Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Peoples Stories/Personal Accounts category.
Baseco Missions TEAM…
Three of our best, Pastora Marivic, Pastora Annie and Riza went last week as our very first self funded Missions Team from the slums of Baseco to work with and bless, Lucy Longdon in the incredible work that her and her team are doing in Cebu.
The stories and testimonies are still coming out of our team, as they are now back in Baseco, but it is very clear that they were both blessed and a great blessing while they were there. They saw another world of ministry. The Lord used them to see baptisms in the Holy Spirit as they ministered in youth meeting, with women, in prisons, in the cemetery…many different places.
What did Jesus say “Go into ALL the World”…and do what…”Preach the Gospel”, and then what will happen…”Signs will follow…”. Amen. How simple is that.
Notice that He never mentioned “do this when you are FREE”, or “do this when you have some extra cash”, or “do this after bible college”…imagine, girls from a slum, with so little education, no bible college, definitely no spare cash, the 2 pastors still have small children at home…but still, they have enough faith TO GO on a “self funded” missionary trip…have you ever heard of anything so crazy in all your life….WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE…
Mark
Home Renovation – Baseco Style
Nothing fancy here guys – pull it down, throw it away and build something that serves as a home…the home we started with you would not consider to be a home, the home we finished with, you would not consider to be a home…but “a home” they both were…we just improved it significantly…this is a Muslim family. A team from Melbourne helped build this home and change these lives.
The original roof was asbestos and other forms of scrap stuff, there was no door, no security, walls were bits of this and that and the framing for it all was just thick sticks of wood. The roof is now tin, there is a door, walls are all plywood,rats and cats were all kicked out and a mum, dad and four children now have more effective shelter…it took a day to change some lives and display Jesus to a Muslim family.
The mother accepted Jesus about 2 weeks later in church…she now has an “Eternal Home” because we built her a wooden one…all it took was some wood, some nails and some willing people…bit like the Cross really, some wood, some nails and a very willing Jesus…
Waste or Wealth…all a matter of Perspective isn’t it…
This boy and his family are “walking the rubbish sea” in search treasure…
The best time to do this is during or just after a decent typhoon, although, if you do it “after” you will of missed out on the best finds…
What a life, what a world – Mark
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
What can these children teach us…?
PRIORITIES…Prayer and Preaching of the Word…
If prayer is childish, then these kids are all on the right track. Could they teach us something…?
There is a great challenge in the book of Acts 6:1-7, as we would find with most of the bible, if our hearts are open.
There is incredible fruit and growth in the new church, it’s members are increasing greatly and for the first time, the churches widely recognised and commented of quality, UNITY, is shaken by DISPUTES. But it is the Apostles response to this issue, and also to their growing business is what should be a great challenge for us all…they went back to prayer.
They withdrew from certain activities, from perhaps seemingly important things, things that “must be done”, in favor of more time in prayer.
In a world, and a church, that is so business minded and time oriented, we often seem to run on an opposite agenda. How can we justify spending more time in prayer, when so much needs to be done…?
It seems as if the Apostles themselves did not consider that they were in anyway “independent from God”. Pray reveals dependance. Again, it would seem as if our many talents and abilities have led us to independence, therefore we don’t seem to need to pray all that much, but this was not the case for the Apostles – they re-adjusted their priorities and re-adjusted their time so that they could pray.
Of course this praying energized their preaching and gave them spiritual food for the hungry, so the Word of God spread and the number of disciples multiplied greatly.
DO LESS…PRAY MORE…ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH MORE…!
One of the challenges is “Learning to Pray”, and learning to “Pray Effectively”.
It seems much easier to plan and raise finances, than it is to Pray…is that perhaps one of the “deceitful sides of riches” – after all, doesn’t money “change everything”…
Changing Hearts…
“CHANGE” THE HEART OF A CHILD… (or of anyone…) & YOU CAN POTENTIALLY CHANGE THE WORLD…
There are all sorts of quotes on the net about changing children and changing worlds through them. I have no doubt that this is a truth, although it’s clearly a long term task.
The bible says that “as a man thinks, so he is”, the bible teaches that out of the heart of man spring forth all sorts of good and evil, what comes out of the mouth is the overflow of the heart. Our hearts and our minds are very closely related. I have no doubt that if you can honestly and genuinely change the heart of a child for the better, you can potentially change the future of nations. Everything that comes out of man, starts with a thought and then becomes an action.
