Jerome – Malnourished
This is Jerome, he is 6 and 3rd degree malnourished. His lips are dry and cracked, his body is very weak, his appetite is all but gone and he will be full of worms. There are 5 other children, who are ok. The father is a scavenger, the income is not enough. This family will be starting in our family sponsorship program this week.
The message of Jesus Christ is good news for this family, because with the message comes the hands and feet of His ministers. First thing we do with Jerome, is de-worming, as it is almost a guarantee that he is full of worms, usually both round worms and thread worms. The worming stuff we use is in the form of chocolate squares, and Jerome is like every other child, he loves chocolate, so it is never hard to get the kids to take the worming medicine. Literally the next day he will be worm free. Next we weight him. Then he begins on specialised milk formula, again chocolate. We gave him some while we were there and he loved it, and the good thing for him is he will be able to drink as much as he wants, the more the better. The milk is 380p (AUD 12) per 400gram tin, he will prob’ need a tin every 2 days, 3 tins per week, an absolute impossibility for his parents. He will also start on liquid vitamins daily. We can save his life.
We had a chat to mum, she seems to be a good mum in a difficult spot (not all parents are good people), we explain he needs to eat fruit and veg’, or what ever they are eating as well as the milk. He has a week or so to show some signs of improvement or else he will need to go to a specialised malnourishment hospital for treatment. The best news is Jeromes mum got saved today. She was one of 5 ladies who accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.
Hands and Feet of Jesus – walking to where people are and then holding them up until they pull through whatever their need might be.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the things that I have done you will do, and even greater things you will do…”
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“Most assuredly” – this verse is like the rest of the bible, it’s a certain promise, sealed by Jesus Himself, backed by all of heaven, it can never fail, this will work…
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who said this – Jesus, therefore it’s true…
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who did He say it to – Me and You…
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what are the qualifications needed – “he who believes” – nothing else added, just to make it easy for everyone to do…
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This faith of yours will lead to fruit, real, tangible, lasting fruit, seen by all…“you will DO”
Every born again, bible believing, Spirit filled christian is “so able, so full of ability, so incredibly qualified”…let today be a day where you “arise and shine” in Jesus name. Let the message of Jesus Christ be good new through you today, change some ones life.
God Bless – Mark
Slum Missionaries – “He said GO…”
History in the making…we are sending a “SELF FUNDED” team to Cebu for four days to work with another Aussie Missionary, Lucy Longdon.
They will fly there and back using their own money. Now, for some of you reading this you will think “big deal, so what”…BUT remember where these people come from, how much they earn, how huge this step is for them. They believe God is sending them, they are going as Missionaries themselves, they are going to give, to serve, they are not going to receive, they are not being paid…their own “Faith” is making this possible, not their financial situation.
Sometimes we have all the money in the world and we still find it hard to do what Jesus wants us to do. The Lord God Almighty in His infinite wisdom, spoke to people who live in a third world slum and told them “to GO into all the world and preach the gospel”, and as amazing as it might seem, they are “going”, just because He said. How incredible is that, sounds so biblical, sounds so easy.
And another amazing thing is they actually believe that they have something to contibute, I am not sure how they saw themselves before, but now they see themselves as preachers, ministers, and missionaries. They see themselves as “able to have an impact”.
It might seem like a small thing, but it’s very exciting.
Can we learn any lesson from this simple display of FAITH…?
Bless you Mark
“Pigsa” – Boils
We found this little boy a few days ago. He had had a large “pigsa” (boil) right in the middle of his back for the last two weeks. For some reason it had not burst (which is bad) and the parents had tried to keep it clean, but had not sought medical attention. They are very poor, often the poor won’t go to hospital because they can’t afford the medicine anyway, so what’s the point.
The problem in this case is the location of the pigsa and the swelling it is causing is making it hard for this little fellow to walk. But a little bit of care and kindness, a little bit of antiseptic powder and betadine, a clean bange daily and for some reason this thing burst after 2 days (I say God did it). This was a deep pigsa, look at the hole it left in his back. The hole looks bad, but it’s great, no puss, no infection and the wound will heal now. So we literally pack the hole with antiseptic powder and betadine, a clean bandage and in a few days this thing will be all fixed. Not that hard to do, but makes a huge difference to this little boy.
Looks a bit messy, but we are all that concerned with neat and tidy, we want him fixed.
Most of our leaders can now confidently treat minor stuff like this, but it is so often these little things that get infected and become serious problems, so if we take care of the minor stuff, it does not become major.
Same in our walk with Jesus amen, it’s the little foxes that spoil the vine, deal with the small stuff as soon as it happens and it never becomes a serious problem.
God Bless – Mark
