Who is my neighbour?

The world we live in means that our 'neighbour' is no longer just the people who live around us. Our 'neighbour' could be the person who made the shirt on our back, or the person who produced the coffee we drink, or the person who does not have access to the life-giving drugs we can pick up at the pharmacy. We live in a global world. It is much easier to take, even steal, from an unknown African family or a face-less Thai woman than to take or steal from our next-door neighbour because we never see the consequences. When we refuse to take trading fairly within our global market seriously that is just what we do, we steal from our neighbour and become part of the problem rather than the solution. We, as a church, must begin to take a stand on the key justice issue of our time and help others to see that we believe in a God who wants to bring "life before death" (Christian Aid) as well as life eternal. As an African pastor said, "How we people know there is a church if we aren't helping the poor?".