Third world nations become third world nations through the same process. It is either poor and uneducated thought process’s and ideas, which once implemented bring poor results, or it’s lack of mental disciplines to see good ideas taken through to completion, or it’s a lack of good values and morals (most 3rd world nations are incredibly corrupt with massive abuses of power and resources by the rich), which comes from bad hearts, again, this is often due to wrong reasoning or wrong values. To change a nation you must change it’s heart values, to do this, you have to change people, and most importantly you have to change people who have the potential to go on and make changes. So we need to to teach people who are able to teach, and train those who are able to train.
Changing values can take a long time (unless God is involved and renews peoples minds by the Spirit, then it can happen overnight), so in order to change the future of a nation, you must start with, or at least focus upon, the children. So we either need to recognise and encourage gifted children, and/or we need to enable children to be gifted, give them the right input, expose them to the right things in order that they can develop into great people. Everything that you do with a child is so important, but for me the 3 most important things for me to focus upon are these -
- Totally UNCONDITIONAL LOVE – children (all people) must feel genuinely loved simply for who they are, not anything they do…
- My EXAMPLE – this has so much more effect than anything I teach or say…I must be what I teach and say…my example teaches much more than I realise…
- They must always be told…YOU CAN…especially focused upon…YOU CAN do anything God leads you to do…connect a child to the thought that there are no limits, no boundaries, that there is nothing that can’t be done and connect that child to God…
It all comes down to “CHANGE” – CHANGE the way a person views their situation and circumstances, CHANGE the way they view themselves and their impact upon their situation or circumstances – and then you have a person who can bring CHANGE to their situation and circumstances. Here are two children who could easily go on and “CHANGE” their worlds…
Look at Mayrelle Robedillo for an instance, she is 6, nearly 7. In her class at school, there are 70+ children. Mayrelle is at the top of the class. Her lowest grade for any subject has been 95%, she went for months with every test being 100%. With a class so huge and a teacher unable to cope, Mayrelle is often teaching one side of the class while the teacher works with the other half. She is now growing up in a “full on” Christian family, her mother is a pastor after being “born again” for just 3 years, her father is full time in ministry after 2 years. She is speaking English to us everyday, she is getting good values and ethics – she is always being told what she “Can Do”…imagine her when she is 21…WORLD CHANGER…
Roderick Mission, smart little boy, 11 years old. At 9, he was the man of his house. He was at school full time and then in the night, all night he was out in the markets working, as he was the sole provider for his household, mum and 3 sisters. Some nights he would earn 300p selling plastic bags to shoppers in the markets, that is more than many adult men earn daily at their jobs. And while he did this he kept his grades high, but would often fall asleep in school. So he has already a great work ethic, a sense of responsibility, great English skills…imagine him when he is 21…he says he is going to the President, we tell him “He Can”…WORLD CHANGER…
Help, my heart is not formed properly…
We found this little family a few weeks ago. Mum, Eli is 19, dad, Rowel is 21, they have a 2 year old girl and a little boy who is 4 months old. The baby, Rainiel has a heart problem. One of the walls in his heart has not formed properly. He is very malnourished, so tiny. In the photo look at the wrinkles in his little arms, poor fellow, will need a miracle to survive. He has some medications from the hospital and is monitored and seen by the hospital often. His mum seems very dedicated to him. The father, although a boy himself, works hard and they are trying their best…but how hard can life get for two children who have children. There would be nearly no education at all between the 2 parents. We often talk about peoples “lot in life”, well how would you like this to be yours…
We had a decent rain a few days ago and their whole house was soaking wet, we have since put a new roof on for them and fixed up a couple of walls on their home. Chris is taking vitamins for Rainiel every few days, we are helping with scans and transport money to and from the hospital. We are trying to save his little life.
If there is ever a need to pray, now is simply it. We say that often for the more extreme cases that we find, and truly prayer is so often the only answer.
Water Sports…Baseco style…
Well, our water might not be the cleanest in the world, actually in the Lonely Planet Guide, they say that “if you were to swim or dive in in the Pasig River you would see some horrible sights in the 15 seconds it took your body to dissolve after you entered the water”…not sure if it is quite as bad as that, but it’s not the best either…but for our locals it’s a source of fish, washing water, a continual, communal, free flushing toilet and of course it’s a place of fun for the kids..!!
Check out these photos…
