This is an excerpt from the full feature in the November/ December 2026 edition of Faith Today.
In the corner of my basement office sits a box of newsletters I wrote many years ago. They’re a fun record of my five years as a missionary, reporting to those back home who were giving, praying or otherwise invested. These monthly newsletters are a time capsule, written with gratitude and joy, to real people I knew and cared about.
The recipients were genuinely invested. They didn’t just give – they got involved. One ended up serving alongside me in Latin America and stayed years after I left. One supporter couple started work in the Dominican Republic to grow self-sufficiency in communities experiencing extreme poverty, and 30 years later their work is still ongoing. Another couple retired early to use professional skills to set up local teams in countries experiencing disasters. Even as they stepped into their own work, they kept investing in mine.
I’ve been thinking of those newsletters a lot in recent months, thanks to a recent national study of attitudes toward global poverty.
The study surveyed Canadian Christian leaders and pastors in 2026 for Kentro, a Canadian Christian network of over 70 organizations working to address global poverty (KentroNetwork.ca).
Laura Solberg of Vancouver, executive director at Kentro, was "pleasantly surprised that Canadian Christians don’t need to be convinced that caring for the most marginalized around the world is a foundational part of their faith."
About 74% agreed such caring is foundational to faith, and an even higher 87% put their money where their hearts are by donating. But, only 7% said they "feel hopeful."
That gap is startling, because in reality there is reason to hope. Extreme poverty levels have fallen to 10% of the world’s population – a massive shift from 36% in 1990 (according to a 2018 World Bank Report).
(Yes, Covid-19 did make the poverty levels get worse temporarily, but a March 2026 update shows global extreme poverty was already back below pre-pandemic levels by 2024.)
So the reality is that Canadian Christians in dozens of organizations are doing incredible work to alleviate global poverty while meeting profound needs in our own neighbourhoods and communities. The Christian community really is living out its commitment to following Jesus’ command to love our neighbours at home and around the world.
That faithful commitment is bearing fruit that should make us overwhelmingly hopeful. Wendy Fehr of Calgary, executive director of CAUSE Canada (Cause.ca), challenges this hopelessness head on. "Whenever I tell someone that I lead an international development organization, they look at me with pity and say something like ‘Wow, that must be discouraging work right now, isn’t it?’
"That idea is simply not true. In response, I tell them about the incredible people and transformation that is happening every time I visit the field. In Sierra Leone, for example, the number of girls going to school now, compared to ten years ago, is unbelievable. I am so inspired every time I walk into a classroom. They are completely unrecognizable from what they looked like ten years ago. It’s really hopeful."
Most of the pastors and ministry leaders who participated in the Kentro research are giving to international development charities. No doubt they receive regular fundraising appeals and annual reports from those same Christian charities. Surely they should have heard good news stories like Fehr references. So, what has robbed them of their hope?
To read more about what Ellen says in her Faith Today article about where our hope went, check out the full article here!
