Helping the Poor

Helping the poor is a noble goal and one that organizations have been working toward for decades. GFA World has been serving the poor since 1979 in Asia and has recently began serving in Africa as well. We serve the “least of these,” often in places where no one else is working. GFA supports national missionaries, who serve the needs of the poor in their communities. These missionaries are best equipped to serve the people. In fact, helping the poor is a natural and organic part of their ministry. It is a tangible way to share God’s love.

Poverty has devastating impacts on people.

They are often unable to earn enough money to provide for the physical needs of their families. Children are often unable to go to school, either because the family can’t afford it or because the children need to work in order to help meet the needs of the family. Other children can’t attend school because they are in charge of gathering water for the family, and the only water source may be miles away. When children are not able to attend school, the cycle of poverty is likely to continue.

Along with poverty, comes a mindset where hopelessness seems inevitable. If your grandparents and parents have lived in poverty, why would circumstances be different for you? It is hard to see beyond your current situation when poverty is all you’ve ever known. How do we break that poverty mindset in people who are living each day in extreme poverty?

Athalia had that mindset, and she was lured into sex trafficking because of poverty.1

She left her abusive and drunk husband and took her three children to live with her parents, but this was a great financial strain on them all. Then a woman told her she knew a way Athalia could make money.

Athalia said,

“None of us working in a brothel comes there willingly. Nobody ever enjoys working as a sex worker. It’s only because of compulsion, some difficult moments or hardships that we go through that we come to a brothel. Now for my case, it was because of poverty. … There was nothing that I could do to take care of my children, and that’s the reason why I was forced to engage in this kind of work. [That’s] the story similar to many of our ladies who work inside the brothel.”

But hope would find its way to the red-light district where she worked.

This help came in the form of GFA Pastor Dhinanath and his wife, Lydia. He invited her to a tea shop where he told her about Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dhinanath told her,

“Jesus loves you. He wants to give you the best.”

Pastor Dhinanath wants to help the poor, Bible in hand.

Athalia took his phone number and called with questions, eventually attending one of his churches     and experiencing the peace and joy of Jesus Christ. Helping the poor starts with their hearts. By hearing of Jesus, Athalia found hope and another path.

Athalia said,

“Now in my life, the only thing I want to do is to call upon the Lord to ask Him to be my Lord and my Savior. I want to know Him deeper every day in my life.”

After 10 years in prostitution, Athalia left for a better life and to follow Jesus. It was the persistent prayer and ministry of Pastor Dhinanath and Lydia that helped her and other women in her situation know they were loved beyond measure by the God of the universe. It may not seem obvious, but self-worth and value are important tools in the fight against poverty.


Click here, to read more about this article.

Click here, to read more blogs in Gospel for Asia.Net

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Attitude Towards Suffering

Image
In 2 Timothy 2:3, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Everyone, at some point or another, faces suffering, the soldier especially. However, it is not so much what we suffer, but how we suffer that matters. The way our heart responds to suffering is crucial, because by it we will either advance or become stagnant. To suffer like a good soldier is to willingly endure all for the sake of the call. To suffer like a bad soldier is to grumble when difficult situations and hardship arise. Instead of throwing our lives into what God has called us to, we can try to hold on to our lives, wanting to get away with as little suffering as possible, paying as little price as possible. We have forgotten that we are under the orders of our Master and that we willingly gave up our lives. Christ’s Example of Suffering Christ lived with the expectation of suffering. Throughout the Gospels, He repeatedly referred to ...
Read more

What Is the Poverty Cycle?

Image
The question, “What is the poverty cycle, or cycle of poverty?” is one that must be answered to address and end poverty across the globe. Put simply, the term refers to the trend where the vicious effects of poverty and deprivation pass from one generation to the next, with no seeming way out. [1] Someone born into poverty has fewer opportunities than their wealthier peers. They must focus on survival above all, leaving little room for anything else. One illness can wipe out a family’s savings, but the unclean water sources and lack of protection available to them invite sickness. Walking to retrieve water can be time-consuming yet must be a daily priority, and many children must work alongside their parents for the family to afford food. Thus, school is often a far-off dream. Having had few opportunities to acquire skills, the kids grow up to repeat the cycle of poverty with their own children. This story was all too familiar for Nalah. His father worked in the tea fields, trying to e...
Read more

Where Can I Learn How to Break the Cycle of Poverty?

Image
There are many methods for how to break the cycle of poverty which one can learn about. From education assistance to income-generating gifts like sewing machines or farm animals, there is hope for families who have been poor for generations. GFA World works in communities in all these ways through sponsorships and gift distributions, and one by one, we see lives changed as families escape poverty. Raina’s life had been dominated by poverty. She was part of a highly underprivileged people group that faced discrimination and deprivation from others in the region. Despite that, Raina had been able to attend school up until tenth grade, but she discontinued her education when it became too much for her parents to afford. Rather than receiving her certificates of completion, she had to join her parents in the field to earn money to put food on the table. After she married Ander, Raina continued to work in the fields to supplement his income with her own. In search of better job opportunitie...
Read more