guidance that we came to this site today.

A large cinder block had fallen on her head during the quake and had sliced an L-shape wound (about 3×4 inch per side) all the way to her skull.

We cleaned it on Tuesday, but today we saw that the infection was still progressing. It is likely that debris has tracked far under the skin of her scalp and will require hospitalization to adequately treat. We arranged a referral via to a clinic located in the middle of one of the “tent cities.”

I held her IV bag as we rode on the benches in the back of the Land Cruiser. We picked up her brother. He told us that even with her injury, no doubt such a massive head injury would have gushed a lot of blood, she was able to dig out her husband and son from the collapsed house.

Her husband completely split his jaw. We saw him two days ago and today he is supposed to have it stapled back together.

Even with her skull exposed and a massive infected wound, Chantal smiled for a picture. Tiffany cleaned some blood from Chantal’s dress, and Chantal gently said thank you in English.

I don’t understand how she can be hurting so bad and still be kind. Join me in praying for her complete recovery. Pray that she will one day laugh with her grandchildren.

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In some ways today (Jan. 28) was the most exhausting. Mainly the heat in our “clinic.” Once again, under tarps despite a respectable-looking church right next to us.

Our team used the church for sorting meds and eating lunch, and I hope that our occupying it might encourage the people to overcome the fear that the earth may shake it down at any moment.

Treated over 100 people again today, but the conditions generally seem less severe in the city, where people are getting access to health services.

The story that will most trouble me as I try to sleep in the parking lot again tonight is the two very young children (approximately 2 and 3 years old) whose parents both died in the quake.

These young children are registered in our Child Survival Program. Their aunt came to take them and is caring for them.

I just learned an hour ago that their aunt is 15 years old and they are sleeping in the street under a makeshift tarp tent. It’s night now and I wonder how that 15-year-old girl is going to find any food for herself or for those little ones.

I’ve only shared about the kids and people we’ve been seeing, but I want to say something about our staff in Haiti.

It just isn’t possible to describe the emotional burden they carry. I spoke with Jozue (Joshua), who works for Compassion and is pastor of the church where we set up the mobile clinic today.

Jozue told me that on the day of the quake his wife was getting ready to wash their two little girls. Their water is outside, like a backyard spigot, and when mom went out to get the water one of the girls saw her go out and began to follow. Then the second one followed.

Mom saw the girls coming out of the house and said “Get back inside.”

But the girl said “No!”

“I said go back inside!”

But the girl stomped her foot and insisted, “No!”

That happened a third time and then mom gathered her girls and began to bring them back into the house. And that’s when everything started moving side to side and the house collapsed along with both of their neighbors’ houses.

At that time, Jozue had just left the Compassion office, and the drive, which normally takes 30 minutes, took more than six hours.

He described driving past the collapsed buildings and houses and seeing dead people and hearing crying and frantically trying to make his way home to his family.

He had a friend with him who told him, “God is in control. If He wants them alive, they are alive. If He wants them dead, they are dead.”

Jozue maintained his strength and arrived at the scene of his collapsed house after 11 p.m. He searched with a flashlight and could not find them.

Then a man asked, “Who are you looking for?”

He answered, “My family.” And the man said, “They are there at the church.”

He told me he was strong until he saw them and then he was overwhelmed and “became sick.” Tears welled up as he told me several times how he loves his family.

He said he worked for 15 years to build that house but now he will need to live by faith. He said to live by faith always sounded good in a sermon but it was theory, and now he would need to really do it.

His wife was too troubled to stay in Haiti, and she left with the girls to be with relatives in Florida. I could see uncertainty in his eyes about his own decision to stay. But he said, “I’m a pastor. What words can I bring to my community?”

The bold, selfless blood of Jesus is alive in Jozue. Despite his opportunity to flee and be with his family, he believes that a pastor must serve in these very difficult times.

