“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
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…
Medical Mission – Temporary Relief for the Poor…
We just had a Medical Mission in our church in Baseco. We had 2 doctors and 1 dentist who worked really hard for most of the day. The doctors saw 330 patients and the dentist pulled out more than 100 teeth from 45 patients…they worked hard, volunteering their time to help the poor. Every patient got medicines and vitamins for their various ailments.
We had a team of our leaders praying for people and sharing Jesus with everyone. It was a big day for all involved. The guy who provided the clinic is a German Missionary named John. He had a team of 14 workers doing various things all day. Here are a few pics…
Medical Missions are a catch 22 situation…you medicate people who will need medicating again. Many of the people who attended the medical mission have minor sickness’s that are not life threatening…but it does allow us another level of connection into the community, allowing us to find some of the more serious disease issues, as well as opening up more opportunities for prayer and potential miracles.
We found another baby who will need a hairlip operation and our second rare case of Kwashior Kor Malnourishment. A very deadly form of malnourishment, where the child looks fat, but is severley malnourished. The fat look is due to the childs internal fluid leaching into the skin due to the child’s internal organs de-hydrating. Predominantly caused by a massive vitamin A deficiency, along with basic lack of food and vitamins.
Smile Train – some of the next children…
After Muhammads successful operation, here are some of the next children in line to get their faces fixed up…
Changing lives one person at a time, there is nothing hard or complicated about it. Have a go yourself, and you will find that it is not that hard, everyone can help somebody else in the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ.
Some great miracles…what can Jesus do…
This is Agelo Dela Cruz, we found him being pushed along the road in a small wooden cart, he was dying. Severely malnourished, ant bites all over him and a huge growth on the back on his head. The photo where the growth is gone was taken 14 hours later, the photo of Angelo fat and healthy, was taken two months later. Nothing is impossible…
Smokey Mountain…
Hi there to all.
The other day I got to take 3 visitors from Australia to the “New Smokey Mountain” site. Smokey mountain was the name given to a huge rubbish dump here in Manila many years ago now. The dump got the worlds attention after a 60 minutes show revealed the poverty and degradation of the thousands of people who lived there, making their living from the rubbish. The Philipines Govt’ has since closed the original site down…but now there are literally dozens of new sites, alot smaller than the original, but just as back. It is a very difficult problem to fix, close one dump, others will have to open up…what else do you do with the mountains of rubbish…?
Anyway, here are a few fresh photos from the “New Smokey Mountain”…crazy place to live.
There is no need to mention how these people might spend Christmas – two thirds of the world live like this…
T.B, the poor peoples diesease…
Childhood Tuberculosis – Taking on a Giant…
We have mentioned before how .B is an epedemic here in th Phillipines (most of Asia actually), and Baseco is no differant. T.B kills people slowly and painfully, and due to the nature and time involved in the medical cure, the poor person can rarely afford the medicines needed for treatment, and so this truelly is a “poor person disease.”
T.B has killed more people than any other disease in the history of the world (HIV will soon pass it), one infected person will infect an average of 15 others before they die. Statistics say that the infection rate could be as high as one new case per second (obvioulsy in certain environments only). Most of us immediately think that that is impssible, but that is simply because we do not realise the size of the global prolem or the nature of the disease. More than 1/3 of the worlds population currently has active T.B, but because most of those people live in densely packed slums and depressed areas (places we never go), we never see it. Can you imagine and “airborne disease” (carried in the moisture drops that an infected person coughes out), that works best on compromised immune systems (malnourished children and adults), in a place where medicines are not affordable and where there is an average of 8,000 people per square kilometer (slum stats are much denser than this)…how many people could potentially be affected by such a disease…? BECAUSE THAT IS THE REALITY OF T.B IN THE WORLD TODAY…
Ever since the fall of man, there have been various evil spirits who have plagued mankind, remembering that 1/3 of the angels fell and those spirits have been in operation on the earth ever since. When you see/hear the symptons of a disease you are reading the profile of some form of evil spirit – somethings that is here to steal, kill and destroy. Have you ever wondered what a demon looked like…well, for us, it looks like T.B. It causes children incredible pain, displaces their heart and fills their lungs with fluid making it hard to breath, it distorts chests and hunches backs over – it causes suffering. Medically speaking T.B might actually be unstoppable. There have been few, if any changes in the medicines in over 100 years, but due to incorrect usage of the medicines (if at all), the disease has changed so many times, making many adults DRS (Drug Resistance Strains)…but if we see it as a spirit, then we can beat it, it can be stopped – JESUS CAN SET PEOPLE FREE FROM IT’S GRIP.
In the past we have avoided this issue, just because of the sheer size of it, but now we are “taking on the giant” in the name of Jesus. Starting with 25 children we are going to learn how to get the miracle or how to treat the disease with medicine, “either or”, but none of these 25 children will die from this demon. Medicines cost money, but money often runs out, miracles are a resource without limit, they never run out and they always work.
Please pray for an incredible move of God, we must, we will beat this demon, what it does to children is horrible and should not be allowed to happen.
On this blog there are some pictures of kidsand adults with T.B, some of them look clearly sick, ome are in the early stages and so they look ok. Please pray for miracles, healings and salvation.
