“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.’ Matthew 25:40
“Research also suggests that people are more generous to individuals than to groups. In one study, people were most likely to donate money for a sick child’s medical care when presented with the child’s name, age, and photo rather than just an age or an age and a name.
However, another experiment in this study found that people donated more money to a single sick child than to a group of eight sick children, even when the children in the group had the same amount of identification (name, age, and photo) as the individual child.
One study suggests that this reduction of generosity toward groups is because people find the needs of larger groups to be emotion- ally overwhelming—so-called “compassion fatigue.” According to the study, however, “this effect can be counteracted by preemptively and explicitly instructing people to feel their emotions rather than dampen them.”
Summer Allen in “The Science of Generosity” White Paper produced by the Greater Good Science Center.
I arrived safely to Jamaica. Torrential rains in Kingston caused flooding (pictured above) so our logistics work took hours instead of minutes to set up four days of meetings. But, thankfully, we are ready.
John Roomes, GTP Regional Facilitator for the Caribbean, who lives here in Kingston, has done a fantastic job convening the Evangelical Alliance and the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches.
I never noticed the word “one” in this famous Scripture. I guess my mind always reads it as “whatever you did for…the least of these brothers and sisters of mine.”
The research makes sense that we realize we cannot help all the lost or the least, but in our minds, we reason that we can help one. I want to ask you to help one worker in Jamaica this week.
Based on travel, supplies, and meeting expenses including room rental and meals for hundreds of the top Christian workers in the country, I estimate the cost of helping one is about $90.
You can help that one ministry worker go from surviving to thriving and go from floundering to following standards. Click here to give $90 to empower one Jamaica ministry worker.
He is likely a great preacher who cares for the poor. But with a limited grasp of governance and administration, his church struggles. Lack of accountability has hindered generosity.
You can change that. We can do it together. Give $90 to GTP today.