There is no more salient, no more pressing global event right now for the Church to engage than what is happening currently in Gaza. Gaza presents not just a lightning rod for conversation (or controversy), but also serves as a moral compass for all humankind. The global Church is wrestling with questions like, "is Israel justified in their offensive?" "how do we understand the theology and politics in play?" and "are we watching a genocide unfold before our eyes?" To help us understand the broa...
Aug 12, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 293
The podcast is back from our summer break, but we're still in vacation travel mode! We're joined by author and photographer Ashley Campbell who is on the show to share about her new book "I've Never Been Here Before" and what it looks like to lead a big family on a big adventure around the world. From Morocco and Albania to the Philippines and Colombia, Ashley shares insight that isn't just about being a travel guide, but what it looks like to raise children that are truly global citizens. She s...
Aug 05, 2025•51 min•Ep. 292
It has been four years since Phil invited Brandon to take over the podcast and the conversations since then (and all the way back to Phil's founding of the podcast in 2016) have been rich, uplifting and led to the equipping of people throughout the world to care for the vulnerable. In this mid-year episode, we're preparing to take a month off from releasing episodes, but there's an even bigger transition for our podcast community. This is a conversation for those in this community. Join this per...
Jul 01, 2025•44 min•Ep. 291
There's no denying that western money in Global South countries has a profound impact, for better or worse. We might assume that spending money on volunteering and caring for orphans would be a net positive in the majority world. That however is not the case. As we dive back into the conversation around orphan care and volunteering, we're joined by filmmaker Barak Laub whose new documentary Volunteers Needed delves into this very dynamic in Nepal. He talks with Brandon Stiver about the film, his...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 290
Hope is a bit of a buzzword, but at the same time it is a lifeline for those that are experiencing humanitarian crises. What does it look like to experience hope in the midst of forcible displacement or losing your home in a natural disaster? Is it possible to have hope that is disconnected from the truth of Christ? Heath Adamson joins the show to help us think through these big questions. He talks with Brandon Stiver about his new book Hope Breaks Through and the work that Convoy of Hope is doi...
Jun 03, 2025•57 min•Ep. 289
It's impossible to ignore the interconnectedness of global justice issues and the complexity of systems that affect societies. Sometimes a system enables people to thrive and other times the system puts people at risk. A clear example of this is looking at food systems and malnutrition in Central America. To help us dive deeper, we have Curt Bowen of Semilla Nueva on the show today. With work that addresses malnutrition through economic development and government partnerships, Curt and his team ...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 288
James 1:27 has long been a central biblical text from which our podcast community has drawn from. But to what extent have we delved into the depths of the Jewish context in which James wrote? To help us go deeper on this text and the social implications of true religion, we've invited Dr. Andrea Siegel to the show. Dr. Siegel has years of experience in humanitarian work, Hebrew studies and counseling and brings that to the text as the curriculum writer on Helping Children Worldwide's most recent...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 287
War. Famine. Poverty. Violence. Natural Disasters. Working in humanitarian spaces puts us up close and personal with some of the worst kinds of evil and suffering. In the face of it all, we follow a God who is both all good and all powerful. How do those two realities compute? It's a quandary that has been around a long time and we've invited Southeastern University's Dr. Chris Palmer onto the show to help us think biblically and theologically when we're faced with the problem of evil. From the ...
May 06, 2025•47 min•Ep. 286
The most effective approaches to doing justice will acknowledge nuance and there is wisdom in maintaining tensions in the work God has called us to. Central to the work of global development is how we work among at risk children and youth and there are a lot of principles to balance in that space. In this solo episode of the podcast, Brandon Stiver breaks down a number of paradigms that children's rights advocates and practitioners operate within as we hope to find the right balance that will al...
Apr 29, 2025•56 min•Ep. 285
There is no doubt that the international development sector has changed drastically and permanently over the last couple of months. Starting with the closure of the vast majority of USAID programming, other donor countries have also withdrawn support from the global poor. Joining the show to guide us through what it looks like for Christians to stay engaged and advocate in this spaces is the Managing Director at Bread for the World, Heather Taylor. She walks us through specific policies that are...
