God is so good.  That is why I am here, why this ministry exists- because a few people encountered the saving, complete, grace of God, and used His teachings and His love to build a help center, with the goal of raising up the marginalized of society by standing by them, walking with them, and loving them in the best ways we can manage.  Tierra Nueva ministries is small- seeming to be just a handful of people on staff- but blessed by plenty of volunteers, supported by local churches, and effectively reaching out in the community of the Skagit Valley in a variety of ways.  They ask three questions,

"What is poverty?  What does it look like?"  They go beyond physical, financial poverty into the spiritual, hopelessness which comes for many migrants in being in an unfamiliar location and captured in an unfamiliar system.  It comes for drug addicts trying to get help but being 'dealt with' using clean-cut rules of shelters or help-services or laws instead of being concerned for, cared for, on a personal level.  And important to note, we are ALL impoverished in some sense, or have been.

"What is the context of a person's poverty?  How did they get here?"
They point out that oftentimes when we (the middleclass, the outsiders) interact with those of the lower class, we don't see the context of their situation.    Everyone has a story, and this is part of why Tierra Nueva advocates seek to help one person at a time.