Love the Overlooked

Love the Overlooked by Max Lucado
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
“Put on the apron of humility, to serve one another.”I Peter 5:5 TEV

Servanthood requires no unique skill or seminary degree. Regardless of your strengths, training, or church tenure, you can…love the overlooked.

Jesus sits in your classroom, wearing the thick glasses, outdated clothing, and a sad face. You’ve seen him. He’s Jesus.

Jesus works in your office. Pregnant again, she shows up to work late a tired. No one knows the father. According to water-cooler rumors, even she doesn’t know the father. You’ve seen her. She’s Jesus.

When you talk to the lonely student, befriend the weary mom, you love Jesus. He dressed in the garb of the overlooked and ignored. “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40 MSG).

ET Medical Mission Trip

I just have not much time and not putting my mind to it. But better pen a few words and maybe continue in future :D

14 ~ 21 Mar 09: Went on a 8 day Medical Mission Trip. 17 from Singapore and we met with 4-5 translators @ ET. 5 doctors (all from PPHBC) and 1 nurse. The nurse was in charge of pharmacy dispensing meds and i was one of those helping to fill & write prescriptions while the nurse checked. We give out vitamins like B Complex, A+D, Iron, Folate, Multivits tabs (syrup for kids) as well as Paracetamol (syrup for kids), Cough mixtures like OBH (OBP for kids), antibiotics like Amoxycillin and Erythromycin (syrups for children & I got to make syrup from the powdered antibiotics), de-worm tabs and some other misc meds.

2 clinics at Com (Lautem district), 3 clinics in villages in Liquica village wth one high in the mountains with the journey in Pajeros sometimes as exciting as sitting in a roller coaster.

I had a fun time, helping in the pharmacy which I liked, learning a bit about certain medications from the nurse and listening to doctors, working with others like Stacey Koh and Theo (from ASPC). I was suppose to do games but in the end, didn't. Did help in the cataract eye screen a little on my last morning @ Liquica Hospital.

Last night got to help carry jerry cans of water to Fredy & Tina's place as no water (end of rainy season). Sprained my muscles or ligaments below my right ribs. Other than that, no other injures.

The trip was pretty exhausting. Usually had to stand or move around to grab meds to fill prescriptions written by doctors (the 2nd clinic at Com was standing under hot sun - so I got sunburn and came back looking tanned), setting out and packing up the pharmacy is an art and took work and on a few nights, we had to pack medicines into little pouches.

Photos that I took available on FB (mine was 2GB of photos). Was told this morning that the photos from cameras of everyone totalled 25GB!!! But I've asked for the Portable HDD as the photos of the place are stunning and otherwise, I have no photos with me inside.

7 Prayers That Will Change Your Life Forever

7 Prayers That Will Change Your Life Forever
Prayers of confession, salvation, release, submission, praise, promise, and blessing by Stormie Omartian

During the first couple of years I walked with the Lord, my prayers went something like this:
"God, help me to get that job""Jesus, please heal my throat.""Lord, send enough money to pay these bills.""Father, take away my fear."

It took me a while to realize that those spur-of-the-moment prayers were not accomplishing much. I guess I thought the idea was to do the best I could on my own, and then if I needed a lifeline from God, I grabbed for it. The only problem was I needed a lifeline every other minute.
I loved the Scripture that says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7). 1 took God at His Word and was asking, seeking, and knocking on a pray-as-you-go basis. I also took to heart the Scripture that says, "You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2). Great! I can easily remedy that, I thought, and I proceeded to ask for everything. But I was still not happy, and I didn't see the kind of answered prayer I desired.

One day as I was again reading that same verse, my eyes were opened to the next verse, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3). Could it be that the "God-give-me-this, do-that, wave-your-magic-wand-here, get- me-out-of-this-mess" kind of praying was not what God desired for my prayer life? In utter frustration I said, "Lord, teach me how I'm supposed to pray."

He did exactly that!

I came to understand that prayer is not just asking for things—although that certainly is part of it. Far more importantly, prayer is talking with God. It's getting close to and spending time with the one you love. It's seeking Him first, touching Him, getting to know Him better, being with Him, and waiting in His presence. It's acknowledging Him as the source of power upon whom you can depend. It's taking the time to say, Speak to my heart, Lord, and tell me what I need to hear. It is partnering with Him. It is aligning our spirit with His to see that His perfect will is done. It is establishing ourselves and our lives as being connected to God.

We can't receive God's best for our lives, and we can't push back the things that were never God's will for us, except through prayer. We can't leave our life to chance. We have to pray about everything all the time, not just when things go wrong. We have to pray over anything that concerns us, no matter how big—"With God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37)—or how small—"The very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10:30).

Without reducing prayer to a formula in the book 7 Prayers That Will Change Your Life Forever, I have outlined seven basic types of prayers that can bring lasting peace and positive change to your life: confession, salvation, release, submission, praise, promise, and blessing. But please don't be inhibited by these categories. They are just that, categories and suggestions. And don't be concerned about prayer talk or church talk. The Bible tells us the basic qualification for prayer: "He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6).

The more you pray, the more you will find to pray about, and the more you'll be led to pray for others. Don't allow discouragement over unanswered prayer to cause you to doubt that God has heard you. If you have received Jesus and are praying in His name, then God hears you, and something is happening whether you see it manifested in your life now or not. In fact, every time you pray, you're advancing God's purposes for you. Without prayer, the full purpose God has for you can't happen.

