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God calls us to love one another, and while sometimes this commandment leads us to do good things for<\/em><\/strong> others, at other times it leads us to do good things in partnership with<\/em><\/strong> others.\u00a0 This is a constant issue we struggle with in the broad area of mission \u2013 doing for or doing with.\u00a0 While I believe that there is a place and actually a need for both, I tend to gravitate toward opportunities that would fall under the \u201cdoing with\u201d heading as that can lead to empowerment and self-sufficiency of the individuals or groups we are working alongside.<\/p>\n The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) is a perfect example of an empowerment model.\u00a0 SDOP makes it possible for us to financially support the programs or projects of disadvantaged communities through grants.\u00a0 This may sound very familiar \u2013 grants for programs or projects in disadvantaged communities.\u00a0 But, SDOP grants come with criteria unlike most other grant programs we may be familiar with.\u00a0 First, the project must be presented, owned, and controlled by the group of disadvantaged people who will benefit from it.\u00a0 This first criteria makes it impossible for the project to be one where some group is \u201cdoing for\u201d others.\u00a0 Second, the project needs to address a long-term correction of conditions that keep people bound by poverty and oppression.\u00a0 This second criteria leads directly toward empowerment and self-sufficiency of oppressed people.\u00a0 There are other criteria that include being sensitive to the environment; not advocating violence; and describing, in detail, goals, objectives, the roles of direct beneficiaries, and the methods used to achieve goals and objectives.\u00a0 However, the first two criteria are what set SDOP apart and make it harder to find grant recipients sometimes.<\/p>\n The churches in our Presbytery have lots of good programs and connections to organizations with good programs that help poor, oppressed, and marginalized people in our communities in a myriad of ways.\u00a0 We are very good at \u201cdoing for\u201d others and know of lots of organizations that run on that model.\u00a0 However, are you aware of groups in your community that are working to lift themselves out of poverty and oppression and make their own lives better?<\/strong>\u00a0 I would encourage all of us to open our eyes and ears and search out the groups of disadvantaged people in our area that are working to empower themselves.\u00a0 They are both exciting and inspiring!<\/p>\n As a reminder, our Presbytery is part of a joint SDOP Committee with the Presbytery of San Fernando.\u00a0 This committee has grant money available every year to support the work of groups that meet the SDOP criteria.\u00a0 If you know of a community group that meets the SDOP criteria and has a project or program that could use some financial assistance, please contact Wendy Gist at gist.wendy@gmail.com<\/a> and visit https:\/\/www.presbyterianmission.org\/ministries\/sdop\/<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav in_same_term=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.87″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” hide_prev=”off” hide_next=”off”][\/et_pb_post_nav][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. John 13:34 God calls us to love one another, and while sometimes this commandment leads us to do good things for others, at other times it leads us to do good things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23781,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23778\/revisions\/23781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}