What We Do

What We Do

Our vision is to see the urban poor and their communities transformed by the power of Christ. This lofty goal sounds great, but what does “transformation” actually look like?

Transformation can be described as restoring broken relationships: our relationship with God, with our self, with others, and with creation.

Relationships in these four key areas underlie our human experience. Are they strong and vibrant, as God intends? What degree of brokenness exists in each area? Using this framework helps us to understand poverty, and the journey to wholeness and fullness of life that God wishes for us (John 10:10).

We are indebted to Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, who describe this biblical holistic framework in their book When Helping Hurts.

Within Servants we yearn to see these relationships healed and reconciled (both in ourselves, and our neighbors), and we recognize that we have an active part to play.

In the section below, we hope to highlight these areas of transformation, and provide some concrete examples of how we’re participating with Jesus to see healing and restoration.  It should be noted that all the projects aim to integrate all areas, but are separated to emphasize a certain aspect of transformation.  After all, wholism is one of our core principles, so all the programs exist simply as doorways to wholistic transformation of real people.

We are created to be in deepening relationship with God as revealed in Jesus. When this is happening, we grow in our understanding of who God is, what God is like, and how God sees us and calls us. God heals us, forgives us, corrects our untruths, and invites us to join God’s dance of creation, redemption, and sustaining life.

Underlying brokenness here might ultimately sound like: (for those suffering) “God has forgotten me”, or “God has judged me worthless”; or (for the rich) “God is irrelevant”, or “God has ordained the status quo (with me as beneficiary)”. Transformation in this area helps us to face suffering, make difficult choices for good, increase in compassion, and find a sense of purpose.

Examples within Servants where we are working towards transformation in this area:

Servants Manila was instrumental in establishing the “Living Springs” network – made up of seven churches in different communities. These small churches in slum areas not only provide a spiritual home but often function as change agents in their neighborhoods in practical ways. One example is pre-school education for children living in slums, done in the church buildings with teachers from the churches.

We need to have culturally relevant ways for people to engage in as we worship Jesus together.  Our teams in India have pioneered what this could look like.  To find out more about what this means, and why it’s important, watch The Kingdom Tree video.

David, who worked in India has a passion for communicating God’s character through story.  Click hear to hear more about his “Is God Nice?”  initiative, and read more about his projects here.

Servants prayer litanies:  All of our field teams contributed to create a collection of prayers.  These are designed to draw us closer to God, and remind us of God’s heart for our neighbors and our neighborhoods.

Created in 2004, this Biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation wove together Cambodian proverbs & folk-stories, plus art-work by a local artist. Roughly 2,000 copies were printed & distributed over the years.

What the Hell Bible Studies: During the summer of 2009, a former Servants intern initiated a unique “Bible study” while planting trees in northern Canada.

We are created to have healthy relationships with ourselves.  Being designed in God’s image, we have inherent beauty, worth, and dignity. Self-respect means understanding and caring for the needs of our minds, spirits, and bodies.

Examples within Servants where we are working towards transformation in this area:

Parhna Warna employs an affirming, learner-focused literacy program to help neighbors (mostly children) learn how to read.  Young men and women have been equipped to teach the program, serving others in their community as well as helping to support their families.  Parhna Warhna has also facilitated acting workshops for the kids, storytelling, science lessons, and origami crafts for development of creative thinking and motor skills, interpersonal skills, and problem solving.

Onesimo: This ministry helps young people whose lives in the slums, or streets, are filled with hopelessness. Onesimo has eleven communities throughout Metro Manila with over 130 young people. Most were drug users, whose lives had been broken by this destructive habit. In Onesimo, they are introduced to a meaningful and restored life through Jesus Christ. HOW?

Onesimo Bulilit grew out of Onesimo as a ministry reaching out to younger street children and street dweller families.  It focuses on the streets of some of the most congested inner cities of Manila, and has established drop-in centers for street children, provides educational assistance and non-formal education, runs a residential center for abused children, trains young leaders, and advocates for children’s rights.

Educational opportunities for the poor are very limited as are their resources. Lilok is offering practical and innovative courses for youth leaders and community workers to be equipped to work for improvements in the context of their respective neighbourhoods. Through Lilok, Servants Manila is investing in the lives of urban slum leaders and church workers.

J-Team health education group, which reaches mums who have their kids in teams school, They also offer a pregnancy support group.

Shomota is a social business that provides beautiful, sustainable cloth menstrual pads. They are empowering women to love their bodies, its natural cycles, and the environment in which they are surrounded. They are breaking down the barriers of gender inequality and training women as artisans, from marginalized communities in India, giving them hope and opportunity for their future. Join them in creating a healthier world, one menstrual cycle at a time. Read more here.

Kiran Social Enterprises (KSE) is a vocational training and employment center for women from the slums in India. Kiran focuses on women primarily unemployed or employed in the informal sector. This means that women especially are undervalued and have little to no rights in their workplace, including recourse for dispute resolution.

We are created to have right relationships with others.  We share this life with others: families, neighbours, strangers, migrants, traders, rulers, both near and distant. We are called to grow in justice, balancing the needs and rights of all. We seek to know, love, and serve each other. With a stance of mutual respect, we listen and learn, and practice healthy communication and conflict. This means healthy families, economic sufficiency, community engagement, and societal systems that work for all.

