Restoring Social Outcasts to Community
Dr. Matt Rindge, assistant professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University and a Compassion Child Advocate, spoke at our National Advocates Conference in October. In his message, he shared two observations about Jesus’ ministry.
- The primary effect of Jesus’ healings was to include social outcasts into community.
Jesus’ healings restored outcasts to community by removing the obstacle that made them outcasts. By eating with outcasts, Jesus welcomed and accepted them just as they were.
With the temple incident He critiqued a system/structure that excluded outcasts on the basis of their race.
- Jesus touched those whom He healed. He was willing to get dirty and even become unclean by touching them.
- Lepers (Mark 1:40–45)
- Bleeding / Hemorrhaging Woman (Mark 5:24b-34)
- Jairus’ Daughter (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43)
- Physically Disabled (Mark 2:1-12; 3:1-6; 7:32-37; 10:46-52)
As Compassion Child Advocates we are critical in the work of restoring social outcasts — children in poverty — to community. While I can’t say that I’ve ever healed anybody in Jesus’ name (I’ve tried), I do believe that Jesus is bringing healing through our advocacy — a healing that gives children a voice and that begins to take the poverty out of them.
What I’m especially convicted by is Rindge’s second observation about Jesus’ physical touch. Jesus got dirty, even unclean, according to Jewish law, by doing so.
I confess that a lot of my advocacy hasn’t gone that far.
Wess Stafford, our President and CEO, regularly shares that his mission is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
I love this statement. What’s also true is that the comfortable may afflict you right back. They did Jesus when they denounced Him for reaching out to social outcasts. And if my advocacy doesn’t result in me being marginalized myself, it’s lacking.
As you “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” are you encountering resistance?
If you are, it’s probably because you look a lot like Jesus.
The Ability to Eliminate Extreme Poverty Is Just a Matter of Priorities
The Church’s ability to eliminate extreme poverty is just a matter choosing to do so. We used to say that 40,000 children under age 5 die every day of hunger or preventable diseases. Today, that number is 24,000. 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 Ability to Eliminate Poverty: Is It Just a Matter of Interpretation?
Is our ability to eliminate poverty just a matter of how we interpret the Bible? John 12:7-8 is 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, when Jesus spoke, 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.
Eliminate Poverty: Can We Do It or Not?
On the subject of eliminating poverty, how do we reconcile the seemingly conflicting messages of John 12:8 and Deuteronomy 15:4?
A Chance to Be Family
Compassion partners with churches in the developing world — they aren’t our subjects or our charity cases, they are our partners. But beyond partnership, they are our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Sowing Seeds With Faith
About a year ago, I wrote a post about the clear call I received from God into Compassion’s ministry as a Child Advocate. There was then and is now no room for confusion or doubt.
But at some level, I apparently thought a clear call to ministry meant that God would go before me, opening many doors and leading me to pastors and ministry leaders who would be receptive, all resulting in hundreds of child sponsorships, every year. Well, dozens, anyway.
But that has not been my experience, which has left me variously puzzled, frustrated and often discouraged. What does a clear call or direction from God, mean, then, if not that the ministry will be fruitful? (more…)
Day of the African Child
Today is the Day of the African Child. Not a well known day for most, but an important day for the children of Africa who this day celebrates and remembers.
The African child is a resilient one, as many on the African continent must gather up great energy each day just to survive. The constant onslaught of risks and dangers that they face is more than many of us can imagine and more than any child should bear. HIV, AIDS, malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition…..just a few of the barriers that these children must overcome to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
After having spent a good deal of time living and traveling to Africa, I have been amazed and incredibly blessed by being around these children. They have taught me more than any textbook could, and have given me strength when I needed it most.
Here’s to the millions of children in Africa that could use our prayers and support as they continue to face the harshest of environments.
Let’s commit to remembering them and praying for the continued success of this ministry that seeks to serve them and bring them out of their poverty.
Feed My Lambs
We all know that on the night Jesus was arrested, Peter denied knowing Him, three times. But thankfully, Peter’s story does not end there.
In John 21, following His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter, three times, “Do you love me?” And each time Peter responded, Jesus called him to ministry: “Feed my sheep.”
Like Peter, I have been broken by sin, I am being healed by grace, and I am called to feed Christ’s lambs. Those of us who sponsor children know that Compassion’s whole ministry is about “feeding” Christ’s sheep.
I have heard numerous times that each child is said to have a sphere of influence of about 30 people, and I love knowing that every time a child is sponsored, perhaps 30 people’s lives will be impacted for Jesus Christ!
