Poverty, Environment and Lifestyle

This is a blog post almost entirely written by other people. To explain - Carrie (who works at both CORASON and The Meeting Place) and I have recently re-started the once-a-week evening discussion group we used to run for volunteers and other English-speakers travelling through or living in Cusco. We have done a couple of sessions related to poverty and while preparing we have read such a lot of very interesting and challenging material. Parts of our discussions have been based on quotes and statements from some excellent books, and I thought I’d note some of them down on the blog as a follow-up to some other blog entries on poverty. Hope you find them interesting and challenging too, and that they inspire you to read the books referenced, study the Bible, do something about what you read and maybe lead your own discussions and studies! (If you would like a copy of the notes and handouts from our two evenings, I would be quite happy to send them to you, by the way.)

Below are the main books we have been reading and from which we have used material. I would 100% recommend getting hold of any of these to both read yourself and use with any type of home group/cell group if possible.

• When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, 2009 (How trying to help can lead to more harm than good! Especially useful for churches who send short term mission teams, but also excellent for anyone looking to help in their local area or beyond.)

• Poor No More, Peter Grant (International Director of TEARFund UK), 2008 (Includes a self-assessment relating to how your life is currently impacting the poor, and practical ideas for making a difference. Good too for when you feel overwhelmed with the needs you see and don’t know where to start.)

• Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper, 2003 (Have just found a version of the book you can download free, plus a study guide, at www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/online-books/dont-waste-your-life There is one chapter in particular which is fantastic and very challenging: Chapter 7 ‘Living to prove He is more precious than life’.

• The Cape Town Commitment 2011 (A booklet published after the Lausanne Conference in South Africa – see the web site for the full text: www.lausanne.org)

A few quotes you’ll see below where there is a name but no book referenced, or where a different book from the above four is referenced, come from three study booklets published by TEAR Australia and Scripture Union in 2000: Eyes Wide Open, Seeing Faith at Work, Awake to the World – All by Steve Bradbury (Director of TEAR Australia for 25 years and Chairman of the Micah Network for 10 years)

Any comments in italics are my additional notes. The questions in bold are some of the questions we have been discussing in our group.

What does it mean to be ‘poor’?

Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation and voicelessness. North American audiences tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc. ...This mismatch between many outsiders’ perception of poverty and the perceptions of the poor themselves can have devastating consequences for poverty alleviation efforts.

(When Helping Hurts, 2009, p53)

We have seen that poverty reduction depends on economic growth, and effective governments. But these alone will not solve poverty. There is a missing dimension. Poor people need increased incomes to live a more fulfilled life, but they also need love, acceptance, respect, friendship and a sense of belonging. These are the things which a purely economic model cannot provide, and which the pursuit of materialism can often take away. (Poor No More, p60)

Poverty – What are the links with Environment and Lifestyle?

Rich countries are generally the polluters at present. People in India produce on average one tonne of carbon dioxide per person per year, while the Chinese produce 4 tonnes, Europeans 10 tonnes and Americans 20 tonnes each. ( Poor No More p45)

The melting of glaciers and changes in rainfall patterns worldwide threaten the water supply to hundreds of millions of people. (Poor No More p203)

Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘The earth has enough for every man's need, but not every man's greed’.

Destroying the environment is a major source of world famine. Since God calls us to be concerned about the poor and feed the hungry, we must save the environment for the sake of the poor and the sake of the hungry. (Tony Campolo)

In a world of limited resources our wealth is at the expense of the poor. To put it simply, if we have it, others cannot. (Richard Foster)

What can we learn from the Bible about Poverty?

