Today, we're releasing our podcast collaboration with our friends at Theology in the Raw. Brandon had a chance to sit down with Preston Sprinkle and dive into all things global orphan care and discuss the realities of that children in orphanages face worldwide. Our conversation weaves between a theology of calling and mission and how American Christians intersect with orphans in the Global South. We discuss the reality of life within orphanages, why kids end up there and what risk factors and vulnerabilities arise when kids are raised in that environment. This is a good Ethical Orphan Care 101 type episode and we're grateful for the chance to collaborate with Theology in the Raw to raise awareness and education.

For additional follow-up check out Brandon's four part orphan care blog series on Theology in the Raw. Here's the link.

Resources and Links from the show

When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett

In Pursuit of Orphan Excellence by Phil Darke and Keith McFarland

Check out our friends at Cherish Uganda

Get help to transform your orphanage with Canopy International

Global nonprofits are notorious doers, always thinking, planning and taking action. In all of our intentionality for programs and justice endeavors, are we being equally intentional to pray? Peter Greer is back on the show, along with new friend Ryan Skoog, to share about the new book that they wrote (along with Cameron Doolittle) called Lead with Prayer. This is a conversation for everyone, because without God's intervention, nothing would happen anyway. And here's the secret that our guests share with us, "even better than answered prayer, is the very presence of God." Let's think, let's do, but let's also pray.

Resources and Links from the show

Join us for the first ever CarePortal Conference

Lead With Prayer Website (Includes Free Prayer Tools)

Echo Prayer App

Conversation Notes

• 4:25 - Ryan's background in entrepreneurship and fundraising
• 9:55 - Connection of themes between The Gift of Disillusionment and Lead with Prayer
• 13:10 - The impact of the global church on our lives and taking the Gospel locally and to the ends of the earth
• 17:00 - Why is prayer so overlooked within Christian nonprofits. Peter asks, "Do we think that we have more to do than Jesus?"
• 22:35 - Diving into the research of different leaders around the world and what their prayer lives look like
• 26:35 - Leaders have a friendship first approach to their prayer lives
• 30:03 - It requires intentionality to set up prayer rhythms both personally and as an organizational
• 37:50 - The importance of leaders to repent and avoid the common story of Christian leaders that fall from grace
• 44:20 - Stories of people's prayer lives

In honor of the World Without Orphans Global Forum and in honor of awesome work being done in the Philippines, we've got Chrina Cuna Henson joining the show. Chrina runs the Manila-based organization Generations-Home and talks with Brandon Stiver and Phil Darke about what it's like to promote foster care and adoption in the Philippines. We discuss the reality of violence against children and the pervasive online sexual exploitation of children in the country and learn how Generations-Home is promoting the care and protection of Filipino children.

Resources and Links from the Show

Join us for the first ever CarePortal Conference

Generations-Home Website

"Constance" by Mr. J Medeiros (Music Video)

Conversation Notes

• 2:30 What's great about the World Without Orphans Global Forum
• 7:50 About Generations Home and their work in the Philippines
• 10:15 How God led Chrina from personal tragedy into running a nonprofit focused on orphans and vulnerable children
• 15:00 Overview of orphanhood and childhood vulnerability in the Philippines including online sexual exploitation of children
• 22:42 Starting a church based, family focused movement in an orphanage and exploitation heavy context
• 34:35 The art of being gracious with people that have good intentions that are just trying to do what they think is best
• 39:30 Foster care and adoption in the Philippines
• 46:10 Getting the local church involved with vulnerable children and families
• 50:35 Being an OVC organization that is based financially in Asia rather than the West
• 55:53 Embracing our own brokenness as we faithfully serve vulnerable communities

In this 3+1 episode, we're catching up on some global stories that you might have missed and have a recommendation of the pop variety. We're continuing last month's conversation on elections by looking at El Salvador, talking through localization efforts in global development, the scandal surrounding UNRWA-Hamas and then get Brandon's take on Bono's recent biography, Surrender. Dr. Greg Burch of Multnomah University joins Brandon Stiver and Phil Darke for the conversation.

