From "Co-laboring with God to turn an upside down world right-side up" (a position paper that Joel helped to write for Apache Youth Ministries)-
Something that is synonymous with the Gospel is that God has a special place in His heart for the lost, oppressed, outcast, and stranger. In order to minister to those in need, it is essential to not only understand the nature of those needs, but also to understand some of the underlying (and often hidden) factors that cause those needs. When Jesus ministered, He ministered to the whole person: emotional, physical, and spiritual. As His ambassadors, we want to be holistic (considering all factors) in our approach to ministering to those in need with justice and mercy, realizing that poverty is relative, and that there are different mindsets among the persons in the different strata of society. Another important issue that we will address is that there are underlying factors that cause much of the need and behavior that puts futures in jeopardy that we encounter while working with those in generational poverty. In the case of the reservation system we will see that there is a whole system behind these situations, and we will consider what that means for us who minister full-time and short-term in the region.
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