As many of you know I just got back from my first missions trip and it was a doozy. I knew from TV and the News how bad some countries had it but I had no idea I could actually help. I signed up for the missions trip hoping to make a difference but was unsure that I could actually make one till I went.

Now this thread is not exclusive to Christian's who I would urge to go on a missions trip but also to Athiests and non believers who should sign up for humanitarian missions and deploy world wide too. One thing I noticed in Thailand is the lack of Non-Christian humanitarian groups.

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Christian Part

Alright so the Bible specifically says go out into the world and make fishers of men. A missions trip is part humanitarian and part spreading of the gospel. Not so much prosteletising as showing God's love, we usually didn't go out into a community with the goal of converting everyone, we went in to help the people while letting them know we were Christian.

It is every Christian's duty to go into the world and help those less fortunate. Matthew 25:35-40

³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

   ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

   ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

The passage in Matthew clearly states that Christian's serving the needy are serving God. Later in the passage it talks about Christian's who do not serve others and help the needy. Now some may say that they can't help now I was unsure of how much I could help.

But I went into the slums with a mission team to hand out rice. Man oh man was it moving people were in tears when recieving the rice. Most of them collect garbage all day some making less then a dollar a day. When we gave them the rice they freaked out, I have never seen people that thankful in my life not even on thanksgiving. The people asked us why we were giving them rice and we replied that Jesus loves them and wants us to help them, right aways many of them asked for prayer from our Jesus, though they were buddhist they wanted us to pray for them. I prayed for at least a hundred people in the slums while I was their.

Anyways, you don't have to go to another country to do missions either. Many people here on this forum come from poorer countries with their own slums, others of us are from wealthier countries and can go to poorer places to help. The Kingdom of God needs to get out their and help the poor people of the world.

I myself am signing up with YWAM to likely enter longer term missions, after seeing what I can do to help others its very hard for me to now turn my back on them. If you are Christian then it is not only your duty but your God given right to go out into the world and help those less fortunate. It may be hard work but you can enjoy it too, seeing those people's faces light up was amazing.

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Athiests and non-Christians

Now as I said this topic isn't just for Christian's. When I was in the slums I did search for Non-Christian organisations. I wanted to see what the athiests and other non-Christian's were doing in the slums. Where are the athiests, athiests are people too and so are buddhists etc...etc.... Now this didn't make me think too negatively about Athiests at least no more then I already do. It just made me wonder where they are, their are Christian child sponsorship groups throughout the country, their are missionary humanitarian groups but no Athiests to be seen.

Infact food out their is so cheap. one dollar will buy 3-KG of Pineapple. or a KG of pork. Yet I didn't hear about or see even any local buddhist organisations handing out food or helping. Infact I went to the temples and saw shit loads of food just rotting infront of idols. I wonder how Buddhists who are supposed to believe in Karma and helping others could waste their food giving it to an idol while the people living in the slum only kilometers away are starving to death.

Its not only Christian's that should be helping the world. Now I know their are other non-Christian organisations in work around the world. So my question to you is why aren't you helping the world in one of these organisations? Whats stopping you from donating or deploying to help the Peace Corp or another organisation.

Sure Athiests don't have Jesus to live like, they have no default moral basis to go out and help the world. But I don't believe for a second that Athiests don't care, so think for a second could you be helping those around the world?

If your not athiest and are buddhist for example, does your country have a major slum? Does it have poor people living on less then a dollar a day. Now wouldn't the great teacher Buddha rather have you giving your food and money to help those poor dying people rather then giving your food to a statue letting it rot away or maybe instead of buying incence to burn or flowers to lay maybe Buddha would rather see you spending that money to help the poor people in your country? Isn't that what Karma and Ying and Yang are all about, wouldn't the great teacher rather see you helping others selflessly rather then wasting your resources on some statues?

Muslims, I know muslim organisations all over the world are helping people in their countries perhaps as much as Christians. So if your Muslim whats stopping you from deploying on a humanitarian mission? Or how about Jewish?

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The point I'm trying to make is that if you have enough money to live off of, your better off then a huge hunk of the world. Now its easy to just ignore the rest of the world and only think of yourself, but despite what some people say you can make a difference. Maybe you can't save the world but you could save a handful of people's lives.

I spent alittle over 2,700$ on my trip and I gave out at least a hundred bags of rice with my team, we gave out about a half dozen other meals to the slum children and played with them. We actually improved their lives and another team arrived a few days before we left to keep up the aid and keep the rice coming and help the people.

So the question is whats stopping you Christian or not from helping people in your country or around the world?

if i dont want to be around the dirty poor people in my own country why the hell would i travel a few thousand miles to be around dirty poor  people in another country.

Well I already told you in a thread of yours that I support two orphanages one in Chengdu and one in Thailand. Well don't really do much all I do is support them financialy. With the money they make trips or do things that we find normal.  Last year for example an orphange went with the children to an KFC/burger King kind of restaurant.  It maybe sound a stupid thing to do with money but for the children it was a dream come true they were hyped for it for months while over here children find it quite normal to do it on a weekly basis with their parents..    Their is not really a better experience than getting cards and drawings for X-mas from those children who all thanks me and sound so happy because I helped them to get that experience..


