HEALING HANDS—Earl Bowie works on a medical brigade among Miskito Indians as part of his work of establishing and supervising a growing family of Verbo churches and social works on Nicaragua’s north Atlantic coast.

       The financial meltdown affecting the developed nations is working its way into the Third World as demand for its raw materials and commodities diminishes. Happily God’s economy isn’t subject to the vagaries and lies of the world system. Verbo’s missions and social works continue to expand and bless more and more people.

       In Guatemala we recently opened a mission in San Martin Jilotepeque, a highlands Cakchiquel Indian town  and are building new church and school complexes in Guatemala City, Coban, Quetzaltenango and other towns.

       In Brazil the São Paulo church just started a congregation an hour across town in the Alphaville neighborhood..
Verbo Managua, Nicaragua, will soon move to new installations near one of the city’s major intersections. This facility will house a church and offices for the many social outreaches the ministry operates in the country.

       In Ecuador, the church in Cuenca is planning a second congregation to supplement the 1700-member church, school, hospital and radio station in that Andean city. Its new orphanage, the Family Health Foundation Home, is taking in more children from distressed situations. Meanwhile recently inaugurated outreaches in the Amazon region and in the Pacific coastal town of Manta are growing rapidly.

       Additionally, we are exploring the possibility of working among the poor in equatorial Africa, a very expensive logistical outreach, to say the least.
How is this possible when financial institutions are floundering around the world, people are losing their jobs and cutting back on giving, equity is disappearing, and debts are mounting?

First of all, we believe what Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10),”

       We also believe that while God wants all men to prosper, they can only truly do so on His terms, not theirs, which is why Jesus said in Luke 16:13, "No servant can serve two masters...You cannot serve God and mammon [riches]."

       As a ministry and as individual ministers we make a point of carefully shepherding the funds God has given us, and of never entering into deficit spending no matter who says we don’t have faith to “just step out on the promises.”

       What we always do is teach the people in our churches and social projects that God rules this world on principles that, when obeyed, produce the abundance He promises to those who serve him. We teach that  when Christians manage their home and business finances in the same consumer-and-debt oriented way the world does, they can expect to suffer the same sad results sooner or later.

       On the other hand when they practice what the Bible says about money—and the Bible says an extraordinary amount on the subject—the result is what the Apostle John said to Gaius, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

       Think about it: What testimony do we as Christians have if when there’s a recession or worse—a financial meltdown—that we suffer the same as the World? Can we tell the unsaved that we have a God who is able to prosper us no matter what the economy brings? Can we take advantage of bargain prices for real estate or stocks when we’re in the same condition as the rest of the World?

       Our experience is that when what we’re doing is in God’s will, He has all the resources necessary to provide great success. Our prayer for you in these difficult times is that you maintain your life and finances on the solid rock of the practice of God’s Word, looking constantly for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. All else is shifting sand. That way we can demonstrate together that our God has a marvelous plan of blessing not just in the hereafter but in the here-and-now.