When Helping Hurts How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself By: Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert Chapter 1: In chapter one, two questions are mentioned, "Why did Jesus come to Earth?" and "What is the primary task of the church?" The Authors explain how Jesus's purpose on Earth as a human was not only to save sinners, but also to fulfill the scripture, to mend the broken, to fix our "owies", to heal sin's ruin, to make "all things new!". Now that Jesus has left the Earth physically, our task is to do what He did on Earth, answering the second question. We, as the church, are called to live out the life of service that Jesus displayed for us, whether that's at home or somewhere new to us. We are pulled out of our comfort zones to "declare...that Jesus is the King of Kings" and to care for "orphans and widows"- to be willing to lay down our lives for others like Jesus did for us. Chapter 2: When helping the poor, we must be careful that we are improving the situation and not making it worse. 1. Simply giving the person money is treating the symptoms rather than the underlying disease and will enable them to continue with the lack of self-discipline. 2. Instead of giving money to a person, it is better to build a lasting relationship. 3. First help them build a relationship with God, then others, self, and creation. 4. To do this we must accept our mutual brokenness and understand that only God can fix us. “Poverty is rooted in broken relationships, so the solution to poverty is rooted in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to put all things into right relationship again.” Chapter 3: In this chapter, the author tells about a women named Alisa Collins, who is a single mother of five living in inner city Chicago. He shows how poverty alleviation works by emphasizing that we need to focus on relational, process-focused ministries rather than impersonal, product-focused ministries. Another thing mentioned that causes poverty is incorrect worldviews regarding God, themselves, others, and the rest of creation. In order to alleviate poverty we must first correct peoples worldviews, while in doing so also correcting ourselves. Once Alisa’s worldview was changed, she developed a relationship with God, got her teaching degree, and became a Kindergarten teacher which enabled her to provide for her kids. “Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meaning.” Chapter 4: There are 3 phases of material poverty alleviation: 1. Relief: should only be applied when people are unable to help themselves. 2. Rehabilitation: the restoration of people to their pre-emergency conditions. It is important to work with the people during this stage, not for them. 3. Development: getting the “helper” and the “helped” in the right relationship with God, people, and themselves. Many times we tend to apply the wrong alleviation method, which can end up hurting the people more than helping them. First we need to evaluate the situation, decide which method to use, and last work with the people to solve the problem. Response " I believe my time in the DR will allow me to help with (pick one) relief, rehabilitation or development by (fill in blank)". Examples I believe my time in the DR will allow me to help with relief by supplying the Haitians with a way to be exposed to God’s tenderness and be able to learn at the same time. – Leah Boyd I believe my time in the DR will allow me to help with development by loving and witnessing to kids and families, so that the entire community can be drawn closer to God and each other. - Ryan Stallcup I believe my time in the DR will allow me to help with development by helping finish a school so the Haitians can learn". - Al Boyd I believe my time in the DR will allow me to too rehabilitate the people I work alongside with from the community. – Donna Rogers " I believe my time in the DR will allow me to help with development by assisting in the constructing of a building that can be used for multiple purposes ". - Jackson Harbarger I believe my time in the DR will allow me to help with _______________ by _________________________________