O, Kenosha

Kenosha, Wisconsin (pop.100,164, about 150,000 with suburbs)) is our nearest city at about 10 minutes away. We are there several times a week. It was a manufacturing city that has successfully re-invented itself as a distribution center and tourist destination. It’s growing. The downtown is rapidly redeveloping and the Lake… Continue reading

Unjust Justice

This post is part of a synchroblog entitled, What’s in Your Knapsack? Links to other participants are listed at the end of this post.  Here is some more explanation from the Synchroblog site… Whether it is white privilege, heterosexual privilege, male privilege, Christian privilege, able-bodied privilege or any other privilege… Continue reading

Shrinking the Gap

A report released in May of 2011 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that the gap between the rich and poor in O.E.C.D. countries has reached its highest level in over 30 years. Here is my response about how to shrink that gap in the United States. What’s your perspective?… Continue reading

Assets

What would you do if you suddenly lost your job? How would you pay your bills? Your success in weathering such a storm would depend upon your ability and discipline in developing assets, i.e., to somehow save money. Financial assets enable you to obtain real assets like a home, an education,… Continue reading

ABCD

Something was amiss. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I should have felt great, but I didn’t. After all, “needy” people were getting free groceries and I was helping them, so, why so glum? I felt like a mixture of grocery clerk and policeman, with a tiny bit of Jesus mixed in. Herein,… Continue reading

History

Two groups recently approached me asking about a “missions project” that they could do. It leaves me at a bit of a loss since what I am working on is long term and arduous work. Ministry and mission is always about the people and never just about the project. People in poverty describe their… Continue reading

Thorn

Community organizing has gotten a bad rap because of the recent ACORN scandals.  There are those community organizing groups that try to garner support to further their interests, rather than that which is in the best interest of the community. Building Powerful Community Organizations by Michael Jacoby Brown provides a healthy… Continue reading

Helping 04

  I want to close this series of posts with a summary of what I am learning about poverty alleviation. What is the need? (Diagnosis) Is it relief, rehabilitation or development? Are we trying to help alleviate suffering through emergency aid (relief)? Or trying get things back to their previous… Continue reading

Helping 03

Truly helping the poor is so much different from I first imagined. Certainly, it is more demanding, more long-term, and more relational that I ever thought. Part 2 (of 3) of Corbett and Fikkert’s book, When Helping Hurts entitled, “General Principles for Helping Without Hurting,” begins with differentiating between relief, rehabilitation, and… Continue reading

Helping 02

Poverty-alleviation and truly serving the poor is a lot more involved than I once thought.  When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, brings together the necessary pieces of the puzzle to get a comprehensive perspective on the topic. Last week, I introduced the book. This week, I want… Continue reading