As part of cross-cultural training before leaving for the field, I had to read “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. It’s an incredible book that provides a true definition of poverty, explains why many of our attempts to alleviate poverty end up making the situation worse, and shows how poverty can truly be alleviated without causing so much harm. It was special for me to read it because I had the opportunity to hear Brian Fikkert introduce all these ideas at my church's Culture Conference last year.
What I learned most from this book was the following:
1) Every single one of us is poor in some way or another because poverty is living in broken relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the rest of creation.
2) Alleviating poverty is a process in which both materially poor and materially non-poor people move closer to living in right relationship with God, themselves, others, and the rest of creation.
Jesus constantly gravitated towards those who were oppressed and on the margins of society; that demographic was the first to be invited into His upside-down Kingdom of holistic healing and restoration. I pray we all accept His invitation to live out the Kingdom of the skies following His example. I'm grateful for this book that helps us take steps to do exactly that.