U.K. Evangelical Leader Tapped to Head Christian Anti-Poverty Effort

By Eric Young - Christian Post
Monday, July 14, 2008 - Web Link
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July 12, 2008

The global anti-poverty campaign of the World Evangelical Alliance and the Micah Network will have a new international director when the world rings in the New Year.

The Rev. Joel Edwards, who is currently the general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance UK, was recently appointed to lead Micah Challenge International, which aims to mobilize Christians worldwide against poverty.

"The board of Micah Challenge International is delighted to be able to appoint Joel Edwards as its International Director, from January 1, 2009,” expressed Steve Bradbury, chair of Micah Network and acting chair of Micah Challenge International, in a released statement.

"We know Joel will bring to this role enormous passion, commitment to tackle issues of global inequality and a powerful, biblically-shaped vision for the kind of world God wants us to live in,” he added.

The Micah Network and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) created the Micah Challenge campaign to “grasp a moment of unique potential” – a moment when the intention of all of the world’s leaders is to halve poverty by 2015.

In 2000, all 191 member states of the United Nations, and the global financial institutions, publicly promised to halve poverty by 2015 by achieving the eight “Millennium Development Goals,” which include, among others, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

The aims of Micah Challenge are to deepen Christian engagement with impoverished and marginalized communities through prayer and action, and to encourage leaders of rich and poor countries to fulfill their promise to halve absolute poverty by 2015 through the MDGs.