Ash and Anji Barker, founders of UNOH, and their children Amy & Aiden live among the poor in the Bangkok slum of Klong Toey. Like all UNOH’s workers, the Barkers have a passion to love God and neighbour so much that the urban neighbourhoods they live in become like villages centred on Christ.
In Bangkok this transformation though Christ is sought in Klong Toey - a slum and squatter settlement of 80,000 mostly Buddhist people. Some of the activities that the Barkers are involved in include; partnering with the Church of Christ in Thailand’s Klong Toey Community Centre, Partnering with the Ta Rua church movement inviting discipleship and worship of Jesus, Partnering with Burma-Hope Foundation in supporting Burmese refugees. The Barkers also connect refugees to communities in their new country and set up micro-enterprises. Ashley is the International Director of UNOH with UNOH chapters in Bangkok, Melbourne and Sydney.
Ash's new book: Make Poverty Personal
(Friday 2:00pm-3:15pm)
Starting from scratch is not the easiest kind of youth ministry, but essential if the majority of young people outside the reach of the church are to encounter and follow Jesus. Ash Barker reflects on lessons learned from nearly 20 years of starting and sustaining youth mission within neighbourhoods both in western and developing world contexts.
(Saturday 2:00pm-3:15pm)
Poverty is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. But poverty is not new. And neither is God's deep concern for the poor--it is a theme deeply woven throughout the Bible. Yet sadly, churches and individual Christians have too often been blind to this emphasis, or they have been paralyzed into inaction by feelings of helplessness. In this urgent, provocative workshop, Ash Barker offers both challenge and hope. Pulling out and reflecting on significant passages from both testaments, he reveals what the Bible says about both the nature of poverty and about how God calls his people to respond.
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