TooManyFlowers

I have just had an amazing baby birthing experience at the moment I cannot blog about it I am a little wordless, blessed, shocked and touched….please read Mark’s blog, the link is below the picture….he was there through the whole thing…….awesome pictures too!!

Here is one to whet your appetite

http://markpedder.wordpress.com/

Thank you God

I went on the balcony one morning and saw this scene unfolding before me

A group of lads PLAYING on the street below,

Were they playing?

No they were gambling, for money

What amazed me is a father was standing over them watching and smiling

It is just the NORM here……….these were the thoughts at the time

A PACK OF CARDS & PESOS

This is a strange land

Parents stand and watch whilst children gamble with cards,

True, only small change

Yet setting up a life pattern.

Money for nothing, based on luck and chance!

Just throw the pack of cards in the air!

The father smiles and watches the boys,

His silence and nods becomes approval.

These boys know no difference, they are just kids

They have been taught nothing.

The division between right and wrong have been faded.

Some of these lads will grow up and work

They will earn their living by their hands and back usually

But some will taste and smell the bondage of free money.

These will be ensnared and addicted into the slavery of gambling

Cock fights, cards, bingo just to name a few.

Money won, money lost

Kids fed, kids starved

Wives impoverished.

Lost through the silence of a watching father.

Cath

Just imagine a life where your children’s playground was

a rubbish dump….

Just imagine that the name of your suburb was Rubbish Dump,

Tambukan where our church is means literally that

An ariel view from the roof of the Prayer House, most of the leaders houses are within metres of Prayer House…..humbling

Just imagine living in a house built of sticks, plastic and perhaps if you are lucky wood and iron

Just imagine!

The two Joshuas, both very cute I think

There are just some friends that stick (like mud to your Baseco boots)

Mark and James drive each other nuts, but they fight fair, talk, bounce ideas, hoon around on motorbikes in Manila together, they laugh, they pray, they worship, they play music together , they agree, they disagree, watch stuff and share each other’s life………..

Christine and I just laugh with them and sometimes at them!!!!…But we like it!!

It’s a rarity and a privilege…..I do not think they know how blessed they are. I do not think fellas have those kinds of friends often!

One thing I do know, that without God NONE of us would be friends, neat hey!

Love you guys!

I do not think we understand in the west the power of BELIEVING in God

The people here are simply passionate about God and real with their love and feelings

I just do not see this kind of love and prayer pouring out to God in our Sunday services but here in Baseco it is the norm

I have nothing that I can really teach these people they are teaching me!

I have just finished reading a short blog of Pst Mark Pedder’s on a little girl sleeping on a street…….

http://markpedder.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/if-you-are-really-tired-sleep-anywhere-will-do-cute/#respond

He mentioned dreaming of a better life. I began to think and compare the childhood of my children ( and my own childhood for that matter) compared to the poor children here  in the Philippines, what a stark contrast!! My kids just live, they have no worries, they have food and drink everyday, they have a fantastic house, pets, a swing out the back, a cubby house……their biggest concern is the kind of snacks they eat, or there next birthday present, or party……

Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons.  ~Author Unknown

I remember my childhood, I floated through life with no dramatic or devastating events, and I was genuinely happy content and free to be a kid…..I played in the streets, rode bikes, had plenty of great toys, played in sandpits, on swings, enjoyed clean and sparkling beaches, travelled, had holidays to fine places. I never appreciated my childhood till now.

Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.
~William Wordsworth, “To a Butterfly”

The children here have no toys (the ones they have get dirty and broken very quickly) they play in muddy sewarge strewn patches of unclaimed land, with no fences, they have a playground that has dogs scabbied and worm ridden playing nearby, the beach is filled with litter rubbish and raw sewerage, they do not travel beyond their suburb, they know only their own neighbourhood….they have no bikes, no electric games, some have no electricity, no lights  or TV…….what a contrast.

Yet these kids are happy and content, their demeanours are not sad, they know NO difference…..

But their faces are etched with something that you only see when you really look hard…their innocence and childhood has been stolen.

I believe kids should be free of worries and concerns, that is CHILDHOOD……the parent should carry this heavy weight until a child is strong enough to bear that weight alone……..not before,

Here there is sometimes little or no choice, parents die, husbands leave wives with 6 chn to feed, siblings are forced to care to many children when they themselves are only children, even mothers deliberately leave children and lead a life of sin and no responsibility. These children are forced to GROW up and take on a burden that God never intended them to have.

