Gloria and Ike

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Here is a story so tragic, so sad and so hopeless that it nearly can’t be true…but it is…

Perhaps 18 months ago we found a family in need, nothing amazing at the time, just another malnourished child (2 actually) in a struggling family with too many children and too small an income to feed and keep them all…nothing new, same old story in every slum all over the world.

But as time goes on and we get to know the family, the mothers name is Gloria, her husband is Ike and there are 7 kids. We save the children from malnourishment, medicate others in the family as needed, fix up their house so that the rain doesn’t poor in anymore…we help them, we love them just like Jesus.

Gloria is always grateful, but Ike is always aloof, morose and quiet, hardly ever speaks. God shows me a deep sadness, like a deep seated despair in him, something so traumatic that it has really messed him up on the inside. A grown man that no one except his wife loves and cares for, a man so desperately lonely, lost and hopeless on the inside, some one who has been absolutely shattered as a human being. I have no hope of describing accurately what God showed me about Ike, but I can honestly say I have never ever seen such deep sadness like this before. But as the team continued to visit, as we continued to help the family and then we gave Ike a Pedi Cab…hope came into their world (which sounds like such a pathetic cliché line).

I remember the first time I saw Ike smile, it just made me so happy. He rode that Pedi Cab everyday and sold a local food product in the nights. He worked so hard in all sorts of weather. He came to our house one day with cracks in his feet from riding and walking trying to make an income…we gave him boots, and he was just so incredibly grateful. We would see him in the day riding his Pedi Cab and he would smile and wave. Gradually he began to worship Jesus, listen in bible studies…his life was changing, his children and wife were all doing well. It was a long slow process, but there was real change in his life.

And then the unthinkable happened. He was out selling in the night and was confronted by another man looking for some one else. He asked Ike where this person was, Ike replied that he did not know and was then shot in the head and died on the spot. No reason, totally innocent, dead…just like that.

Now that is shocking enough…but now there are 7 young children who have no father, a wife with no husband and a family with no provider…what do they do…? Is any of this their fault, what could they of done differently, how can they fix this…who is responsible for them now…? WE ARE…

We began helping them with food, we helped them with the funeral. Then a church, Hope City, put up their hand to begin family sponsorship of this family. AUD $30 per week, more than a full wage amongst the poor. Today was the first day that an official food package was taken to Gloria. As I explained to her what was happening, and that she would now get a food package twice a week for a long time to come…she sort of sat there looking at us, and then she just burst into tears…hope had come again. As she cried, I cried and told her this was because Jesus loved her “Mahal ka na Hesus”.

The bible says that pure and undefiled relegion is to fly around the world in your private jet, preach in large crusades, collect large offerings and preach on prosperity, buy two more cars, another house and upgrade the sound system in your church…NO, NO, NO, NEVER…James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep yourself unspotted from the world”

The bible says “has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love”.

Gloria, in all her heartache and pain has been chosen by God to be rich in faith (I am not saying God chose her to suffer). We can learn a lesson if we look at her life. If I was to put $30 into the offering of any large ministry, it would not be recognized as anything of importance, nothing of significance…but when it is put into the hands of a mother, with 7 children and no food, someone who has nothing at all, it reduces her to tears of thankfulness and gratitude, and she will see it as the hand of God, because she knows that she is no one, she is nothing, no one knows she even exists and then when a church in Australia (worlds away) feels a burden from God to help this insignificant, unknown mother of 7…she knows that God somehow did that for her, because how else could it of happened..?

This particular church now sponsors 7 families, most of them are only short term, but this one will be long term. The church is Hope City in Melbourne, the pastor is Andrew Magrath, there is a link to their site to the right of this article. Check out his blog, go to their site, visit their church, pray for them, finance them – they are doing a great work in their own neighborhood amongst the poor and needy.

None of us really needs to be supporting stuff overseas, there is so much need in our own backyards. I will say that again “NONE OF US REALLY NEEDS TO BE SUPPORTING STUFF OVERSEAS”…unless you are already helping people in your own backyard first.

All churches, all christians should have a four fold plan and vision for evangelism…

Jerusalem represents your own world, your own place and location, reach the lost there first and foremost…

Judea represents your surrounding area, suburbs, towns or cities…

Samaria, places a little further away, unloved, unliked people groups…

And finally the world…DON’T DO THIS FIRST, DO THIS LAST, IF AT ALL…

“CHANGE YOUR OWN WORLD, HAVE AN IMPACT THERE FIRST”

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Some great miracles…what can Jesus do…

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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…

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Deeper and deeper into the slum…

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The Lord in His wisdom and grace is moving us deeper and deeper into our slum, revealing the challenges of daily life for the poor in greater details.

The house we have has no constant electricity, no shower – although we do have water, as we supply the water for our area. Life begins here at 5am, with rosters, dogs and children preparing for the first classes of school which start at 6am. We have a mozzie net, a samll set of drawers and a camper bed. The kitched has a gas burner stove, a small cupboard, two pots, some plastic containers and some utensils…what else do you need…?

Our house gets its power from a larger generator that supllies 45 houses, but for the last four days it has not been working. Darkness determines the end of the day. People shut up and secure their homes, dogs get tied up in doorways for security, mums call in the older children and people settle in for the night.

Through out the night the dogs warm of passerbys and possible intruders. If alot of dogs go off at once, numerous men will emerge from their homes, some with torches, to see what the disturbance might be. There is no police station out here, no rules, you all look after yourself and your neighbors. It begins to rain, heavy, our house still leaks a fair bit in a heavy rain, but I look at the houses around us – ragged tents, bits of this, bits of that for roofs and walls, sitting on the ground and getting flooded – and I realise that our leaks aren’t so bad. We are not trying to keep babies dry, we are not infested with rats, all we have is not wet yet.

The night is full of mozzies, roosters who don’t know what time is is and drunks. Last night there was a very aggressive argument a couple of houses up, you lie there listening, hoping it does not get out of control, wondering if you will intervene if it turns viloent…but it settled down and there was no real drama.

You definitely don’t feel safe out here…but I can go home anytime I want to…these people live here.

Every morning we get a great view of the sunrise as we look over the roofs around us.

 

Yesterday we were going to visit a sick child and we notice a growing crowd just in front of us. As we get nearer people are talking about a gun and a shooting. There is a large crowd, but there only seems t be one guy shouting commands and doing stuff, I ask him is some one dead “Wala, buhay” (No, he’s alive). A group of men head of too a slum home on the side of the muddy dirt road. The first mans jumps inside (it’s off the ground), he picks up a man absolutely covered in blood, but still alive. The shooting has only just happened, he has been shot in the heart, he is going to die… I help the man to get him outside (everyone else just dissappeared into the crowd), there is blood everywhere, I can see the hole in his chest, I put my hand over it and press as hard as I can while I help him out of the house. He is trying to stand, stumbling as I hold him – he is going to die in a minute or so. The other guy has gotten a trike for him, we put him in and they race off down the muddy dirt track – he won’t make it…

Shocking, but think about it…if one of your kids got even a semi decent injury or wound, what do you do here…there is no taxi, no ambulance, no phone to use, no easy access at all in any form of emergencey…it’s only you. The man above died, he was an innocent bystander in some one elses argument.

You definitely wonder why God thinks you need to be involved in stuff like that, why did you walk past, why did you stop and go into the house. Nothing I did helped in anyway at all, nothing but a miracle could of saved him…and there was no miracle there and then for him. But Jesus is still Lord and we still need to get as involved as we can in whatever is happening around us.

Sometimes there is nothing easy about helping people, but I suppose that Jesus knew that better than we ever will…

 

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