Acton senior fellow Marvin Olasky writes about two examples of churches placing the needs of Christians and evangelism in the developing world above their own forts. In the first piece, Olasky discusses Mount Zion United Methodist Church just outside of Baltimore.

While mid-Atlantic heat can be oppressive, it’s pared that of the everlasting lake of fire. With this priority of the eternal over the temporal in mind, the congregation decided “the sanctuary would get air conditioning only after the congregation built a church in Africa.”

To this end, Olasky writes, “The church came up with the money, and from there, amazingly, everything — personnel, permits, property, governmental approvals, construction — went right. The orphanage opened in 2003 and now provides food, shelter, medical care, clothing and schooling for the children at a cost of about $11,000 per month.” And thus the Children of Zion orphanage in Namibia was founded.

The second story is about Damascus Wesleyan Church, north of Washington, DC, that instead of expanding worship space, “went to purchase a 99-year-lease on 10,000 acres here in Senkobo, 15 miles north of Livingstone and the Zimbabwe border. The land came with a beautiful farm house, 2,700 fruit trees, cattle and other animals, four deep wells, three dams, a tobacco-curing barn that could be turned into apartments, and other farm buildings that could e orphanages and classrooms.”

It’s great to hear about Christian churches taking action themselves, loving their neighbors, and not succumbing to morality melting materialism.