Starting with next to nothing, they launch new activities to meet different needs.Ī table, a bench, some cooking utensils and charcoal are enough to set up a malewa, or cheap restaurant where you can eat for ten times less than anywhere else – even if hygiene is sometimes compromised. Like the chargeurs, who fill the gaps in the home electricity distribution system now that mobile phones are hugely successful, other inhabitants show remarkable ingenuity by inventing diverse sources of income, taking advantage of every opportunity to make themselves useful. It is at the heart of all economic survival strategies, especially among young people, who make up more than half of the city’s population. In a context of anomy and extreme poverty, la débrouille – the French word for resourcefulness, making do, getting by or improvising – has become a way of life at which city dwellers excel. The economic crisis, the failures of the state and public services, and the scarcity of salaried jobs are forcing city dwellers to earn their living through various forms of self-employment made up of small tasks and expediencies. You have to know how to fend for yourself if you live in Kinshasa, among some 11 million inhabitants. Since the mid-1990s, small businesses and services have taken over. In the 1970s and 1980s, the city was full of micro-production units – shoe or paint factories, carpenters or jewellers, weaving or dyeing workshops sprouted like mushrooms, mainly in backyards. ![]() While shoe-shine boys have long been an integral part of the urban landscape, battery chargers have emerged at the same time as mobile telephones. This man calls himself the chargeur (charger). On a small wooden panel, he has mounted several electrical outlets which are illicitly connected to electrical wires emerging from the ground, where they are attached to the base of a defective street light. Next to them, a young man has set up a stand and watches over a cleverly-crafted electric charging system. Three young shoe-shine boys sit on rocks at the entrance of a school, equipped with stools, footrests, brushes and sponges. The scene takes place in the city centre of Kinshasa, the capital. We are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs.It enables them to stand up for Christ in a safe, genial, yet effective way. ![]() It provides the practical tools they need to keep them in the driver's seat of otherwise difficult and discomfiting conversations. Street Smarts equips Christians to handle tough challenges in a straightforward and user-friendly way. Questions encourage challengers to think more carefully about their objections or consider problems with their own views that they may not have considered or even have been aware of. Others are aimed more directly at the flaws or liabilities of the typical challenges people raise. Some questions are used to get the discussion moving forward in a disarming fashion. He then provides a specific set of questions-the same questions Koukl uses in his own encounters-that are embedded in sample mini-dialogues the Christian can use to exploit those flaws in an amicable, yet incisive, way. instructing the reader in a lucid, well-organized, and easy-to-follow fashion. With the specific challenges he addresses, Koukl shows precisely how and why each falters. Subsequent chapters tackle specific areas of challenge that Christians frequently face in discussions "on the street," as it were-in those conversations with friends, family, or critics that believers often avoid because they feel out of their element, vulnerable, or exposed. He then provides an overview of the tactical game plan he uses to have fruitful "gardening" conversations with those who are not yet Christians. Koukl begins by explaining the important difference in evangelism between a harvest approach (reaping) and a gardening approach (sowing). It then provides individual strategies to exploit those shortcomings by offering model questions and sample dialogues to help guide believers in genial, yet persuasive, conversations. ![]() A follow-up to Koukl's best-selling Tactics, this book focuses on revealing the fundamental flaws in common, current challenges to Christian beliefs and values. Street Smarts by Gregory Koukl helps Christians better engage in productive conversations with those who challenge their convictions on a variety of issues. For Students Pursue a deeper knowledge of God through self-paced college- and seminary-level online courses in Old and New Testament studies, theology, biblical Greek, and more.For Instructors and School Administrators Enhance your school’s traditional and online education programs by easily integrating online courses developed from the scholars and textbooks you trust.
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