A couple of weeks ago I got to spend a week with my wife Denise visiting Peru. We were invited by the organization Compassion International to see some of their work up close. I was aware that Compassion is a child sponsorship organization. I wasn’t aware until my trip to Peru, however, of their deep longing to see the evils of poverty driven from the lives of families and children at every level.
Our first day in Peru we learned of Compassion’s goals. They desire to tackle poverty educationally, physically, relationally, and spiritually. They desire to instill hope in children. Compassion works with local church partners in the countries where they serve to find children in need. They work to get them into school as well as provide healthcare and food. They work with the child’s family to help them care for their children. When each child is sponsored, they begin a connection with that sponsor so that the child knows that an individual/family somewhere else around the world cares for them, is praying for them, and that they matter to someone. Compassion’s biggest goal is to rescue children from poverty in the name of Jesus. They work diligently to ensure that the Gospel is taught to each child and that they are being discipled by a local church. They want each child to know that they are loved by their Heavenly Father.
What struck me the most was the humble gratefulness I experienced with each child, family, or church leader I met. We visited two homes of Compassion children. We were welcomed as if we were royalty. I set foot on packed dirt floors of homes with stucco mud walls. There were meager furnishings. I have traveled to various places for the last 20+ years of my life. I have seen similar things before. It has been a while since I felt what I did while in Peru. I was humbled. I knew in that moment that God had given to me so that I could partner with Him in the elimination of poverty. What I heard from the Compassion leaders was that poverty at its core is a spiritual problem. The devil has his foothold in poverty. He uses hopelessness to keep people down and ignorant of the great love of their Heavenly Father.
I have to consider then, Jesus’s great love for the poor. God had set up care for the poor as far back into Scripture as you can go. He instructed the Hebrew people to give charity to the poor and to not harvest their fields all the way out to the margins but to leave some along the edges for the poor to glean for themselves. Jesus carried on that deep concern for the poor.
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ -Matthew 25:37-40
Poverty must be a spiritual issue. It can be addressed through meeting physical needs, educational needs, and relational needs. At its core, however, God sees poverty as a spiritual concern. His Church should see it as a top priority as well. I look forward to White Oak’s work through our Local Impact Teams to concentrate on meeting the needs of the under-resourced in our communities. Part of our Shaken initiative is asking ourselves how we can use our physical building spaces to meet such needs. I look forward to working with our Global Impact Team in 2025 to see what impact we can have on serving the needs of the poor far outside our walls. I am excited to challenge my family and my kids to ask ourselves what more we can do to meet poverty head on and defeat Satan’s tactics on the Least of These.
Fighting Poverty in Jesus’s name,
Nathan
Nathan Hinkle
Lead Pastor