Why Loving The Poor Changes You: A Guest Post by Kelly Minter

Kelly Minter shares her experiences from the Amazon and what they taught her about poverty and herself.

I touched down in Manaus, Brazil—The Gateway to the Amazon—and within an hour I was on a wooden boat sailing down the largest river in the world, blue and glassy with reflections of wool clouds and a crisp sky. I was there with Justice and Mercy International, a ministry to the forgotten people of the Amazon. I could have never imagined at the time how the course of this river—boasting pink dolphins, anacondas and caimans—would so affect the course of my life. That week we ministered in various villages that sit along the river’s banks and we slept the nights in hammocks. Caimans clicked and piranhas splashed and all manner of species called and cooed under the canopy of dark. Still, the Amazon’s people would prove the most exotic catalyst for change in my life.

Perhaps the first thing the ribeirinhos (river people) taught me is that the poor and forgotten desire something different than what we think they do. In Western culture we’re prone to rely on our stuff, resources and thoughtful solutions as the great big answer to most everything. But a fourteen year-old boy named Alexio reminded me that the needs of the heart are far deeper than what we attempt to fix with our wealth and resources.

During one of the worst recorded floods in Amazon history, the swift rise of the river was mere centimeters from his stilted hut. The second oldest of ten, whose father and oldest brother had left the family, Aleixo’s countenance wore the frightful responsibility. I encouraged him in his faith and quickly moved onto offering the help that any fix-it American would: food bags, extra fuel, a construction worker to shore up his home.

Aleixo politely nodded as though I had missed the …