He and his church are the hope for Haiti’s future. So, today this man gave himself to the work of hosting our mobile clinic in an open lot next to his church where we treated more than 100 people.

Today I prayed with Dunia, a nurse who works for Compassion supporting the Child Survival Program. Dunia has been part of our team and doing an amazing job treating so many people. But her own father died and her aunt is critically injured.

This morning she had quietly separated herself from the group to cry because she had just been told her aunt would not live. She continued to treat others until we were able to secure her transport to the hospital treating her aunt.

Her aunt may make it after all – keep praying.

There are countless stories. Everyone of them matters. Lifting the burden of a physical injury or infections is pretty easy compared to lifting the burdens of sorrow so heavy in the soul. We need to pray for and generously support our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

They not only need to continue the ministry to Haiti’s children, but they need to piece together their own lives and homes as well. I would ask you to give until it hurts, and count it a privilege. There will never be a day when we regret an act of generosity or kindness.

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Today (Jan. 27) was … not sure what word could cover it. The team went to a rural site (HA748) and set up our clinic under a large mango tree.

I had to stay back in the morning because we had medical supplies that had missed the original plane and it was important to receive them. They were tagged to me, and we didn’t think U.S. forces would allow anyone else through.

So, with a tail number on an aircraft we went through the two checkpoints and were suddenly amidst the chaos of the tarmac. Massive cargo planes from the U.S. military being unloaded, vast field of materials, also some non-U.S. big planes – a 777 from Israel…. Helicopters of all types buzzing around.

We took a guess at a small plane and drove out to a field where they were parking smaller charters and we found our guy grabbed our meds and got out to HA748.

The team saw much heavier needs today. I held an 80 year old (approximately) lady for 30 minutes while she writhed in pain as our orthopedic surgeon amputated her toe. It had been crushed and was rotting infection up into the bone so it needed to be completely cleared out.

That old lady was made of leather and wire but wailed away. We probably saved her life – certainly her foot as the infection would have progressed.

I’m getting bit by mosquitoes and realize I forgot to put on bug spray – I am taking malaria meds.

Another pair of sisters today – sponsored kids. House fell, killed dad, one sister’s hand got crushed into their fire for two hours. Her hand was serious and we arranged for her evac via a contact we found here – U.S. group with lots of military support.

We thought they might fly in with a helicopter but they came in a boring old truck. We also referred and transported two others.

The other sister had her toe amputated during the crush so we cleaned it up and called it good. Split jaws, exposed skulls… a lot more today.

We came home…oops… back to the office, a two hour drive, and we sang songs lead by our Haitian brothers and sisters – all variety of hymns. From Amazing Grace to Oh God you are my God. There was a lot of smiling, passing nuts and dried fruits around. We sang pretty full throttle and didn’t sound too bad.

We saw two dead bodies being burned on the dump on our way home. The air was filed with stench and smoke and dust and we did sing This is the Air I Breathe with no irony but sincere faith.

I was humbled to be with Haitians who had lost loved ones singing “God is so good. He’s so good to me.”

We do have a mysterious, wonderful, unifying and good Lord who is in the business of re-building broken things, healing hurts and reclaiming beauty from despair. And that God is at work in Haiti even now.

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Last night’s (Jan. 25) arrival – in the dark, no lights in the airport, Humvees and Marines roaring around, bags thrown on the tarmac, smell of jet fuel, shouting, chaos, can’t find our pickup, pulling out over 30 duffel bags and boxes, driving through the chaos of Port-au-Prince with three of our guys on top of each pickup “guarding” baggage.

Touring our office at night with flashlights, framed mission statement on the wall tilted, leadership principles tilted, warning to walk clear of certain walls which are collapsing – pitch tent in parking lot, spray some DEET, take some Malarone, sweating from hauling stuff.

Today (Jan. 26), our medical team worked under tarps because the people are afraid to go inside buildings. Within an hour we were up and running and saw approximately 100 patients.

