Selfless living…given life, to give it away…
The bible teaches that the only way to live is to die. Jesus came, and through His death we live.
Lots of people, christian or not, are trying so hard to live, but we must die…and surprisingly it doesn’t hurt us to die, it increases everything about our lives once we die. Just one of those biblical ideas that is crazy to the natural mind.
The Lord chose to remove us from afluent Aussie living, remove us from a $1,000 a week job, remove us from family and friends, remove us from safety, security and a thousand other things that we all take for granted in Australia and lovingly place us inside a huge slum. I suppose He did this for a whole heap of reasons, so we could help others, be His hands and feet…but also so we could die to ourselves, our own flesh. So we could work out what was really important and what was superficial about life. He took away our comforts, so He could be our comfort.
We live with people who often earn less than 100 pisos per day, less than AUD$2.50. I know no one in our slum who owns a car, no one who has a bank account, no one with any form of savings, no insurances, most have nothing that we would call a home…but some of them have JESUS, many of them give and are generous, but they have nothing at all.
We are learning what is important – it’s not important that we have things (Jesus is not against things), it’s not important to have extra of anything – it’s important to love people, it’s important to always help, always care, it’s important to be available – IT’S IMPORTANT TO GIVE YOUR LIFE AWAY IN THE SERVICE OF JESUS AND THE SERVICE OF OTHERS (THE POOR). And then it’s important for the people that you help to go on and help some one else.
No one has to, or perhaps can change the world, but we can all do something to better it. I love the starfish story – little boy walking down a beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up on the shore and he was picking up one and throwing it back into the sea. Some one asks him why he is doing it, saying he is making no differance at. The little boy responds, by bending down, picking up another starfish and throwing it into the sea. He then says “Made a diferance to that one” and continues to pick up starfish. I love this story, this is what we do – one by one we save/change lives…YOU CAN DO THAT, EVERYONE CAN DO THAT. JUST GET “ONE”, SAVE “ONE”, HELP “ONE”, and when you are finished there do it again with another…how easy is that…BUT YOU MUST DIE. The more you die, the more you will live, the more the life of Christ can live through you.
When you look at the photo gallery, the man in orange died…ask yourself, could you of helped him? I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty, we were here and we couldn’t save him, but I want you not to see the “big picture”, but to see the small one. Most of us cannot change or influence the “big picture”, but we can so easily become project orientated, church planting minded, community transformation focused…and we forget that it is all about people. I cannot change the world, but I can stop a little boy from starving to death.
A pastor once said to me “Fish swim, birds fly…do what you do before you die (meaning literal death)”, find something you can do and do it, find a person you can help and help them.
I know that God wants to do more through my life and the life of my wife, the major problem is us. We are always the blockage, we are the obstacle to be overcome. We need to die, you need to die…as we die the unlimited potential of Christ in us is released, the exceeding greatness of His power can begin to be released. Death removes the limitations of life.
It truelly was the love and kindness of the Lord towards us, when He moved us into a third world slum. He knew what we needed, we needed to, and still need to, die daily.
Baseco – poorest of the poor, living in a slum…
Hi there again
Life living in one of the largest slums in Manila is interesting to say the least. People have lived here for decades, birthed all of their children here, survived fires, typhoons and amazing daily obstacles just trying to survive. We, like so many others, had heard about third world slums, but when God in His wisdom moved us into one to live and work amongst the poor…WOW…what an eye opener.
I want to give you a story, a glimpse into slum life, something to open your eyes just a little bit more, something to stir your heart…places like our slum exist because the west does not know that they are here.
