Category / Relief & Development

Over the past two years I have been part of a group focused on issues of community development among the least reached. As a result of that work, a new book, Undivided Witness: Jesus Followers, Community Development, and Least-Reached Communities

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Story 1 – Abdul purchased an antique oil lamp at the local market. When he brought the lamp home and began to clean it a jini came out and said, “Abdul, I have been trapped in this lamp for a …

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Barcilona, Spain – June 2016 CHS Alliance Conference on Humanitarian HR on the front lines…

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I have been feeling a bit melancholy this past month. I am not sure why, but maybe it has something to do with my strange job. As the director of Operation Mercy, there are two things that make my job …

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Here is a simple brand development metric.

Over the years, I have noticed three basic responses from people in Sweden when I tell them I work for Operation Mercy. They say either, “Who?”, “Oh” or “Wow!” Let me explain:…

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I was in Dohuk in N. Iraq this month visiting our team working among 20,000 Yazidi refugees from the city of Sinjar not far away. The same day I was at the Yazidi refugee camp the town of Sinjar was

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What do social workers, humanitarian aid workers, substance abuse counselors, and palliative care nurses have in common? Well for one, these honorable professionals are particularly vulnerable to 1) burnout, 2) compassion fatigue and 3) secondary traumatic stress. People working in …

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It has been fun to see that the international humanitarian sector’s most prominent HR actor, People In Aid has been promoting my doctorate research. Between January and May 2015, People In Aid (now CHS Alliance) have run four articles highlighting …

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three-legged stool of success in aid workOne of the interesting interpretations of the data from my doctorate research was this tree legged stool metaphor. The three legs: 1) relationships, 2) results, and 3) grit represent traits of people who successfully navigate the complexities of international aid …

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pear tree ub four seasons 3
The Parable of the Pear Tree

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look …

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