Prayer: Domestic Violence
Physical violence is rampant, but there are other abuses that wives face. It is painful to watch the sheer contempt and disdain that many men show for their wives, the way they demean and degrade them with their words.
Partnering with Churches: What Does That Really Mean?
Reconciled World is a community of programs that apply biblical truth to brokenness in a wide range of circumstances. We have all committed to the principle of partnering with churches, but that doesn’t mean we all do it perfectly or identically. We are all at different places on the journey. But we are all striving for the same goal–that the church would take its rightful place at the center of God’s transformational plan.
Prayer: Orphans
The first time I watched the movie Lion, I was sitting on a plane between my two kids, on our way from India to the U.S. I was utterly drawn in, recognizing in so many scenes the world I was just [...]
Founder’s Story
Poverty is complex. It didn’t take me long to learn that. As a young development worker, I was involved in doing all the usual programs—vocational training, micro-enterprise loans, school building. However, the results weren’t exactly breathtaking. A few people [...]
Snacks, Security Tags, and Sam’s Club
This blog was originally posted in August 2014. John has added a quick update on Palash and his family at the end of this post. We met Palash, Dawa and their family through Lutheran Social Services in November of 2014. [...]
Pray: Addiction
Just one more ooey-gooey sugar-glazed donut! One last episode of Downton Abbey tonight (errr…this morning). One more time checking Facebook, just to make sure I don’t miss anything important. We know overdoing these things is not healthy, but it seems [...]
Jesus in the Face of the Poor
This blog was originally posted on July 30, 2014 A few months ago I was talking to an acquaintance who owns several rental properties in town. He mentioned to me that one of his homes was open and that he [...]
Pray: Fatalism
I’ve just spent a month in Africa teaching the TCT program. One of the big things we look at during trainings are the beliefs that keep people locked in poverty. There are many. The South Sudanese team shared some really [...]
Savings Groups as Transformational Development
In When Helping Hurts, Brian Fikkert writes, “Development is not done to people or for people, but with people.” He talks a lot about savings groups as an example of good “with” type development. Our friends John and Kate Marsden [...]
Pray: Refugees
My earliest memory of being aware of refugees even existing simply involves sitting in a living room with a family I couldn’t talk to (because we didn’t speak the same language), and being served my first cup of Turkish coffee [...]