Global Poverty

The last couple of months before I left Malawi, I was confronted with so many people enduring challenging life events. As I walked into church, the hospitality greeter asked me when I would start the trauma healing group that I had a few years ago again. She said that she was sexually harassed at work and when she reported it, her company fired her. She is heartbroken and hurting… and jobless. She misses attending the trauma healing group because it was a space where she could share what she was feeling.

In the past year and a half, I’ve encountered water in a new way. 

I had the privilege of visiting the site of a World Renew project in the south of Madagascar. When I first arrived in Antananarivo, the capital, I noticed watercress paddies—the kind of agricultural feat that requires a steady input of water. After disembarking my flight in the southern city of Fort Dauphin, I still saw green fields, healthy trees, and hearty harvests.

In one of my recent blogs in 2023, I shared about an elderly lady who my wife met. The greatest question was who is my neighbour? What are the expectations of the neighbours? As a Christian the body of Christ is meant to be neighbours.  The story in Luke 10:25-37, the response of the Levite, Priest and Samaritan to the stranger who was robbed and hurt affirms who the true neighbour among the three who passed by. 

Each year, when my students and I travel to Cuernavaca, Mexico to visit with local activists, community builders, human rights workers, and anti-poverty advocates, we meet with a lifelong justice and peace practitioner named Juan Francisco.  After discussing his lifelong work for equality and justice, our students have the chance to ask him questions.  Juan Francisco’s deep experience in neighbourhood renewal, anti-violence campaigns, community art projects, gender justice initiatives, and advocating for mothers of the ‘disappeared’ in Mexico means that our students always have lo

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. - Psalm 62:5

We have a hope in the risen Christ who overcame betrayal. How did betrayal benefit Judas Iscariot by giving Jesus to the Pharisees after receiving the lump sum amount? Even at the last supper, the last warning was made when Jesus said, ‘one of you will betray the son of God.’ 

Who was God in the life of Judas Iscariot at that moment? 

All in turn asking Jesus at dinner,’is it me?’

Until Judas’s turn and Jesus said ‘YES.’

The hill, once covered densely with trees, is now covered with loose dirt and a few struggling shrubs. A little down the hill is a village of around 40 houses. Each one, 7 to 10 feet off the ground, was built on top of wooden stilts. The part above the ground, on stilts, is a one roomed bedroom. The family sleeps there and most of their worldly possessions are on that level. The space on the ground is used as the kitchen area- where the family cooks and eats together. The area around the house is swept bare, no garbage and not much greenery around the house.

How does my heritage determine my inheritance?  Tracing our heritage sometimes becomes challenging. Here are five stories that can help us to think more about inheritance.

“Be serious hombre. You gotta catch up on your payments.” That message ticked in on Carlos´ phone while I interviewed him last year. We were sitting in a parked car with the A/C on max yet sweat was pouring through his t-shirt. Carlos was a victim of extortion, a terrible crime that affects over 200 thousand households in Honduras every year. Extortionists, traditionally gangs, charge regular payments from small businesses, vendors, taxi and bus owners and threaten with or commit acts of violence if they don’t pay up.

Harouna Issaka is the regional director for West Africa with World Renew and also works with Timothy Leadership training. In this episode Harouna speaks with us about how the Timothy Leadership Training has build relationships across unexpected divides.