Domestic Poverty

Christians Against Poverty (CAP) is a debt counselling charity working through Debt Centres based in local churches. Various Christian Reformed churches in Hamilton, Ontario have started CAP debt centres as ministries of their churches, so we sent them some questions to find out why and what they had learned. Here are debt coach Jan Disselkoen's (First Hamilton CRC) responses. Could this be a way for your congregation to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God" in your community? 

Looking for summer beach reads? The staff of the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue and the Office of Social Justice have done the searching for you.

Last month I was in India where the people of Chennai were whacked with the worst flooding in 100 years. Hundreds died. Many more lost their homes and small businesses.

Facebook asked me if I was alright. Thanks Mark Z. Glad to know you care mate.

Every year during the rainy season, most of the slums in Phnom Penh are flooded with overflowing rivers and sewers. People literally live with a foot of dank black water in their home. They perch on wooden beds, continuing as if there weren't liquid feces floating around their feet. 

My hope is that your congregations are not just buildings that just happen to be there, but churches that seek the flourishing of your neighborhoods and the neighbors that call it home.

“No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”   - John Chrysostom     

I have three children. I work full-time. I volunteer in several ministries at my church. I am busy. Busy. Busy. Busy. But I also know that as a Christian, I am called to make mercy and justice, advocacy and generosity, a way of life.

What this pro-life series has taught me is that the CRCNA is deeply, unapologetically pro-life. 

To me, being pro-life means that you commit to the life, goodness, hope, image-of-God in a person—even when that person can be really, really difficult to be around. Being pro-life means that there’s no such thing as running out of chances. To be pro-life is to learn to see a person’s whole story—not just the front cover.

I want to beg them to put down their signs and instead invest that time in helping vulnerable women and their children. 

“Why are they doing this to us?” I will never forget when an individual with several disabilities posed this question to me.

My cousin phoned me out of the blue. I haven’t heard from him for awhile. Usually that is the case. I only hear from him when he is in dire straits and this wasn’t the exception. He asked if he could spend the night at my place before heading off to his moms for awhile. I said yes. I have the room and space.