About us
We help families work together to build healthier communities
Our Mission
MergedHands.com's mission is to give God everything. As a non-denominational Christian network, we connect families who believe in more Christ-centric communities. We are committed to prayer and excellence in everything we do. We are dedicated to serving others with humility, integrity, and love. We believe Jesus Christ fully embodies the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in humanity's inclusion in His life, death and resurrection. We believe He alone, as the one true God, saves from sin, death, and slavery. We don't get sidetracked by the sin of pessimistic end-time theories; our focus is firmly on the present Kingdom of God and the finished work of Christ. He fuels our efforts, forges our unity, defines our love for the world, shapes our families, and drives our conviction that slavery's end is near.
Disclaimer
Our love is not an ideology or a self-enrichment program. It’s not a rigid system as embodied by capitalism, communism, or legalism. We are a bottom-up movement focused on communities loving their neighbors. We’re not selling the new benevolent dictatorship by offering a new set of rules; instead, we’re promoting a relational approach that counters the effects of hyper-globalization such as extreme poverty.
The path to ending modern-day slavery isn't found in a top-down mandate. It's found in the collaborative love that comes from living out the person of Jesus Christ.
In the first commandment God said that He is the exclusive deliverer from poverty, slavery and addiction. This is how He requires us to have no other gods before Him. It's not a suggestion to obey God more than money and the status quo. It's a command. He has called everyone to worship Him with the works of their hands and the fruit of our lips. Everything is spiritual. There is no exception.
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." [Exodus 20:1-3]
The Science of Generosity
A cost-driven society is trapped in a Social Dictatorship Dilemma.
He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. [Matthew 13:11-12]
Based on the words of Jesus and modern science, a society that redeems a person's Christ-given-value and whose choices are motivated by interpersonal trust and respect can exit the downward spiral of the poor getting poorer.
Jesus Christ is the only shared value that can motivate humanity to cooperate for self-giving-other-seeking love
The poor employee's dilemma
- Imagine ten poor men are offered a job by a rich man but only one of them can get it.
- The rich man is offering a very low wage, that is in no way sufficient to care for a safe home, healthy food, and other family essentials.
- If one of the men gets the job all the others get nothing.
- But the rich man is willing to negotiate. If two brothers apply, he will pay 20% more.
- What will the poor men do?
- What should they do?
As long as the poor want money they will compete for the little there is. Those who do compete will lie and pretend the best looking person is their brother, because they don't trust the employer to ever be more kind to them. This is the dominant strategy.
Sadly this is not the only thing that goes wrong. According to the UN social inequality drives a lot of other problems such as homocide, suicide, crime, addictions, slavery and psychological issues.
What they should be doing to escape the inevitable is:
- To find their self-worth in Christ
- To respect others the same by acknowledging that worth
- To trust each other, work for each other, and help each other, until an available job offer guarantees the reward of fair living conditions.
So why does Jesus Christ promise to give to a generous giver? Because He knows how we limit ourselves when we make choices based on our perceived needs and the choices of others. Do not judge your family's long-term future because of your need to be independent. If you do nothing, how long will it take until poverty, slavery, and violence comes knocking on your door?
The rich employer's dilemma
- Imagine ten rich retail shop owners are competing for their market share in a small town
- The shop with the lowest price seems to attract the most customers.
- The easiest strategy to gain a competitive advantage is to maximize the profit margin by buying from the cheapest suppliers, and paying the lowest possible salaries.
- The shop owners feel forced to conceal their supply chain because they are afraid another may steal their business, since they aren't adding quality apart from distribution
- The more these shops sell, the poorer the community gets because they give back so little.
- Tourism declines
- Eventually the community gets so poor the shop has to close and the owner moves, leaving the community in its exploited state.
- What is the rich employer's problem? A degrading community will shrink his profit margin.
- What is the problem with a lack of transparency? People can't combine their strength by setting cooperative goals.
- Why do small distribution companies compete? Because they don't specialize.
- Why do so many companies not specialize? Because cost driven consumers don't care.
- Why do cost driven consumers not care about quality and sustainability? Because their parents did not teach them.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.(and your descendents)” [Luke 6:38]
Families must teach their children to participate in projects that show how much they care about their community.
Undoing the dictatorship of rich vs poor
We know four ways to end the problem where one party has all the power and the other has none.
- The dictator is punished by a more dominant dictator, law, or government (questionable solution)
- The dictator becomes a reckless giver
- The dictator destroys his environment until nothing remains (Then we learn the hard way)
- Subjects cooperate with each other to achieve fair negotiation power
Social Inequality is a demon
It bolsters the self-justification of every sort of crime and injustice
Social inequality is measured by the income, ownership, and consumption gaps between adult individuals.
According to UN Data Sources it's directly related to a country's:
- Homocide rate
- Suicide rate
- Imprisonment rate
- Addictions rate
- Psychological disorders
- Human Trafficking rate
- And a few more
Psychological effects include
- Status Anxiety
- Loss of Social Cohesion and Trust
- Psychosis and Other Severe Mental Illnesses
- Increased stress
- Impared cognitive function
- Cycles of disadvantage
- Exacerbated effects of discrimination
But God is an advocate for equality
The kind of equality you got when God died in your place
This is where God demanded equality of human worth. He became poor by taking our reality on Himself, being born into our world and murdered on our cross. Now that was helpful! Adopting paupers into royalty.
He is an advocate for social equality in and beyond the church.
Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, [2Cor.8:11-14]
This was how the early church healed the economy. They shared or exchanged what they had, not what they did not have. One of the biggest lies of our modern economies is that: The poor has nothing to offer and nothing we need. That is how overly centralized governments destroyed families over centuries.
What is social equality?
Whatever it takes for all people to have their basic human needs met so they are free enough to sign a voluntary contract and make a positive contribution to their community
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ [Matthew 25:35-36]
Christ speaks of six basic human needs
- Healthy Food
- Clean Drink
- Safe Homes (incl. Maintenance)
- Respectable Clothing
- Health & Hygiene
- Christian Ministry (Visiting in distress, need for freedom & education)
An employee must be able to cover the above for his/her family
Our basic solutions
Most people don't want to see themselves as poor, but we all have a special set of poverty and riches.
Training at Soup Kitchens
The poor need Jesus. Without the love of God which comes through hearing the good news of the work of Christ there is no power to escape the demon of social inequality.
But apart from hearing the gospel they also need practical training to create offers and grasp the vision to help their neighbours.
Some Africans spend a lot of their hard earned money on witchcraft and ancestral mediums. God is a good helper of those who want to be free from demons and a happy challenger of the forces of darkness. Witchcraft is not sustainable.
Visit NowFind Local Offers
Our online platform takes registrations and allows free advertising of products and services to your local community.
On our platform we shun minimum wage. You can't ask for less than a fair wage instead which currently we set at R200 per hour.
Do your best to be trustworthy provide high quality services.
Register nowMergedCash
What would a fair wage help in communities where there is no money?
Our custom made regional voucher based currency helps poor communities pay each other while saving their money.
It's incredibly efficient and has nearly 50 advantages over using other currencies.
A few include, incredibly hard to steal in a closed community, familial accountability, easy to access, obligation to circulate, print exchangible vouchers, save money, transparency, privacy and community cooperation value generation.
