Though beautiful, the Bolivian Amazon and Pampas are a precarious place to live at best. Low education, non-existent jobs and remote isolation produce a grueling poverty where deadly disease and fever are common.
Infant mortality rates exceed 50% here in the Northeast where the few existing medical facilities are out-of-reach to more than 60% of the region's population.Sadly; one-in-five children never live to see the age of 40... And w
hen you add to these facts that this region is 95% unreached by the Gospel of a Jesus Who is alive; then the Church finds itself with a tremendous challenge.
That challenge isn't a matter of isolated location. It is more a matter of having isolated our hearts from the true mandate of the Gospel. We lack a deeper understanding of the more perfect will of God when it comes to loving and serving the poor in our efforts. And as Joel Wickre stated in a recent Christianity Today article :"...our inability to identify with people across the wealth divide can subvert our good intentions in missions, hurting the people we're trying to love."
The fundamental goal of Vertical Life Missions is to see a 'relationship touch' take place across this wealth divide. That touch must take place in the context of our works. It must be done in faith. And it will still require the same money. Yet this relationship touch must exceed sentiment; establish true relationship; and make us one spirit and family in Christ. If we can do that, it is far more valuable than any outward work we will ever accomplish.
Without a person-to-person touch of relationship between us which brings increase in both directions; the works we produce are of little spiritual good. In reality, if we cannot cross the wealth-divide to truly know one another as brothers (beyond Helper & Helped);we fall short of the heart & will of God.
Reaching Beyond Words & Walls
Bolivia
is the fourth poorest nation in the world and the poorest nation in South America. Without a doubt, the impact of that poverty on the natural lives of the Bolivian people is disastrous. However, as heartbreaking as that may be, it cannot compare to the depths of Bolivia's spiritual poorness.
The core goal of Vertical Life Missions is to cross the necessary bridges to go unto marginalized people; identifying with them in love, where they are.
We are equipped with a two-handed Gospel of hope. Our desire is to work to reach the lost and effectively disciple those who want to know Christ.
Just as importantly;we seek to improve the quality of their lives in realistic ways. Their needs are many. And those needs are doors-of-entrance for us to have and develop relationship with them in genuine love.
Love demands relationship by service.However, works apart from genuine relationship are not a true demonstration of God's Perfect Love.
We want to walk in Perfect Love.
A Final Thought
Like a poor, needy Lazarus laying at the backdoor of the rich man's world, over 64% of Bolivia's families live in horrid poverty. Do they need food and medical care and all kinds of help from those of us empowered by God to give it?Most certainly, they do. Do we need your financial help to help them in that way? Most cetainly, we do.
In doing this however, our ministry efforts must extend beyond our "Helper-Helped" roles and more deeply into true levels of realized-relationship. For if we fail to share a living Gospel with people...one able to take us to the place of truly seeing one another as brethren...then we simply lack a fully-biblical world-view of Christ's purpose regarding Kingdom relationships.
Crumb sharing you see is really quite easy for the financially capable.It touches our sentiment and makes us feel good about ourselves in rather dangerous ways. The truth however is that many of these types of ´mission efforts´ have little to do with the work of the cross´actually changing uspersonally.
Jesus' cross was relational. So must be ours.And if that is a true statement; then considering whether the 'works' we do have any significant relational depth to them at all, should really give us pause for thought.
The real tragedy in the biblical story of Lazarus and the rich man is that even though the rich man's world-view led him to help Lazarus by mercifully throwing him some crumbs...it never allowed him to consider becoming Lazarus' friend.