Get support for your nonprofit team or project with our team of professionals at Canopy International

Resources and Links from the show

Foreign Policy : What Bukele's Rise Means for the Region

World Relief : Three Trends We're Seeing in Global Development in 2024

USAID : Communicating through a Localization Lens

The Media Line : Hamas Sacrifices Gaza Children, and UNRWA Complicit in Crimes

Bridgely

The Locust Effect by Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros

God of the Empty-Handed by Jayukumar Christian

Conversation Notes

• 2:12 - Discussion on Christian Higher ed
• 8:23 - Considering security, freedom, violence and democracy as El Salvador goes through changes and the leadership of Nayib Bukele
• 22:00 - Why even bother bringing politics into the podcast conversation?
• 26:10 - Trends in global development, localization and the place for outsiders
• 40:30 - Violence against children in Israel-Palestine and the Hamas-UNRWA reports
• 52:34 - Surrender by Bono and reflections on the celebrity activist

Theme music Kirk Osamayo. Free Music Archive, CC BY License

What does it look like to meet the needs of very vulnerable people in the face of glaring global disparity? What does it look like to bring God's Kingdom through improving access to healthcare in the Global South? These are the questions we're looking at today as we dive into conversation with CEO of CURE International, Justin Narducci. Justin and his team CURE are distinctly rooted in Luke 9:2 where Jesus commissioned His disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God and heal the sick. For them that means running hospitals in eight countries, providing over 330,000 surgeries and sharing the gospel with 1.5 million people. We get to learn from their experience in this episode of the podcast.

Resources and Links from the show

Cure International Website

Get Support for Yourself or Your Team with Canopy International

Conversation Notes

• 1:40 - Update on Brandon's work with CarePortal
• 4:05 - Think Global becoming Think Global, Do Justice
• 9:50 - The work of Cure Intl. and how God led Justin into the global nonprofit space
• 12:00 - How scripture points us towards caring for people both locally and globally regardless of ethnicity and upbringing
• 13:20 - The history and the founding of CURE to meet healthcare and spiritual needs of vulnerable children and communities
• 15:20 - The environment in which CURE is working and the harsh realities for families and children
• 21:20 - The feelings of a parent whose child is in need of serious medical care
• 25:40 - The imperative for CURE to provide healthcare to vulnerable children specifically
• 29:30 - Addressing the tremendous disparity when looking at healthcare in Africa versus other areas of the world
• 33:15 - Promoting sustainability and professional development through CURE's hospitals and partnerships
• 39:00 - How should we think about scaling solutions especially in the face of such tremendous needs throughout the world
• 45:24 - Seeing an organization grow from the founder to subsequent executives without mission creep
• 48:50 - Incorporating Christian ministry care with the medical care to heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God
• 53:35 - The importance of having a specialized skill that you can transfer and train others in

Podcast music by Kirk Osamayo. Free Music Archive, CC BY License

You cannot have a conversation around global issues without considering the state of the earth itself. We are talking today with educator, author and climate advocate Dr. Forrest Inslee to learn, "what on earth is happening with the earth?" Dr. Inslee brings a distinctly Christian viewpoint to the conversation as we consider the damage being done to the environment and how Christians that are engaging vulnerable communities around the world have a role to play in supporting not just people, but all of God's creation.

Resources and Links from the show

Earthkeepers Podcast

Re-imagining Short Term Missions

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Katharine Hayhoe

Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land by Norman Wirzba

Conversation Notes

• 7:10 - Remembering that God loves all ethnicities and nationalities the same and Jesus making us into family
• 10:15 - Blood relation, family and adoption in Turkey
• 15:15 - A snapshot of climate change, extreme weather, ecosystem loss and how a Christian should think through these realities
• 19:45 - The link between poverty and ecological degradation
• 23:40 - Christians believe that people matter most, but is it the case that people are all that matters.
• 27:57 - The way that people divide even in the midst of having something they could agree on (and also Parks and Rec)
• 34:45 - Is there a role for technology to solve our problems or is that just magic thinking that won't bear enough fruit
• 38:40 - Urbanization is a historic long term trend and how can people do something to take action
• 46:15 - The need to reimagine how we do short term missions
• 52:00 - Promising practices in short term missions and cross-cultural ministry
• 57:45 - Practicing humility and learning as we engage in justice work

In our first ever 3+1 episode, we're catching up on some global stories that you might have missed. We're talking about the war going on in Sudan, elections throughout the world, USAID waste and then learn of a great recommendation from our guest on developing monitoring and evaluation.

