You’ve probably all seen the movie.  The community is in havoc and needs a hero to save it… along comes Superman to rescue the people, free the city and save the day. How often do we take the same “hero” approach in our service to the poor?  We serve with a motivation to accomplish something for ourselves and for our own personal significance and gain.  And in the process we reduce the poor to objects of our charity that are merely helping to perpetuate our personal pride and selfishness.  We end up serving out of our own neediness, brokenness and sinfulness, not for the well being of the recipient and certainly not for the glory of God. Brian Fikkert in the book “When Helping Hurts” [...]

My kid spends 8 hours a day away from home in first grade, as a barely 6-year-old. For our family, this is a huge change because she has never gone to school before. As an extrovert, she enjoys making friends and being around people but still gets very exhausted by the afternoon and sometimes cries for us. As much as I’m happy to have her start this journey, I really miss her throughout the day and worry about how she is doing in a strict school system I don’t know much about. Are the other kids kind to her? Will her teachers be using shaming tactics? How does she do in 106 degrees with no AC? Who will help her if she has to the [...]