First Step Suggestions For Your Journey of Poverty

Extent your hands to those in poverty by

• Go on a Missional Expression pilgrimage: contact Nerina Reinach at nerinar@mosaiek.com
• Work through our bridge building exercise

Engage your minds towards those in poverty by

Join a Missional Expression dialogue group on poverty and justice issues in our world: contact Nerina Reinach at nerinar@mosaiek.com

Readings

Scriptures

Galatians 2:10, Matthew 25:31-46, Isaiah 58:1-8

Books

• Money, possessions and eternity - Randy Alcorn
• The hole in our Gospel - Richard Stearns
• Everything must change - Brian McLaren

Websites
www.theholeinourgospel.com

Enlarge your heart towards those in poverty by

• Pray that God will integrate compassion, courage and wisdom in your life
• Share your own stories & experiences with other on the journey
• Make a financial contribution to a charity for the poor

Support a senior citizen with delivered cooked meals and weekly food parcels for R350 per month through Embark Foundation: Contact Louise Rivett at louiser@embarkfound.co.za

Support a child per month with food, school & care for R250 per month through Golang Educational Outreach servicing children in Zandspruit at Emthonjeni Community Centre. Contact: Abigail Kapeza at abigailk@mosaiek.com

Bridge Building Exercise

Your assignment is to initiate a time/a conversation with someone who you would not normally build a relationship with. This is a challenge to reach out to a world you do not know or feel comfortable in. It is an opportunity for you to have the courage to see with compassion. In your time with this person, keep the following in mind:

• Approach the person as if he/she was Christ himself ( Matt 25: 31-46)
• Go in the posture of a listener and learner. Be authentic. Be present. Be open. Be humble.
• Listen to what makes them tick. Listen to what their daily life is like. Listen to what concerns them. If appropriate, pray with them. 
• Go praying and seeking to experience God among you, God with you and God through you.

 Here are some ideas of who you might want to engage with. Be creative and have fun:

• Take your domestic worker to her home and have tea. See her world.
• Take a taxi ride and experience public transportation and get to know the stress and concerns of your taxi driver.
• Cross a bridge to the world of people that you find challenging. Perhaps you want to cross a bridge in to the world of someone from a different socio-economic background, different sexual orientation, different educational level, another culture/race, different age group. 
• Ask God who you have the hardest time loving and go to that person or people group. Dorothy Day said "You only love God as much as you love the one you love the least."

After your time of relationship building with your acquaintance or friend in whom you have journeyed with, do the following:

• Journal about the experience. Reflect on it. Look for truth and insight.
• Ask yourself these questions:

What happened when I engaged this new world?
How did I feel about this experience? What emotions came up?
Did I experience any shifts in my thinking, in my heart, and in how I will do things differently in the future?
What thoughts and/or insights did I receive?
Did I grow into a person who is more contemplative, missional and community originated?