Justees is a project in which young men who have kicked their drug habit can work for a fair wage while still continuing their schooling through flexible work hours. They highly value work as a creative outlet and a means to earn a living. For this reason Justees seeks to operate as a self-funding project, encouraging the staff to see that the better they work the more successful it becomes.  You can read more here.

Waihopai protest:  In 2008 three peace activists in New Zealand (including Servants Elder Adi Leason), deflated a plastic dome surrounding a US spy base. Watch a news clip after they were found not guilty of any crimes here.

Kamay Krafts is a cooperative in the Philippines that provides livelihood opportunities to over a hundred women who have to work from their home. Through this cooperative, these women export innovative products into several countries. The income generated is shared fairly among its members. Because they are able to work at home, where they can still care for their children, these women now receive an income and dignity through their hand-made items. For more information, visit their website here

Creative World Justice is a group of folks that come together in Vancouver to worship God through creative engagement in world issues.  In the past they’ve taken on justice issues such as cruise ships, Singaporean maids, and sex trafficking.

J-team accompanying neighbours to navigate the bureaucracies of public health and systems of documentation, access free TB treatment, challenges health professionals and bureaucrats to use their power with integrity and compassion, also inspires and empowers neighbours to serve each other in a similar way.

Christians for Social Justice: This is a group in Phnom Penh that created a meeting place between Christians exploring social justice, & human rights workers exploring spirituality/Jesus. Together, the group has mobilised and taken part in a number of activities involving human rights, social justice, and protest.

Servants was involved with about 10 health & development programs, which ran for 20.  These programs brought health care to the poorest of the poor in urban Phnom Penh.

We are created to be in right relationship with creation.  The natural world is entrusted to our care, and “waits with eager longing” for us to fulfil our unique roles as images of God, whoever we are, wherever we are. We learn to listen to its groans, move with its rhythms, humbly receive its gifts, and work for its freedom from “bondage to decay” (Rom 8). We are stewards and caretakers of this earth.

Examples within Servants where we are working towards transformation in this area:

Sakahang Lilok is an organic farm retreat at the edge of Manila offering people from the city special time-outs for rest, reflection, engaging with nature and the Creator. It is an opportunity for poor people to get a holiday from the slums and experience a model of creation care. 

Our teams in Southall (UK) and  Vancouver (Canada) have both turned vacant areas in their neighborhoods into community gardens where life can thrive.

The Manila Solar Project was birthed from a desire to provide clean energy for the poor in Manila.

Ashadesh is a not for profit social enterprise working to enable families living in the slums of India to switch from primitive, smoky stoves that deal disease and death to clean burning ones. Read more here.

Strategies for Transformation

over the years, servants has employed a number of strategies as we prayerfully work for the transformation of our impoverished neighbourhoods. here are a few examples:

We dream of catalysing movements that will transform the lives of the urban poor. Since local Christians are at the heart of what God is doing in this world, we consult and partner with local churches. We build relationships with individuals, churches, missions, Government agencies and NGOs who share our concern for the urban poor.

We want to be, and to nurture disciples who will live out the teachings of Christ. We also seek to raise up servant-hearted local leaders who will equip the body of Christ rather than build an institution.

We listen and learn first, to see what God is already doing in people’s lives and communities. Then, where appropriate, through sensitive evangelism and discipleship we establish local Christian communities who will live as radical followers of Jesus.

We work with the poor to see their communities transformed. Because we live amongst them, we gain a deeper understanding of the locallanguage and culture and can thus build deeper relationships. We recognise that the poor have resources to contribute to their own transformation. Sustainable transformation depends more on mobilising those ideas, skills, energies and resources than on outside monetary contributions. Our gifts and external resources are offered to build the capacity of the poor community.

We aim to empower local people and their organizations. Initially, we may establish a Christian community, ministry or business, but from the beginning we work towards handing over responsibility to local people with appropriate structures and budgets.

Disasters and hard times are frequent in the lives of the poor. We help individuals and whole communities at such times to identify and access assistance to relieve suffering and advance justice, without creating long-term dependency. Such work includes helping them become less vulnerable to future crises and addressing root causes.

Through prayer, worship, advocacy and non-violent direct action we will stand with the poor in opposing injustice and in proclaiming the Kingdom. We follow Christ’s teaching and example which refuses to use violence, but works for peace and reconciliation. We promote the rights, needs and aspirations of the poor among the middle class and rich, building bridges wherever we can.

We are open to God leading us into new cities and new countries based on the calling of new Members, invitations from local organisations and research into strategic opportunities consistent with our ethos.

Stories of Transformation

God is present and active in the places we live and work. Many of our neighbors suffer multiple levels of disadvantage. We witness lots of suffering and desperation, with no easy answers. Yet we also witness amazing beauty, resilience, generosity and love. Click the button below to read stories about how we’ve seen God at work, in the transformation of people’s lives.

Stories of Transformation
Covid-19 & the Urban Poor

All of us were affected by Covid-19. But how did this global pandemic impact the urban poor? Click the button below to access a series of articles and reflections related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as experienced in the slums of Asia, by our teams and their neighbors.

Covid-19 Stories from Servants Workers