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Poverty: take action now

Urban poor benefit from Action activity

Debra Fieguth
Special to ChristianWeek

Canadian missionaries to India, Zambia and the Philippines are responding to specific needs and jumping into the trenches.

“Our primary focus is urban poor. Our real objectives are evangelism, discipleship and development,” explains Wayne Whitbourne, director of the Calgary-based Action International Ministries Canada.

Those objectives are met when missionaries understand the need and use their own skills and gifts to begin new ministries or enhance existing ones.

Outside the box

Carl and Lisa Loewen, a Manitoba couple, saw the need for working with street youth outside Manila. An established ministry is already teaching trade skills to young men, but for children who come from the street, going to trade school is “too big a jump,” says Whitbourne. Carl Loewen and a local pastor have a Bible study, disciple and teach life skills that will prepare them for a better future.

Another couple returned to northeast India after working and going to school in Canada. Arav, an engineer, came to Canada to complete his MBA. Later, he felt the Lord leading him back to India. He now pastors the same church his father pastored in Uttar Pradesh, the birthplace of Hinduism, and uses his engineering skills to build wells. He and his wife help out-of-school youth, run an orphanage and do community health work.

Beverly Snelling, a new Christian and retired legal secretary from the Peoples Church in Toronto, was drawn to Zambia several years ago. “She had a real burden for the children,” says Whitbourne. She went to Lusaka, where she started a school and several children’s homes for AIDS orphans. Zambia is particularly hard hit by HIV/AIDS and the need to care for children is enormous. She raised the funds to start the school and children’s homes, and partnered with a Zambian church in carrying out the ministry.

Get involved

What does Action International want from Canadian Christians?

“We need workers,” Whitbourne says: short term for specific projects (about three months) and longer term (two years and more) for more involved ministry.

Second, the organization needs prayer—for its workers and for the ministries it carries out in various countries.

Finally, Action International needs resources. Missionaries must raise their own funds and the agency is planning to expand its child-sponsoring component.

• Action International has been established in Canada for about 25 years. Action International missionaries work worldwide with 25 Canadians.
• Begun in the Philippines in the mid-1970s, Action International now works in Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Malawi, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Spain, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Zambia.
• The work is carried out in cooperation with local churches and national organizations.
• Action International is evangelical and non-denominational, with a focus on neglected and abused children and their families through practical ministries.
• Various ministries reach street kids, orphaned and abandoned babies, squatters, prostitutes and prisoners.
• While methods vary from place to place, all Action International ministires take a holistic approach “of meeting physical and spiritual needs,” says Canadian director Wayne Whitbourne.