Living in the Neighborhood: Developing a Sustainable  Incarnational Ministry Among the Urban Poor
T. Aaron Smith (D.Min.) lived and worked in squatter communities in Manila, Philippines since graduating from college in the late 90’s. Alongside his urban poor neighbors he experienced floods, a community fire, a demolition, shootouts, and police raids. Yet through all the struggles and pain God has worked through Smith to plant a growing church in an environment where stabbings and break-ins are so common they are not major community news when they happen.   Smith is involved in training new workers for urban poor ministry. He is the lead instructor of Servant Partners’ Global Urban Training School: Foundations, and is an adjunct professor at Asian Theological Seminary for the Masters in Transformational Urban Leadership program.   On any given night a variety of neighbors can be seen in his home, laughing and savoring his wife Ema’s outstanding cooking. He also enjoys wrestling and playing dinosaurs with his son Zach. On sunny Saturday mornings Smith attempts to play Ultimate Frisbee with neighborhood youth even though they run circles around him.