I had the occasion to watch a six-part DVD series called PovertyCure, produced by the Acton Institute. It is indeed an eye-opening series that I鈥檇 encourage you to watch. Each part is less than 30 minutes long and is available in the Biola Library (BV4647 .P6 P68 2012 DVD). It challenges the effectiveness of the traditional model of helping the poor through foreign aid in regions where there is wide-spread poverty and the economy is largely depressed. This aid can come in the form of government sponsored foreign aid, through global agencies such as the IMF or World Bank, and even from NGO鈥檚 (both secular and Christian). By the end of the series, I think most would at least pause to consider if 鈥渁id鈥 (as a 鈥渉andout鈥) helps to alleviate poverty, or whether it actually exacerbates the problem ...
Undoubtedly, Christians in America should be commended for the growth of missions in the last two to three decades, and specifically the growth in short-term mission trips (STMs). In 1989, there were 120,000 American 鈥渟hort-term missionaries.鈥 This number has exploded to 2.2 million at a cost of $1.6 billion in 2006.[1] This statistic comes from authors Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert in their somewhat controversial book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor 鈥 and Yourself. The natural question that the authors consider鈥攁nd one that we all should as well鈥攊s whether we are being good stewards of God鈥檚 money and resources with each STM.
My father was born 78 years ago in a small countryside village in Korea. We don鈥檛 know exactly what the story is or what happened, but since he was little he had a very bad limp 鈥 a disabled leg. We鈥檇 later find out that the whole ball socket of his hip was missing and that every time he took a step, his thighbone would stab his pelvis. It was painful both physically and emotionally, as you can imagine all the names he was called in mid-century Korea.
... The well-known words suitable helper in Gen. 2:18 are so engrained in our English speaking culture that it鈥檚 difficult to think of Gen. 2:18 in any other terms, even though many translations have tried to adopt better wording to fit the original Hebrew (c.f., ESV, NLT, or the footnote in the NASB). These words come in the midst of the sentence, 鈥淚 will make him a helper suitable for him鈥 (NASB). Suitable helper might have been a suitable translation 50 years ago, but I suggest that the phrase suitable helper has become outdated and is now misleading in its translation ...
When speaking to seminary graduates from all across the U.S., I鈥檝e been noticing an increasing discomfort in students regarding their ability to preach and teach effectively from the Old Testament. Part of this is because the Old Testament comprises so much of the Bible, and there just isn鈥檛 enough space in a degree program to adequately cover all of the Old Testament (especially a degree that doesn鈥檛 concentrate solely on the Old Testament). The Old Testament is packed with a wide variety of genres and covers such an expansive amount of history ...
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