This mother Gemma has been alone for 2 years, her husband left her and her five children for another women,

Gemma was forced to work to support her chn and the oldest boy who is 7 I think was left to take care of the others, little Princess (2 years) in the photo had just survived a bout of measles and was malnourished and very very weak, we found her this week and the Pastors worked quickly to improve her life…..in 2 days she was eating and drinking and yesterday she walked again for the first time in weeks, her mother was being supported and no longer pressured to work, her brother was released from a burden too heavy for a 7 year old and became a child and brother not a father and mother to his siblings anymore. In a sense we gave him his childhood back!

Sometimes sickness and malnourishment has a toll on the child……it steals the joy and freedom good health gives. They are harassed and oppressed continually with small and great disease ranging from worms, lbm, dehydration, scabies, boils and even knits to more serious aliments such as TB, severe malnourishment,  eye problems, chest infection and pneumonia……just to name a few

Poverty and sin and disease steals from these children childhood and freedom……

What a contrast and what a tragedy

Sweet friends, Essie and Bening Ning. There is a sharp contrast between the childhoods of these two gorgeous girls…..

I am writing because I am concerned, this  is a global concern that we in the west need to be aware of.

It is a story of  malnourishment and poverty, but one that could have so easily been averted, today as I blogged about Nerida and Delilah I was struck with irony of the situation, each week I buy her Infant Formula to keep her alive, each week I see her gain weight but still not at the peak of health. I can only trace that back to her malnourishment and lack of nutrition, but then I can trace that back to her being bottle fed not breastfed for months depriving her of LIFE GIVING immunities and nutritional benefits.

I thank God I have Infant Formula to give her, but it is a poor second to the powerful advantage of breastfeeding.

You may think I am on a bandwagon, and yes I agree…….in Australia Formula feeding is a norm and because of the higher standards of care, cleanliness and medical support our babies SEEM little impacted or deprived from the advantages of Breastfeeding (I say seem because there is UNTOLD damage that we cannot see that is supported by research and studies)…….But in Baseco and devleoppping countries the IMPACT is irrevocable and dangerous and results in DEATH and SICKNESS.

Here is one story

You have met Delilah before if you have followed my blogs, she was malnourished and suffered from gross dehydration and chronic gastro etc, she was 3 kg. Her problems could have easily been averted, hers is a BREASTFEEDING FAILURE that nearly cost her life.

Nerida Delilah’s mother stopped Breastfeeding because she “ran out of milk” she then had to source Infant Formula close to 60 pesos a day, her husband only earned 100 pesos a day…….As a consequence Nerida too went out to work to alleviate the financial pressure on Meseda her husband leaving the small baby with siblings to care for her, the children were small the oldest only 13 and Delilah was not fed or cared for properly.

Bottles (when they did have formula) were filthy and never cleaned properly with dried milk caked inside,  and unpurified contaminated water was used to make up bottles, she grew sicker and sicker, suffering from chronic dehydration and gastro , sores fever and more

There was still not enough pesos to feed the family, let alone live, the formula was purchased in fits and starts as there was no left over money for food for the other five chn, so the baby suffered.  Formula was not purchased as it should be and Delilah NEVER had enough to eat because they could simply NOT afford it.

With proper education Nerida would have never run out of milk, she could have built up her breastmilk supply and continued to give adequate nutrition to her baby, and helped the family income not depleted it. If the option of Infant Formula was not promoted and aggressively advertised targeting  the poor and uneducated population (like Nerida’s family)  this story may have never happened. Nerida may have persisted breastfeeding (because she had no alternative) and not had to resort to Infant Formula.

Infant formula companies (such as Nestle) continually break international laws and codes for advertising, and we in the west know or care little about this battle. We must realise that women like Nerida and Babies like Delilah are the direct result of this international and global injustice. God give us eyes to see!!

Why are people so passionate about breastfeeding?? It is much more than the luvvy duvvy mummy and baby image (which we perceive and believe in the west) It is life and death over here…………………the difference that may break a families physical health and financial back!

Nerida and Delilah is just ONE story in thousands…….breastfeeding is the ONLY logical solution in this harsh world.

Am I passionate YES

Am I gonna teach it YES

No apologies, I have seen the consequences

No turning back now!