Apr 15, 2025•56 min•Ep. 284
Developing local solutions to complex issues is foundational to global change. When it comes to food insecurity and health services, we recognize the need for local solutions at scale. Joining the show today from Rwanda is Isabelle Kamariza who is the Founder and President at Solid'Africa. She comes on the show to share with us who Solid'Africa works alongside the Rwandan government to improve nutritional outcomes for hospital patients, students and others in the community. We cover a lot of gro...
Apr 01, 2025•57 min•Ep. 283
It's March and the madness extends far beyond college basketball. In this episode, we look at the ramifications of losing Ukrainian child data through recent federal budget cuts and why upholding these children's humans right should matter to American Christians. Then we look at a new city development in Kenya that has some unique aspects that give both promise and pause. Lastly, Brandon Stiver shares a book recommendation on cross-cultural leadership that can help equip us for the ministries th...
Mar 25, 2025•38 min•Ep. 282
We talk a lot about global action on behalf of the vulnerable, but what about global engagement that looks like deepening our discipleship and spiritual formation? We've welcomed Randy Gonzales from Camino Quest on the show today to share with us how pilgrims travel (or even travail) the Camino de Santiago in Spain and what it looks like to connect with God through Christian pilgrimage. In a world that seems a bit wild, this is a reminder of the opportunities that God provides for us to slow dow...
Mar 18, 2025•54 min•Ep. 281
In 2025, there are still people in the world, even entire people groups, that have never heard the Good News. What's more is that access to distant places and global migration has never been higher. Is it possible to finish the Great Commission in our life time? We've got questions on how to reach more with the Gospel in word and deed and joining us for the conversation is Lisa Pak who is a leader with Finishing the Task that is focused on mobilizing the whole church to fulfill all of Christ's c...
Mar 04, 2025•56 min•Ep. 280
It's been a whirlwind of a month for global development practitioners. We've heard a lot of the 30,000 foot view of what the shuttering of USAID means and today we're talking with a practitioner from our community that was working on a USAID-funded project in El Salvador and what it was like to receive the stop order. After that, we'll be looking at a recent Christianity Today article that discusses the rise of cyberscam trafficking. Lastly, Brandon Stiver will be sharing a word of encouragement...
Feb 25, 2025•53 min•Ep. 279
We live in a world of tremendous conflict and as Christians, we are called to welcome those that have been forced to flee violence in their communities. For those of us called into this space, how do we mobilize Christians and advocate to the government for compassionate responses to such crises? We have long-time friend of the podcast Dr. Krish Kandiah on the show today to share what this has looked for him and the spaces God has called him into in recent years. Krish is an author, advocate and...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 278
Being an active follower of Christ will always lead us to find things that are incongruent with God's Kingdom and we'll want to do something about it. To do justice, we have to address injustice and that might require us to start something (and our community is full of people that start things). Starting something is hard though so we've invited author and pastor Bryan Halferty to walk us through the spirit and the tenacity it takes to undertake a new Kingdom venture. Bryan also shares about his...
Feb 04, 2025•58 min•Ep. 277
In our end of January episode, Brandon Stiver is walking through a few current issues as well as a Bible word study that offers a more robust understanding of what it means to do justice and how looking at the word in the Septuagint underscores the inextricable connection to to righteousness. Brandon welcomes Spencer Reeves to the show to share what the team at Child Hope International is seeing in the midst of the conflict within Haiti which has displaced more people than at any other point in ...
Jan 28, 2025•46 min•Ep. 276
There are so many needs within the work of anti-trafficking and orphan care, but what happens when people that are engaging as helpers are actually doing harm. Ego, poor practice and a desire for appearances can corrupt organizations that purport to be doing good. As a practitioner and journalist working in Southeast Asia, Erin Foley has been around the block working in organizations and comes onto the show today to share some of what she's seen and learned doing missions and nonprofit work over...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 275
As we anticipate the inauguration of President-Elect Trump later this month, we take a moment to consider how some of his public comments and proposed policies will affect global neighbors that are fleeing violence and seeking refuge in the US. To guide us through this conversation, we have Medard Ngueita on the show. Medard is the Executive Director at World Relief Western Washington. He has a vast knowledge on refugee resettlement not only as a long time team member at World Relief, but also b...
