Helping People 
Rise Out Of Poverty

"...Whoever is kind to the needy honors God" (Proverbs 14:31).

The poor are particularly close to God's heart. Because God cares, so do we.

Just as the balloons in the above picture are all the same color, so are we also the same in terms of what we all need or require to live and to reach our fullest potential.  

On the most basic of levels, our lives may be viewed as quite similar to helium balloons. Without helium, a balloon cannot serve its purpose. Without the basic necessities of food, water, raiment, and shelter—as well as access to jobs, resources, and opportunities— people also cannot fulfill their God-given purpose. So there can be no overstating the importance of meeting people's material needs.  

However, we in the West generally think that poverty is simply—or only—a lack of money or material needs. Or, the lack of physical resources. But it's far more complex than that. Historically, our view of and approach towards poverty is like seeing an iceberg. Though well-intentioned, we've seen just the top. Meaning, a lack of material resources accounts for only 10% of how poor people describe poverty. Yet we've generally focused the bulk of our time and efforts solely on meeting their material needs. Unwittingly, we have left unaddressed what constitutes the core or essence of true poverty—that which represents the enormous slab of ice beneath.

The reality is that people living in poverty see it very differently than we do. While they certainly acknowledge their lack of material resources, people overwhelmingly use psychological and emotional terms to describe the other 90% of poverty. If we were to liken poverty to a tree, material needs would be the trunk and branches that are visible to the eye. But the roots of poverty—which we cannot see—breed destructive and pervasive emotions such as shame, indignity, hopelessness, inadequacy, dependency, degradation, inferiority, demoralization, and a lack of importance or significance. We'd readily agree that these are all states of mind unbefitting human beings made in the image of God.

Our desire is to help people rise—like inflated helium balloons—out of poverty. We purpose to do so by meeting not only their material needs, but also giving them access to the other resources necessary to gain or regain their sense of dignity, self-worth, self-respect, and sense of personal responsibility. To help them see themselves as having inherent worth and value as God's image-bearers. One of the best and most effective ways to accomplish these goals is to help people to tap into their creative potential and to help them build sustainable livelihoods. 

Nevertheless, we recognize that physical care without the Gospel is not a holistic ministry; it is not optimal. Jesus's earthly ministry exemplified that the spiritual well-being and physical well-being of people are inextricably connected, as are all other aspects of their being (Matthew 4:23-24, 9:35, 22:37-39; Luke 7:18-23).

Heart In Heaven seeks to provide spiritual care primarily through the agency of the local church, which is called to be actively engaged in meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of its community. Because getting people into a right relationship with their Creator is most fundamental, we ultimately want to meet people's spiritual needs. After all, we cannot get our lives right until we get our hearts right with God. 

Indeed, the truest and most important and most profound gift of hope we could ever give anyone is the greatest gift of all—the gift of knowing and being in union with the Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ. John 1:4 declares, "In him was life"—spiritual life, eternal life, life that rescues from judgment—"and the life was the light of men." And 1 John 5:11-12 teaches, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Jesus is LIFE and His gift of salvation is the only way to find peace with God!

He is our HOPE!