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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…

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. These are two of Girlfriends brothers, Jimboy and Barnie. Barnie would be one of my favorite little boys and a great mate.
  5. A plate of rice, nourishing…not! But for some this is often all they eat.
  6. 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.
  7. If you want to enter the Kingdom of heaven you must become like a little child…amen.
  8. Work…un-earthing metals or hard plastics in a fresh truck load of land fill.
  9. 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

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More Photos from the Hope City Team

Great guys from a great church…I am not sure what other missionaries want when they have teams go through their works, but we want more guys like this (most of our teams are like this) they just get involved in everything, have a go at it all. They get dirty, sweaty and very tired just helping people in the Name of Jesus.

There are photos showing the five Pedi Cabs and the five drivers that are sponsored by this church. The guys helped in a house renovation, where their skills might of lacked, their willingness made up for it.

In a short time, they made a differance in peoples lives…something we can all do. Thanks guys, come again soon.

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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.

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Gloria and Ike

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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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…