Response to poverty.

A helpful first step in thinking about working with the poor in any context is to discern whether the situation calls for relief, rehabilitation or development. Relief can be defined as the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from natural our man made crisis. Rehabilitation seeks to restore people and communities to the positive elements of their precrisis condition. Development is the process on ongoing change that moves all the people close to being right relationship with God, self, others and the rest of creation.

Work

Work is an act of worship. When people seek to fulfil their callings by glorifying God in their work, praising Him for their gifts and abilities, and seeing both their efforts and its products as an offering to Him, then work is an act of worship to God. On the other hand, when work is done to glorify oneself or merely to achieve more wealth, it becomes a worship of false gods.