World.
BE ENCOURAGED. AID WORKS! DID YOU KNOW, SINCE 1990... •
People living in extreme poverty (less than US$1.25 per day) has HALVED from 43% to 21%
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12,000 less children under 5 are dying EVERY DAY!
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Over 2 billion people have gained access to SAFE drinking water
Since that amazing trip I have taken a journey that has seen me come full circle. I am now blessed to work at Baptist World Aid – the very organisation my mother first partnered with to teach me the importance of responding to Jesus call to love our
neighbour. And it is a call. Loving our neighbour is not some fuzzy, wishywashy response that we as Christians should ‘feel’ in response to seeing people in need. Loving our neighbour is actually a full on biblical directive! Last year I read Scott Higgins book “The End of Greed”. It explained that the Old Testament has a vision of a community where everyone has access to land, to a livelihood and to well being. This explains the continual call on the Israelites to be generous. There were laws on debt release (Deuteronomy 15) on allowing the hungry free access to fields to eat as much as they desired (Deuteronomy 23:2425) and on leaving a part of the fields unharvested for the poor (Leviticus 19:9-10). Sadly, the Israelites failed to be generous which lead the prophets to declare God’s anger to the rich and call them to enact justice for the poor
MATCHIN G GRANT 2013 THIS END OF
AR FINANCIAL YE
By giving before June 30,, we’re making your gift go further through the Australian Government’s Matching Grant. That means your support will literally get behind the changing of children’s lives, their families and whole communities. And that means, together, we’re actively getting behind the end of extreme poverty. For a world as it should be.
You + Your Gift – BEHIND IT –
– BEHIND IT –
Visit behindit.org or call 1300 789 991
22 Christian Woman Winter 2013
The End of Poverty
(Isaiah 1:1-17, Amos 5:11-13 and 8:2-6). Jesus himself declared that he had come to proclaim the good news to the poor, liberty to the oppressed and wholeness to the disabled (Luke 4:1819). He came to offer forgiveness to the sinful but he also crafted a community committed to sharing their resources so that no person should go hungry, thirsty or naked. A community where wealth is used to care for those in need (Luke 14:1-4) and where faith issues in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving water to the thirsty and visiting the imprisoned (Matthew 25:31-46). So central was this message to the new community that it is spoken of as the basis for judgement! It’s not that these works save, but they are the evidence of faith. Jesus went on to declare God’s judgement on those who are rich and neglect the needs of