Compassion International as a Part of God’s Plan for My Life
World Malaria Day 2009: Count Malaria Out
The theme for World Malaria Day 2009 is “Count Malaria Out.”
“This year’s World Malaria Day marks a critical moment in time. The international malaria community has merely two years to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon.”
– www.rollbackmalaria.org
You can help “Count Malaria Out” through our Bite Back Campaign.
Malaria begins with a bite. We believe that we can end malaria by taking a bigger bite.
Your $10 bite will purchase a bed net for a child, and that bed net can protect the child for three years.
- Donate a net.
- Visit the Bite Back Web site to learn more.
Jeff Foxworthy’s 14-year-old daughter, Jordan, is taking a bite. A huge bite. She has helped raise more than half a million dollars for Bite Back.
Oh yeah! The answer to yesterday’s malaria question is false.
Although malaria is an easily preventable disease, because of increasing drug resistance and struggling health-care systems, malaria infections in Africa have actually increased during the last three decades.
(Source: malarianomore.org, November 2008)
What Is Your Passion in Life?
What fuels the passions burning inside of each of us? Mine stir up when I see images or hear stories of children in East Africa.
Four years ago, a life-changing documentary ignited a fire in my heart that’s been gathering fuel ever since. This “Invisible Children” documentary follows the journey of child soldiers in northern Uganda, an area where we have child development centers close by.
I sponsor a beautiful child in Uganda named Emmanuel, and children Emmanuel’s age are vulnerable. Partnering with nonprofits like Compassion and Invisible Children, I try to use every sphere of influence I have to tell the story of the children in Uganda. The children who are pulled from their beds at night to join the rebel army. The children who are forced to shoot their parents and family members in order to survive. The children who are forced to fight a war older than they are.
But I – we – must do more than watch a documentary or read an article and think about it. My best friend says, “Words without actions mean nothing.”
So I ask you: What is your passion in life? And how can you fan the flames of that passion?
My guess is that if you’re reading this, you’re passionate about children … or poverty, which is why we love you. And that’s why you’re making a difference in the lives of little ones around the world, including ones in Uganda.
But I wonder: Can you take it a step further?
Maybe as you’re reading this, you’re thinking … “I need to . . . .”
What exactly is it that you’re thinking? 🙂
Don’t hesitate. Do it!
Jesus is remembered for extravagant love. What do you want people to remember you by?
If I were to die tomorrow, I would want everyone to remember that I loved Africa deeply. That my heart burned for a land so far away, yet so close that it haunted my dreams and stirred in me something I never dreamed possible. That I fell deeply in love with a group of children who were forced to kill in a rebel army.
And mostly, I would want people to keep fighting so that someday, those children will be free – and the children we serve at Compassion are released from poverty.
During my recent trip to East Africa, a leadership development student said to me, “We hear your prayers and we want you to know … we are not asleep. We are awake.”
He reminded me that through your support, more than 1 million children across the world have come alive and been released from poverty. How will you and your passion come alive today?
Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month in the U.S., a time to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect. Our mandate as child advocates is to ensure that all children within our care and those we interact with every day enjoy a loving and safe environment.
Compassion is committed to protecting children from all forms of abuse and exploitation. Our board policy communicates this clearly by stating that:
“Concern for children is the cornerstone upon which Compassion International has been built. We are opposed to all forms of abuse and exploitation and will do everything within our power to ensure that no harm comes to any child registered in our program due to his or her involvement in the ministry of Compassion International.”
By protecting children, we are responding to Christ’s mandate to care for and protect His little ones.
Perform a Miracle
Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” — Matthew 11:1-5, NKJV
Jesus, when asked for proof that He is the King of Kings, that He is the promised Savior, responds by listing the miracles He has performed.
The last item Jesus lists in His response to John’s messengers is the one that seems, for me anyway, to stick out the most — “the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
What? Why lump this in with the other things? Surely the poor hearing the gospel can’t be equated with giving sight to the blind or life to the dead?
But Jesus responds to this important question by listing the ways that He has fulfilled the prophecies written about Him.
The Old Testament tells us that the Savior will bring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf.
The Old Testament tells us that the Messiah will raise the dead and help the lame walk. And it tells us that the Messiah will bring salvation to the poor.
Folks, don’t overlook this important line in Jesus’ answer. It’s not there by mistake. It’s not there as an afterthought.
This is Jesus’ way of telling us that it is divine to bring the gospel to the poor. And it’s the one miracle that we can perform today.
If you think about it, bringing the gospel to the poor IS bringing life to the dead, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf. This is the miracle that changes lives for eternity!
