Jesus said that we would always have poor people with us. Through Cuirim Outreach, we are feeding and clothing people in one of the poorest places I have ever seen in person. Here in Nogales, Sonora (a state in Mexico), there is a neighborhood called The Colosio. In this neighborhood, there are mainly houses made from wooden pallets and scraps of tin roofing. There is no running water, no sewer and no paved roads. Here, families are assailed by poverty in the forms of lack of food and a lack of warm clothing. Right now, we are experiencing a "cold snap". Last night, the temperatures hovered in the lower 40s and it rained. Imagine sleeping in a home with huge gaps in the walls and holes in the roof. Imagine it being blustery as it was yesterday in Nogales and not having enough blankets. On top of this, you didn't have anything for dinner because there was no food in the house. I think you get the idea.
"Cuirim" is a Celtic word meaning "incarnation". It references the incarnation of God in human form: Jesus. The Cuirim House is modeled after a Celtic monastery. Today when we think of a monastery, we think of monks who cloister themselves away from the world. However, Celtic monastaries were the exact opposite. A Celtic monastery would be set up in a village or hamlet and was intended to be a light in the spiritual darkness. They engaged the people around them, providing hospitality and the love of God. In fact, while most of Europe was plunging into the "Dark Ages" and the institutionalized church was teaching false doctrine, the Celtic church kept the flame of the Gospel burning and send out missionaries all through Europe. For more information on this tradition and how the Celtic Christian church changed Europe, you can check out a book called "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George Hunter. Here is a link to another blog which talks about the Celtic tradition:
http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=7135
Scroll down to the heading "Changing a Place" for information on the Celtic monastic movement in particular, but the entire article is worth reading.
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1 Corinthians 1:26-31
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
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