'The effect of the Fall was that the desire for growth became obsessive and idolatrous, the scale of the growth became excessive for some at the expense of others, and the means of growth became filled with greed, exploitation and injustice.' (Christopher Wright)

... Jesus is relentless in his radical call to a 'wartime' life style ... I am wired by nature to love the same toys as the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth 'home'. Before you know it, I am calling luxuries ' needs' and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don't think much about people perishing ... (Don't waste your life, p112)

‘We think of fellowship as biscuits and coffee ... but the New Testament fellowship is rooted in the idea of economic sharing, of financial participation, which works in relieving the pain and hunger of suffering brothers and sisters.' (George Malone)

Quote of Matthew 6:31-32, then:

‘If we look like our lives are devoted to getting and maintaining things, we will look like the world, and that will not make Christ look great. He will look like a religious side-interest that may be useful in escaping hell in the end, but doesn’t make much difference in what we love and love here. He will not look like an all-satisfying treasure. And that will not make others glad in God.’ (Don’t waste your life, p108.)

Some of the Bible passages we have looked at:

On poverty in general:

• Old Testament: Law: Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (Be generous to the poor); Prophets: Isaiah 1:13-17 and Isaiah 58 Amos 2:6-8 and 8:4-7 (Justice not religion)
• Jesus: Luke 12:13-21 (Parable of the Rich Fool); Matthew 6:19-24, 31-33 (Treasure in heaven, seek first his Kingdom); Mark 12:28-34 (The Greatest Commandment)
• Early Church: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15; Galatians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; 1 John 3:17-18

Poverty, Environment and Lifestyle:

• Old Testament: Genesis 1: 24-31; Leviticus 25:18-24; Psalm 104
• Jesus: Matthew 6:25-34; Luke 12:13-21
• New Testament: Acts 4:32-35; 1 Timothy 6:6-10,17-19
• 
  

What is our Response to Poverty?

The Lord God says:

Share your food with the hungry,

Bring the homeless poor into your house,

Cover the naked.

Dear Lord God

We have got new carpets,

So this will not be possible.

(Steve Turner, 1992)

We are called to imitate Jesus in his passion for the lost, the sick and the suffering. The quality of the life of the church and the extent to which it demonstrates the character of God are much more important than whether we are popular or powerful. (Poor No More p171) (This is interesting in terms of the balance of how much money a Western church spends on evangelism where the aim is to reach people in the Western culture, and how much is spent on serving the poor in that culture or in the developing world.)

Our societies are obsessed with personal fulfilment, consumption and celebrity. Demonstrating a different way of life is perhaps the greatest gift that we can give to our society. We need to move our focus from:

• Things to people
• Self to others
• Judgement to mercy
• Consuming to sharing

(Poor No More p89)

Why don’t people ask about our hope? The answer is probably because we look as if we hope in the same things they do. (Don’t waste your life, p109.)

But even more significant (than giving or personal action) is the challenge that your life can be to others. ... Never underestimate the impact of your life on others, particularly when you seek to live differently from your prevailing culture. (Poor No More p20)

The biblical vision is not that everyone should have a European or North American standard of living, but that there should be enough for all, based on a generous redistribution of resources. Enough for everyone to have basic education and healthcare, and to enjoy safety and dignity in a community where people can share and celebrate together. Poverty denies people these basic elements of a fulfilled life. (Poor No More p21)

John Stott said in his last published sermon that the greatest hindrance to the advance of the gospel worldwide is the failure of God’s people to live like God’s people. We are to demonstrate godly lives before a watching world – caring for the underprivileged, the poor, those affected by pandemics, the broken-hearted. (The Cape Town Commitment 2011 p77)

Give us today our daily bread

I have spent a bit of time recently studying the Lord’s Prayer - for the 24 hour prayer day in February, for teaching the children in our church, and just for myself too. I am very aware of how unbalanced my prayers can be, so I thought studying how Jesus teaches us to pray would be a good idea. The part which I have found most challenging is the part that I thought was the simplest: Give us today our daily bread.

This is about our needs, but I am struggling with two issues: (i) How do we distinguish ‘needs’ from ‘wants’? and (ii) Why is it that so many people in Cusco (and many other parts of the world) do not seem to have their basic needs met?

