Our congregation has received a letter from a man in the Philippines requesting aid in the form of Bibles, songbooks, and other training materials. Given the concerns you mention, how do you feel about giving non-monetary aid directly to a specific congregation?<\/p>\n\t
Direct aid is less likely to be abused. However, I have owned a bookstore for ten years and have learned that there are some who will request Bibles. Generally, the scheme is to make a “purchase” and then claim the shipment was lost. The Bibles are then sold on the black market, where they bring in more money than you might expect in third-world countries where the printing costs are very high.<\/p>\n
Direct aid has its downfall as the cost of shipping books is very high unless you are willing to use methods that can take 3-6 months to arrive.<\/p>\n
If you are talking to someone in the Philippines, then find out what the native dialect is in his region, and send material in that dialect. Surprisingly, most religious terms are in Spanish there because of the Roman Catholics coming in centuries ago from Spain. Most Filipinos can speak and read English, but very poorly. The goal should be to get the gospel out to a wide audience, so materials people can use directly will be better. There is a tendency for preachers to set up a clergy\/laity system where they are the dispensers of knowledge and the use of materials in a language the common people can’t readily understand promotes this (think of the old Catholic church and its insistence of using Latin).<\/p>\n
Keep in the back of your mind that there are some who will use the request for material as a way to open the door for future requests. If this happens, you will find yourself regularly getting letters about problems, illnesses, and disasters which all need money to solve. I strongly recommend that money is not sent except via a trusted representative who can see that the need actually exists and sees that the money is spent on that need. It costs more and is slower, but it is the way people did it in the New Testament and it is less open to abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Our congregation has received a letter from a man in the Philippines requesting aid in the form of Bibles, songbooks, and other training materials. Given the concerns you mention, how do you feel about giving non-monetary aid directly to a specific congregation? Answer: Direct aid is less likely to be abused. However, I have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[194,478,159],"class_list":["post-13296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-benevolence","tag-false-teachers","tag-giving"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36850,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-far-can-a-church-go-in-assisting-a-congregation-in-a-disaster-area\/","url_meta":{"origin":13296,"position":0},"title":"How far can a church go in assisting a congregation in a disaster area?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How far can a congregation go to help another congregation in need? For example several states away a congregation's building gets destroyed by a hurricane along with several members homes. Because of the devastation, they have no access to building supply stores and the like. They are not just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21108,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-receive-funds-from-non-believers-or-an-organization\/","url_meta":{"origin":13296,"position":1},"title":"Can a church receive funds from non-believers or an organization?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you very much for your web site. I find it both educative and encouraging. Can I trouble you, my beloved brother, with some questions? Can a faithful congregation receive aid for the needy in the congregation from a non-believer or an organization? Can a faithful brother solicit relief\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96218,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/in-a-disaster-should-congregations-help-a-congregation-rebuild\/","url_meta":{"origin":13296,"position":2},"title":"In a disaster, should congregations help a congregation rebuild?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Brother Hamilton, I have already read several of your articles on benevolence, and they are quite useful.\u00a0I was hoping that you could provide some answers to the following. A church is hit by a natural disaster, and brethren have damage to their homes and vehicles. There is also damage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-solicit-funds-from-congregations-that-have-different-doctrinal-views\/","url_meta":{"origin":13296,"position":3},"title":"Is it wrong to solicit funds from congregations that have different doctrinal views?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is a Christian allowed to solicit funds from a congregation with which his home congregation has no fellowship for evangelistic works? For example, one is a conservative church and the other a liberal church. Answer: Sending funds to support the preaching of the Gospel is a form of fellowship\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69527,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/aids-versus-additions\/","url_meta":{"origin":13296,"position":4},"title":"Aids versus Additions","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall Years ago, it was common to hear arguments concerning the difference between aids and additions in worshiping God. This involved hermeneutics. Let's presume we all agree that adding to the word is unscriptural. How do we know when we are simply using an aid? Where does the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66857,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-one-congregation-withdraw-from-another-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":13296,"position":5},"title":"Can one congregation withdraw from another congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a church withdraw from Christians who are not members of the local congregation? 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark those who cause division and hindrances -\u00a0Romans 16:17 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Philippians 3:17\u00a0- Mark those who are good examples 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Galatians 5:15\u00a0- Don't bite and devour each other. C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Can a church withdraw from another church? Hey Brother Hamilton!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}