Each patient registered at entry through a gate with name, basic info including height, weight etc… and took a number. Some were triaged. Others waited to be called to one of four (sometimes five) stations. Each station had a doc, nurse and translator (though some of our Haitian nurses also served as translators).

The cases were not as severe as I expected with some very serious cuts and abrasions that were infected and needed dressing, some dislocations, a few bone issues. Many were just overwhelmed and needed someone to look at them and tell them they were okay. We prayed with some of them.

The spirit of the team is wonderful – encouraging, humble, aware of the complexity of treating the whole person. No one became impatient or frustrated (despite many reasons to be so). The day was a success in my view.

We sleep in a parking lot and listen to trucks and generators and dogs. We have access to one of the two buildings which has been deemed safe. The other is not safe.

The IT guy has set up wireless that seems to work reasonably well. My phone does not call but does text – weird. Verizon seems to work. They need to add Haiti to their map commercial.

The crew is sleepless, all-out working, coping with very complex issues and needs protection from external expectations.

I met two girls who were sisters – both sponsored through Compassion. There are three girls in the family. They were home when the quake hit. One got out. The other two were trapped.

Mom was selling food on the street and ran home. Dad also ran home from his work at a wood-working shop. Mom and Dad and uncle dug out one girl after about eight hours and the second girl after about 11 hours. Both girls suffered injury.

The sisters came to our clinic and we dressed and cleaned their wounds – infection. I asked each of them afterward some questions, prayer requests, both independently said – pray that I will get back to school and do well in school, pray that we can have our house back.

I asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Doctor and Doctor.

Mom stood next to them as they shared, and she was crying. We prayed that someday when people are hurt it would be these two young ladies who offer healing.

Shaun captured this story on film and is editing it next to me in the muggy Haiti night under floodlights, a tarp-tent sitting in a sloped parking lot with one of my chair legs wobbling in a pot hole. Shaun is holding a flashlight in his mouth as he works his audio.

Three of our docs are just returning from Salvation Army’s site here; they were visiting a clinic in search of pediatric meds (we had a hard time finding and don’t have enough). They also wanted to review how the Salvation Army clinic is designed – to pick up ideas.

Dinner is arriving in black trash sacks – rice and beans and scrawny chicken (kinda cold, not sure where they get it), but purchased and delivered in love in a place where every kid I saw today was hungry.

Hungry. I felt shame as I hid in a room with the others to eat half a sandwich for my lunch. But I felt proud to be a part of it all and offer whatever I could to serve these kids. They deserve everything we can offer and more.

That comment on hunger might make you wonder about food distribution – we’re doing it but it is very complex and cannot be done simultaneously with our clinic. That would be a serious mistake. So I snuck a little to the sisters and gave my half empty water bottle to another boy but otherwise we really could not do anything resembling food distribution.

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“You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” – John 12:8 (NIV)

“However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you.” – Deuteronomy 15:4 (NIV)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. And as I promised, here’s a summary of what Scott shared with us at chapel.

Jesus is at a party in the home of Simon the leper in the town of Bethany. Lazarus and his sisters are at this party. Many people who have seen the miracles of Jesus are in attendance; many who have even received miraculous healing by His hand are present. Can you imagine the immense celebration of this party?

People who have experienced the love of Jesus, who have found comfort and strength in Him, people who left everything to make Jesus their everything are guests.

In the midst of this Mary comes into the room with very expensive perfume and anoints Jesus. A moment of worship, of adoration.

The Word even says that the whole house is filled with the smell of this fragrance.

Despite this, in John 12:4 we see Judas Iscariot object. He strongly deems Mary’s act as a waste, something that can be used for the poor.

People who did not know his character or motives may have believed he genuinely cared for the poor. But Judas is speaking to someone who knows his heart and knows the motive of his words, deeply marked by greed.

