People often ask us what happens in our daily life on the mission field. Well this week in the midst of the team, concerts and a youth camp we had several dead bodies. Seem to average one every day for 3 days. The first death was of a mother of 6 children and they lived and worked in the rubbish dump at Inayawan. We had heard that she was walking home from our crusade that we held that night. When she entered her makeshift shelter she collapsed. Her family became hysterical rushing around crazily trying to figure out what they could do to help her. By the next morning she had already taken her last breath. By the time we arrived at this dilapidated home we were confronted with the loud sound of mourning and grief coming from friends and family. It is always difficult to know what to say and do in these situations. How and what do we say to people that are suffering greatly. It was particularly difficult for our visiting team from Belconnen who were with us.

The family had no money for the preparing of the body for burial and they had not eaten breakfast, they were all still in a state of shock. Thankfully wehad prepared and bought groceries and rice and gave money to assist with the funeral.

When faced with situations like this there is only one thing you can do and that is call on the name of the living God. We asked if we could pray and as we began to declare the name of the Lord and asked for the peace that surpasses all earthly understanding to come, and we all sensed his presence descend.

Thankfully God never asks us to enter situations like this on our own, He is always with us. All we have to do is have the courage to call upon his name. It is hard to describe the situation… The heat, the place, the body, the cats crawling over and the dirt on the floor. The loud grief stricken wailing of her mother, as she came to terms with the loss. Someone’s mother died, someone’s friend has gone, someone’s daughter is no longer here. It is easy for us to come in and go out, but they are there facing their loss. We are so thankful that we have his spirit living within us. When you see desperation like this, all the material things of this world seem so meaningless. When it comes to the crunch all people are longing for, is the comfort and love from God.

The next morning we received another desperate cry from a mother in the cemetery whose 9 month old baby had just died. Her baby had been sick on and off for some time. The hospital kept sending them home. After receiving the call we rushed off to the cemetery to see what assistance or comfort we could give to the family. When we arrived the body was laid out on a bed, the family obviously in distress. The mother was at the hospital trying to obtain the death certificate. We were able to help with buying the family breakfast and help pay for some of the funeral expenses. Again we asked for the opportunity to pray for the family which they eagerly agreed to and the peace that surpasses all earthly understanding, again settled on that place. While we sat in this area not much bigger than a bathroom we were told that three families lived in this place. We sat in an unreal scenario, watching their friends and family build a coffin, while acutely aware of the family’s loss.

While we were there we found out that one of our youth dancers had been severely beaten up by a rival group of boys who were under the influence of drugs. We were not aware of the extent of his injuries but it was obvious that the other boys from the group were very shaken up from the incident. So we left straight from the house of the dead baby to go directly to the hospital to see the young man that was beaten.

Thankfully he wasn’t as bad as we were expecting and he recovered quickly … the group were understandably concerned and more fearful of their living surroundings. After all Isagani has recently been stabbed seven times because people were jealous of his dancing … he nearly died.

The next day …

We received an urgent call on the last day of a youth conference. It was a relative of one of the members of our fellowship at pier 4, who had been battling tuberculosis for some time, and sadly she had succumbed to the condition. We were able again to offer assistance for the burial costs and prayed for the family bringing some comfort to them. It was a relief to us all, that she knew the Lord and had an ongoing relationship with Him before she died. A small comfort to the family …

It was quite a week for us and we were relieved when the next few days passed without more urgent calls for assistance with dead bodies … all joking aside we are truly blessed to and grateful to the Lord that we are able to call upon him at any time in any situation and see and sense his incredible spirit … whether in the rubbish dump site … prison … cemetery … amongst overwhelming grief and loss … He is there … thank you Lord.