But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. Luke 11:41
“Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.”
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) in Saints’ Quotes: Holy Quotations for Purification of the Soul, Collection on Alms.
This is a powerful idea we must not overlook.
Those who have more than enough must with grace and humility, share with those with less than enough, not in a way that creates unhealthy dependency, but in a manner that gives a hand up to those in need.
All we possess on this earth, we will leave behind at death, so the test is what we do with it whilst we are living. What will you do with what you have?
For Jesus, alms or generous giving to the poor cleanse us because they demonstrate the veracity of our faith. Only in giving do we grow ino the caring and sharing people that God desires us to become.
The first leg of my journey in Africa is to get the GTP Africa staff and key volunteers trained in Stations of Generosity by a partner organization. It’s a tool for spreading generosity among oral cultures.
The training happens on 28-29 September 2022 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Pray for us as we travel and convene on 27 September prior to the training. I will arrive later today from USA.
Chris Maphosa travels from Mutare, Zimbabwe. Gabrielle Fortunato will welcome us in Cape Town. Donald Mqwathi will also travel from Johannesburg, as he hopes to help with trainings in South Africa as a key volunteer.
Thanks for your prayers, and please consider a gift to GTP to support our work in places like Africa. Click here to give. I’ll share more about our work here in the days to come.