Jan 07, 2025•58 min•Ep. 274
Happy New Year's Eve! We have so much to be thankful for as we reflect on the last year of nonprofit ministry, podcasting, family and everything else! In this end of 2024 episode, Brandon and Phil will catch up our listeners on what is happening in their personal lives and ministry. Most importantly to you, dear listener, we share about the state of the podcast, how it's been since we did some rebrand/rescope and what the future of the podcast is. This is an episode for those listeners that want...
Dec 31, 2024•51 min•Ep. 273
The gospel is to be proclaimed and word and deed. Sometimes global practitioners easily step into the demonstration of justice and development work, but how do we make meaningful strides towards sharing the gospel's message with those we reach with critical life-saving services. Christopher Beth from The Bucket Ministry joins the show today to share with Brandon Stiver and Phil Darke about the simple work that their ministry undertakes in fifteen countries to both provide water access and share ...
Dec 24, 2024•57 min•Ep. 272
Mercy comes in all shapes and sizes and in order to reach the 5 billion people without access to safe surgery, we need a litany of different models. Since 1978, Mercy Ships has been working to increase access to life changing surgeries in underserved areas of the world and Raeanne Newquist from their team joins the show to share about what it looks like to live and serve on a floating city. Raeanne talks with Brandon Stiver about what it's like to serve alongside your kids, collaborating with na...
Dec 10, 2024•52 min•Ep. 271
The common adage "when you know better, you do better" makes sense. It also indicates that there is a need to transform what it is that we've been doing. When nonprofits around the world, including those working in Christian development and justice, recognize the need for organizational shifts, they may undertake the years-long process of change management. Perhaps your organization has gone through this (or perhaps it needs to!) To help us understand what change management looks like and what i...
Nov 26, 2024•55 min•Ep. 270
Trauma has the potential to cripple individuals that have experienced adversity, poverty and exclusion. There isn't an area where this is more clear than in global orphan care and there isn't a better person to walk us through what building resilience looks like than our guest today. Dr. Nicole Wilke is the Director at the CAFO Research Center where she leads a team focused on making research applicable to everyday practitioners in global child welfare. On the show, Nicole talks with Brandon Sti...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 269
The problems surrounding poverty are wicked and complicated. Pat answers and short term solutions are never going to get us where God is calling us to be. The challenge is that nonprofits often experience constraints (either real or perceived) that keep them from innovating better approaches to meeting peoples needs. We're joined today by Abe Wright and Greg Bixler who are the co-founders of Design Outreach. As an organization that not only values innovation but actively invests and rallies dono...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 268
Recorded live from the CCDA Conference in Portland, Oregon, we are joined by three educators equipping students globally to think biblically and pursue justice. On the show today we have Dr. Karen Fancher and Dr. Greg Burch from the Multnomah Campus of William Jessup University alongside Ernesto Duke who is the President at Eternity Bible College. They join Brandon Stiver for a conversation around the trajectory of Christian higher education, balancing ethics and philosophy with skill set develo...
Oct 15, 2024•45 min•Ep. 267
There is no lack of complex challenges when delivering health care in the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS crisis. On the show today, we have Echo VanderWal who is the Co-Founder and Executive Director at The Luke Commission in Eswatini. Echo joins Brandon Stiver and Phil Darke for a conversation about calling, the pain and loss created by the AIDS Crisis, the irreplaceable impact of PEPFAR and what it looks like to provide holistic care in rural communities. With over 20 years in the country, Echo poi...
Oct 01, 2024•50 min•Ep. 266
All is futility! Even in Christian nonprofits? We're changing it up a little for episode 265 as Brandon does a solo dive into the book of Ecclesiastes to gather wisdom from Solomon that can inform what we do and more importantly how we do the work of global justice. In an age of Big Impact, this is a word for the nonprofit leader that cares about the ethic of our approach and the opportunity for a compounding influence in a world where it seems that nothing ever changes. Get support for yourself...
Sep 17, 2024•40 min•Ep. 265
The number of forcibly displaced people in the world are at an all-time high. On every populated continent, we are seeing conflicts and climates that lead to people fleeing their homes. Our guest today is Myal Greene, who is the CEO of World Relief and he says that the global displacement crisis is the most significant issue that we face in the world today. We look at the last eighty years of how God has used World Relief to meet needs of people from war-torn areas and look at some of the most g...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 264
