One More Thing with Pastor Tim Burchill 10.26.2026

The Gifts of Those Who Need Our Hope

          I barely touched on a topic that is of interest to me during Sunday’s sermon.  When we think of Christian service we often think of reaching out to help make the burdens lighter for the least, the last, and the lost.  I can’t think of a better way to express the commandment of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourselves.  But what about working with the poor, using their ideas, their solutions, their assets to improve our community?  Everybody is given gifts, even those who have little material success to pass on.  Have we spent enough time thinking about how to come alongside those gifts in order to improve life for the least of these?

          It may be doubly difficult to sit with those in need, to organize and harness their energy—or probably better said—to let them organize and harness their energy to improve their lives and the lives of their friends and families.  But it is a worthwhile question to ask.  How do we help those in need find the means to meet their own need?

          There’s the well-worn proverb about teaching a woman to fish, but what about identifying the best fisherwomen and giving them what they need to open a fishing school for those who are used to buying or being given their daily catch? 

          I read about a researcher who was sent into rural Vietnam to try and figure out an effective way to address rising malnutrition there.  What he did was fascinating.  He lived with the local village people and was able to discern that there were a few families who seemed to be more robust and better nourished than the rest.  He discovered that in addition to the rich and grains they fed their families, the included some kind of shrimp like creatures that were found in the local streams and rice paddies.  The extra protein made all the difference.

          What the research did was get this extended family to show all the other women in the village how to catch these shrimp and the best way to prepare them along with their daily rice allotment.  In no time, the families of this village became better nourished.  All he did was watch and wait and point toward those who were already bright spots.  Those who prospered were eager to share a resource that seemed to be relatively endless.

          It just makes me wonder how we might go about most faithfully serving the needy in our midst or the poor in the larger community surrounding us.  If you’ve got ideas, let me or Jenny LeVora know.  I think there’s room for us to do what we do even more faithfully, and I believe God can and will show us a way.