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
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
Kids Crusades…Sarah Harrison
JOHN 14:12 Kids – Crusades over the Holidays…lot’s of FUN…
Since we follow the American system of schooling, it’s holiday time over here, so all the kids are home with nothing to do. This week we did four seperate kids crusades in different locations and then had a final combined kids crusade to bring all the groups together. It is always hard to estimate numbers (and it is something we rarely do at all, as numbers mean very little…), but we definitely had more than 100 kids at each small crusade, and perhaps 400-500 at the last combined one. Great event, great way to share Jesus and sow seeds of faith into little hearts.
We had plenty of action for them all – balloons, face painting, small beach balls flying around, bubbles being blown, loud music, great kids action songs, dramas about Jesus, small prizes – as you can imagine it was a bit crazy at times, but great fun. Sarah put it all together with the youth and other church workers, they did such a great job, everyone worked long and hard on the day and with all the preperation.
The junior youth all worked, help to teach dances – everyone was involved.
Reaching Mindanao – Faith or Fear
Reaching Mindanao – Ministry Amongst the Muslims
Faith or Fear – what leads us…?
We have been conducting seminars in Northern Mindanao for the past 3 years, but have just recently began to move South. For anyone who knows Mindanao, it is predominately southern Mindanao that is dominated by various Muslim and militant groups, all active, most anti-government. It is a feared area, even by some locals. Indiscriminate bombings and shootings, aimed at basically anyone who does not belong to that particular group are regular and widespread, and has bred a culture of fear and caution. Driving into the Southern region for the first time is a little bit daunting, the further you go, the more army checkpoints and road blocks you pass through, from time to time you be subjected to full body searches as various check points search for people and vehicles carrying weapons or bombs. Many of the local are not involved in the conflict, but are all effected in one way or another.
One of the effects in the south is that many white missionaries are afraid to go there, or the locals are afraid to host white missionaries for fear of attracting the wrong type of attention. This leaves that local christians (of whom there are many) without much needed encouragement, training and resources to develop the work of the Lord in their region. It can “cut them off” in practical terms from parts of the body, it can rob them of life giving connections. I hear of events that are cancelled by white missionaries due to outbreaks of violence, wisdom based in fear seems to often cancel out faith. I also hear of the “safe places” that seem to get all of the attention when it comes to seminars and training, safe is an evidance of the “weakness” of faith, then there are those who won’t go, or won’t travel with armed escorts, a faith based in a worldly form of protection, where did the great, almighty, never failing, miracle working God go. The challenge is this – THE WHOLE WORLD NEEDS JESUS. The great commision in no way indicates caution or care, it never excludes any area, region or people group for any reason at all – ALL EXCUSES ARE IRRELEVANT…we are to go into ALL the WORLD and preach the good news.
The original vision that the Lord gave me, was to conduct seminars in the North aimed at pastors. He showed me that by the end of one year (seminars every two months) the pastors who would work with us in the future would be revealed by their faithfulness over that year. It might sound like a slow team building plan, but none the less it was clearly from the Lord. There were other details connected with what the Lord showed me and they have all worked out. We now are connected to Pastor Rolly and Sharon Madrigal in the north, Pastor Dela Cruz in the south and through these two men of God we have access anywhere in this region.
This is now the year for church planting in this region…but not just churches in the “safe areas”, churches in the “unsafe areas”. All the advice givers will say “but brother you have to be careful, you have to be wise, God does not call you to be reckless, you can’t preach when your dead”, and while all of those statements are right in themselves, they are also oh so wrong when they begin to limit the call of God, sowing doubt where faith should be. An man of God whom I respect greatly once told me in the early days of my christianity, that if you don’t take risks you will always fail. Faith in it’s very nature is always a risk, because you are believing in the unseen, the intangible.
The next few blogs will focus on Mindanao. Pray for us as we begin to lay hold of this region for Christ. There are many missionaries who are here doing great works for God, and in Jesus name we will make our small mark for the Lord as He leads, guides and directs us. Please pray for us as the Lord may lead.
“Many hands make light work – carry your share of the evangelistic load”
What can these children teach us…?
PRIORITIES…Prayer and Preaching of the Word…
If prayer is childish, then these kids are all on the right track. Could they teach us something…?
