“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” Isaiah 58:6-7
“There is a kind of fasting which is not bodily, a spiritual self-discipline which affects the soul; this abstinence from evil, and it was as a means to this that our abstinence from food was prescribed. Therefore I say to you: Fast from evil-doing, discipline yourselves from covetousness, abstain from unjust profits, starve the greed of mammon, keep in your houses no snatched or stolen treasure. For what use is it to touch no meat and to wound your brother by evil-doing? What advantage is it to forgo what is your own and to seize unjustly what is the poor’s? What piety is it to drink water and thirst for blood, weaving treachery in the wickedness of your own heart? Judas himself fasted with the eleven, but since he did not curb his love of money, his fasting availed him nothing to salvation…”
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395) as recounted by James Thornton in Wealth and Poverty in the Teachings of the Church Fathers (St. John Chrysostom Press) 97.
Ministry in El Salvador this week has been about loosening the chains of injustice.
Much of the majority world is locked in cycles of dependency. Part of the remedy is to teach them discipline and to avoid the love of money through the practice of voluntary, generous giving.
It’s counterintuitive and crosscultural, but we are making progress with the workers we served a year ago. Our team is filled with hope and joy for the future of the church in this country.
Pray for rest today after two full days of trainings. Pray also for continued good health for the team. We still have four more days of service here.
For those who want to make a gift to support the work, visit GTP.org. This three country trip (El Salvador, Panama, and Bolivia) is already seeing good returns.