Saturday 13 June 2009

'Before they call, I will answer.' (Isaiah 65:24)

This beautiful story was written by a doctor who worked in Central Africa

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive; as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator). We also had no special feeding facilities..

Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical climates)..


'And it is our last hot water bottle!' she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.

'All right,' I said, 'put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.'


The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.


During prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. 'Please, God' she prayed, 'Send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.'

While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, 'And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?'


As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say 'Amen'? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything; the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home.
Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door.. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there on the porch was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly... Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box.



From the top, I lifted out brightly-colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the weekend.

Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the..... could it really be?

I grasped it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand new, rubber hot water bottle. I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.

Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, 'If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!

'Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully- dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted! Looking up at me, she asked, 'Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?'

'Of course,' I replied!

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it 'that afternoon'.

'Before they call, I will answer.' (Isaiah 65:24)

Friday 5 June 2009

Let's all party - there should be one going on in heaven right now!

This from George...

"Sometimes we are asked what is Outside Light all about, what are its aims, what are we trying to do? I am hoping that today's blog will give a flavour of the impact we think God makes in people's lives and our aims as a group.

I work for an organisation called Avanti Ministries and one of my friends there has written a book about his life and his journey to finding God and the dramatic way in which that changed his life. I gave a copy of this book to a young lad we have been speaking to on Monday nights. Imagine my surprise when this morning I received an email from the author of the book who didn't know I knew this lad, read on....

"dear tony my name is xxxxx. I am 15 and your book was giving to me by a man called george prehaps in the hope of changing me. Although im young god has been playing a key part of my life even if untill now i have not noticed or believed in him i have proberly abused the greatest gift from god the gift of life.Beer Vodka smoking and drugs had been a key part of my life i had allways looked for love from girls and never found any i thought by replacing them with these killers i would be satisfied untill i was told maybe the love i needed was from jesus. I have liead cheated sworn used the lords name in vane i have never seeked god for guidence and have only blamed him when ive had difficult times.

Thanks to your book i now know how mistaken i have been i understand jesus christ diead for me and am very! greatfull. i thank you agian for writing your book as your book told me about your youth i can understand the anger and rage and i can relate alot to that my younger life was full of anger rage and evil. i also have grown on a sport like you have but i truly belieave god has blessed me with talent as he blessed my idol ricardo kaka threw listening to how gratefull ricardo is and of how in a matter of 2 days that i read all your book i now allways feel that there is a presance with me and that i am now i different person that god has touched me i have not felt the need to somke drink or smoke canibis since and for that tony i am truly thankfull and greatfull ......"

I am not sure where you stand on whether you believe there is a God, I know for me I turned away from that notion for many years, I also can now testify to God being very real and dramatically changing my life but more than that to saving me. Our prayer is that God would change many more lives so that his name may be praised. We really need to reach more people and for that we need more people, will you join us?

Thanks John

George"

I hope you read George's previous blog first, because you'll detect from that, perhaps, that George had been feeling a slight disappointment that the fish keep moving away from the bait. I was a very poor fisherman when I was a kid and I remember watching my float bobble around, and constantly pulling it out of the water with nothing on the hook. This led me to my new strategy of ignoring the float bobbling because I didn't believe it - I just enjoyed the sunshine and my egg and tomato sandwiches. And when I was ready to go home pulling out a half-dead tiddler that had probably hung there for hours. Fishing for fish isn't easy, there's real skill in it. But fishing for men is a different ball-game. All we have to do as Christians is put the ground bait out there, it's for Him to reel in the catch - we don't have to do any arm-twisting/beating people over the head. We just need to tell.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I shed a tear this morning when George read the email to me - George admitted to doing as much too. I know you'll join my in praying for this lad that what he's discovered will continue to grow in him and that what he's feeling right now will become a positive force in the rest of his life. But please add to that a reinforcing prayer that if/when he starts to fall by the wayside again, the Holy Spirit will catch him and pull him back up.

Much love to you all

John

Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." - Matthew 4:19

My apologies for our brief absence. I'm afraid work has taken over recently, and although George wrote the following passage a week ago I've not been very faithful in putting it up. All that said, I had a call from George just now about an email he's just received this morning, and it's not sunny today so I'm not out working - I take photos of really nice houses for a living, most of this work has to happen when it's sunny. I really do make hay while the sun shines - but it's a limitation that I have as a human being. Thank God, then, that He has no such limitations. He makes hay 24/7 and hopefully in the next posting you'll get a sense of exactly what I mean by that. Before you read the next blog though, this from George - should have been added last week - sorry. It's particularly poignant because - with the next blog - it shows how, when we think the hay isn't being harvested, there's more happening than immediately meets the eye!

"I don't know if you have ever been fishing, I actually quite like it and I go about once every half decade and get really annoyed trying to untangle the line that I get caught in the trees. I can never balance the float and generally make a hash of everything and catch very little. 

It feels a bit like that going out on a Monday night sometimes. 

I remember fishing before in a river and I could see a huge fish sunbathing. So I thought, "Right I'll put my bait right there in front of him and surely he will bite." But, nothing! 

It can feel like that sometimes when we're out talking to young people, too! There were young people everywhere last night, some playing football, some sitting down, some wandering. We tried to get amongst some of them and it was a bit like being spotted by a group of fish as they move out from the splash you've just created. 

I decided in the end to try and be a fish, I kicked a ball around, missed about 10 goals and never got passed the ball again. It was encouraging to look around, though, and see a couple of others with their lines in the water; Helen seemed to be in a boat moving around over the lake, big John was getting a few bites over by the goal; Mary was straight in with a big group. 

When all is said and done, when we looked back on the night there were some healthy bites out there, meeting up with a chap on Friday to talk some more, couple of lads have taken some books and will let me know what they think; explained the amazing news of Jesus to one lad; Helen got some good links with a few others; John challenged another lad to follow through on some commitment. 

Those of you that are Christians and not with us might be thinking, "I don't like fishing". You might not have the patience, most likely as with ALL the Outside Light team you won't have a clue how to do it. But, all Jesus asks is that you follow him, he will make you fishers, just follow him. I wonder is he calling you? It's a big lake and we need some more rods out there..."

for his glory

George