Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the poverty category.
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
Nothing Happens Unless you PRAY…NOTHING ELSE WORKS
We all know this to be true, we teach on prayer, talk about prayer, think of ways to do it better…we are blessed, our people want to pray. We often have nights of prayer, cancel all activities and have a whole day of prayer…what better way to succeed than to pray. I was quitely happy when recently I was listening to a Messianic Jew share about his experiences in the Underground Church of China, he was making a big deal of the Chinese church’s 8-10 hour prayer meetings, praying “UNTIL” God did something…that’s what we do…PRAY UNTIL…
For us worship, prayer and bible reading is all rolled into one…just SEEK GOD…!
Storm coming…
How we would love this sort of rain in Australia…it comes here every year. For the poor , again it is simply another burden. When you live in a house made out of this and that, perhaps bits of plastic, bits of tent…and then maybe only the ground for a floor…lots of rain and wind is not your friend.
Imagine yourself living in a slum home, with say 8 kids, 3 are sick with various diseases, 2 are malnourished and a big storm is coming…your job is to keep everyone dry and maybe even to try and keep the house together in the strong winds. As the flood levels rise after 7-8 hours of torrential down pour, some kids are on chairs, some on a box, others on a pile of clothes, you are in the water trying to keep certain items dry…moving children away from the bigger leaks in the roof…and it rains like that all night…so you are doing everything in the dark.
What a life…
Mark
Don’t WORK, don’t EAT…then you DIE…SO WORK…
Do what you need to do…fish on a styrofoam boat, in an incredibly polluted bay…if you want to eat…maybe you are a little child who should be in school, but you need to be wading through the incredible pollution to gather hard plastics, metals and bottles that are washed up after a storm…or maybe your the parent who has to encourage your child to do that…question is, do you want to eat today…
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
Great Picture
Pictures really do speak a thousand words sometimes…WELCOME TO MY LIFE, Jhon Rey 2 years old.
POVERTY PICS…
With the start of the rainy season, obviously we get a lot of rain, wind and high tides. For us Aussies it cools down the weather and makes it a lot more pleasant…but for the locals it becomes cold, children get flu’s, need extra food and clothes to stay warm. Children are walking in water all day, cuts and wounds get easily infected, a hard life becomes harder. 
The sea also rises, which causes flooding and stirs up all of the rubbish that has gathered on the sea bed during summer…a horrible sight to the western eye, but to the scavenger it presents another opportunity to comb through old rubbish for the valuable metals, hard plastics and bottles that the sea has hidden from sight all summer. What was that saying “ones mans rubbish is another mans treasure”, how true it is.
What a world, great place to shine a little light a little brighter…be Jesus to those in need.
God Bless – Mark
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…
Children of Baseco…
Here are a few of our “Extra Special” little friends. We are not supposed to have favorites, but we all do. All over the world woman and children bear the largest part of the burden for being poor. Children are so cute, so innocent and also so unable to change their own circumstances…check out some of these little faces…super cute…
- Photo – My absolute favorite is a little girl named Daniela. She was not even born when we began working in Baseco. She was the first girl in a family of 3 boys. She sees me and that’s it, she toddles up, climbs up and she has me. I gave her the nickname “Girlfriend”, if I call out to her using her nickname, she responds. She is super cute and she is mine. We will send her to school and change her life, how could you not…look at her.
- Bogoy, real name Lewis. Such a quite natured little boy, only one older sister. His mum works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. His father rides one of our Pedi Cabs. Just a beuatiful little man, loves Chris.
- Marlin Ortega. He broke the top bone in his left leg…ouch. He will spend a few months in plaster, unable to move. But at least his mum can carry him around using the piece of wood between the two casts, and I am not joking at all.
- These are two of Girlfriends brothers, Jimboy and Barnie. Barnie would be one of my favorite little boys and a great mate.
- A plate of rice, nourishing…not! But for some this is often all they eat.
- Might not be the latest posteurpedic mattress in a quite air conditioned room full of toys and teddies, but it seems to be working for this guy as he sleeps in the middle of a busy market area.
- If you want to enter the Kingdom of heaven you must become like a little child…amen.
- Work…un-earthing metals or hard plastics in a fresh truck load of land fill.
- The last photos is just a sad photo. Small, malnourished child, sitting alone in a slum home…no one caring, no one feeding, no one helping…until we come along.
The conditions that children live in around the world is often hard to comphrehend, perhaps impossible, until you see it yourself. Every photo that gets posted on this blog, I took myself. We didn’t search for them on the net and post them for an emotional response, or in an effort to raise finaces…we post them so that people “KNOW”, and hopefully in the knowing there might rise up a few individuals who will get a burden for the poor and who then begin to make a differance in the life of some one other than themselves.
Bless you – Mark
