Solidarity – meaning ‘mutual responsibility,’ this word speaks to how we engage in the struggle with different people and cultures. Solidarity is life together with one another in a way that stands completely contrasted against any culture of domination. Solidarity is true partnership.

Holistic Ministry – Derived from a belief that we cannot separate our physical needs from our spiritual needs. The need for food and the need to be nurtured spiritually are interwoven. We believe we are doing a disservice to our community if we compartmentalize or worse ignore any of these needs.

Community – TAPP believes that a community is not simply the group of people you find yourself close to geographically, but a group of people called together by God for a common purpose.  This true community finds its life in fellowship around the way of Christ and believes it is sustained by love.

Social Justice – An overused word. However we still believe in its potency if used and lived correctly. This word speaks to the distribution of advantages and disadvantages that a society inherently creates. Our role to confront injustice is to figure out who is benefiting and who is suffering from the world’s systems.  Through friendship, we find ways to respond creatively to human suffering, realizing that social justice is messy, life-giving, and usually comes with a cost.  TAPP believes the purpose of Christ’s teachings were to bring spiritual and social liberation together, not ever excluding either one.

Grassroots – TAPP is grassroots because it has used the community of common folks to spread a message of hope.  By focusing on stories and relationships instead of high powered NGOs with layers of red tape, we believe we are creating a transformational community that is deep in its commitment to one another.

Oppression – An act of authority or power that is cruel or unjust to certain person or people group. Oppression becomes a hard word to define tangibly until we start to listen to the voices of the undersides of society. To know oppression, we must involve ourselves in the struggle.

Stigma – a mark of disgrace placed on a person’s reputation against that person’s will. We have been extremely misinformed when it comes to the realities of AIDS. In the origins of AIDS in America, we dismissed it as a disease that brought to the surface sexual promiscuity instead of social inequality. In part this lead to a worldwide stigma attached to anyone who is known to be HIV positive. In Uganda, this stigma has caused loved ones to desert loved ones, and already scarce income opportunities to become virtually nonexistent. Persons with AIDS are literally cast out socially and many times physically from their homes.

Compassion – means to suffer with another. This is a practice that we believe moves us beyond a disconnected act of charity and into the lives of the sufferer as a co-sufferer. The paradox in the gospels tell us that this is strangely “life to the full.”

Life-giving – to be full of life is to feel truly human. In this case we believe that any act that is humanizing to the other or your self is a life-giving act. We often discover this by asking the question, “How do we choose life in this particular situation?”

The Underside – The world has created a system where some people matter, and other people are treated as if they don’t. The undersides of society are those races, cultures, classes, and people groups that are marginalized, disinherited, and propelled into cycles of poverty and loss of dignity.  TAPP believes Jesus is found in close friendship with people on the so called “margins.”