Missions have always seen development activities as an essential part of what we do. Schools, hospitals, agricultural programmes, disaster relief activities have been an integral part of mission activity. On a spiritual level, this has been a part of our calling to follow Christ’s example of compassion to all people. At a very top level of significance, Christian compassion is sufficient reason in itself for development activity in mission. At another level, it provides an entry and an opportunity for church based work.

Advocacy is the work of influencing the decisions, policies and practices of decision-makers, to address underlying causes of poverty, bring justice, and support good development. In many development situations there are underlying justice issues that contribute to people’s poverty. Until these issues are addressed other development help is going to make very little progress.

Banzaid is the aid and development department of NZBMS (the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society). Christian mission organisations havealways “done” development as a part of their ministry. Mission established schools, hospitals and agricultural programmes are the leading institutions in many developing countries. We invite you to read this report on the projects that we have worked with through the past year.

Banzaid has a good reputation – our supporters are proof of that! We have some great projects, and we have great supporters. You can read about our projects in this report. This year, Banzaid has achieved certification under the Code of Conduct of the New Zealand Council for International Development (CID). We believe that this is a big step in our ability to assure our supporters that we set a high standard in what we do.

We believe that God is deeply concerned with the wellbeing of people in the here and now. This is why Banzaid has such an important role to play within the mission of NZBMS. The projects we are delivering through Banzaid are bringing real-time solutions into broken, hurting communities.