Conversation Notes

• 2:10 - Introduction to the 3+1 format and those that are in the conversation today
• 6:35 - The war in Sudan, the current situation, the history, the displacement, the genocide
• 11:35 - The economy of attention, why do we hear about certain problems or conflicts and not others
• 20:40 - Countries representing half of the world's population are heading to the polls this year.
• 25:10 - Legitimacy of the elections in question and walking the line between perception and reality
• 30:02 - What is the role of the church in civic participation?
• 36:10 - USAID's biggest contract in history goes a bit sour
• 44:50 - Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning resource for development professionals. Super helpful guide and directed course to equip you for this work.

Resources and Links from the Show

The Guardian : 'Why are they forgetting about us?': Sudan watches allies turn from war to aid Ukraine and Gaza

Politico : The global elections Washington should be watching in 2024

Devex : 'Too big to fail': How USAID's $9.5B supply chain vision unraveled

MEAL DPro: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning for Development Professionals

Sometimes in April Movie

The White Man's Burden by William Easterly

Think Orphan's Refugee Crisis Series

Theme music : Standing in the Rain by Kirk Osamayo. Free Music Archive, CC BY License

Author and development educator, Dr. Michael Pucci joins the show to talk with us about the spiritual and relational dynamics of poverty and helps us understand the biblical view of the global family of God. We also dive into a fascinating conversation on the multi-billion dollar aid industry (which is nuanced by the amount of remittances sent to the Global South). Dr. Pucci is based in Kigali where he runs Transformational Initiatives and invests in women's economic empowerment alongside other transformational development initiatives.

Resources and Links

Owning Poverty by Michael Pucci, PhD

2023 Global Philanthropy Tracker Full Report

Join our NEW Patreon Community

Conversation Notes

• What does it mean to coach towards transformation (6:30)
• Applying James 1:27 to understand the powerlessness of individuals and how family is the model for Christians to interact with others (9:30)
• Is it okay to show preference toward certain people within a Christian's life? (11:35)
• Understanding the condition of poverty and how it applies to everyone (17:50)
• The role of spiritual disciplines to know and participate in poverty (22:35)
• The reactions of people that are first encountering poverty (25:55)
• Poverty and suffering within the global Body of Christ (30:30)
• Hearing how the poor describe poverty (40:20)
• The importance of boundaries and diversity to promote social flourishing (43:00)
• The laying down of power and cultural dominance (51:00)
• Should we be building bridges or taking bridges apart? (57:00)
• The global aid industry, it's big, it's not working and the mode of engagement is off (59:45)
• Investigating our actions to see if they align with the Kingdom of God (1:11:00)

This podcast is something like day one, while at the same time seven years strong. In this trailer episode for Think Global, Brandon Stiver speaks to the heart of the podcast and the season that God is calling our community into. You'll hear about some of the updates to the podcast as well as more ways to connect with us. Brandon also introduces Canopy International, a global community for convening, connecting and collaborating.

Please support the show (seriously, we don't have backers anymore!) Here's our freshly set-up Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/canopyinternational/

Please rate and review the show as we seek to reach more globally-minded disciples that are looking for community and meaningful content.

Theme Music : Standing in the Rain by Kirk Osamayo. Free Music Archive, CC BY License.

Phil and Brandon share how God has been working through the podcast throughout 2023 as well as throughout the history since Phil started the show nearly seven years ago. As we close out the year, we share the direction that God is leading us to take the podcast in 2024 and beyond. This is a heartfelt, earnest community conversation on the podcast today.

We're adjusting the scope, changing the name and stepping into the next phase of this podcast community. We're grateful to have you in this community and are looking forward to going deeper with you as he calls all of us to better serve vulnerable and marginalized communities.

Support the podcast by joining our NEW Patreon community : Link