Message from Chief Executive
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November 2007.
ROPE - The Dating agency
Part way through a conversation about ROPE recently, my enquirer summed up the work we do very neatly. "You act like a kind of dating agency, putting together significant needs that come to your attention with the donations and pledges of help offered by ROPE supporters." It is especially encouraging when the Holy Spirit is involved in the matching process. An example was a vocational training centre for women in northern Pakistan. The proposal was exciting, met our criteria and I knew it was one worthy of our support. We said yes, despite being certain of the funding. What a blessing just days after to have gifts offered for just the right amount to meet it.
In separate worlds
Whilst this may happen, I have been challenged in my thinking recently through Shane Claiborne's book, 'The Irresistible Revolution', where he talks about the rich and the poor never encountering one another. The dating agency description of ROPE is not the end of the story if all we do is keep rich donors and poor recipients in separate insulated worlds, despite our best efforts to provide specific reports for these larger projects. He writes about the church needing to live close to those who suffer and faith based charities not becoming just an efficient brokering service; about the need to retain God's vision of rebirth in which we are all family.
Let's get closer
What can we do? These ideas demand a rethink so we can get closer to the poor. I would like ROPE to be better at this, to be the dating agency but also the relationship counsellor to continue the metaphor. That's for the future but as we approach Christmas let's think more creatively of how to help the poor closer to home and do more than give to our favourite charities. Let's make our caring personal, get close to those who are poor and seek for people not just to be satisfied but transformed too.
Kind regards
Andy Jong
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November 2007
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