Breaking the cycle of poverty...

I am always somewhat surprised to talk to some our local pastors about the kinds of ministry that they do. Being this close to a college town, most of them have some form of Campus ministry, or they have people in their congregation that does some form of Campus ministry. That doesn't surprise me, what does surprise me is how different their ministry is to my ministry.

I understand that we here at Almond Union of Churches have done some form of Campus ministry in the past, and have had various levels of success trying to reach people from the colleges (usually low levels of success).

While we are listed on the various listings of local churches on the two campuses, we rarely see a student visit. We also have an article in the Alfred Sun each week, and it gives us a chance to minister to people where they are, but it doesn’t bring them to where we are – they rarely visit because they saw the article. (Which brings up a thought I’ll explore more in tomorrow’s post).

Instead of some form of Campus ministry that I can report to my clergy colleagues, I talk of our ministries to the poor. Our food pantry and our Samaritan’s Loft (an apartment providing emergency shelter for those who find themselves homeless) put us in contact with many people who are struggling financially. We try to ease these struggles, and as a result, spend a lot of time ministering to the poor in our community, as I think all believers are called to do.

I was sharing some of these thoughts with our association minister, and when we prayed, he asked for God’s help in “breaking the cycle of poverty.” That statement has stuck with me. Can we break the cycle of poverty? I don’t know.

I know that we can help one person at a time. We can work with one person at a time and help them back on their feet. Then we can help another. It takes one person helping another. It takes a commitment of people helping people. Can you commit, with me, with our church, to help one person stuck in the “cycle of poverty”?

Who knows, with God’s help, maybe we can break the cycle of poverty in our community.