TITLE:   ‘STOP POVERTY BEFORE IT STOPS YOU’

PAGES:    72

AUTHOR:  NELSON AGBOVE

SIZE: 5¹/ ₂” x   4”

Reviewed by SK Amegah

The cover page of Stop Poverty Before It Stops You is splashed with the photograph of an emaciated child staring in the air and too weak to eat a bowl of soup in front of him. Nothing depicts the state of deprivation and grim poverty better. “No one wants to be poor and no one is destined to remain poor, but poverty is often self-inflicted.” emphasises the author.

The author indicates that though circumstances could make people poor, they have the God-given talents and the resources to turn the situation around. The author therefore dispassionately looks at those causes of poverty and how they can be dealt with.

The book brings out the differences between the haves and the have-nots. Unlike the have-nots, the haves do not expect manna to fall from heaven so they diligently work at what they are doing, increase the value of the resources available to them, save what they earn and invest part of their earning to enhance their business and ensure that it grows.

There is no short-cut to riches; it takes hard work and those who refuse to work impose poverty on themselves. The only justification for poverty is laziness, which observation, the author supports with texts from the scripture, especially the Book of Proverbs. “Poverty,” he thinks, “is the strongman in the house of the lazy person but has no place with those who choose to be diligent.”

You may be the best singer in the church, the best usher, the best preacher and even operate in all the spiritual gifts, but if you are not conversant with the principles of creating wealth you would lack the basic necessities of life and turn round to blame the devil, as most people do in Africa.

To stop the vicious cycle of poverty, the author urges the reader to acquire wisdom, skills and diligence, among others. He asks: “Would you give your suiting material to a Christian tailor who had earlier on destroyed your three materials for lack of skill?” The author would rather send it to “the Buddhist tailor who knows the job.”

Stop Poverty Before It Stops You, written by a young pastor of The Church of Pentecost, is a 72-page book which you cannot put aside once you begin reading it; the ideas expounded in the book are relevant and can change your destiny if you diligently apply them. I challenge Christians and others whose worldview of wealth creation ends with prayer to read this very important book.