The Australian Baptist Ministries is the nationwide body of all Australian Baptist Churches. It is through this body that local churches, state and territory unions partner jointly in national ministries. Baptist World Aid Australia is essentially the development and aid agency for Australian Baptist Ministries and it runs as an independent entity/association having its own staff, directors and Board.
Baptist World Aid Australia Vision:
The Vision is a world in which poverty has ended and all the people are enjoying the fullness of life as intended by God.
Baptist World Aid Australia Mission:
- To partner with other like-minded agencies abroad in empowering communities so that they lift themselves out of endless poverty, challenge all injustices and build their own resilience.
- To partner with churches and Christians in Australia, especially those from the Baptist church movement, in bighearted giving, moral consumption, bold advocacy and truthful prayer to achieve justice for those who are living in poverty.
- To create an enriching and professional environment for Baptist World Aid Australia board and staff as they serve humanity in the Name of Jesus.
The Values:
As an organisation Baptist World Aid Australia is:
- Directed and motivated by Christian values and principles;
- Committed to utilizing resources with integrity, transparency, and accountability;
- Committed to quality and excellence by being a learning and creative organisation;
- Committed to according value to all those who are working for the organisation.
In development work, Baptist World Aid Australia is committed to:
- Development that is holistic being an expression of the gospel of Christ;
- Working for equality, justice, and equity;
- Working in collaboration with developing countries communities;
- Ecological, economic, and social sustainability in all activities.
The Work of Baptist World Aid Australia
Baptist World Aid Australia is convinced that God desires a better future for those people who are living in poverty. Baptist World Aid supports indigenous Christian organizations which assist communities to visualize the better future that God desires for them and to chase it for themselves.
Baptist World Aid Australia is partnering with overseas indigenous Christian organizations. These are those organizations that are facilitating community programs of development in communities having highest poverty levels. Baptist World Aid Australia works with Christian partners for the reason that they do share a Biblically framed appreciation of the better future that God wants for His people who are living in poverty. The organization works with indigenous partners since they possess the best insights into the communities they are in and are the ones who are best placed to assist in empowering local communities to pursue and own that better future.
Baptist World Aid is currently having 46 partners in 18 countries managing 74 projects. These partners are provided with financial support, and accountability training to make them effective and better change agents. Baptist World Aid is also learning from the partners and values the openings they are providing towards helping them grow in effectiveness.
Working with local communities
Poverty leaves lots of our people hungry, heavily malnourished, at risk of disease and untimely death, untrained, greatly dispossessed, excluded from society and much more. Whilst the impacts generally are most felt by the individual, true and lasting solutions entail whole communities' involvement. Baptist World Aid Australia supports work that empowers communities to recognize God's purposed better future and take action jointly to create that great future.
Areas of Work
Community Development
Baptist World Aid Australia community projects are working with communities to make out the causes of their own poverty and find out ways to utilize their strengths in building solutions that are sustainable in the long run. Baptist World Aid Australia is partnering with many local Christian organizations that are supporting, giving resources and training communities as they implement their plans for overcoming poverty.
Community Development that is Child Centred
The Baptist World Aid Australia programs are working with families, children, and communities towards helping them in the creation of places that contribute to nurturing children's wellbeing, bringing about long-range change and generating a future that is better for all children.
Disaster Management
Whenever disasters strike, Baptist World Aid Australia funds partners to perform emergency relief services and rehabilitation for the communities that are affected. They in addition work with communities that are vulnerable to assist them in preparing for potential disasters.
Advocacy
Baptist World Aid Australia mobilizes Australian churches and supporters towards defending the rights of the needy and poor through advocacy, giving, and moral consumption as well as through prayer
Theology of Development
Being a Christian development and aid organisation, Baptist World Aid Australia's practices are informed by the reading of Christian Scriptures and by contemporary developmental theory.
The organization is convinced that God created a world in which human beings would thrive as they enjoyed correct relationships with God, their Creator, with each another, within themselves and with the rest of God's creation. However, human sin has badly fractured these ideal relationships. The positive change for God or 'Development' wants for people, happen as they shift towards the right kinds relationships with their God, the others and with the rest of God's creation.
The Christian Scriptures make out poverty as a particularly exasperating expression of the way in which sin fractures our wellbeing. The world's poor are being locked out of easy access to the earth's abundance, confined to the margins of society and deprived of the chance of participating in the noble calling towards stewardship of the earth and all its resources.
However, God is at work in overcoming this. As the poor communities are developing livelihoods, regaining their lost voice, and participating in making decisions that are greatly affecting their daily lives they are in fact developing and moving towards the world of correct and right relationships that God intends.
Getting involved
As believing followers of Jesus Christ we are all called to go further than that occasional act of compassion and fully embrace a daily lifestyle which is bring blessing to those people who are living in abject poverty.
There are 5 simple yet very powerful things you could do to become an agent of change for those people that living in poverty. By doing so, you will be discovering that God wants to attain more than you would possibly envisage.
Be Open
To comprehend God's love for those people who are in want and need, and to understand how best to reach out and work for better justice, Baptist World Aid Australia staff opens their minds and hearts to listen to the Word of God and to the voices of those people who are living in poverty.
Be Vocal
Baptist World Aid Australia believes that God calls us all to speak up for better justice for the oppressed and the poor.
Be Generous
God calls on all of us to generosity for those who are in need. When well directed, your generosity will translate into many transformed lives.
Be Fair
God calls on each one of us to treat with fairness the poor. Even though we are all linked to poor people by trade and the environment we share, the poor and needy are frequently exploited while their environment gets degraded. You can do something!
Be Prayerful
God calls on all of us to pray for the oppressed and poor as well as those who are always working with them