Let me tell you about a few of the people I have spent time with in the last couple of weeks:

The hospital is always a place of great need. Last week, with Robyn, I met a lady who had been lying on a trolley in the Emergency area for 4 days. She had diabetes and a severe infection in one foot. It appeared she needed the foot amputated or could die, but for some reason no one was attending to her. Her husband was desperate. Robyn managed to speak to the right person and within two hours she was in the operating theatre. The couple have a young son who cannot walk or speak, plus a 9-year-old daughter, and are certainly going to need some more help.

This week I visited Virginia (Jose’s mum from CORASON, who you may remember from the film on the blog last year, June 2010) who I had not seen for several months as the family had moved away. I saw Jose at the club and he said his mum was working in an internet cafe down the street. So the next day I went to see her. It turns out she is there 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, as she has to sleep there to make sure no one steals the computers! Her younger two kids (Jose, 10, and Marie Carmen, 8) go there each day to do their homework and go to the club, and sometimes sleep there too. There is a room at the back that they could rent as a family but it is S/.100 a month (£25) which is twice what they pay on the other side of town and Virginia says they can’t afford it. I feel very sad to think of her in that dark, bare room continually, not able to take care of her family properly. An added expense for the family is that Jose needs to go to Lima every few months for continued treatment for the severe burns he suffered two years ago.

Sonia is a young teenager whose home I wrote about on the blog once before, and whom we have helped with materials for school. I haven’t seen her at the club recently but occasionally see her up near the boys’ school as her school is located nearby. This week I saw her mum and discovered that Sonia does not live at home anymore. She lives at school with the Catholic sisters. The school must be well-funded as they offer places to kids from the poorest families and now I realise, takes them as boarders as well. I expect Sonia is being looked after quite well there, but I can’t imagine she had much choice regarding whether to board or not – her mother was struggling to provide the bare necessities at home.

Some of these people are Christians and some are not. Most people here have some sort of faith and do cry out to God for help to meet their needs. And they are needs – food, shelter and health care. A simple answer to the question of why so many needs are not being met is that the country as a whole probably does have the money to solve a good many of the problems, but as in many places there is widespread corruption and the money is not being spent properly. Another answer is that the church in Peru, or perhaps the church world-wide, also possesses, amongst her members, the resources to help people in this country and many others. If we are the body of Christ, are we not hearing God’s voice and understanding that we are the answer to these people’s prayers?

Reading Acts 2 is a little difficult as the model for the church presented there is radical sharing amongst the believers. Having recently come back from the UK, in all honesty we miss things like having a car, a constant water supply (with drinkable water), free education and health care, and food that you can just pull out of the freezer or a packet. We try and live simply, but just the fact that we can afford the ‘essentials’ makes us rich in comparison to most people. God does provide ‘our daily bread’ and more and we need to share what we have. The challenge is to work out how to do that - how to participate with God in answering other people’s prayers, helping people both spiritually and physically, and keeping in mind that the answer is not just handouts (see previous blog entry on ‘When helping hurts’ June 2010).

A few weeks later

Since writing the above entry, there have been a few developments regarding people mentioned above. Virginia and her family have now been able to rent the room behind the internet cafe – the price came down a bit, and Virginia is coming a few hours a week to help us at home which earns her a little more money. So her situation has improved significantly and she and her family are much happier.

Luisa, the lady who lost her foot recently, was discharged very quickly with no help and is now back in the hospital as she burned her other foot badly! Her little son, 7, who has multiple disabilities, has been given a place in a lovely school run by a charity near to CORASON, but hasn’t started yet since they are living too far away. We are trying to help the family find a little place near to CORASON so that he can go to school and so that the family can become part of our CORASON community and receive some support.

I was encouraged the other day by one of our CORASON mums who struggles to provide for her family. However, she is really growing in her relationship with God and says that when she doesn’t have enough food to make lunch for her kids she prays and God brings someone to the door with food for them. We have recently given her a few hours of work each week at the CORASON centre and so we hope this will help her with affording basic necessities.

So I guess I feel more encouraged that God does answer the prayer ‘Give us today our daily bread’...