‘Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"’ Mark 10:1-23. To be able to be happy you don’t need to be rich but you need to give what you can to the poor, otherwise your greed becomes part of the problem.
‘He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ Luke 10. You should be conscious that everything you do should be with a good heart, for God and for the good of others and to help people.
Proverbs 19:17 ‘He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done’. If you give to charities and help people who need help you are also helping God. You are helping to improve people’s qualities of life.
Christian Aid is ‘inspired by the dream of a new earth where all people can secure a better and more just future.’ They can see an ideal world where is life is better for everyone and they want to help this dream come true.
‘I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?’ Mother Teresa. Totally selfless, her whole life was dedicated to helping other people and she took pleasure in caring for people and making them feel good about themselves.
There are many Christian run charities such as Christian Aid, CAFOD and Tearfund, who campaign to make developing countries better places. There are also Christian individuals, like Mother Teresa, who help the poor. I am going to focus on the work that Tearfund do.
Tearfund was founded in 1960 during the World Refugee Year when people were asked to help refugees. Many people sent money to the Evangelical Alliance. Throughout the next couple of years money was still being donated and the staff at Evangelical set up an Evangelical Alliance Refugee Fund or EAR Fund. When it was presented to the public some years later it changed its name to Tearfund, The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund.
In the last couple of years Tearfund has raised around £30,000,000, each year, to help and bring hope to people in over 80 countries including Iraq, The Democratic Republic of Conga, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Peru, Kenya and parts of India. Tearfund believe in raising the standard of living for people in developing countries and give people a chance in life. They also believe that everyone should be given opportunities and choices. The money raised is spent to improve healthcare, urban renewal, conflict and justice, environment and agriculture, education and training and children at risk. They also use a small amount of the money raised to send information about themselves to interested supporters, fundraising and advertising what they do. Out of every pound donated Tearfund spend 9p on information and advertising, 1p on management and administration, 8p on fundraising and advertising, 4p on tear craft, 50p on grants to their partners, 17p on operational programmes and 11p on programme development and support. Tear craft is a catalogue of hand made crafts which are made by people in developing countries who receive a fair price for their work.
Tearfund works on many different projects; some are helping particular countries while others are themed on a specific issue that is a problem in the developing world. One of the projects that I have chosen to look at is set in Haiti.
The Baptist Haiti Mission began working for Christian education over 48years ago. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Over two-thirds of their labour force live in rural areas, most working as farmers or hillside field workers. It used to have a low level of school attendance due to the poverty of the families and the lack of action taken by the government. The Department of Education has limited resources so cities and towns received the majority of the educational budget. Many children didn’t have the income to progress and some couldn’t even complete a year at school. The Baptist Haiti Mission now provides financial support to primary schools in communities where there are no other schools and without their aid, children wouldn’t be able to get an education. The schools are often seen as part of the church because of their connections with local churches. At the moment there are around 52,000 children and 1,315 teachers who attend the 294 primary schools that are run by the Baptist Haiti Mission. Now about 70% of primary school aged children in Haiti now attend private schools, half of which are run by Protestant churches. Tearfund has supported the Baptist Haiti Mission since 1991 and has recently contributed £165,517 in 2000/2001.
Tearfund also have a themed project on water. It works in different countries focussing on different issues that need help in the developing world.
Every day people in the developing world spend a lot of their time collecting water. Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh and most of that is frozen. In 20 years time water shortages could affect two out of three people. Already more than 1.1billion people lack access to safe, clean water.
In India it concentrates on providing safe drinking water. For 25 years the Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief has been involved in helping India drilling more than 4000 more convenient, accessible drinking water in remote areas. In India there is a caste system which stops the poor drinking from the richer castes. This increases the lack of water in areas as the richer castes get priority. Currently the project is based in Malkangiri, providing portable water for some of the poorer communities. The project is trying to achieve the goal of providing 150 villages with tube wells, training 300 villagers in hand pump maintenance and 20 in hand pump mechanics and in raising awareness in the community about health, sanitation and hygiene.
In Uganda, Tearfund focus on water and sanitation. The majority of the population don’t have access to safe drinking water and instead have to rely on springs, swamp water or rain water. The project is trying to channel rainwater from iron roofs and collect it to use in the community and increase health and sanitation education.
Christian aid believes in strengthening people to find solutions to their problems. They are campaigning to end poverty and change rules that make people poor such as unfair trade agreements.
Mother Teresa became a nun in Ireland and went to Calcutta at the age of 19 to help the poor. Her and the other sisters used to prepare meals for 700 a day and went about making people feel wanted, that they’re birth was worth while and that they were important.
The Salvation Army actively serves in the community by concentrating on reuniting missing people with their families or letting the family know that their relative is okay. They provide hostels for homeless people. They also persuade people to become involved in a programme of practical concern for the development of humanity and lead people into the knowledge and to understand Jesus. The Salvation Army fights for social justice.
I think that Christian Charities are doing a good job. They are helping people and improving the developing world. They make millions of pounds each year to help raise the standard of living and give people a fair chance in life. The charities are also saving peoples lives with new hospitals and health care. I think that although the work that the charities do is generally quite good, maybe some charities could spend more on advertising and promoting themselves. Before I started this coursework I had never heard of Tearfund or CAFOD. Some people criticise Mother Teresa because although she spent most of her life helping others and making people feel loved and wanted, she never actually did anything to stop the problem of poverty. Liberation Theology is about Christians who believe that the Gospel tells them, inspired by the words of Jesus, to stand up and fight against poverty, exploitation and lack of human rights. Liberation Theology says that people need to be set free from the trap of poverty and injustice. ‘The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised’
I think that the church itself must be quite wealthy. To keep St. Pauls Cathedral running it costs £5 a minute. To be able to afford this day in, day out for years you most have quite a bit of money so couldn’t the church if they’re really want to help the third world sell some of its wealth to help developing countries? I don’t really think this is an option because the Church is part of a faith and selling it could mean losing the history and heritage of that faith. It could discourage people from going to church and in turn cause less people to become involved in Christian charities.
I think that Christian charities are supported by the church and in turn charities support the church. Most people will probably hear about the charities through the church and get involved with them. Those who don’t go to church but are actively involved with charities may feel like becoming more involved with the church to understand what they’re doing and to find out what else they can do to help.
Bibliography:
Information sent by Tearfund
Information sent by Christian Aid
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