When I first was coming to Thailand, someone close to me said, “I really respect your desire to go and share the gospel. But I don’t understand why you want to focus on the poor.” I couldn’t believe he said that and my anger burned at him. How could someone separate the poor from the gospel? This person later questioned whether focusing on the poor was a waste of time, energy, and resources. Oh my anger burned. God’s special concern for the poor is clear throughout scripture. How did he not get it?
Sometimes recently though, and especially today, I can understand those questions and the pessimism behind it. I’ve lived and worked among the poor in Bangkok for nearly four years now and I would have to say that a lot of the reasons that the poor are poor and continue to be poor are the fault of the poor. And it does seem sometimes that working to achieve holistic development among the poor is a slippery slope battle (not a downhill one, but an uphill one). Read the rest of this entry »
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