In the early 2000s a small group of friends were assisting with administering a ‘deacon to deacon’ fund for their local church in Perth, Western Australia.
About
THE AMOS STORY
The fund was based on Paul’s instruction in:
1 Corinthians 16
“Regarding the relief offering for poor Christians that is being collected, you get the same instructions I gave the churches in Galatia. Every Sunday each of you make an offering and put it in safekeeping. Be as generous as you can. When I get there you’ll have it ready, and I won’t have to make a special appeal. Then after I arrive, I’ll write letters authorizing whomever you delegate, and send them off to Jerusalem to deliver your gift.”
Following this pattern, funds were collected and sent to deacons of churches in economically poor regions in Eastern Indonesia to assist with the needs of their congregations.
It’s a beautiful model and a great way of fostering relationships between Christians in different contexts.
However, the group of friends wanted to go beyond assisting local Christian congregations to supporting the whole community where the needs were greatest, and in 2005, Amos Aid Australia was born.
Why the name Amos?
Well, it depends who you ask.
Our first ever program was an anti-malaria program distributing mosquito nets, and one story goes that during conversations about naming the organisation, a classic knock-knock joke was raised:
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Amos
Amos who?
A mosquito
A second, rather different version of events suggests that our work is inspired by the biblical prophet Amos, whose work included calling the people of God to account for the injustices that perpetuated and sustained poverty.
We like both stories. Amos the prophet is someone we model our work on - we want to move beyond charity for the economically poor to justice with them. But we’ve also learnt that playfulness (including not taking ourselves too seriously!) is really important for sustaining our work.
Vision
The poor are served as equals before God.
Mission
To work internationally to support local faith-based organisations in community development
&
To work domestically to support Christians to make whole-of-life responses to the realities of poverty and injustice.
Values
Posture
We work restoratively through relationships.
Practice
We engage in warm and hopeful ways, creating space for reciprocity and conversation.
We move at the speed of the people we serve.
We don't act alone.
Our understanding of poverty
Our Partner Organisations
We're incredibly thankful for - and incredibly dependent on - the folks we partner with through our international program. They are a wonderfully varied group of people, and we love their range of gifts and personalities. While we partner with them on professional and organisational levels and much of our work together involves things like proposals and reports, they are people we deeply admire and count as dear friends. We share a similar, faith-based vision and passion to walk with the poor and assist them in improving their situation. Perhaps a few paraphrased verses from Philippians best sums up our feelings about the people we work with: 'We regularly give thanks for our partnership in the Good News of Jesus, convinced that He who began a good work in our friends will sustain them in it until the day it is finished.'
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Our Team
We had mixed feelings about highlighting who our staff and board are because there’s a whole host of people who make the work of Amos Australia possible: folks who contribute financially, others who send us encouraging notes or pray regularly for us (we might not even know who they are!). There’s people who help set up and pack down events, folks who host or cook, share their stories, ideas and artwork with us, people who give of their time and gifts to piece together things like the Amos Magazine and this website.
So while we have dedicated staff who go above and beyond their job descriptions, Amos Australia is only possible because of a whole network of people who chip in and contribute in a wide range of ways. We’re really thankful for them, and not just because it makes our work more cost-effective. These people are a continual source of encouragement for us, and make Amos Australia better than it could ever be if it just depended on our three part-time staff and volunteer board members.
Our Staff
Clinton Bergsma
Clinton oversees our international program and steers the little ship dubbed The Amos. Clinton loves the cross-cultural aspect of the international program, sharing stories and exploring links between the lives of the economically poor and the economically rich.
Clinton holds a Bachelor of Theology, a Masters in Transformational Development and is currently completing a PhD looking at theologies of supporter engagement in Australian faith-based development organisations.
Aimee de Haan
Aimee is Amos Australia’s South West Relations Officer. She works to engage, encourage and challenge Australian Christians to a whole-of-gospel approach to the realities of injustice and poverty. She facilitates events in the South West, engages with local schools and churches and curates the Amos newsletter and social media as well as contributing to the Amos magazine in writing and photos. She enjoys the enriching conversations she has with people at our events, young folk at schools and with our partners overseas, and is hopeful about the work God is doing in His kingdom.
Cheryl Lim
Cheryl is a veterinarian and community development practitioner with a keen interest in integral mission, holistic discipleship, regenerative agriculture and the intersection of human, animal and environmental health. She enjoys country music, being a dog mum, being active, reading and learning things, and exploring wild places. Cheryl's role is split between facilitating our Perth-based events and contributing to our international program.
Cheryl holds a Masters in Transformational Development.
Our Board
Daniel Bosveld
Eric de Haan
Carolyn de Haan
Simon Steenhof
Michael Hidding
Diane Bosveld
Annual Reports
While annual reports sounds like they belong in the realms of boring, stuffy professionalism, we’ve found that they’re a helpful point in our year to stop, look back on how we went in the previous 12 months and set some targets for the year ahead. We also like the transparency of it all – have a look through our budgets and see how we’re spending the funds entrusted to us. We reckon we punch above our weight as a small organisation, but have a read and come to your own conclusions.