Dwight and Barbara Bolick
 
Dwight and Barbara Bolick and their two children serve in Chile alongside the churches of the Convention of Baptist Churches of the Chilean Mission in ministries of economic and leadership development. Their primary focus is with the Mapuche churches in southern Chile. The Mapuche are the indigenous people of Chile and Argentina. They struggle with severe poverty, lack of sustainable livelihoods, and the debilitating, culture-eroding effects of centuries of domination. Barbara and Dwight, with the Mapuche churches, have established programs for the recovery and use of the native language, Mapudungun, in worship, evangelism, and service; entrepreneurship training in a rural context (beginning with the production of traditional weavings, and beekeeping for honey production); and theological education.

The Bolicks also serve in equipping leaders among the Convention’s other churches. They both teach and preach in churches from Santiago to the Lake District. Barbara helps churches develop ministries to women and children and Dwight focuses on stewardship, helping churches grasp their potential to create and sustain Christ-like ministries in their communities.

Click here for the Bolicks’ website

Jean-Luc and Shabrae Krieg
Jean-Luc and Shabrae Krieg are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Urban Mosaic!  When Shabrae and Jean-Luc moved to Mexico City from Philadelphia, they had a dream, very few resources and much learning to do.  Today, they’ve become an established organization with 16 full-time staff, holistically impacting the lives of over 10,000 urban slum dwellers a year.  From the beginning their goal was to create a change model that would birth, coach and develop holistic churches, community-based initiatives and broad-based coalitions that would contribute to long-lasting transformation in the lives of urban poor people and slum communities.  s

Introduction to Urban Mosaic – How do you engage the overwhelming nature of urban poverty?  And how do you quantify the outcomes of the holistic, people-driven development work of Urban Mosaic?  That has been an endeavor with years in the making.  The change model Urban Mosaic developed centers around five key focus areas that address urban poverty holistically, each including one or more of ten different impact measures of “signs.”  Combined, they embody a colorful mosaic of the transformed lives God designed for us all.

Urban poverty is multi-dimensional, and so it’s important to develop holistic solutions.  Development driven by the people is characterized by:

• Learning that Empowers, providing improved access to life-enhancing education.
• Healthy Habitat for All, emphasizing responsible stewardship of space, the environment and health of the community
• Wealth Creation, at the lowest levels of society, creating opportunities to achieve economic self-sufficiency.

Urban poverty is based in hopelessness and a web of lies that entraps the poor in an ongoing cycle of indignity.  That’s why planinting and revitalizing faith communities provides a powerful context for holistic change, both through:

• Jesus Communities, which become a center for change at all levels
• Mental Freedom, where people discover spiritual and psychological health and freedom from destructive patterns.

Urban poverty, in essence, is a breakdown of relationships, so we engage in peace building which involves a transformation towards more manageable peaceful relationships and governance structures–the long-term process of addressing root causes and effects, reconciling differences, normalizing relations, and building up people and institutions that can manage conflict, without resorting to violence.  Key relationships include

• Whole Families, focusing on family health and well-being
• Strong Civil Society, building civic participation for the common good.
• Deepening Reconciliation and relationship building between and among the poor and non-poor.

Click here for the Kriegs’ website