poverty

Sometimes it can be unhealthy to use the name of a problem as the title of efforts addressing difficulties that problem creates. We don’t have a ministry called poverty. We are not labeling people, or even the particular struggles some people face, as if the problem is our focus. That can be impersonal, giving off an attitude of superiority, and works from the wrong emphasis. We are attempting to respond to, relate to, befriend, and receive from people who face obstacles created by financial strains.

Some of these people are so underemployed that affordable housing and having enough food for their families are not easy to come by. Many of Portland’s elderly population live off insufficient pensions and are neglected and lonely in neighborhoods. Others are from different parts of the world: they are unfamiliar with our customs, our food and our public transit. They find it difficult to get and hold jobs, to know where to shop, or which school to place their children in.

The gospel of Jesus compels us to bring justice to the poor; to remember the alien, the widow and the orphan in their distress; and to care for the least of these. As Christ-followers, we desire to bring His message of love, justice and grace to those who find life painful, lonely, and/or just plain difficult because of financial insufficiencies. We want to journey with them and to include them as part of our community.

The following links take you to particular pathways into relationships with people in such situations: