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I used to agree with a statement that we use often in the west, but since we have lived amongst the poorest of the poor, my thoughts have changed. The statement is this “POVERTY MENTALITY”, my understandning of this statement was that poverty is a state of mind and that the poor did not need to be poor, if they would only change the way they think. Now there are clearly some truths in the statement, but I have also come to realise that people are poor because they have nothing or very little of anything, in a material sense.

As you know, we live in a slum, we often have western visitors, preachers and missionaries pass throught to visit, minister or just see the slum. One of our visitors shared with some of the poor on having a “Poverty Mentality” and that’s when I saw the errors in the statement. Poverty is not completely a mentality, it’s when you have nothing. Poor peole are poor because they have nothing, and have no way of getting anything. Our visitor was sharing from a position of new found wealth, but he was poorer than the people he was sharing with. He was sharing from a position of strenght and judgement. Jesus was amongst the people, living as they lived, walking where they walked. Some of us need to spend more time with “people”, less time in the pulpit where everything is perfect and ideal. So many people live life hard, we don’t need to make excuses and reasons for it, we just need to help them up. Sometimes we will do that through giving, sometimes through education/training, and always through love and showing them Jesus. Don’t condemn the poor, encourage them forward. Everyone needs Jesus, poor or not…

Redeem and lift, get people to know Jesus, help them get closer to Him. Jesus enriches lives beyond measure, eternal salvation, eternal hope – that’s great treasure, pearls of great price.

We can have every possible thing that we use to measure wealth, but still be poor because we don’t know Jesus Christ. What does the bible teach on the perils of earthly riches -

the more you get, the more likely you areto forget the God who gave it to you – Duet’ 8:13-14
don’t set your heart on riches – Ps 62:10
riches can cause great fruitlessness – Mark 4:19
how hard is it for the rich man to be saved – Matt 19:23

Don’t invest in things that perish, things that can ensnare, things that fade away or dissappear with a stock market crash – INVEST IN PEOPLE. Invest in a soul, collect them, build them up – He who wins souls is wise. Don’t build your reputation, don’t build a ministry, build a person, build up people, invest in anothers eternity. Make someone smile.

Who we are and what we do

Mark and Christine Pedder, two Aussies living and working one of the largest slums in Asia, BASECO.

Around 60 acres of reclaimed land, with an estimated 16,000 families living on it in abject poverty. The average family size is mum, dad and 4-6 children, with extremes where families have more tan 10 children. The largest family we personally know has 21 living children, our neighbor has 18. So even if you do the lowest possible estimate of our slum population, we have more than 100,000 people living in our slum.

EVERYTHING THAT WE DO IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF SALVATION,

AND IS DONE IS THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.

There are only two verses of scripture in our Vision Statement - Luke 10:19 and Acts 10:38, there is obviously a third scripture that is the hearbeat of who we are and what we do - John 14:12...Our Vision never really changes, we aim to do this year what we did last year, but just more of it. We don't plan or strategies much at all, as anything that has life will grow naturally, unforced and unplanned. Our biggest challenge would be this - TO HEAR GOD AND KEEP ON DOING WHAT HE SAYS, and then to teach our leaders to do the same. We believe than everybody CAN and that everybody SHOULD be involved in changing their world for the better. Everyone has an influence and everyone can make a differance. The world needs all of us, everyone is of equal importance. We believe in the bible and we believe in Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world. Of course there are other things we believe in, but basically we are born again Christians, living out their faith in a third world slum. So what do we actually do in Baseco, how do we help the poor...here is some of what we do - we are making a differance person by person, family by family...ANYONE COULD DO WHAT WE DO...

Plant Local Churches and develope local leaders for those churches - we currently have 3 functioning churches inside Baseco. We have also developed a relationship with a local pastor, whereby we funnel families into his local church on a weekly basis, while we run a childrens ministry in the same area. We plan to have at least one more church in Baseco in the next 6 months. All churches have active childrens church programs.
Send nearly 200 Students to School - who could not otherwise attend school. The sponsorship that we provide covers all expenses for a one year period. We have churches who sponsor children, families, individuals and we sponsor a number of children ourselves. The plan is to make it possible for the bright students to go all the way through College if they want to and can make the grade to do so.
A Micro Enterprise Program using Pedi Cabs - that currently gives a steady income, double what they could normally earn to 45 families. Included in this program is sponsorship of one child from every family involved in the program.
Tuberculosis Recovery Program for Children - this year we are targetting 100 children to be healed and declared T.B free by the end of the year.
Family Sponsorship Program - that provides short term relief for families that cannot source an income for themselves due to sickness, death or imprisonment of the primary wage earner in their home...eg: a lady with 8 children, who's husband dies suddenly and there is now no income at all into this family - we will sponsor all of their needs, practical and spiritual, until a solution can be found for them...they will go without nothing.
Provide FREE Medicines - on sometimes a daily basis, primarily for children. Basic anti-biotics, wound care, burns care (minor and major) asthma treatment, pain and fever relief, finance for minor operations (in certain situations). Numbers of our leaders have medical kits and small stocks of medicines in their homes so they can attend to people in their areas. We also provide basic medical training for our leaders and others in the community. Part of this is the running of dental missions and medical missions from time to time.
Build Homes - this is an "as needed" area of ministry. If we find sick and dying children, part of the help package is to provide appropriate shelter, keep them dry, give them a place to sleep. I have lost track of how many homes we have built.
In Summary - WE HELP PEOPLE IN THE NAME OF JESUS...there are alot of other things that we do, but this is a decent summary.

We have a conviction that EVERYTHING of Salvation is FREE, and so we NEVER CHARGE for anything that we do. The really poor have nothing to give, so we give to them the same as Jesus gave to us, and we do so FREELY.

WELCOME TO BASECO...WE ALL ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE TO LIVE, LIVE IT WELL...GIVE IT AWAY...

USE YOUR LIFE TO BETTER THE LIVES OF OTHERS...

IF YOU DO NOT DIE TO YOUR OWN SELF, YOU WILL NEVER REALLY LIVE...

Check out our website - www.john1412.org

Markpedder's Weblog

What is Poverty…

Who we are and what we do

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