“Poverty is the worst Kind of Violence”

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Poverty is the worst kind of violence.”

When I finally get time to write it, the title of my next book will be “The Excruciating Violence of Abject Poverty,” if my publisher doesn’t shorten the title!

Poverty is truly the evil one’s trump card to leave humans, God’s supreme creation crippled, dehumanized, and struggling to even survive. Poverty causes humans to lose the dignity they have in being made in God’s image and end up doing desperate things to stay alive. Some things like living in unhealthy environments and consuming poor-quality water and food lead to disease, while other survival strategies may lead to STDs or being trafficked. The cumulative impact of all this is that they end up losing their dignity – being broken personally and a part of broken relationships and broken systems. These complex circumstances make it very difficult for them to comprehend a loving and caring God or hope for a better future.

Grass roots level integrated programs like MAI’s CHE program address the problem at its very core and help break cycles of generational poverty. It is in obedience to the Lord’s call to be the “hands and feet of Jesus” that MAI’s field partners engage and serve in these communities. They work relentlessly to equip communities to overcome poverty and show them how to be reconciled to Christ.

Thank you so much for your support to our Capital Campaign through your prayers and financial support. We have already started expanding our CHE programs into new areas across the globe with the goal of reaching and impacting at least another 200,000 people.

Please continue to pray for us and uphold our field front line workers as they minister to and engage with their communities.

Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”