Jim Holmlund Executive Director, Love INC Heartland
A Note From Our Executive Director
Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:16-17 NIV
Every day, I receive a daily Bible verse emailed to me from BibleGateway. This verse was sent to me the morning I was preparing to write to all of you, our supporters of Love In the Name of Christ Heartland.
These are the words Isaiah wrote as he received a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The vision is a call from our Lord for his people to change their ways. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, our nature as people has been to look inward and not upward.
Verse 16 spoke to me about our work at Love INC Heartland.
Every day, I talk to the oppressed, the fatherless, the widowed, the divorced, the homeless, the confused, the hurting, and, most part, the material poor of the world. We often talk about the abandonment the people we work with feel in their lives. They feel abandoned by family, friends, and God. The people I speak to live in our communities. They are people who live amongst us. In most cases, you might never know who they are, but they are people you come across daily as you move about your community. In 2023, Love INC Heartland has grown in our capacity to serve those very same people.
As I read these two verses, looking through the lens of how we serve our neighbors in need, I am encouraged.
Redemptive Compassion® is the philosophy we use as we serve people who are struggling. This philosophy touches on two types of compassion necessary when serving the material poor. The first is charity compassion; the other is development compassion. In simple terms, charity compassion is a handout, and developmental compassion is a hand-up. Please don’t get me wrong–there is a place and a need for charity. However, charity compassion often becomes more about what we do than helping those receiving the charity. Sometimes, charity compassion to the material poor becomes a crutch that is more self-serving than it is a help for those who receive the charity. Charity compassion never really changes the status quo for the fatherless, the widowed, the divorced, etc., for anyone stuck in a cycle of generational poverty.
We often struggle to balance charity and developmental compassion at Love INC Heartland. We do our best to focus on developmental compassion. We use charity compassion to open the door to developing a relationship with our neighbors in need. We focus on working with people who have a desire to grow. They want to use the charity they receive to get to a place where they no longer need to rely on handouts. Most of that development comes through our neighbors in need attending our Fresh Start Program. In 2023, we saw our Fresh Start Program take a step forward. Here are some stats from Fresh Start this past year.
In closing, Isaiah is not just addressing Judah and the rest of Israel. He is speaking to all of God’s people. We, God’s people, are Israel.
In our broken nature, we fall into the same traps people have succumbed to since the fall of man into sin. We focus on us. It is our nature. I call on you to reflect upon ways you can be a part of developmental compassion in someone’s life. I know developmental compassion is difficult. It can get messy and consume one of our most precious resources: time. It takes a relationship with that person. Charity compassion is appealing to us because, in most cases, it requires very little on our behalf. Ask God to help you see where you can meet them where they are and help them become who God has called them to be. Yes, this speaks to more than just the material needs of people. It is about the whole person. We will continue to be about the entire person at Love INC Heartland.
In the coming weeks, we will send out our Annual Report. Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for February 20, 2024, at Delano United Methodist Church at 6:30pm. Thank you to one of our Abundant Church Partners for hosting this meeting, please mark your calendars to attend.
Thank you for being so supportive, whether financially, in volunteering, or through prayer; it has blessed us in 2023. May God continue to bless you as you answer the call to serve God’s people in 2024.
In Christ,
Jim Holmlund
Executive Director
Love INC Heartland
