Meet Michael Holthouse of Lemonade Day and let us know if you would be interested in seeing this event in Durham?

Two recently published books examine the challenges and opportunities that Christ followers face when looking to alleviate financial AND spiritual poverty in the developing world. One of these authors, Peter Greer, the President of Hope International, will be in Durham on Nov 11 at 8:00pm at The Summit Church (2335 Presidential Dr.) to talk about his book, but most importantly to talk about Christ Centered Economic Development and how it is being used as a remarkably effective tool to help address poverty and the spread of the Gospel.

A little background and context:

There has been much talk recently about effective and sustainable international aid. Books like, "White Man's Burden" by William Easterly, and "Dead Aid" by Dambisa Moyo have railed against the decades of foreign aid and the poor results that they have to show for them. They describe systems that are full of corruption on with much money never reaching the poor, and that seems often to actually be the best case. The worst case seems to be when the money actually reaches the poor and how it so often builds a culture of dependency on foreign aid that provides perverse incentives for creativity, innovation and economic development. One can't help but read these critiques that each book takes pain to examine with stats and expert commentary and wonder if the continent of Africa would actually have been better off without receiving any money from Western Governments at all.

So, what does this mean for us Western Christians that are moved by the pictures we see of abject poverty AND who are also driven by a desire to honor the Great Commission as we make disciples of Christ? Well, two recently published books provide great commentaries on the opportunities for Christ followers to make a meaningful, Kingdom impact in the countries ravaged by war, famine, and yes by poorly
conceived aid programs, both secular and Christian. "When Helping Hurts", by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett spends equal time on examining how easy it is do do harm with giving, and what programs lift people up. I recommend the book unreservedly, and we are hopeful to have Brian Fikkert come to the Triangle area in late February, early March to tell us more.

Peter's book, "The Poor Will Be Glad" examines the unique ministry model of Christ Centered Economic Development (CCED). It's suprising to me, sometimes, how few of us Christ followers actually know about CCED and particularly about it's use as a discipleship and evangelism tool. Sure, we have heard about Muhammad Yunnus of Grameen Bank (the Nobel Prize, of course, did wonders for public awareness for the microfinance industry--MFI). We get the concept that MFI delivers the working poor from usurious money lenders who typically charge 10-20% interest PER DAY and secures these loans through a concept called "social collateral" - effectively each borrower in a group co-signs each others loan - a concept effective enough to deliver repayment rates industry wide at better than 97%.

But, using it is a ministry tool? Of course! I Peter 3:15 says, ".....Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." The caseworker who develops a relationship with the poor in multiple borrowing groups is in a perfect position to do just that by either sharing the Gospel message with the folks that they've partnered with, or to introduce them to a local church. The caseworkers is working to extend the Kingdom by addressing financial poverty AND spiritual poverty, and doing it in a way that extends dignity RATHER than dependency.

I could go on and on, about how impressive Hope International and Peter Greer are, but if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a YouTube video is worth 10,000. This is one of the best videos I've ever seen, regardless of genre.......it's very worth watching it to the end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrKQZeoAzyI

I hope that you get a chance to come and hear Peter, and that you bring a friend. This could be the best ministry presentation you hear this year.

Henry

Meet Rich Halvorson Founder and Director of Global Fast.  He's a Christian inspired by the passage in Isaiah 58 that's all about loving his neighbor in a unique way!  Watch this video to meet Rich, hear more and then check out their site at www.globalfast.org.

If truth be told (and why shouldn't it??) I had mixed feelings about going on the most recent DurhamCares trip to the Dominican Republic. It marked my third trip in as many weeks and I was behind. Behind at work, behind at DurhamCares.  I've done a lousy job of following up with the pastors from last weeks' pastors lunch.  I'm behind on the launch of our new international ministry site, and I'm definitely behind on sleep. Also, I had seen many of the ministries we were to visit . . . albeit in different countries.

