John D. Rockefeller spent millions of dollars on a study to determine how to give money away without creating dependency. Most of this was done in Venezuela, but it encompassed many other countries where he was helping with various projects. I don t know what the results of that search were for him, but we do know through almost 100 years of missionary work now, that it is essential we get our missiology right before we do anything in the area of compassion ministries. This book, From the Roots Up: A Closer Look at Compassion and Justice in Missions, written by Dr. JoAnn Butrin, has the answers to many of these questions. The book closely looks at the scriptural mandate to turn our eyes to the poor and to those who are treated unjustly. The Bible has so much to say about both of these subjects, and I m glad that as a Fellowship we can address many of the issues of the world. Of course, our resources aren t enough to cover them all, but we can do our part, and I m grateful that in so many ways we are now expressing the love of Jesus Christ to our needy world. Dr. Butrin s book helps us know how to do this correctly. It is useless for us to throw money at every problem and think we re solving the world s needs. It has to be done correctly, with the principles outlined in Scripture that Dr. Butrin has so ably laid out for us. I believe this book is vital for our day, and I trust it will be a guide for our future activity in this realm. We do need so much to respond to the needs of our world, but we must do it right so we don t create a worse world when it s all over.
