Today, we watched a video about poverty. We learned that sometimes our good intentions can cause more harm than good through “unintended consequences”.
One small story here. Julie Cooper (B2B Staff) shared that she once wanted to help a new mother in a poor area of Monterrey, Mexico. She brought a case of baby formula (enough for a month) for this mom to feed her newborn baby. When she went back to check on them a few days later, Julie was shocked to see the mom was feeding her newborn “Coke” in the baby bottle because she sold the formula for $ to feed the rest of her family! This happens all the time in poor areas.
providing $ and an abundance of clothing can sometimes be the worst thing to do (it can be disruptive to the locals). We learned in order to truly help someone for the long term there needs to be an understanding of the local needs, situations, etc. because donations can sometimes put small business owners “out of business.”
We then went to Milka’s house to install the doors and windows we made yesterday. Along with some major yard work, security gate and concrete.
Milka was overwhelmed at the end of the day when we prayed over her family for unity, protection, faith and courage. We all shared tears of joy.
Today our small group question is from Mark 4:40 “What are you so afraid of?”