Monday, August 28, 2006

Survival. Is there a chance?

Sunday the 27th, like any other Sunday in the past 2 months, has been a full Sunday.
3 weeks ago a family of four attended our Sunday fellowship. Mario, Rosalind, Michaela and Christian. They came in a blue van that made really loud noises, Michaela and Christian are the young ones in the family, ages 11 and 9 I assume, very young kids non the less.
Rosalind(the mother) is pregnant, and Mario had a surgery on his knee just recently. They used to live in a 3 room apartment where they would pay 900 dollars a month. Unfortunately Mario got injured and needed to get surgery on his knee, because of the time he needed for recuperation he was fired by his employer. Rosalind was only making 8 dollars the hour and the money wasn't enough for the rent. Consequently, bills came, they couldn't afford their place, and they couldn't afford to get to a new one. Mario has been looking for jobs that do not require physical effort since his knee is still in the process of healing, however he has been unsuccessful in doing so.
To make matters worse Rosalind is in her last months of pregnancy and it's very hard for her to keep a job, and she is also suffering from some medical conditions. Bottom line is that they have a tough cookie to chew on.
Why are they in this kind of situation? I don't really know, it could be many reasons, it could be their own fault or it could be one of those situations in which life is just not fair, but regardless of the reason why the situation is what it is, this is a family who is struggling for survival, struggling for the survival of their children whom, no matter what the situation is, are completely innocent and victims of the struggle.

That Sunday morning I got a call from them asking me at what time we would meet so they can assist, however, later in the afternoon I asked them if they were going to come but they told me that their car had broken down, they were parked at a Wal-mart. Luckily Brandon was in the area and so I gave him a call so he could give them a Hand.
The car starter was totally bad and it would not work, Brandon had to leave for BASIC, but they were still on my head. After BASIC I called them and they were still broken down at Wal-Mart, the car needed to be fixed. We were able to get them in a hotel and have the car fixed the next day, I want to thanks everyone that supports BASIC financially, because without the funds we would not able to help these people. When I took them to the Hotel I learned that Mario had found a job with a Culinary School and they would housing during his training, God has been good by giving him this opportunity and I hope he takes advantage of it and thanks God fully. The family is doing better now and we have been able to help, however there is still more people that need to be helped and reached, but we have a shortage of workers. But glory be to God through whom all things are possible.

I was supposed to publish this post like a week ago, but I have been busy... No, I have not been busy, I have been lazy, I have been careless, basically I haven't even cared that the world would know about this. And that is the reason why this is posted, the reason why people have to struggle for survival, because when somebody is in need, we bring up the excuse of being busy, when in reality we are lazy, we are careless, we just don't care.

And its sad, especially when we have such a high number of "Christian" population, and from that number I can assure that more than half have no idea that they need to go out and be like Jesus. Because their leaders have been too busy to burn into their hearts the commandment of healing and feeding, too busy breaking bread for communion with our aristocratic, political, and corporative congregations than to break bread with the hungry, the needy and the thirsty for the comfort of Salvation. We all say we are too busy... lies! we are too LAZY.

The young Christians like me are too busy to help because we spend all of our time discussing how we need to change our traditional churches because apparently they are not too effective in reaching people when in reality they are not effective in reaching people because we are too busy discussing how to reach instead of reaching. Because we converted our youth groups into a place of "chilling'" instead of our bases for planning and acting. Because we love to show how we are "radical" Christians by having the tool that killed Jesus tattooed on our arms, instead of being radical enough to actually hug somebody that is sick.

The adults, our parents, our leaders, are too busy having barbecues and chatting with other believers on how God is good and how God has blessed them, and they celebrate such joy eating and drinking, which is perfectly OK, but since they are so busy with their jobs during the week why don't they use that time for helping who is in need, why can't they use those resources to reach the lost, I guess because now its so easy to give money to charity and think you have already helped the world, how much happier we can be if we actually celebrate God's blessings by sharing them.


The church leaders, too busy to have people come to their church, instead of taking the church to the people, to busy to make sure everyone is happy and no feelings get hurt, instead of making sure that pure doctrine is taught and setting our souls on fire for the Lord, don't get me started in church leaders, they are too busy making sure the church works as efficiently as McDonalds or Walmart. Too busy embellishing the facilities instead of embellishing the body of Christ.

So in conclusion, the church needs to wake up and start running the race as if they actually care. If you follow Christ, act like you do. We are going through harsh times and help is really needed.

Take care doods.