There is a great challenge in the book of Acts 6:1-7, as we would find with most of the bible, if our hearts are open.
There is incredible fruit and growth in the new church, it’s members are increasing greatly and for the first time, the churches widely recognised and commented of quality, UNITY, is shaken by DISPUTES. But it is the Apostles response to this issue, and also to their growing business is what should be a great challenge for us all…they went back to prayer.
They withdrew from certain activities, from perhaps seemingly important things, things that “must be done”, in favor of more time in prayer.
In a world, and a church, that is so business minded and time oriented, we often seem to run on an opposite agenda. How can we justify spending more time in prayer, when so much needs to be done…?
It seems as if the Apostles themselves did not consider that they were in anyway “independent from God”. Pray reveals dependance. Again, it would seem as if our many talents and abilities have led us to independence, therefore we don’t seem to need to pray all that much, but this was not the case for the Apostles – they re-adjusted their priorities and re-adjusted their time so that they could pray.
Of course this praying energized their preaching and gave them spiritual food for the hungry, so the Word of God spread and the number of disciples multiplied greatly.
DO LESS…PRAY MORE…ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH MORE…!
One of the challenges is “Learning to Pray”, and learning to “Pray Effectively”.
It seems much easier to plan and raise finances, than it is to Pray…is that perhaps one of the “deceitful sides of riches” – after all, doesn’t money “change everything”…
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
Missionaries Wanted…must be qualified…aren’t we all…?
Here are some shots of Don Bosco, Temporary Housing – horrible place that is in need of Churches and Church Planters…check out the photo’s…what could you and Jesus do here.
You must be qualified to work in places like this, even though Jesus said “Go into all the world and make Disciples”, many don’t seem to think that this applies to them, it’s only applicable to those around them…
Some qualifications you will need to work in this place…
- An all consuming passion for Jesus and equal passion for people…
- You must not love your life, you must love the lives of others more than your own…
- You must be prepared to loose your life…maybe literally…
- You must not want earthly security, possesions and wealth…
- You must be prepared to “GO” even if someone won’t recognise you or “SEND” you…Jesus has recognised you and He has sent you already…
- You must be prepared to “GO” even without all of the resources and money in the bank…
- You must be prepared to really live by faith – not by your paycheck or offerings…you can learn this on the job, more than likely this will be the best way you can learn this lesson…
- Jesus must be your source for all things…
- You must listen to God first, well before man…(man does not like this, many people think that they are the voice of God for you)…
- You must run everything man tells you to either do or not do, by Jesus first, not the other way around…this might mean you often “dis-obey” man – so you might be seen as rebellious and un-submissive…
- You must either know how to pray, or be prepared to learn on the job…(on the job, is one of the best ways to learn)…
- You will need to fast, even when you don’t feel like it…
- You will need to understand that money is not the solution for everything, and that your level of faith or success is not always measured by your income…
Many of these qualifications don’t fit well with some of the theologies if “wisdaom” and “prosperity”…but they do fit well with the basic teachings of the gospel and with Jesus last words “TO GO”…
If you look at all of these qualifications and think I can’t do all of those things, don’t worry, because in reality there are no qualifications except to “BE BORN AGAIN”. If you are born again, you will follow Jesus and He will lead you to the lost.
Go back over the pictures, look at them, see the people (not the place) and ask yourself how can me and Jesus help that person…and then come and “DO IT”…
Bless you – Mark
Seminar on LOVE…
Sarah Harrison has just done a seminar for the youth on love, what is real love, what is false love. It was all about dating and setting your boundaries, aimed more at the girls, she talked about saying “NO” and about how it is ok not let any male/man do whatever he thinks is right with you.
So appropriate for a nation where massive numbers of girls are pregnant in their teens, alot of them having their first child at 13 or 14. Sarah taught the whole seminar, which went for nearly 2 hours and included games and activities to keep everyone interested. There were also a number of mothers who attended so they could teach their own girls appropriate behaviour in relationships. It was well attended and enjoyed by all who came.
Of course we ended it with a short chat on knowing Jesus and His love for you, as knowing this kind of love sets the standard for your life. There were perhaps 9 salvations, praise God for that.
