Flood Relief
We have started administering the flood relief finances that we recieved from AOGWR. We came up with a four stage plan, releasing certain aspects of relief and assistance on a weekly basis to the 100 selected fanilies in the Fairview area. The relief goods are being released over a four week period in an edeavour to ensure that target families are assisted in the best possible way.
The assistance is termed a “Re-establishment Package”, where the aim is to give 100 families the various items needed to actaully conduct life. Families will recieve pots, pans, gas cookers, various household items, various containers, food preparation items, things to wash clothes, school uniforms, bags, stationary and shoes. Twice during the next month families will recieve a 50kg sack of rice, plus weekly food allowances.
A secondary goal with the flood assistance is too purchase as many of the items as possible from the sourrounding area and so inject finances into the local economy.
Pastor James Troup has so far been the one administering the relief and has done a great job.
Something “AMAZING” – Crazy People like US
In a world where people are often looking for “excuses” for so much of what they don’t do, it is not all that often that you find “families” that are looking for “reasons” to do things for Jesus.
We have a family of 8, mum, dad and 6 children (all under 18) who are coming to live and work with us in Baseco for 3 months…notice they are coming to LIVE IN BASECO with us. How amazing is that…they could have all the excuses in the world, too many kids, kids are too young, too many commitments, too busy, school, work, business, all just too hard etc…but they don’t…they have a reason.
Jesus is ultimately their reason, plus they want their children to experience another worlds normality. Incredible. James is a pastor in Australia and runs a decent size computer business, Cathy is a mum, a teacher (they home school the children) and a child care/mid wife professional.
My wife and I have moved out of our little home and moved right into the middle of the slum, into our Prayer House, so that James, Cathy and their children can have our house. Our house is great by Baseco standards, it has power, running water, small aircon’ in one room, is relatively rat and bug free and is safe and lockable…but by western standards it is nothing and a family of eight is going to move in there for 3 months – no space, sleep on mattress’s on the floor, pack everything up every day, no shops close by, everything very manual, leaks in the roof, floods in a heavy rain or high tide, huge rats playing in the roof every night, constant noise, no internet – these people must be crazier than us – no doubt God will use them greatly.
Pray for them as the Lord leads you too – there will be some many challenges and adjustments for them all.
If you would like to follow their adventure, please click on the link for “Cathy” on my blog roll.
Mark
Trip to Thailand
As some of you know we were recently in Thailand for a combined Aussie Missionaries Sumitt for the Pan Asia Region. It was great…
We stayed in what was for us, a luxury resort, Club Andaman…beautiful, quite, peaceful and a great swimming pool. Maybe 100 metres from the beach (although a bit rough for swimming). We both enjoyed the rest.
But the Conference was the focus of the trip. There were perhaps 100 Missionaries from India, China, Japan, Thailand, Parts of the Ukrain, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines. It was so inspiring hearing what the Lord is doing through them all in the countries He has sent them to. Some of them are really doing things that are effecting the whole nation. Stuff ranging from church planting, orphanages, clean water services, building of whole villages, drug rehabs, work amongst Muslims, lots of work amongst the poor…but the scale of some of the works was incredible…”we were like grasshoppers in our own sight” as we got to spend a few days amongst “giants of Faith”. So inspiring, way too much to say, except, “Thank you Jesus for sending us there.”
The most amazing thing, is that none of the Missionaries there were amazing, they all were amazing in so many ways, but really they are just ordinary people with an extraordinary God, who does incredible things through them all…
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
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
Slum Missionaries – “He said GO…”
History in the making…we are sending a “SELF FUNDED” team to Cebu for four days to work with another Aussie Missionary, Lucy Longdon.
They will fly there and back using their own money. Now, for some of you reading this you will think “big deal, so what”…BUT remember where these people come from, how much they earn, how huge this step is for them. They believe God is sending them, they are going as Missionaries themselves, they are going to give, to serve, they are not going to receive, they are not being paid…their own “Faith” is making this possible, not their financial situation.
Sometimes we have all the money in the world and we still find it hard to do what Jesus wants us to do. The Lord God Almighty in His infinite wisdom, spoke to people who live in a third world slum and told them “to GO into all the world and preach the gospel”, and as amazing as it might seem, they are “going”, just because He said. How incredible is that, sounds so biblical, sounds so easy.
And another amazing thing is they actually believe that they have something to contibute, I am not sure how they saw themselves before, but now they see themselves as preachers, ministers, and missionaries. They see themselves as “able to have an impact”.
It might seem like a small thing, but it’s very exciting.
Can we learn any lesson from this simple display of FAITH…?
Bless you Mark
“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
Great Picture
Pictures really do speak a thousand words sometimes…WELCOME TO MY LIFE, Jhon Rey 2 years old.
Ongoing Medical Work
Marivic is our local Pastor, but she also doubles as nurse or doctor from time to time. In these pics she is treating two seperate burns victims. The burn to the foot, is just such a bad place to get a burn, so hard to keep it clean and infection free…both ladies come daily to get their dressings changed, the wound cleaned and the burns cream put on. They were both hot water burns.
The last picture is only a small portion of the burn, as it is in a very inappropriate area, the ladies abdomen, both thighs and under the breast were all burnt. The inside of the other thigh is far worse than the side you can see in the picture.
But Marivic does a good job, she she is very thorough and very gentle, these should both heal up fine in time.
Mark
