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
The hardships amongst the poor – no hope, no help – just Jesus
We have recently had a situation unfold that reveals once again the difficulties and struggles for the poor of the world.
There is a couple, Rose and Chris, we have known them for perhaps the whole time we have been in Baseco. When we first met them they had two little boys, Christian and Barnie. Since then they have had three more children – Jim Boy, Eli (whom I call “Girlfriend”) and just recently they had a little girl, Christine, a couple of weeks old.
Chris has always worked really hard carrying vegetables up and down the markets all night, earning 150p per night (AUD 3.50) 7 nights of the week. He has been a good dad and a good husband, in a world where most of the men are definetly not the best examples of manhood, Chris has been a good guy and a good friend to myself and Christine.
But, poverty puts incredible pressures upon people. Imagine working 7 nights per week for AUD 3.50 per night, long, hard, heavy work…and yet you are still unable to improve your living standards for your family, you can’t afford schooling, if a medical problem comes up, you have to borrow money for the medicines and it will never change for you…this is it. You have no education, no rich friends, you have being doing this for years…this is your life. Nothing is secure or certain, you live day by day, hoping there is no great emergencey or drama that comes along and messes everything up.
If that was you, and there came a chance for some quick cash, something that would ease the pressure, if only for a week or so – would you take it…?
In the last few months Chris, got involved with the wrong crowd, criminals. They began to hatch plans to rob some of the rich businessmen in the local markets. They carry out the plan and succeed in getting 5,000p each (AUD 125, more than a months wages). Due to the success they hatch another plan, this one fails and Chris gets caught, all the other guys escape. Chris gets a good beating from the crowd and the local authorities and is then jailed in the local lockup. The lockup provides no food or water for prisoners and Chris shares a 5m square cell with 50-60 other guys. He can be there for a month or so before he goes to a real jail.
I went to visit him and as I looked in his eyes the Spirit of God showed me two things – terror, absolute fear and secondly, innocence.
The fear was there because he though he was going to be “SALVAGED”. A salvage is when the rich person who you tried to rob pays people to kill you, as this is much cheaper and quicker than going through the courts. The suspect will dissappear (or escape) from the cells and be found a week or so later floating in the Pasay. It’s a well known and common practice as the rich deal out justice to the poor.
The Innonence was God showing me that Chris had no understanding, no idea at all of the consiquences of his actions. He did the crime, but it was like his heart was still clean – he is not a bad person.
With the threat of salvage a real possibility, me and Marco get involved. We are in the police station at 3am the next morning, talking with the cops, eating, drinking with them, hanging around - getting to know them and letting everyone know that we are interested in Chris. This makes it harder for him to dissappear, especially as a white guy is involved. It seems to work and the salvage oeration does not happen. Chris will go to jail and may well be locked up for 10-15 years. Chris will survive jail, as he is young and very strong. He will get fed once he gets in there and will have shelter…he will be ok….
BUT WHAT ABOUT ROSE AND THE KIDS…he was their sole provider. There is no social security here, how will she survive. She will begin with relatives and friends, asking for help, daily food and milk for her kids, but they will all eventually get sick of giving day after day, she will go from organisation to organisation looking for help – some with give sporadic assistance, but it will stop. Then she will begin selling whatever things she has, but she will run out of stuff to sell. Her kids will begin to get hungry, become thin, what can she do…? Maybe she will prostitute herself, she has to get money some how. The foreigners come and prey upon people like her all the time, she will survive for a while doing this, but what will the cost be – HIV, disease. If she gets sick and dies, what happens to her kids, will they siply have no choice but to follow a similar path…tough life, tough choices. What would you do…? How would you survive…?
The only good thing about Chris and Rose, is that God has us here. From the time of Chris being incarcerated and for maybe the next 15 years, we will supply her every need. Money, food, clothing and all of the extras needed for life. We won’t just give her enough to get by on…we will give her more than enough, just like Jesus did for us. When we work in our countries we want enough for our daily needs and then we want extra for all of our various “wants”, we will supply her needs and there will be extra for her “wants”. God blessed Abraham with abundance so that he could be a blessing to others, we are going to bless her. We will also be involved as much as we can with Chris while he is in jail.
