Addressing Both Physical and Spiritual Needs
"prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
––Ephesians 4:12)
––Ephesians 4:12)
We know that meeting physical and social needs are only half of the equation. Every person is wonderfully made in the image of God with unique talents and gifts meant to be used to care for our family and improve our communities. We were meant for a place at the table of conversation with a voice to share ideas and solve problems together.
But often, the darkness in this world is overwhelming, and it can be difficult for individuals and communities to see solutions or hope for change and many are marginalized and overlooked, meaning their voices and ideas are never heard, their true identity of being made in the image of God is not understood.
We equip our audiences with tools to help build trust and relationships that open the door for sharing the healing love and acceptance of Christ. Our Southeast Asia base from 2015-2021, was in Chiang Mai, Thailand which is within a 4 hour flight in any direction to Asia’s largest populations of unreached people’s. Currently we are located in the USA, but we work with all nationalities and ethnicities and have a majority focus on peoples orginally from areas of the world considered unreached, meaning they majority do not profess to know that there is a Creator God who loves them so much that he sent His son Jesus to be a bridge home to God.
But often, the darkness in this world is overwhelming, and it can be difficult for individuals and communities to see solutions or hope for change and many are marginalized and overlooked, meaning their voices and ideas are never heard, their true identity of being made in the image of God is not understood.
We equip our audiences with tools to help build trust and relationships that open the door for sharing the healing love and acceptance of Christ. Our Southeast Asia base from 2015-2021, was in Chiang Mai, Thailand which is within a 4 hour flight in any direction to Asia’s largest populations of unreached people’s. Currently we are located in the USA, but we work with all nationalities and ethnicities and have a majority focus on peoples orginally from areas of the world considered unreached, meaning they majority do not profess to know that there is a Creator God who loves them so much that he sent His son Jesus to be a bridge home to God.
Jesus Noticed And Included Everyone
Our training emphasizes the ordinary, everyday person. We train leaders to seek opportunities that recognize everyone, seeing them as Jesus does. We train them to help everyone in their community to steward their God-given gifts, abilities and resources to create positive changes. For some, this means including women, young people, or someone from a different religion, tribe or country and can be a powerful way of sharing the love of Christ, just to be noticed and included.
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Prioritizing the Whole Person: We address both the spiritual and physical needs of people.
Prayer: Because true transformation is the work of God, we have to seek His help, our training emphasizes this as a priority.
Christian Servant Leadership: Jesus modeled leadership based on serving others, not being served by them. Thus, we raise leaders who, like Jesus, lead through sacrificially serving.
Multiplication: Simple, reproducible tools that don't rely on professionals but do rely on local leadership and volunteers makes sharing knowledge and skills realistic. Other communities see a difference in the approach and want to learn too.
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Fun, Participatory Learning Engages People in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
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Some of the struggles that many families and individuals face include financial debt, knowledge about preventative health care issues, gender inequality, broken marriages and addictions.
We address the root causes of these issues by equipping local Christians and NGOs with tools to help their people lower the risk factors which make families vulnerable to a variety of problems, including falling into the hands of those who would exploit them. |
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Participatory Learning: Our teaching methods engage adults and children in discussion, reflection and action, building on what they know. It also allows less educated people to shine as trainers.
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Community Ownership Is Critical To Sustainability
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Local Community Ownership: We do not want to promote a cycle of dependency on outside aid. Rather, we teach communities to identify and solve their own problems.
Sustainability Through Long-Term Solutions: We focus on development rather than relief. We believe prevention of diseases and other problems is less costly and more sustainable than trying to cure the problems.
Stewardship of Local Available Resources: When people utilize and take care of the resources they already have, they grow their independence and can teach others to do likewise.
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We Have A Commitment To
The Vulnerable And Marginalized
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Commitment to the Vulnerable and Marginalized: Jesus offers salvation to everyone. However, He particularly calls us to serve those whom others might ignore.
Thailand and its surrounding nations are home to many people groups at risk of being victims of the nightmare of human trafficking (the trade in human beings), and other forms of exploitation, due to neighboring wars, displacement, poverty and a lack of education about the issues. These prevalent issues have many factors on both the supply and demand side too large to take on alone. We participate in meetings from the experts at Freedom Resource International) and have attended their workshops. This helps us stay focused on our strengths in educating at the family level about the risk factors and it provides us with timely knowledge on who to connect vulnerable people to for help with legal and safety issues that we are not equipped to address. We are thankful for the organizations we can turn to for help with these complicated issues. |