Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
the
p o t
A potpourri of practical
ideas to help you become
a better steward
September 2010
Kids, this month we are going to fill in the blanks Volume 15, Issue #9
from the following scriptural texts about the poor
and those in need. Particularly, what God says HAND OUT OR HAND UP
about them and how He tells us to treat them. By Gordon Botting, DrPH, CHES.
Deuteronomy 10:18 It has been said that if the world were shrunk to a village of 100 people, 70
would be illiterate, 80 would live in substandard housing, 50 would suffer
He defends the cause of the ________________ and the________________, and
malnutrition, and 6 (all from the United States) would
loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.
possess 59% of the entire village’s wealth. Or using
1 Samuel 2:8 (first part) the entire human population: 30,000 children die
He raises the _____________from the dust and lifts the ______________ from the every 24 hours of preventable diseases, 800 million
ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. people are malnourished, 1 billion cannot gain access
to fresh water, 8 million are refugees from civil wars,
Proverbs 11:24 and 15 million children are orphans from the scourge
One man gives______________, yet gains even more; another of AIDS. This is the picture of international poverty.
________________unduly, but comes to poverty. Are there any solutions?
Proverbs 14:31 Answer to International Poverty family. Also, members of the
He who oppresses the poor shows _______________for their Maker, but whoever is We all know it is far better to teach a University of Ghana SIFE taught the
kind to the needy _________________God. man to fish than to give him a fish. Kpomkpo villagers to make soap
Handouts in third world countries from local natural resources, thus
Ezekiel 16:49
continue to keep families in the developing a soap business. Before,
Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were bondage of poverty. However, in the participant’s salary was just
________________________ , ___________________and under $2 per month but with their
2002 students at La Sierra University
_____________________; they did not help the poor and needy. new soap business that salary grew
designed a Students In Free
References: Enterprise (SIFE) Project as a part of to over $20 monthly. When visiting
1. Ric Edelman, The Truth About Money, Rodale, 2004, pages 39‐40 several international micro‐loan Mozambique in Africa as a part of
2. Robert J. Samuelson, Defining Poverty Up, Newsweek, June 7, 2010, page 23 projects in the village of Karandi, the Maranatha International Church
3. Daniel Gross, Today’s Culture of Poverty, Newsweek, April 7, 2008, page 18 India. Twenty families each received construction project, I discovered
4. Philip Mangano, Abolishing Homelessness In Ten Years, Christianity Today, May a cow they could use to produce milk not only have 800 churches been
2009, pages 52‐53. for themselves and sell to generate built, but the blessings of these
income. The cow loan is repaid in full buildings carry on in other ways.
“The great thing about serving the poor is that there is no competition.” • Eugene Rivers Over 80% of the people are illiterate
with the birth of the first female calf,
which is then given to another needy so during the week these striking
Distributed by: Northeastern Conference Stewardship Ministries. Director: Daniel Honore.
Pacific Union Conference Stewardship Department. Director: Gordon Botting. Design/ Stewardship is a total lifestyle. It involves our health, time, talents, environment, relationships,
Assistant Editor: Julie Cunnington Masterson. spirituality and finances.
“Poverty is no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient,” Sydney Smith. • Poverty is a virtue greatly overrated by those who no longer
practice it,” Barnaby C. Keeney. • “Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright,” Benjamin Franklin.
red brick buildings become learning cell phones.2 Poverty can also be defined food, shelter and/or schooling for their Years, Philip Mangano asserts, “We
centers for the local villages. Like the as a societal phenomenon or an attitude families. One solution could be to NOT [must] reframe the issue in business
little red school houses of 19th that fosters self‐defeating behaviors buy their groceries at the local corner and economic terms. For example, the
century America, the citizens learn to such as bad work habits, little to no convenience store but to walk a few cost to maintain a homeless person is
read and write. These houses of education and dysfunctional family more blocks and purchase their essentials more expensive than solving the
worship have also lifestyles. Chiefly noted are the teenage at a supermarket where limited finances homeless crisis. Should I spend
become gathering unwanted pregnancies as well as the go further. The poor often do not have $35,000—$150,000 per year on
places for the the opportunity to learn how to prepare emergency rooms, police, fire, public
wide‐range of addictions from alcohol
distribution of simple, inexpensive home cooked meals defenders, for a chronically homeless
and drugs to aberrant behaviors. Finally, verses grabbing the fast food snack. If all
food, clothing, some poverty is the result of misfortune person or, would it be better to spend
medicine and our Adventist Community Service (ACS) $13,000—$25,000 on housing, thus
like large companies downsizing or rising centers would let their clients choose
vitamin medical debts due to accidents or creating stability for the person?” 4
their provisions from the different food
supplements. disabilities. 3 It is the author’s The Bottom Line
groups, using colors to identify them,
Another blessing is that these observation that in developed countries such as vegetables from the shelves Just giving aid to the less fortunate is
churches not only present the Good the best solutions for the poor are marked in green, fruits from the ledge not enough, but “partnering with the
News and Jesus as the Water of Life, simple and practical. Relief and marked in red, whole‐grain foods from poor” could result in the elimination of
but a newly‐dug well now provides development agencies inform us that if the brown shelf, etc., they would be poverty in this country and around the
fresh, flowing water for these rural we don’t begin to partner with those learning about nutrition and well‐ world. Ellen White informs us that
communities. Now, what about the who are destitute and disadvantaged, balanced meals instead of just picking up “Christ came to this earth to walk and
American poor? the above mentioned statistics will the presorted bags from their local food work among the poor and suffering.
Who are the American poor? bank. (Some ACS centers have been using They received the greatest share of His
remain overpowering for the next fifty
this teaching opportunity with success).
There is no conclusive definition of years. The key is to find an integrated, attention.” Call to Medical Evangelism
“poor” in the United States. Some practical and effective approach to Another way to assist America’s growing and Health Education, p. 23.
would define it due to their net worth working toward the eradication of the poor, particularly as more families fall Today in your Sabbath School class,
or range‐of‐income. The Agriculture American poor. Here are a few effective into the around your dinner table or in your
Department estimates the cost of a practical and realistic procedures. homeless churches’ small groups, discuss and
bare‐bone‐but‐adequate‐diet and faction plan practical initiatives that you and
Answer to Domestic Poverty
multiplies it by three. This figure is because of job your church family can do to tend to
In his book The Age of Abundance, loss and
adjusted annually for inflation, 1 The author Brink Lindsey describes the your area’s poor
latest poverty threshold is $21,834 foreclosures, is because Ellen White
difference between the desperate poor
for a four‐member family with two to spotlight continues, “And today,
and the blissful rich in order to contrast
children under the age of eighteen. long‐term consequences. Often people solving the root‐causes of these societal in the person of His
Interestingly, of those families find themselves underprivileged and irregularities rather than affixing the children, He visits the
defined as living below the poverty destitute because they are persistently easy, surface bandage. In an article poor and needy,
line, 91% have microwaves, 79% have and desperately working just to provide entitled, Abolishing Homelessness In Ten relieving woe and
air‐conditioning and nearly 50% have alleviating suffering,
“Let the members of poor households be taught how to cook, how to make and mend their own “ibid, p. 23, emphasis supplied.
clothing, how to nurse the sick, how to care properly for the home.” Adventist Home, p. 485
The Stewpot August 2010