Articles for tag: Ash Barker

December 15, 2014

By Stephen Lawson From a certain perspective, my neighborhood looks like a disaster area. Many buildings are vacant and appear to have been bombed out. There are collapsed roofs and precariously leaning walls on many houses. Whole blocks seem to be completely lifeless and abandoned. Nearly every corner has a church, or a school, or a store that is boarded up and closed for good. The streets are littered with broken glass, used tires, and trash. “Urban blight” is what city planners call this””neighborhoods that look like war zones. A better term for it might simply be “visible poverty.” Poverty.

November 11, 2013

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

A Conversation with Doug Priest

Meet Our Contributing Editors: This month we talk with Doug Priest, executive directorÂ of Christian Missionary Fellowship International, about missions trends, short-term missions trips, and the worldwide multiplication of urban squatters. Interview by Jennifer Johnson How did you get started in missions? My parents went to Ethiopia as missionaries before I began high school. We first heard about it when I was a sixth-grader, and I said, “Oh boy, I get to be Tarzan!” My younger sister was very excited because she wanted a monkey. (She actually did have a pet baboon for a while.) I attended a very good boarding

November 17, 2012

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Urban Ministry: Not Just an Academic Concern

By Kendi Howells Douglas In January 2012, an academic society was formed and met for the first time in Bangkok, Thailand. The International Society of Urban Mission is a gathering of like-minded Christians, teachers, missionaries, and urban practitioners from around the world. Its members focus on the issues of urban life, specifically serving those who live in poverty-stricken conditions in the growing slums around the world. Officially, “The International Society For Urban Mission exists, therefore, to be a fellowship of urban missiologists committed to seeking God”s Shalom in cities, especially majority world cities, through active reflection, solidarity and leadership development.”1

November 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Signs of Hope Amid Urban Suffering

By Ash Barker Suffering and despair can easily overwhelm us, strangling any last tinges of hope we have for something better. This is often the case in our neighborhood, the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok, Thailand. Here we are confronted with HIV-AIDS, child malnutrition, and premature death as daily realities. The fragility of life and lack of control often cause us to cry out to God, who promises that a better world is possible. However, sometimes we can only pray, “How long do we have to sing this song? When will things get better?” Biblical hope is more than just

September 3, 2012

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square

Cooking with Poo Book Turning Heads Worldwide

By Jennifer Johnson It”s the attention-getting title of a new cookbook that”s received international attention””and helped Saiyuud “Chompoo” DiwongÂ create a new life for herself and her family in the Klong Toey slum of Bangkok. Poo began by offering cooking classes as part of a microenterprise initiative led by Ash and Anji Barker, directors of Urban Neighbors of Hope (UNOH), which partnered with Christian Missionary Fellowship (Indianapolis, IN) earlier this year. The Barkers and two other families live in theÂ Bangkok, Thailand, slums and lead community centers, a Christian school, the Helping HandsÂ microenterprise program, and more. Other UNOH teams live among the

November 22, 2010

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Standing with Jesus in Urban Chaos

By Ash Barker On the morning of May 19, all hell broke loose across Bangkok. While more than 1,000 people were injured and over 50 died in the two months leading up to this day, May 19 was the most violent, bloody climax imaginable. Not far from our slum house””just a few-minutes walk away””a mob was using grenades, M-16s, and machetes to fight the army and loot convenience stores, luxury shopping malls, and banks. By midday, the crazed mob was inching ever closer to our slum. I looked up from the Klong Toey Community Centre and saw plumes of smoke

January 24, 2010

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Pastoral Transitions & Succession

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

By Ash Barker How do we know if it”s time to move on or to dig deep and persevere? As an urban mission worker for nearly 20 years, I know how much is at stake. It pains me to see so many Christian leaders either hang on to an assignment for far too long, wringing the life out of a community, or withdraw prematurely, missing out on what was possible in that community. How can we know the right time to transition out of our current roles? I have some experience with this, and have helped many others to do