This story is part of our 2019 Hope Awards contest. To vote for your favorite regional winner, go to wng.org/compassion.

Early Christians emphasized caritas, caring for the poor, as opposed to Rome’s tradition of liberalitas, hosting those of equal or higher rank. Caritas is still part of Christian belief and practice, as our Hope Awards show: Secularists say they can do a better job through government action, but three decades of WORLD stories have shown the falsity of that claim.

A New York moment:

Dr. Rick Sacra, one of the American missionary doctors who contracted Ebola in 2014, is back serving in Liberia. But he was in New York this month to collect a $500,000 L’Chaim prize for his remarkable work, money that will go to expand the work of the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, a ministry of the missions organization SIM. Several Liberians based in the United States came to the prize dinner too—the Liberian community in Worcester, Mass., recently raised money for the first residency program at ELWA. 

This Christmas season I’ve been asked to #GiveLuv and #doublethelove and more. The time from Giving Tuesday to New Year’s Eve represents for many U.S. nonprofits a make-or-break fundraising opportunity. Punching a button in tangible support of a good cause helps both giver and receiver.

But problems arise with the ease of internet giving, and one is accountability. Willing donors see slick appeals in their social media accounts, give, and go away. Behind the campaigns, it’s harder to know how the nonprofits manage their money, and whether the message matches the work.

Since 2007 Mez McConnell has been senior pastor of Niddrie Community Church in Edinburgh, Scotland. He’s also active in planting churches in poor areas and believes pastors should not avoid doctrine or dumb down theology when preaching to low-income congregations. Such paternalism misses the mark by wrongly viewing poverty as a lack of means, McConnell says: The primary problem is spiritual. Here are edited excerpts of our interview in front of students at Patrick Henry College.

A New York moment: 

It’s Giving Tuesday in New York, and I paid a visit to the Mormon temple down by Lincoln Center. The Latter-day Saints had set up three beautifully designed vending machines on the busy sidewalk, where New Yorkers can “buy” items like a first aid kit for CARE International (a humanitarian organization) or a winter blanket for the local Catholic Charities or a gallon of milk for a neighborhood food pantry.

James Whitford received a doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, then moved on from rehabbing bodies to rehabbing lives. Whitford and his wife, Marsha, have given birth not only to five children but to the Watered Gardens Gospel Rescue Mission in Joplin, Mo., a city of 50,000. Here are edited excerpts of our interview in front of Patrick Henry College students.