Mission Possible: Reaching the Unreached

My digital timepiece caught my glimpse at 1700 hrs. I had just snacked on some delicious steamed buns and a chocolate drink. I felt my throat being choked up as I took the last bite so I grabbed my iced drink and immediately sipped it up. Then I took a deep breath.....

Was it from the food? No, it wasn't. I was gripped by the challenge given to Christians from this video that I have just watched. You should be able to play it in a while. I have posted it here.

I can't believe it's been a month since we last met with the children. Of course time has flown especially with world events catching our attention and deep concern. I'm sure many of us did our own interceding for how things are happening around the globe. Not to mention the problems in our own nation.....

By now the children's families have ended the feast that comes after their month-long prayer and fasting. It really amazes me how they can devote such a long time (one whole month)  every year and not even regard it as a sacrifice. What I even more admire is that their children also fast. Twelve years and above, children, together with their family members eat only their  'suhoor' meals before sunrise and the 'Iftar' meals after sunset for 29 to 30 straights days. Any food in between such mealtimes is forbidden.

Sometimes I think that I need to develop that sense of self-restraint. I count the number of celebrations and occasions that I love to attend.... birthdays, a baby shower every now and then, graduation, weddings, family Sunday lunches, anniversaries, monthsaries, { I know  :-)  } monthly/weekly and even daily fellowships, blowouts.... or just plain gatherings. In all of these events you can bet your bottom dollar that food is never absent. I mean, I can't think of any such month in a year where there is not a birthday among our community of friends and I noticed there's really no room for this kind of discipline. I feel ashamed somehow.

Anyways, about the last week of July until this week we were surprised to hear from the children that they were not being allowed to come to our center because they, too needed to fast during the afternoon time. To me that also spells discipline. What a remarkable way to teach culture and tradition! So, we did not waste our time. From our end, we took this chance to pray while they were also praying. God has led us to remember how He has promised to bless all the families of the earth, and that includes the Muslims.  I remember this portion of Scripture which says that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law in order that in the Messiah, Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith....These promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed" This is found in Galatians 3:13-14 and 16a of the New Testament. Furthermore, it says in Galatians 3:29: "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

In my personal time of prayer, I had asked God to call their attention, that as they are sincerely devoting such time towards God, that He may reach them behind those veils and point them to the true Messiah.

Below is a video that has challenged me to dedicate my life in reaching the unreached.....every breath and every bit of strength that God gives me every day.... be used for the cause of Christ.

This 'small act of kindness' that we do to our neighbors' children may seem insignificant as to the number to be reached. Yet I believe that it would contribute in a way that God Himself will bring a harvest as we faithfully do our small part. The pictures below are from previous months' feeding days. I would ask your kind support again in prayer for these children as we resume our feeding and teaching this first Saturday of September. A hedge of protection over the children, provision for our financial needs, strength, wisdom and patience for our volunteers, and open hearts ready to receive the gospel among these children. Till then may God our Lord favor each reader with blessings that we may continue to live as He has purposed in each one of us.

A question that I would like to pose as you ponder upon praying for the unreached....

How many Muslim groups and communities all over the world do you know about?

The thing is, it would be good to know whom we are praying for. I encourage you to visit this website:  

                 www.30-days.net

This will tell you more about where these Muslims live in various parts of the world, their problems, situations, and all such info about them as to give us prayer ideas. It also contained the 30-day prayer guide we have used in praying for them to coincide with their Ramadan. I also encourage you to pray in a way that would reach the heartbeat of God - seeking His will as to how He would ask you to participate in this global outreach. May He direct you and guide you and lead you even as He is challenging the followers of the Messiah to love the Muslims as He does.

My digital clock registers an early 0100 hours. (I should greet every one a good morning for a brand new day God has given us.) That's 8 hours since I began writing to post this blog (evening meal and dinner guest entertaining in between). To calculate further, that's 480 long minutes. One hundred twenty thousand new birthdays will be celebrated; some eighty-six thousand four hundred graves ready for coffins to be lowered....

The numbers are staggering; the clock is yet ticking.

                    

Snapshots.m4v

Hi!

Isn't it nice when the sun comes out to say hello? It really did come out a little bit today and I thought for a while the big wheel would start turning again. At least for me that's the kind of feeling I get with all the interruptions and disruptions in my routine...all because of the rain. It makes me feel that the world stops turning sometimes. But, like I said, it did show up for a short but sweet while. I was almost getting ready for a sunbath but in the twinkling of an eye, it was gone. Thanks to HIM who gives us the sun. Thanks be to HIM again who gives us the rain. We need both, don't you think?

I have here down below the video. It's five minutes total viewing time but I have broken it down to three parts because the file size is way too big. Please consider praying both for the children and all the staff while watching. It will be a big help for this project. Thank you.

Ministry Snapshots

A warm day to all readers!

It was a chilly (and windy) 18 degrees C last night and it's been raining hamsters and kittens for the last decade here in our city (joke! only five days non stop) and I could only wish us all warmth. Some days we're like Elijah praying for rain, some days we wish it's all summer.... Anyways, I do hope that HIS blessings bring sunshine to our lives today. Whatever our circumstances, we can sing the song, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice," as told by the apostle Paul to the Philippians. Right outlook equals right attitude.

I was going out on some errands but with rain like this ...

and supposed to be a new umbrella I bought few days ago like this....

I decided to spend the afternoon writing some more. But of course the decision came after I finished marinating some meat for tomorrow's lunch. Uhm... hickory smoked barbecue sauce and other related spice and sauces.... Courtesy of my son.