In John 12:7-8, Jesus replies with the verse that has captured our thoughts as we think about the poor. The verse that is now the most remembered about the poor.

And yet, as Scott clearly and firmly went through the scripture he pointed out that when Jesus made such a statement, he was not talking to us. His use of “you” was not intended to be directed at us. This reference, this statement, was very specifically directed at Judas.

Read it again. “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

But in Matthew 28:20b (NIV) we read, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

In John 12:8 Jesus states “you will not always have me,” then in Matthew 28:20 He faithfully promises He will surely always be with us.

Some of us would write this off as a contradiction, or maybe to avoid such an accusation we do not reconcile the two verses. But it is clear that these verses are not working against each other because in John 12:4-8, we see that Jesus’ comment was directed at Judas.

Sadly, many of us know the story of Judas. His love for money allowed no room for His love of Jesus; he had chosen whom he would serve.

In Acts 4 it is revealed to us, as Scott conveyed,

“At least in one place, for one moment of time, in one community, poverty was eradicated because the people of God lived according to the plans God had given them.”

The outcome of poverty is quite different when the master chosen is the Lord. In fact, it is clearly outlined that this community of believers were of one heart and soul, having everything in common and devoted to one master, the Lord. Therefore,

Acts 4:34 (NIV), “There were no needy persons among them.”

Ok, let’s have a heart check, shall we? At this moment in chapel my jaw is slowly dropping. Scott is making connections I have never made. Showing me things I have not thought about. But truly, am I hearing what he’s saying? Poverty … gone … not among us?

Yet there is more. He continued on with some alarming statistics and, blog readers, I got ahold of these stats for you!

In 2000 the Global Community established goals for ending poverty. They are called the Millennium Development Goals. There are eight goals, and I will walk you through how some of these goals are, in fact, on target. But that’s for another day.

Today, I’d like to hear what you have to say about Scott’s interpretation of these verses.

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Yet, as awakening as they can be, they are also piercing, able to transform the deepest parts of my being, to change the way I see. Even to change the way I live. We are not dealing with a quiet God and, most certainly, not a complacent God.

Working at Compassion has brought a concern for the poor more deeply into my life. Poverty is no longer some distant thought to me. It’s not a trip I can reflect on or even a verse I can read. My daily life, for eight-plus hours a day, steeps within it, within the knowledge and awareness of poverty.

Recently, Dr. Scott Todd, our Senior Ministry Advisor, spoke to us at chapel. It was a time when the Lord broke through in revelation for me.

First of all, some background on Scott. He helps define and develop our philosophy on child development and poverty and how we work to combat it, which affects our communications and program design and how they work together. He also coordinates our global advocacy efforts about the importance of children in poverty to the worldwide church. He’s a busy guy — one who the Lord has entrusted much to.

So, back to what I was saying: He presented a powerful message that left me teary-eyed and deeply convicted. I have decided I do not wish to carry the burden of his message alone.

Can We Eliminate Poverty or Not?

Not too long ago we discussed with you why we can’t end poverty, and you shared some really great thoughts with us.

Well in this chapel, Scott asked us to think of the verse that comes to mind when we think of poverty, a question he has asked many other people, including pastors. Do you know what the common response is? The same verse we originally referenced, just from a different gospel.

“You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” — John 12:8 (NIV)

Scott pointed out that this must be the most memorable verse about the poor, seeing as it is the one most referenced. It has come to serve as the foundation of our philosophy about the poor.

For those of us under the burden of caring deeply for the poor and desiring to help them, maybe this verse offers some comfort. We can’t do it all. Jesus even said that the poor will always be with us.

But for those living in poverty, Scott pointed out, what hope is this verse for them? What does it mean for those living in poverty?

If this verse is what we cling to, then what of Deuteronomy 15:4 (niv):

“However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you.”

I’ll share Scott’s belief about the grave misinterpretation of John 12:8 in a couple of days, but before I do, let me know how you feel the two verses work together.

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