Poverty and good news 061110

START…Poverty and Good News. No: PP66/1024/

Poverty and Good News

•‘The Poor you will always have with you’

•Tell John that the Poor have Good News told them’

Jesus the Christ

Meaning of Poor

• To know what we are talking about we must define the words we use.

• Often words are used, and where there is general agreement to meaning that isn’t a problem.

• Unfortunately, we often throw words around without understanding their meaning or content.

We also fail to ask each other what the words mean, hence we end up in a fog, or worse, we assume we and everyone else knows what we are talking about. In fact we are all in a fog.

E.G. •British • Racism• Christian

Poor Can Relate To Many Things:•Materially Poor

•Being Spiritually Poor•Relationally poor

WHO THINKS THAT THEY ARE RICH?Who Thinks that they are Poor?

WHY?

DEFINE SOMEONE WHO IS POOR…

• · Without money.

• · Without enough money.

• ·      Without power.

• ·Without education.

• ·Without access.

• ·Without health care.

• ·Socially excluded.

So Let Us Try and Define POOR First:-

Definitions.

CENTRAL AMERICA

Absolute Poverty.

A minimum standard often called the poverty line but will vary from country to country

MONGOLIA

CHINA

Relative Poverty

Poor in relation to those around you

POLAND

Income Poverty.

Less than a dollar a day. Or less money than that being defined as needed to live in your country.

Human Poverty.

Takes into account other factors such as life expectancy, infant mortality, nutrition, literacy, lack of food and lack of clean water.

Basic Need Poverty

That goes beyond money and takes into account such things that a person needs to survive in a given situation such as employment and participation in the society that that person is in.

N.B. need to understand that a socially excluded person(poor) may have a TV and a Car.

The Many Complaints That Poor People Would Express Are:-   

• That they are looked down on. • That they are blamed for problems.  • That they are seen as feckless or undeserving.  • That it is their fault that they are a problem.  • That they are work shy.  

For many that also brings an expectation, one that says ‘I ought to be treated badly, it’s what I deserve’.

CYCLE OF POVERTY

POVERTYHUNGER

MALNUTRITIONHEALTHSCHOOL

WORK SKILLSUNEMPLOYMENTLACK OF INCOME

POVERTY Etc.,

Comment.

Recently I heard a comment from a man working on repairing houses in Kossavo, to help the returning refugees. He said  

EUROPE

FRANCE

SPAIN

ITALY

GE RMANY

POLAND

LATVIA

ES TONIA

LITHUANIAGREAT

BRITAIN

AUSTRIA

ICELAND

BE LARUS

CZECH

RE P.

UKRAINE

ROMANIA

HUNGARY

SLOVAKIA

MOLDAVIA

“we are concentrating on putting roofs on the houses that we can, we have started with those that need the least repair, because that is obviously the quickest way to get people in and settled.

The only problem is that the houses least damaged seem to belong to the people who were the most well of, those who have the most seriously damaged properties are usually the poorest people, so tragically we are simply underlining the poverty and making the poorest people the worst cared for”

It Might Help Us To Define Rich  

• Lots of money  • Lots of power  • Lots of access  

N.B. Access is particularly important

Particularly access to credit, or to land and resources

However the rich might also be poor in terms of :• Relationships• Family• Good things that cannot be measured in money• In things like Love, Peace, Joy, Clean Conscience

etc

Who Are Where Are The Poor.  

• They exist in all countries.• However it should be obvious that the north of the

world is generally richer than the south.• The most affected people by poverty are

CHILDREN.• The next most people affected by poverty are

WOMEN. Yet we should note that it is woman who actually are the main producer’s of the worlds goods and wealth.

At the very beginning I talked about Good News What Is That

Good News?

Definitions   

• My Value System• My World View

(We all have a value system, and a world view even if we have never thought we had one and we will live by it even unconsciously)

• So I am a follower of Jesus• My world view and value system is therefore

affected by that• My world View is that there is good news for

the poor

In Scripture it is Recorded that Jesus sends a message to his

cousin John The Baptist and says ‘tell John that the poor have the

Good news told them’

So What is that Good News

Let me first show you what the good news that is being talked about does for the poor

• It gives people Status• It gives people access• It gives people rights• It gives people value• It gives people

purpose• It gives people power• It gives people

meaning

• It gives people wholeness

• It gives people family• It gives people

community• It gives people access

to knowledge• It gives people access

to Wisdom

•RELATIONSHIPS. • COMMUNITY.• TANGIBLE THINGS ‘that was what Jesus was sending the message back to John about’

to the poor now,

What Then Can YOU do

Well

We Need to Start With Our Own Personal Integrity.

What do we do with the access that we have.

What do we do with the power that we have. What do we do to benefit the lives of others.

What have you got lets make a list

What do we buy

–Who are we.

–What is our life style like.

We live in a Global Village

• We are our brothers and sisters keepers.• We can become (influence for change)• We can become effective direction givers• We can Model a different way to be

What Can We Give.

• ·      Sometimes money• ·      Sometimes expertise• ·      Sometimes access• ·      Sometimes power

To empower someone they must be able to bring something to the party.

ILLS:-I was working with a group of leaders who were meeting with people from

an African country. The group asked the question “What can we do for

you? What do you need: What can we send you?”

AFRICA

At the close of the meeting the Chairperson asked if anyone had any final questions.

I replied “Yes. What are they going to do for us send to us, help us with?”

Everyone looked at me in dumbfounded silence!

Important Principles:• ·      We must if we

have power find ways of not only giving but receiving.

• ·      We must hold on to the basic assumption that we DO NOT have it all.

• ·      We really are poor in some areas, even poverty stricken and we need to be receivers.

• ·      We will create 2nd class citizens and a dependency immature mentality unhelpful to everyone if we do not recognise and create mutual respect.

• ·      We need body mentality where all parts are necessary and contribute.

• ·      We need giving and receiving, this done well can enhance mutual respect and will empower others this is vital.

Perceptions

• Describe a country that you would think of as poor

HOW MANY POSITIVE COMMENTSDID YOU WRITE?

HOW MANY NEGATIVE COMMENTS DID YOU WRITE?

We Need To Create

Empower, Facilitate, Enrich, Enable

Sri Lank and some of the things our community has done there

We Have Addressed Some of the Needs of the Poor By:-

•  Opening a shop. Employs two people• Opening print works employs two or three people• Opening a sowing factory employs around 5

people• Opening a taxi service employs one person profits

keep his family and sends kids to school• Opened a School – Employs some 20 people• Opened a vocational training centre employs 2 –

but gives loads of others chance of a job

•  

Kenya

• Opened an orphanage• Opened a Garage• Opened a School• Opening as I speak Micro Finance programme

On the basis of being our brothers / sisters keeper this I think is all or our responsibility.

Kenya

So What Can You Do

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Its The Small Beginnings That Make A Big Difference.........

The Event without walls 28th May 1995DNA GROUP 9TH March 1999

DNA GROUP 7TH February 2000DNA GROUP 8TH February 2001

London Training Consortium – College November 12th 2010Adrian L Hawkes.

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