Imagine that you're curious about the Christian faith, but you can't get any answers in a language you understand from an official source.
Imagine that if you do go to church, the pastor preaches sermons in a language you don't understand.
Imagine that any Bible you put your hands on is in language you can't read.
Imagine that when you have questions about the Bible or God, you have no written resources available to help you.
Imagine that when you do come across a book that might help, you would have to read it by candle light because most of your day light hours are spent doing all that's necessary for survival.
Imagine that you live in a different century where this is describes your life, as many people have...
During a conversation with my Dad last night, it struck me: I can read the Bible. I thought to myself, what would it be like to go to Mass in Latin, when most Bibles were only translated into Latin, and there was no internet for me to click--Matthew Henry's commentary for the entire Bible at my finger tips?
Do I really take full advantage of the great gifts God has given our generation to understand the Christian faith?
Showing posts with label hunger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hunger. Show all posts
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Are you faint from hunger and disease?
Imagine if you were from a country where it's normal be be hunger and not feeling well? I just got a report from Zimbabwe that made me stop and thank God for his overflowing provision for not only my physical hunger, but my spiritual hunger.
"Barry Fitzpatrick (Chester, UK) and I (Alan Scotland) have just returned from a trip into Zimbabwe. The heart of the story has not been told even in the press. The people are seriously in trouble. Many people are faint from hunger and disease. We heard reports of families who are eating warm cow dung, trying to get nutrients to survive. The economy is in total collapse. People can only buy food and other things with US dollars or other foreign currency; but people are still being paid in Zimbabwe dollars which means they cannot buy anything really because Zim dollars are not considered tradable capital.
We had the privilege of taking a love offering from the churches in the UK by which we were able to provide food for 13 churches across the city of Harare. We were also able to help several pastors by giving sufficient funding to bless them for the next several months.
We then traveled to the orphanage spending time with Livingstone and his wife. They were looking forward to coming to the UK for a few months of refres.hing in the word, etc. but the British Commissioner rejected them so they have been unable to obtain their visas. They have been a little disappointed at that. Maybe it will be possible to get Livingstone over to the Horthrope Hall meetings on a tourist visa.
We were able to give the orphan children some special gifts of oranges, pencils, lollipops; things that we would take for granted but they treasure them over there. In terms of development of the program there, the footings and foundation are in for the toilet buildings, and we've now commissioned the purchase of all the materials so that they can start building in earnest in April, 2009. We want to see at least three or four homes built for the children within this next year.
In January 2010, we would like to run a Fast Forward in Zimbabwe with teachers from the UK and the USA to give their time to bless the church as it endures the suffering of the times they are in."
Link Link's Feb. 2009 Newsletter
"Barry Fitzpatrick (Chester, UK) and I (Alan Scotland) have just returned from a trip into Zimbabwe. The heart of the story has not been told even in the press. The people are seriously in trouble. Many people are faint from hunger and disease. We heard reports of families who are eating warm cow dung, trying to get nutrients to survive. The economy is in total collapse. People can only buy food and other things with US dollars or other foreign currency; but people are still being paid in Zimbabwe dollars which means they cannot buy anything really because Zim dollars are not considered tradable capital.
We had the privilege of taking a love offering from the churches in the UK by which we were able to provide food for 13 churches across the city of Harare. We were also able to help several pastors by giving sufficient funding to bless them for the next several months.
We then traveled to the orphanage spending time with Livingstone and his wife. They were looking forward to coming to the UK for a few months of refres.hing in the word, etc. but the British Commissioner rejected them so they have been unable to obtain their visas. They have been a little disappointed at that. Maybe it will be possible to get Livingstone over to the Horthrope Hall meetings on a tourist visa.
We were able to give the orphan children some special gifts of oranges, pencils, lollipops; things that we would take for granted but they treasure them over there. In terms of development of the program there, the footings and foundation are in for the toilet buildings, and we've now commissioned the purchase of all the materials so that they can start building in earnest in April, 2009. We want to see at least three or four homes built for the children within this next year.
In January 2010, we would like to run a Fast Forward in Zimbabwe with teachers from the UK and the USA to give their time to bless the church as it endures the suffering of the times they are in."
Link Link's Feb. 2009 Newsletter
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