Looking for ideas about mission trips and partnerships? Over the past few years, Food for the Hungry has asked me to write a series of articles on churches who work with them overseas. These stories come from churches across the United States, partnering in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Here’s a collection of …
Category Archives: Poverty
If You Care About Orphans, You Must Understand Poverty
Orphan care goes hand in hand with understanding poverty. Why? Many–if not most–of the world’s orphans and vulnerable children have experienced devastating physical poverty. If we tackle poverty, it’s possible to actually prevent children from becoming orphans in the first place. Here’s an excerpt from a post I wrote for the Faith to Action Initiative, …
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Can a church participate in missions if they don’t have a missions pastor?
Yes, they can! Here’s an excerpt from my latest post over at Food for the Hungry. Recently, I sat down with a pastor who wasn’t sure where to head with his church’s missions strategy. “I know God is calling my church into missions, but we don’t have a missions pastor on staff,” he said. “I don’t …
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How does someone get their church involved in justice?
My friends at Live58 asked me some great questions about church partnerships in global missions. Here are highlights from the interview.
Do Mission Trips Help or Hurt Development?
I first discovered the beauty and vast scope of God’s world through short-term mission trips. For me, interacting with another culture on an overseas trip to the Philippines with my youth group was a critical moment not only in my own discipleship, but more specifically in shaping my life purpose toward holistic development. Of course, …
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Two Churches that Inspire
Happy New Year! Over the holidays I wrote on the Food for the Hungry blog about two churches that I visited in December. Both churches were sharing child sponsorship with their congregations for the first time. One Church – Arizona One Church is a newly planted church in Chandler, Arizona. The reason I’m so impressed …
This Girl Made Typhoon Haiyan Personal
Sponsoring a child makes everything more personal. This truth hit home for me when Typhoon Haiyan struck, because my sponsored child lives in the Philippines. I wrote about Mariecris, her fate, and how she’s impacting my family on the Food for the Hungry blog.
5 disturbing barriers that keep kids out of school
I’m blogging today over at Food for the Hungry about back-to-school season. We take it for granted in the United States that our kids will go to school, but in developing countries, it’s not as easy. From my experience, I’ve seen five barriers that keep kids from attending school in poor places. To ensure that …
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Picture your church in the Philippines
Today I’m posting over at FH about the Philippines. Here’s an excerpt. In Camarines Norte (“cah-mah-REEN-es NOR-tay), over half of the population lives below the poverty line. Children are vulnerable to chronic hunger. They go to school in classrooms that are bursting at the seams, sometimes with class sizes of 60 children or more. It’s …
Free Christmas materials for pastors
Yes, it’s July and I’m talking about Christmas. No, I don’t approve of Christmas displays at Costco and Target in July. But YES, I am talking about Christmas because your pastors are talking about Christmas, and that means this is the time for them to hear about Hope Tree! Here’s an excerpt from today’s blog over at …