7 Sep 83 - What World Vision Is Doing

Reading:  James 2: 14-17

Faith Without Works Is Dead

14  What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?

15  If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,

16  and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?

17  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

COMMENTARY

It would do no good if World Vision just talked about the poor.  We must do more than talk.  We must act.

Every month, a meeting is held in the international office which approves new projects to be funded by World Vision The meeting is called the IAC (the International Affairs Committee) and, because World Vision of Hong Kong is a support office, we receive all the project proposals in advance.  When Mr Hunt attends planning meetings at the international office, he attends this meeting on our behalf.

Today is the day scheduled for the IAC meeting this month. The meeting will consider, and probably approve 97 new projects for World Vision to do.  Let us look at the kinds of things we are doing.  The projects include the following:

  • Primary school education assistance for 2 projects in Malawi, 3 projects in Peru, 1 project in Chile, 9 projects in Bolivia, and 1 project in Zambia.
  • Water supply and construction in 1 project in Malawi, 4 projects in Bolivia, and 1 project in Zambia.
  • Teaching adults to read in 2 projects in Bolivia.
  • Assistance to a group who help Christian experts to go and teach in China.
  • Support for a Christian Missions Faculty at Oxford University in England.
  • Medical programmes for children in 2 projects in Malawi, 1 project in Korea, 2 projects in Peru, 8 projects in Bolivia, and 1 in Zambia.
  • Trade education (such as sewing, carpentry) in 1 project in Peru, 1 project in Chile, and 4 projects in Bolivia.
  • Agricultural training or assistance in 1 project in Peru and 10 projects in Bolivia.
  • Food for hungry or malnourished children in 2 projects in Peru, 1 project in Chile, and 3 projects in Bolivia.
  • Summer camps or fun outings for children in 1 project in Chile and 5 projects in Bolivia.
  • Building two toilets in a project in Bolivia.
  • Helping to establish a community bank in one community in Bolivia.
  • Loans of planting rice to 4780 families affected by drought in Cagayen and Isabela provinces in the Philippines.
  • The building of a youth centre in Southern Lebanon.
  • Providing health care in Southern Lebanon to children.
  • A small grant to allow a woman whose husband was killed during the Lebanon conflict to start a hair dresser's shop.
  • A sum of money to assist the establishment of Colombia's first Christian University.
  • Food for 212 children of Peruvian copper miners who are out of work because of the poor price for copper.
  • Building a series of dining rooms for victims of floods in Peru.
  • Providing food, clothing, shoes and blankets to 100 food-affected families in Brazil.
  • Shipping large quantities of 8 kinds of vegetable seeds to Bolivia, Honduras, Peru and Guatemala.
  • Shipping nearly 400 boxes of shampoo requested by an orphanage in Kampuchea.

NEWS

Mr Hunt is going to Singapore today to talk with a candidate for the position of Representation Manager - Singapore

PRAYER (say together)

Our loving heavenly Father, we thank you for all the care and compassion which is represented by these projects. Thank you for our colleagues all around the world as they are our hands reaching out to the poor. Help us to be worthy spokesmen for them and for the people with whom they work.