Excerpted from 7 Prayers That Will Change Your Life Forever, by Stormie Omartian (J Countryman)

Pre-ET post

Tomorrow morning I will be flying to East Timor (aka Timor Leste) for 1 week. Part of a medical mission trip where the team will run around 7 medical mobile clinics as well as do cataract screening for the locals.

I don't remember a time when I am so spiritually and mentally unprepared for a mission trip. But I've committed to it and I trust the Lord will bring me through it & I will be lifted up spiritually after the trip. Anyway, I'm team treasurer and suppose to organise games for the children while their parents wait to see the doctors.

Problem is, in my mind, I don't know what to do with games and I'm not the type that can conjur games on the spot whilst on my feet.....

Should be back on Sat, 21 March. Don't know what time :p

THE ANT AND A GRASSHOPPER

A mother of a 9 year old boy, Mark, received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son's school. "Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son's third grade class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you should know about it immediately."

Mothers seldom want to hear from their child's teacher in the middle of the day. The mother was uneasy and nervous by such a beginning to a phone call. "What now?" the mother wondered.

The teacher continued, "I have been teaching for many years and nothing like this has happened until now. This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the grasshopper. The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work. Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food. So he hops to the ants house and begins to beg. 'Please Mr. Ant, you have much food please let me eat, too.' Now boys and girls your job is to write the ending to the story. Your son, Mark, raised his hand. "Teacher, may I draw a picture?" "Well, yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must write the ending to the story." The papers came in. As in all the years past, most of the students said that the ant shared his food through the winter and both the ant and the grasshopper lived. As always, a few children said, 'The ant said, "No, Mr. Grasshopper. You should have worked in the summer and not played. Now, I have just enough food for myself." So the ant lived and the grasshopper died. But your son ended the story in a way different from any other child, ever. He wrote, "So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died." And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses. "Jesus gave up his life so that we might live eternally."

A FATHER'S HAND

My son Gilbert was eight years old and had been in Cub Scouts only a short time. During one of his meetings he was handed a sheet of paper, a block of wood and four tires and told to return home and give all to "dad." That was not an easy task for Gilbert to do. Dad was not receptive to doing things with his son. But Gilbert tried. Dad read the paper and scoffed at the idea of making a pine wood derby car with his young, eager son. The block of wood remained untouched as the weeks passed.

Finally, mom stepped in to see if I could figure this all out. The project began. Having no carpentry skills, I decided it would be best if I simply read the directions and let Gilbert do the work. And he did. I read aloud the measurements, the rules of what we could do and what we couldn't do. Within days his block of wood was turning into a pine wood derby car. A little lopsided, but looking great (at least through the eyes of mom). Gilbert had not seen any of the other kids cars and was feeling pretty proud of his "Blue Lightning," the pride that comes with knowing you did something on your own. Then the big night came. With his blue pine wood derby in his hand and pride in his heart we headed to the big race.

Once there my little one's pride turned to humility. Gilbert's car was obviously the only car made entirely on his own. All the other cars were a father-son partnership, with cool paint jobs and sleek body styles made for speed. A few of the boys giggled as they looked at Gilbert's, lopsided, wobbly, unattractive vehicle. To add to the humility, Gilbert was the only boy without a man at his side. A couple of the boys who were from single parent homes at least had an uncle or grandfather by their side, Gilbert had "mom."

As the race began it was done in elimination fashion. You kept racing as long as you were the winner. One by one the cars raced down the finely sanded ramp. Finally it was between Gilbert and the sleekest, fastest looking car there. As the last race was about to begin, my wide eyed, shy, eight year old ask if they could stop the race for a minute, because he wanted to pray. The race stopped. Gilbert hit his knees clutching his funny looking block of wood between his hands. With a wrinkled brow he set to converse with his Father. He prayed in earnest for a very long minute and a half. Then he stood, smile on his face and announced, 'Okay, I am ready." As the crowd cheered, a boy named Tommy stood with his father as their car sped down the ramp. Gilbert stood with his Father within his heart and watched his block of wood wobble down the ramp with surprisingly great speed and rushed over the finish line a fraction of a second before Tommy's car. Gilbert leaped into the air with a loud "Thank you" as the crowd roared in approval.

The Scout Master came up to Gilbert with microphone in hand and asked the obvious question, "So you prayed to win, huh, Gilbert?" To which my young son answered, "Oh, no sir. That wouldn't be fair to ask God to help you beat someone else. I just asked Him to make it so I don't cry when I lose."

Children seem to have a wisdom far beyond us. Gilbert didn't ask God to win the race, he didn't ask God to fix the outcome. Gilbert asked God to give him strength in the outcome. When Gilbert first saw the other cars he didn't cry out to God, "No fair, they had a fathers help." No, he went to his Father for strength. Perhaps we spend too much of our prayer time asking God to rig the race, to make us number one, or too much time asking God to remove us from the struggle, when we should be seeking God's strength to get through the struggle.

"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13.

Gilbert's simple prayer spoke volumes to those present that night. He never doubted that God would indeed answer his request. He didn't pray to win, thus hurt someone else, he prayed that God supply the grace to lose with dignity. Gilbert, by his stopping the race to speak to his Father also showed the crowd that he wasn't there without a "dad," but His Father was most definitely there with him. Yes, Gilbert walked away a winner that night, with his Father at his side. ~

Author Unknown ~