How can we come alongside the Filipino pastors, churches and communities in light of their everyday realities?

Hey folks..... A couple of weeks ago I sent a communication to my leadership. I shared it with Julie yesterday and she said "this" is what you need to put in your blog! I said to her, "But I am not sharing a solution to the problems." And she responded, "Thats okay..... You are telling the people whats going on here in the Philippines, and the challenges we are facing." I read it again, and I turned to Julie and said, "You are right. The people need to hear this stuff too."

Below are some of the realities of our work, as I shared with my leadership. Please pray with us that we provide God honoring answers and solutions to the poor pastors, churches, and communities we serve..

"I think we are doing a good job of choosing topics if we take a hard look at the needs of the poor pastors, poor churches, and poor communities, in light of what causes the poverty conditions they live in.

For us in the Philippines, and we are not alone, we are working with people who have very little. And if a fire, typhoon, flood, mudslide, or demolition comes through, they have close to nothing. This describes some of the physical challenges. If you add the deprivation of education, medical, food, and earning potential caused by a variety of reasons, we as a mission need to be prepared to respond. And I believe, we as a mission, have done a good job in our response to all kinds of calamity and social injustice.

How can we come alongside the Filipino pastors, churches and communities and respond to their needs? I think it might have been Greenway or Grigg who said, and I am paraphrasing, "we have succeeded in providing bread to the poor, but the bread of life has been reserved for the middle and upper class."

What are we doing to create Kingdom movements in the slums, the squatter areas, amongst the poor?

Yes, we respond when calamities come through. But what are we doing to establish/plant churches on the floodways and under the bridges?

Do we know how to do that?

Do we know how to help our pastors in those situations?

How do we come alongside with physical solutions in one hand, and the bread of life in the other?

And how do we equip and mentor in those situations where the money is never going to be enough, the leadership is also struggling, and western missionaries won't go there?

And how do we describe that scenario to western pastors wanting to come over here with the intent to help develop these pastors?

How do we describe poor and poverty to the West?

It is hard enough to try to explain real poverty to people who have lived here for 10 years.

Brother, all of what I just shared is an indictment on me, because the Holy Spirit has convicted me. As I travel through squatter areas, and villages with dirt roads, I am convicted of my affluence, and I have no right to talk about my lack. I have no idea what these people deal with everyday. Intellectually, I can process it. But the brass-tack nuts and bolts of it all, I dont live the way they do, and suffer the realities of their daily existence, and their years of oppression, and injustices of life in Manila.

All of that to say, " How do we come along side and support our poor pastors and provide leadership development in light of their everyday realities?"