Kiva.org: The Ultimate "Building Fund"

Kiva.org is a perfect example of an active response to poverty that is creative, smart, and personal. Technology has many drawbacks, but it has made it possible to work together as the body of Christ as never before, and we ought to take advantage of it. There's a time to pray and there's a time to roll up our sleeves.

Check it out.


A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Galatians 2:10

There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

Mohandas Gandhi

Strategic Stewardship

The Christian is constitutionally sensitive to the vast needs of the world - both spiritual and practical. This awareness is good. If it isn't a problem we can solve, at least it's a burden we can carry and care about. I think it's only damaging when it turns into a sort of depression - or, alternately, a sort of frenzy - and prevents us from enjoying what God has given us to enjoy.

The encouragement of Ecclesiastes is to accept and enjoy the fruits of your labor as a gift from God. For me to not enjoy what I have does nothing for my neighbor who has less. The world needs more enjoyment, more celebration of what is good.

With that in mind, 2 Corinthians 9 is very clear about giving willingly and joyfully, and I wholeheartedly believe in that. I think Christians ought to take the pain of the world very seriously. Consider these lines from Derek Webb's song This Too Shall Be Made Right:

"I don't know the suffering of people outside my front door / And I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore / I'm trading comfort for human life / And that's not just murder, it's suicide / And this too shall be made right..."

At the same time, "taking the pain of the world seriously" does not always mean simply throwing money at it. We can give and invest ourselves in many other ways, some of them much deeper than direct financial aid.

In Dissident Discipleship, David Augsburger makes a distinction between "simple" service and "strategic" service. They're both good and legitimate ways to serve, they're just different.

• Simple service is frontal, direct, raw: children in Haiti need food - let's send money to this organization that is trying to feed them. Strategic service is more thoughtful and takes in the big picture.
• Simple service asks: are we contributing all we have? Strategic service asks: how do we contribute what we have and invest ourselves into the world in ways that will have lasting and far-reaching effects?
• Simple service offers the five loaves and two fish. Strategic service invests the five talents to earn five more.

This is not to exalt pragmatism, but rather to suggest some thought and deliberation before we rush headlong and burn ourselves out. We have only one life to live, and we want it to count. There's some wisdom to be learned from the man who says "Give me six hours to cut down a tree, and I'll spend the first four sharpening my axe."

It's counter-intuitive, but investing ourselves in the people around us, even if their needs aren't as dramatic as those of children in Africa, may often be more consistent with our calling as disciples in the Kingdom. Deepening our understanding of the world and developing our communication to the world ought to be high priorities also, especially for those of us who have inherited a love of language and letters. This allows us to engage the world with truth and meaning, which, alongside the simple love of a cup of cold water, changes lives and redeems human resources for the service of Christ.

These are some of the reasons I am unapologetically building a library and seeking to learn all I can about the world and how to develop my voice within it. The books and music that I buy - and the backpacks and hiking boots too - are means of exploring and understanding the world, so I can then write, speak, sing, and give with greater knowledge, greater appreciation, and greater relevance.

"And the pain of the world is a burden / And it's my cross to bear / And I stumble under all the weight / And I know you're Simon standing there..."

-Caedmon's Call, Long Line Of Leavers, "Love Alone"

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A Drop of Compassion in a World of Hate

For several months now I have sponsored two children through Compassion International, an organization focused on providing health-care, food, shelter, and education for under-privileged children. Doing this has served as a means to anchor the plight of the poor in my heart; poverty is a human problem, and it should have a human face.

Beyond all the statistics, politics, and media distortions there are a child's pleading eyes, silently asking if we will show them some simple love in this dark and unfriendly world of complicated hate. The modern Church has been relying on Government to accomplish this task for too long, and it seems we could use a good old-fashioned slap upside the face to wake us up and remind us that poverty is our job, not Washington's. Consider what Julian the Apostate said of the Early Church in Rome: "[They] not only feed their own poor, but ours also,"* and compare that with what the average American church-goer gives to his church today: a whopping 2.66%, of which 2.26% goes towards congregational expenses.** (We should automatically know something is wrong if we're measuring our giving to two decimal places.)

Compassion has a remarkably well-organized international infrastructure, and they've done a good job of making it easy for you and me to participate in serving the poor. Compassion also knows that children need more than just shoes, toothbrushes, and money for school; they need love - desperately and constantly. Unlike most American children, children in other countries often struggle with maintaining even a basic sense of self-worth. Through letters, pictures, and small birthday gifts, sponsors can do a lot towards helping these children understand that they are loved - genuinely and unconditionally, simply for who they are.

This post is not intended to showcase my generosity - I'm much too proud for that. Rather, I simply desire to provoke you to jealousy and encourage you to get involved with the cause of Christ in the greater world. Even the smallest gift can make a profound, eternal difference in the life of a child: "whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."*** To get started, go here.

*Alvin J. Schmidt, Social Results of Early Christianity, 328
**Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, 199-200
***Matthew 10:42

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