So I wrap myself in sweaters, clean socks (of course), settle in a chair sipping tea and blogging. Oh! this natural mint leaves with raw honey tea has been great with whole wheat crackers.

I would like to share more today about what our community has been doing insofar as bringing the message of the Saviour is concerned. It appears that we are doing social work thru feeding but's it's a lot more than that. We are sharing our life, in fact, we are investing of it to bring the message across. So far, the kids have been responsive. Sure they enjoy the delicious snacks we prepare for them but obviously, they feel more than just fill their tummies. I don't know how much love these children experience in their homes but their response to the friendship and care we give to them is astonishing. I guess they cannot reconcile the fact that we have totally differing beliefs so why would we go out of our ways inviting them for food and fun. That is the big difference that we make in their lives. It's not just about the food for the stomach as it is food for their soul and their hearts. They feel our love and care. Period. That made it all worth our whiles, to see the children come rushing to our center with excitement eager to have another session of fun, learning and feeding. Especially as we end the afternoon, we see them going out still with the brightest smiles and the happiest mood. Somehow, we know that we are making a dent in their lives. Who knows, one of these days the wind of blessing will pass by them and they will know HIM whom we know, not by what we tell them but by how we model HIS love to them.

Once I dreamt of making a video project of my own. I know it sounds ambitious for someone like me but I got the inspiration from an AV expert who was one of our facilitators in a leadership seminar I attended in the mid Pacific. She had the most fantastic, jaw-dropping professionally-taken photographs.  And so somehow I made this commitment to myself (and to her) that I would use my learnings from her for effective ministry. During that leadership seminar I was also sensing that I would have this future assignment of bringing peace and hope to a specific target, a group of people that I had fear and prejudice of. Now it made sense to me why I should learn how to make my own videos on iMovie.

The video presentation that will follow suit first of all, is a result of that envisioning and obedience to the mandate. There are so many good things happening I could write about but this video should explain pretty much what we do. The call to 'love our neighbor' I think is a very practical one and this is how we responded. A small act of kindness, a building of a friendly relationship, hopefully a lasting one, service to our community. . .all in obedience to our Master.  Much prayer is being invested that this program will bring the Saviour to the children's hearts. Who knows? One day they will embrace HIM like we do and that their names will be found written in the Book of Life. Secondly, yes I am so blessed to have done this video project on iMovie. I guess the process of doing it all with the touch of HIS presence guiding me every step of the way is more important to me than the finished product. Have you experienced a time when you were writing a story and you know it wasn't you at all writing? That your hands were being guided by a mighty presence and inspiration? Or took video clips and later wondered how in the world you had just the perfect shots? And then learn technicalities from scratch in one week to finish the movie in just another week? Or how about finding the right background music and just the perfect voice to do the narration? Those of you who have learned the technologies of this age know what I'm talking about. I  wouldn't dare take credit for this accomplishment,  I owe it all to HIM who gave me wisdom and strength and patience to finish a full-length, five minute movie. ( lol ) May all of you who read this find the inspiration to do something excellent for HIM not trusting in your brilliance but in what HE can mightily do through you.

See you tomorrow for the video upload party......

There's a welcome here!

A warm welcome to my blog!

I am a busy wife, mother, friend to many and now, a blogger and here's to sharing what God is doing to a community of believers in one of the cool cities of a small archipelago in the Southeastern part of Asia. I'm so blessed to be part of what HE is doing to us and through us. For the last few months we have been gathering our Majority neighbor kids for a feeding ministry. This has been exciting. About forty to fifty come on Saturday afternoons.

This whole idea of blogging came after a successful attempt to make iMovie videos. We wanted to share ministry updates and I thought videos are cool. That experience thrilled me but then I thought, we really don't want the whole world yet to discover about this program. There are complications, I must say. Nervously, I had to hold my finger up so it won't 'click to upload' the video on youtube. That killed the excitement but .... I'm taking another route so we can share to our select friends. So, thanks to my Facebook friend who PM me asking for pictures of the feeding program. You gave me this idea.

So, to all of our friends whom we want to bless with good news about this exciting ministry, this blog is for you. You may read it only but you may also rejoice and pray together with us in what we're doing. Hopefully, you pray with us. We need it for our back-up in wisdom, in strength and guidance from the Master.

So what exactly do we do?

For two Saturday afternoons each month, we invite neighbor kids in our subdivision. For two hours we spend time having fun, games, food and storytelling with the kids. We have loving, patient, dedicated volunteers who sacrifice their time. We teach them life values. Godly values. It's really a divine opportunity, I believe. Not too many have this rare chance. Usually, families where they come from would stay away from us. But by the grace we are given, we hold these children dear to our hearts and we're being faithful in this calling.

I must tell you in advance that we are doing this on a week-to-week basis ONLY. God knows where the next feeding budget would come. Basically, we are dependent on help from donors and community friends as the number of children coming increases. We don't want to feed them junk food and so we really spend for this program.

In a way, I'm already asking you to pray for HIS provisions for these children. Many of them are devoid of nutrition and therefore sickly. We want to provide them with some form of proper nourishment as a way of contributing towards their good health. For this you can help us pray for the Sovereign Provider to be faithful.

Much has been said already to introduce myself, this blog and its purpose. For now, I am keeping this somewhat private to conceal the children's identity. The religion where they belong will not be happy to know about this and in case they learn, there will be consequences - they won't be allowed anymore to come. As you might have noticed I have been very discreet with terminologies for that reason. We love the children and we want to obey our mandate but we want to protect them and the ministry itself. Even now I ask you to pray for a hedge of protection over these kids.

Can you pray with us?

Below are some pictures of the children, that you may hold them in your prayers.