For most of my life, I've been inspired by the story of the boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus takes his meager offering and feeds 5000 people. Inspiring story! And it's all about me: I have little to offer, but Jesus takes my pathetic offering and multiplies it. Yay!
But tonight I was forced to rethink my identification with that boy.
Read MoreI swing on my hammock.
She perches on our wooden-crates-for-seats. Fidgets. Bounces. Twirls her hair. Chats and giggles.
At 9 years old, she is the same age as my daughter.
Read MoreBecause of where we live, and how we invest our lives, my kids ask me some really curly questions. They drop some real shockers! - leaving me awkwardly grasping for an explanation that will be age appropriate.
For example, the other day, a guy we know was sharing about his work investigating sex trafficking here in Cambodia...
Read MoreHow we understand poverty determines how we engage with the poor.
My friend Sam is too young and unstable to have a kid. Now she's pregnant. She is with a guy who drinks and gambles when he gets money. She dropped out of high school, and her job prospects are not rosy.
Read MoreThis morning a riot broke out near my house as striking factory workers clashed with riot police. One woman was shot and died. Others were brutally beaten. Workers from SL factory, which makes Levis, H&M and GAP clothing, have been on strike since early August .
Followers of Christ sometimes question whether working for justice in situations like this is central to the gospel....
Read MoreI perched on the plastic stool and nodded towards the broad black sewer that runs along the edge of the slum where I live.
"Is that canal dangerous?" I asked innocently, simply meaning to make conversation.
The woman's eyes filled with tears and I realized I had asked the wrong thing.
Read MoreIn much of my writing and speaking I try to make a case for the need for more people to relocate into the hard places - the slums and inner cities of the world.
With more than 1 billion people on earth today located in slums, it seems to me that the need is great and the Christian response is pathetically tiny.
But what if every follower of Jesus relocated into a slum or inner city? Read More