We were out and about in our slum just recently and we found four children living alone in a damp, dark, unventilated slum home. The youngest one was 2, the oldest 9. Justine, Joshua, Jessa and Leno. Justine and Joshua were malnourished, Jessa, the oldest was trying to take care of them. As we talked with people around their cess pit of a home, we found out that the mother has left a long time ago and the father worked during the night in the market, and was rarely there in the day at all. He would come in the morning, cook some food, leave some water and then go off with his friends or look for other work. No one was caring for these little children. The two youngest were so sick, Justine has T.B and you can see all of there little ribs. Jessa is 9, trying to look after them, but she is just a little girl herself. Dad would sometimes come home and be angry at her if the kids were not feed or the crappy little house was not clean, she’s 9…and he would often leave no food and she was supposed to provide something for the others. They were all dehydrated, nearly no clean drinking water, one section of their home had clothes just soaking in “pooh and wee”, it just stank. The two bigger kids were often not there, but the little ones could not get out. Joshua could hardly walk when we found him, because he had so rarely been outside.
What do you do, this is one family of thousands of family. poor people, poor children have so little hope, nothing to smile about and so often no way out of their situation. What can a 2 year old do about being hungry and having no food…nothing. They just sit there and die. It’s horrible to think of unloved, uncared for children, just starving to death with no one seeming to care at all. But we found these ones and we saved them.
The first thing we do is feed them. They need to eat soft, sloppy foods because they are not used to eating often. So we feed them rice mixed with milo and they just love it, give them some bannanas (plenty of vitamins) and then bathe them all and clean up their house. Wash all their clothes, sleeping things, disinfect everything, repair the house a little to try and keep the rain out – just take over their little lives, make a differance. Give them lots of cuddles and kisses, make them feel special – and then just do that day after day after day…keep coming back, keep feeding them, keep loving them…never miss a day, DON’T LET THEM DIE.
Finally we meet the dad and begin talkin to him about what is going on in his life, what is he doing for work, where has he been, he must feed his kids, BUT initially this dad is simply not interested in doing anything at all. He tells us lie after lie, gives his word, breaks his word, wastes his time, not working and it all goes on and on. But we still go everyday, we never stop, we won’t stop…WE WON’T LET THEM DIE.
Finally we realise that we need to have these children closer to some of our leaders, to make the daily looking after of them easier on us. So we find a space right in amongst our main church leaders and we build them a house. It’s up off the ground, wind proof, rain proof and we move them in. We are taking over the running of their lives…they are children and they need someone to look after them.
We put together a roster with our church leaders and we clean the house daily, wash their clothes, buy them new clothes, buy and cook their food, medicate the younger ones and get them interacting with other kids, involved in sunday school…we change their world.
Finally the father begins to turn around, his attitude begins to change, he begins working more, providing more for his children. Hope begins to dawn in his life because some one else is involved, some one is helping him, the pressure is lifting.
Sometimes we are so concerned with creating dependencies, making people dependant upon our help…we did that and we do that often. These children were dying, they are dependant, they had no hope, they could not change their situation, they needed some one to take over their lives. There is no concievable way that these children would of made it on their own. The father would of eventually left them, as they were far to much work for him, Justine and Joshua would literally be dead right now and the two older ones would of been doing who knows what to survive. When people have nothing at all, no way out, no hope – then you have to come along side them and give them everything they need.
Life amongst the poor is really an eye opener…but the one thing we have really learned is that it is so easy to help. The big picture concerning poverty is impossible to change, we will always have it, it will increase and get worse…but family by family, child by child all of us can save lives, it is so easy to love someone. Helping this family might of cost perhaps $300 and alot of time, day after day visits, it was dirty, smelly work…but walking to that house every day and seeing those kids waiting for the food that you brought, smiling when they see you, sitting on your lap and eating, feeling loved and cared for…if it cost a milion dollars we would do it again.
You can do it, find some one, help them, make a differance, it’s so easy…
Ok, so here goes our first blog…
Mark and Christine Pedder, 2 Aussies working in Manila amongst the poorest of he poor.
We have been here for the last five years…we won’t go into any of our history, if anyone was interested in seeing what we have been doing for the last five years, please check out our website www.john1412.org, for lots of newsletters, photos and pdf files on much (but far from all) that we have been doing. There is a photo of me and Christine in the gallery, plus a couple of PDF Files (don’t know if that will work), again just to serve as an over view of what we are doing and have done.
Well, that’s all for now as I am still working out how to, and the best way to use this blog.
