News

Paying the Price

“… we found that you can provide all manner of goods and services to the poor, as good people have been doing for decades, but if you are not restraining the bullies in the community from violence and theft—as we have been failing to do for decades— that critical assistance can easily be stolen away.  Indeed, if we want to safeguard the vital work that so many are doing around the world to help our poorest neighbors thrive, then we must protect the poor from violence”, Gary Haugen, President and CEO of International Justice Mission.
While our Church will be joining with our others partners in the Council for World Mission shortly to examine needed responses to forms of human trafficking still prevalent in the world, there is renewed debate in Cayman at this time on a number of factors contributing to the poverty of purse and purpose in the lives of  a growing proportion of our residents. These topics range from the continuing spread of violent crime (including domestic abuse), burglary and other aspects of lawlessness such as employers cheating (‘bullying’) their employees out of statutory pension contributions, through the patently “incredible” (even logic-defying) arguments some continue to use to fight against “living wage” legislation, to the absence of fathers as one of the main sources of this multi-faceted “poverty”. Against these local and current backgrounds, the truth of Mr. Haugen’s statement above is quite apparent. (International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org) refers to itself as “a human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression.”)
Another interesting topic related to the affects of poverty and which goes beyond its direct subject area to challenge us all in regard to the integrity of our giving and the values, thought process and Christian principles we apply in that regard, can be found also in another article highlighted recently by Youth Specialities at  "http://www.djiboutijones.com/2014/02/dont-send-your-used-shoes-to-africa-or-maybe-do-send-them/".

Posted by: Administrator Thursday Mar 06, 2014 14:33
Categories: | Tags: adversity, back to God, children, helping others, Justice