Now listen to this, as we began to bless Rose, God began to bless Chis in the jail…
The chief inspector in charge of Chris’ case began to personally provide Chris with daily food, taking him breakfast and removing him from the cell to eat in the police staff room. Rose visited Chris with the five kids, the next time she arrived at the cells, some of the police had brought old kids clothes from their homes, as well as old toys for the kids…and they gave them all to Rose. God’s Spirit is one of grace and mercy, we were all guilty at some stage, but the grace and mercy of God saved us, redeemed us, paid for our sin, removed our guilt…His mercy endures forever, amen. Chris is guilty, he will go to jail and we will look after his wife and kids.
This little example of the real life struggles amongst the poor hopefully will help us re-evaluate our view of the poor. Sometimes we might travel to another country and we get hassled by all of the beggars, they are smelly and dirty, we don’t want them always around us, or we see all the sex workers young and old, and we think they all should be doing something else, they need to make better choices, get a job…but who knows why they are doing what they are doing…How many kids are they trying to support, what happened in their life to get them to where they are now. There is a reason they are begging, maybe they have nothing else they can do.
In the worst case scenario, if I saw Rose out on the street, begging with grubby, dirty kids (this will never happen to her) what would I think of her, would I give to her, would I help her. Probably not. But in this case we know her, she is a friend, we know her kids, we understand her life. We can help, and so we will.
40% of this nation live on US 2 per day, 50% of them live on less than US 1, and for the vast majority of them – IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT.
Find the poor in your world, your country and help them, bless them, share with them, be Jesus Christ for them…get involved and make a differance in someone like Rose where you are.
Check out our world…
Hi there just a short blog. I took some photos from our roof the other day, they give a great overview of Baseco, just though I would share them so people can see what a slum looks like from above.
You can right click on an image to view it in a larger size. I suggest you click on the 2nd image and just have a good look at it, I think it is an amazing picture, look at the details, see what a lum is really like.
Baseco really is an incredible world. Early in the morning while I am praying, reading or having my coffe, I get to how the place really works….
You might sit there as the day unfolds and mothers are the first ones up, gathering some fire wood, boiling water, preparing for when the kids wake up. Then a few men appear, some will come and collect water from us for bathing and cooking, but alot of women cart water as well. Some smaller children will wake up crying, as mum is already out doing stuff, older children will try to look after them.
Lots of older children will come out and squat somewhere for their morning ablutions. I watched Barnie and Jimboy (couple of cute but wild little boys), as there eyes opened, all they saw was some small ducks, so the chase immediatley began. Two little fellas, no clothes running through the stagnant water harrasing ducks. Bugoy (a smaller child) just looked on as he sat in his doorway waiting for mum (Precy) to come back. Danica wanted to chase the ducks as well, but there was a frog near her doorway and she is afraid of frogs, so she was stuck in her house. An older boy will walk by selling tinapy “fresh bread”, another passes with a large bundle of sticks…they all say “morning pastor”, as we are getting to know more and more of the children and adults.
An old lady comes along, all hunched over, using a piece of blue conduit for a cane, she prods the puddles to see how deep the water is before she attempts to cross it, she is wearing a short gumboot on one foot and an old thong on the other…today she decides that it is too deep and so she goes another way.
An adult might appear outside to wash themselves. They will just stand there with maybe a bucket of water and a cup, and wash themselves with their clothes on, being as modest as they can.
The world that Jesus died for is very interesting.
We have two guests staying with us for a good chunk of time – Michael Holton will be here until decmber, and Sarah Harrison will be with us perhaps until April, both are a real blessing and very well liked by the locals. Michael is living with me out in the slum, whilst Sarah gets the good house all to herself.
It might seem a bit odd to get excited about a slum, but this is our world and will be our world for a long time to come – you are all welcome to come for a visit sometime…
