CORNFIELD

This afternoon I spent an hour in a cornfield a couple of miles east of Columbus. 

"Visit a farm" was not even on my To Do List. Maybe it was a God thing. Time will tell.

This morning I had started reading When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor ... and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. 

The premise of the book is that simply handing money to the poor is not actually helping them ... and may even cause more harm than good. "Simply having sufficient material things is not the same as 'poverty alleviation' ... We want people to fulfill their calling 'to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever' in their work and in all that they do." Getting it right involves wisdom, patience and a truly biblical worldview. 

I am not doing the book's message justice. I haven't finished it yet, but it strikes me as a thorough and Scriptural look at how Christians are called to love the poor of this world. 

So is it a coincidence when later in the day I am standing in a cornfield with Dave Ketchum, whose life and ministry illustrate well the very approach the book advocates?

Tomorrow I will tell you: 1) what Dave was doing in the cornfield and 2) how I happened to join him there.

[Hint: 1) it's about improving the lives and spirits of people in Ghana and Haiti and elsewhere and 2)seems like a God thing.]