As it turned out, I was very pleasantly suprised in finding that it was one of my best trips. Part of the success from the trip came from how great the fellow travellers were on the trip, part of it came from our two leaders, Jason Bryan and Scott Steele (former Young Life Director in the DR, and now Executive Director of Cherokee Gives Back), but most of it came from the people on the ground that were doing ministry. I suppose I'll never grow tired of hearing from people that give up their lives to minister to the financially and spiritually poor, particularly those that do it with the passion of the folks that we met with. It's also absolutely awesome to talk to the people whose lives these ministries touch (wait until you see the posting of video on the new Dominican entrepreneur whose business was made possible by a loan from Hope International). Lastly, it was very rewarding to see folks from Durham see the same thing and see their lives transformed as they experienced ministries from microfinance, to teen evangelism, to sustainable Christian medical clinics to leadership development/pastoral training.

I think/hope and pray that these 3 day trip formats will be a major success in blessing those that we visit in-country, and those that travel along with us. The cost is modest (about $1,400 incl. airfare....as we look to just break even) and the time away from work and family is minimal, and as mentioned above, the trips get exposure to the culture (we had a great dinner with the YoungLife and Youth for Christ folks in the historic section of Santo Domingo).

We have a 3 day trip coming up to Guatemala in November and we will be announcing our Spring Trip schedule soon. We hope that you can join us!!

I'll post pictures and videos of the trip over the next few days along with a little more in depth commentary. Have a great week!!

Hello from 35,000 feet! I'm en route to the Dominican Republic on our 3rd DurhamCares international trip, and so I have international missions on the mind.

As most of you know now, DurhamCares was founded with inspiration from the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Parable has two lessons for us that we seek to apply every day: 1. the concept of the broader definition of neighbor, 2. the example of physical love (as opposed to just financial contributions) that the Samaritan provided to the Jew in the ditch. It's the broader definition of neighbor that serves as the foundation for what I want to write on today.

The Samaritan, was of course, from a different nation than the man in the ditch that he served. As an extension of that, we'd like to think that our neighbor is not just in Durham, but across the world, in Nicaragua....in Africa....in India. Not, of course, that we need to ignore the needs in your back yard, but we have a real opportunity to bless those in other countries as well, and I believe that we're called by God to do so. It's out of this realization that we've started the international trips concept of course with vision trips for folks from Durham to see how they might serve other nations together.

As we've spent more and more time looking into international ministries (we focus primarily on Christ centered word and deed ministries with our international work) and organizations that we might visit, we found that there isn't a good resource that inventories and/or reviews these organizations. Yes, there is charity navigator or the ECFA, but they primarily review financial metrics and accountability as opposed to true outcomes and other than a quick summary of the organization's efforts, it's hard to understand what the organization really does or how well it does it. Sure, some of the large Christian foundations have done some great research on the effectiveness of various word and deed ministries, but by and large, they don't share that with the general public, or oftentimes not even with other foundations like themselves. So, the rest of us are left to do our own research. Most of us tend to give to folks that we might have seen when they visited our church or an organization recommended by a friend. I'm pretty sure that that isn't the most effective way to invest in the lives of folks abroad. For this reason it's thought that there are more than 3,000 ministries in Haiti alone! Surely, they can't all be just as effective. But which ones are really making an impact? We're left to do our own research, and that, for most of us is a very daunting task.

So, in the coming months you'll see the launch of ministryspotlight.org. It will be separate from DurhamCares, but we'll likely have a link between the two. We'll share with you some of the ministries that we have found to be most effective, and ask you for those that you think are doing a great job. We'll have a function that encourages a discussion on the issue of effectiveness, and what place if any return on investment has in the field of ministry (after all, a kid's education isn't a widget......and qualitative measures are oftentimes difficult to measure). The format will be partially inspired by the current partner section on the DurhamCares site, where we inventory 9 different organizations in a common template that helps folks quickly understand what an organization does and how it measures its outcomes. We'll also have a multimedia function which will allow visitors to see videos and photos that we hope will engage them into the ministry in a way that text, facts and figures misses. Lastly, we'll have a submission function that will allow folks to submit information on ministries that they think are worth promoting as well.

Our goal is threefold:

1. By sharing research we hope to increase the effectiveness of the current giving of Christians internationally.
2. By telling information in a way that gives the donor increased confidence in the outcomes/accountability of their investment, we hope to increase the aggregate amount of giving
3. We want to play a role in the transformation and blessing of the donor, and believe that we can do so as we relate the stories of how fellow Christ followers are doing amazing things overseas.

The site might look something like this image - ministryspotlight.org.jpg.  Think this is a good idea? Have some ministries that you think we should be looking at? Please let us know.