I could support financially more institutes and orphanages but I know myself that I could go to far and every human has to be selfish time from time otherwise you have the possibility to get into a negative spiral.

In reality there are many major international humanitarian organisations, however most of these do work on a larger picture than serving a hot meal to some people in the slums (which is the way Missions do it because it's more personal and therefore easier to convert people).

For example uf I were to do something humanitarian it would be with Engineers Without Borders.

Other major examples of secular aid organisations are the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

Yah those are great organisations, though I must say sponsoring an orphanage like Lost Planet or serving hot meals, feeding homeless cleaning up slums and building a bridge over the sewage. These things are not pointless or a smaller picture.

How come working in a slum is a smaller picture then working with say doctors without borders? Your right its more personal, though I know a doctor who went with doctors without borders and I can't say that it was in any way more important then feeding people and working in the slums. Also that doctor was a Christian. Not everything is done with the soul purpose of converting people, helping less fortunate is simply the most important part of Christianity. Love your neighbour as yourself.

I gotta say your statement is alittle demeaning. Alot of the people we fed would be dead if the organisations like YWAM weren't feeding them, alot of kids would not be in school if I and the other team members weren't sponsoring them and helping them on trips like the one I went on.

The bigger picture is that both Doctors without borders and YWAM and alot of other organisations are equally needed to improve peoples lives on the larger scale. If organisations and teams like mine didn't feed the kids and people then they would die, if doctors without borders didn't help the sick and injured they would die. If we didn't educate the children they couldn't make a better life for themselves hence they would die and leave others to die.

Though I must say Rath I am happy to hear you would consider Engineers without Borders. Its nice to see non-Christian's who aren't like Mr.Bubbles. I can't understand how anyone can make such a demeaning and hurtful comment.

Mr.Bubbles - Thats sort of my point, you should want to help the dirty poor people in your own country. Just like you should then help the dirty poor people in another country. I myself have volunteered to feed the homeless and help them here in Canada.

However Canada has a good welfare system and the homeless are homeless by choice, where as the homeless in Thailand and many other countries aren't homeless and living in slums by choice. You should really care about your fellow human beings Mr.Bubbles unless you were being sarcastic and funny, though I never caught that.

Flying across the world to help others living on under a dollar a day is a very good idea for anyone Christian or not. If you live in a country with slums and poor people who are genuinely in need then helping those people in your own country should come first. But if you live in a country like Canada with free medicare and a great welfare system then going to another country to help their people is a very good idea.

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Maybe I was a bit harsh, I do understand Christians do do good in their organisations - though I strongly disagree with their ulterior motive of converting people to a religion. I really do think much more highly of the organisations whos sole motive is to help where help is needed.

I was just a wee bit pissed off because of this statement of yours  "However I didn't find a single non-Christian organisation anywhere near the slums I was visiting. This made me sick, is it only Christian's who care about the world?" which is very condescending. In reality as I pointed out there are several major secular organisations (and those ones are only a few of the largest) that also provide humanitarian assistance.

Sorry Rath, I was just refering to the Slums. Their were no non-Christian organisations to be seen and that did make me sick. Doctors without borders for example helps millions of people but isn't present in many countries.

YWAM the organisation I was with has had a presence in every country on earth to a degree. The area I was in has seen no help from the secular world, infact even the Buddhists have no organisations in the slums I was in.

If you read my OP you can understand where I'm coming from. Also as I made it in the post I would really love to see Athiests and non-Christians helping out just as much as Christian organisations. I may be Christian but people helping the less fortunate is great and I'd love to see more Athiest aid organisations helping the world.

Now I am Christian and obviously I would love to see everyone on earth saved or come to my beliefs. But I do not try to force anyone to my beliefs and didn't go on the trip for the soul purpose of converting people, no real alterior motives other then helping people which is core to my belief system.

Many Christian organisations are not out soully to convert people. Big ones like World Vision are Christian but they do not force anyone or only help those that convert. Its actually not Biblical, the Bible says to love and help everyone you see regardless of their beliefs.

I think you'd really like World Vision and YWAM and stuff. Their great organisations they are Christian and yeah they do (YWAM at least) preach Christianity. But conversion is not their priority helping people and showing God's love is.

Much like I admire Doctors without Borders and Engineers without borders and the Red Cross, Peace Corp etc...etc...

I'd hate to see atheist aid organistations, it seems like a terrible idea. Like really really terrible.

Also just because they weren't in the particular set of slums that you were in doesn't mean much, for example MSF actually has more volunteers than YWAM.  In general secular organisations are most active directly after disasters (whether natural or through human conflict) in undeveloped countries when crucial and skilled aid is badly needed.

Why would you hate to see Athiest aid organisations? Afraid they would be biased? Maybe I should say secular or non-religious organisations. I'm interested in why you don't think Athiests should be helping people like Christians do, or am I misunderstanding your comment?