The Crisis of Christmas

One of our partner churches (Christ's Church of Fountain Hills) is doing a series this holiday season called, "The Crisis of Christmas." This series included three videos explaining the difference between Christmas in Fountain Hills, Arizona and the barrios of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora. Embedded below are the videos (if you can't see the videos, click for week 1, week 2, and week 3).

Relief vs Development

Expanding on this post a little bit we wanted to mention the difference between relief and development. There really is no easy way to define the difference.

This chart is a good start to help explain the differences. Also Jeff Carr puts it well in this article:

If we are going to move from charity to community development in our ministries, we must move from being servants to being friends. We must become immersed in the lives of people and in the life of our community, to the point where we no longer see a distinction between our well-being and theirs. All of our well-being is tied together through our bond of friendship and faith.

There is no more us and them. Its only us. Paul seems to think the same way.