Titus wrote me an email. Joseph is supporting nearly 20 children out of one area. He is ministering to the people remotely because Trinity Global provided him with a motorcycle. There is a baptism every week. Titus would like to see some support or some house for these children. I am praying about it now.
My biggest prayer requests are for donors and provision and resources. We have contacted Medical Bridges and requested a huge shipping crate full of free medical equipment. They have responded and we will begin working on the legalities. We will need Dr. Kennedy's information, I am sure.
We don't have the medical clinic built yet. Work has begun on the TGD facility that will house the computer lab. I am praying that Dell will promote the project. They could even sponsor us and use us as an example of the kind of work employees at Dell are involved in.
They could give us the Dell Connected Classroom equipment---thousands of dollars of savings.
With these two giant donations, it would free up our donors to give directly to PEOPLE which can be very satisfying to the soul. Villages need Wells---and a well directly helps everyone in the area of the well. It reduces the time women and children spend traveling to watering holes which then have putrid water! so many parasites and worms get into the body through contaminated water. so many infectious diseases come from the feces to mouth transfer. Infected children commonly use water sources to relieve themselves and inadvertantly sicken whole villages quickly.
and many of these sickness have CURES but no one has the money to buy them or they are not available in their area.
WE CAN CHANGE THAT!!
WE CAN AFFECT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE'S LIVES DIRECTLY!
and so we will, though God's mighty work. He is doing things I would never imagine. I am going places I thought I would never see.
When I read "Goforth of China" about Jonathan Goforth, I was so deeply stirred to travel to China and serve the people there. I prayed for China for 20 years and India as well. When I traveled to India, I did not feel the heart call I expected. However, China nearly blew me over. The imact spiritually and emotionally was intense.
And so I was sure (and I am still sure) that I am called to China.
However, I have ALWAYS told the Lord, "Here I am, send me." and I have always been willing to go anywhere and do anything. I had even come to the point of willingness to never go! if that was His will, then I wanted to agree with Him completely.
so I am blessed beyond measure to be doing a good work for the Kingdom of God and to minister to humanity in love. I pray that I ALWAYS minister love---however, some critics have told me otherwise.
but I am not daunted. I suppose everyone has a critic. You cannot please everyone---and pleasing man is not the goal---we please GOD. and He sees the motive of our hearts. He sees me typing here right now. and sees you reading right now (hey, thanks for reading!)
and He works it all to His good pleasure and to the culmination of this world and the beginning of the next.
We can't know His full will, but He has revealed His Will in His Word and He reveals His Will by His Spirit. So there is much we CAN know.
and what I do know is this:
God desires that we love others, serve others, forgive others, bless others, and pray for one another.
He commands us to go into the world and preach the gospel, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and teaching people to OBEY all that He has commanded.
(obedience is a big deal to God but it is terribly out of fashion these days with many who claim to be of Christ.)
He desires that we care for the helpless, the widow, the orphan. He desires that we live with honesty and integrity in all that we do. We should not have even an appearance of evil. if things are questionable, in love we are to live for the conscience of our weaker brother.
We are to be ambassadors for Christ, imploring men, BE RECONCILED TO GOD!
These are just a few of the commands that motivate me. I desire to know His Word and to meditate on it day and night. But the time for study is past. We competent ministers of the Word. We are to be active. as the book of James insists.
we are to have unity with our brothers and sisters. we are to forgive them. we are not to associate with blatent hypocrites, though. if a brother or a sister are in flagrant unrepentant sin, we aren't to eat with them. Jesus was harsh with the pharisees yet tender to the crazy, the possessed, the low life. He was compassionate to the pressures and fears of the common people. He ministered to the poor.
we are to esteem the poor and carry their burdens. we are not to just say, "God bless you!" but we are to help them.
i think around here there is merely much of rich giving to rich. what a waste! or we are giving to ourselves.
we have so much debt that we don't want to give to the kingdom. We want to keep paying down our debt and then OOPS we ran it back up again. Oh, we need to pay it back down again. and so we never give to God because we are always paying ourselves.
buying new cars, new clothes, new foods, new activities, ---when we are already more than amply supplied -----BUT
and this is big.
BUT THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE WHO HAS SO MUCH MORE THAN WE DO SO WE CAN ALWAYS FEEL LIKE WE ARE NOT VERY EXTRAVAGANT.
oh,
but if we compared ourselves to the villagers of Western Kenya.
Hmmmn.
They have ONE cabinet in their house. it holds their pots, pans, dishes, clothes. They have one table and a couple of benches or a couch. Maybe two tables. They might have a goat. their walls are mud, their roof is thatched. They cook over a fire. they draw water from a stream that is dirty. their house has only two rooms. the other is the bedroom with a bed. I did not see anyone with mosquito nets---very dangerous.
Now. compare yourself to that!
how many shoes do you have? they do not all have shoes.
do you wear glasses or contacts? they need those too but don't have them.
do you take any medicine? even tylenol? they dont' have it.
do you have water in your house? electricity? they have to use an outhouse with a hole in the ground that you squat over.
do you have a job? a car? they don't
they really need clean water.
they need sanitary latrines and a way to wash their hands.
they need SHOES
they need healthy gardens with fertilizer and good seeds and a way to water.
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