Please check out the new Riley For Agriculture Commissioner web site/ blog :
www.RileyForAgriculture.com . Give me your thoughts & forward to all your friends.

I need your help

Posted by Les Riley at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments

Anthony Mathenia -- a Missionary from our church is doing some of this same work in Ethiopia. I found this through a link on his Blog ( I would encourage you to sign up for a udates and pray for/ support their work)

This link is from a mission organization that seeks :

"A holistic Christian development program in Bolivia teaching the poor to drill their own deep water wells. We are sponsored by Southland Baptist Church of San Angelo, TX. USA/Hendricks Ave. Baptist of Jacksonville Florida/ World Concern Bolivia/Baptist in Bolivia and other caring churches and individuales "

They also do the practical work of offering " low cost windmills and low cost alternative, farming tools that help families grow more , stop slashing and burning, protect soils, wtih tools poor families can afford.." that helps " small farmers trying to move beyond subsistance poverty" as detailed on this link.

Interestingly enough, I read an article this morning on South America Daily about a controversy over the way that Peru is inefficiently using all the foriegn aid that has come in since the earthquake.

The contrast between bottom up, Christian charity and top down government aid could not be more clear. One uses meager resources & relationships to provide real help that has many unforseen positive side effects that go well beyond the originally intended goal. The other bureaucratically -- and usually tainted with mulitiple ulterior motives -- throws money at problems and uses the "bull-in-a-china-shop" approach that often has unforseen consequences in other areas and often creates whole new problems.

Yet, more often than not, people ( even conservative Christians) see a problem & immediately want the governement to "help".

Posted by Les Riley at 4:25 AM | Permalink | Comments