My blog title 'the poor' was not meant to be posted with that photo, I made an edit and forgot to change the title.
The edit I made was to delete my posting about the poor in this country.
But I left the photo.
The question I was posing to myself publicly was how to define 'the poor'.
In a country where you can grow your own food, are people who aren't starving poor?
What if they aren't starving but develop malnutrition when older?
What about AIDS being a huge problem?
No cash money, but a cultural system that helps them provide for each other?
Are they poor yet?
When Christ asks us to tend to the poor, where do we draw the line and once drawn, how do we tend?
We strive to bring the Word of God to people of PNG. We also strive to meet them like Christ met them, caring for their physical needs as well.
It seems like we are surrounded by poverty, but then we wonder if that's simply our perspective...
Anyway... those are the thoughts I deleted and why that picture was entitled 'the poor' accidentally.
When I've processed this more I'll share more. The tug on my heart lately has been to do a little more than we did our first term here... and I have some ideas about how we might achieve that, but it's not really what we're doing.
It's what the Spirit of God wants to do through us that matters.
for that matter, a blog seems almost boastful if you talk about what you're doing.
Although we need to communicate to people what we're doing... but wouldn't it feel like bragging if you say..
"Today I helped a blind man..."
which isn't at all the point of this blog...
the point of this blog is to document life here, our transition and lives as missionaries and to communicate what God is doing.
So I want to be clear here. If I get excited about something we're doing, it is because I'm boasting in the Lord and what He is doing.
I've tried doing things on my own without God's leading or intervention and it doesn't turn out as well as you'd hope. So whenever anything remarkable happens, it is very obviously God working.
So when we work out this question about the POOR, we will let you know what happens.
