Every child in the hospital wing had a cleft palate.  Without corrective surgery, children with a cliff palate would be hidden or abandoned by their society.   These children were the exception, their parents were poor but rich in faith.  These people loved Christ.  They saw their children as a blessing instead of a burden.  They knew the society they lived in was wrong.  These children were gifts of God.

Worried but grateful mothers allowed me to sit with these beautiful children.  I held their sons and daughters.  Their mothers allowed me to pray with them.  Their tears melted by heart.  I met the surgeon who was volunteering his time to operate on them.  He was also training other doctors in this hospital.   The surgeon was a passionate follower of Christ.  I met two young nurses who were Christians from the state of Washington who were volunteering their summers to work with these children.  The hospital was built and maintained by Christians.  The staff was paid by Christians.  The medical care was offered freely to people who lived in the streets of this foreign city.

There wasn’t public health care.  It was not because their country couldn’t afford it.  The dominant religion taught that these children deserved this.  Their parents deserved their destitution.  Why?  A lie.  Satan’s specialty.  A lie that says if they live better in this poverty and destitution maybe they’ll have a better chance in their next cycle of life.

Jesus told us the truth would set us free.  Of course He is the truth!  He sets us free from our sin and the lies that destroy us.

I toured other wings of the hospital filled with more needy people.   They too were the recipients of health care in a loving atmosphere.  The administrator of the hospital had left a successful banking career in order to dedicate his life to leading this hospital.  I met a young doctor who had been a child on the streets, orphaned and taken in a Christian orphanage.  He received his education, paid for by other Christians, and returned to this nation to serve.

My father-in-law grew up in an orphanage that was completely supported by the church.  We’ve talked so many times about his life growing up there.   He has so many touching and humorous memories of life there.  A few years ago, Becky and I visited the orphanage with him.  To see his face light up as we walked around that orphanage in Colorado Springs, made me once again grateful for the church!  He left that orphanage and became a pastor.  His greatest gift to me was my wife, Becky.

Around the world people are receiving love and care in the name of Jesus because of the people He transformed, the Church.  When God chooses to touch the world He does it through His Church.  The Church is the only ones that has been commissioned to share the Good News.  Every day around the world the church is doing it, in word and deed.  The Holy Spirit is living and breathing through His people.  Does the church have faults, of course.  But that hasn’t stopped the Lord from using us.  It shouldn’t stop us from expecting Him to use us!  I love the Church!  Especially the one I am privileged to pastor.

Peace and Joy!

Peace and Joy