Fish Tales, October 2009

Whenever I'm among the very poor of our spiritual family, I constantly ask myself why I was born rich (like everyone in the developed world), and why I was not born poor, like half of the world's people who live on two dollars a day or less. It couldn't have been because God loves me more than others. I can only think it is because He wants to use me to meet the pressing needs of the "least of these" among His family. He wants me to deny myself to help them. In so doing, He tests my love for Him. This is certainly contained in Scripture.

When those who are helped through Heaven's Family thank me, I tell them that we are only doing what they would do for us if our roles were reversed. We're family. And then I wonder if in heaven those who are a hundred times poorer than I am now will be a hundred times richer than I will be then. May God help us to never be satisfied with our sacrifices, and may Jesus, who laid down His life for us, move us to strive for a more perfect love. — David

Fish Tales by Charity McDaniel
The Ophan's Tear Special Gifts Fund at Work in Myanmar

Five of the girls from Christ's Home for the Needy holding dinner

The younger children laugh as they splash in the pond, trying to catch fish that dart around their feet. They don't snare as many as the older boys, who are skillfully throwing nets. But that is OK, because they're having fun! Soon there are enough fish caught to feed everyone for dinner. Many of the children are muddy, requiring before-dinner baths. But there is no lollygagging, as everyone is looking forward to a belly full of fish!

You'd never know that these happy children are orphans. God has placed them under the compassionate care of Hoi Cung, director of Christ's Home for the Needy in northwestern Myanmar, and they all consider themselves blessed.

A few years ago the local government forced Hoi to dismantle his bamboo orphanage building due to a legal technicality. It was an act of persecution by local Buddhist officials. Today, however, thanks to international pressure and gifts to the Orphan's Tear Special Gifts Fund, Christ's Home for the Needy has a solid brick and concrete facility.

Children from Christ's Home for the Needy displaying their prized catches

Last month we were able to send funds to Christ's Home for the Needy to expand their three existing fish ponds. In the past, their three ponds could produce only enough fish for periodic meals for the orphans. Once the ponds are expanded, they will be able to raise enough fish to sell some at the local market. Hoi buys the fish for about 14 cents each when they are just fingerlings. The children take care of feeding them, and after a year they grow enough to be sold for about a dollar. After two years, they can be sold for four dollars. That extra income will be a real blessing for the children.

Tonight, all of them will sleep well, knowing that Jesus is still in the business of multiplying fish to feed the hungry. Thanks for being part of the miracle.

The Bigger Picture: Thanks to your gifts to the Orphan's Tear Special Gifts Fund, we're able to meet the special needs that arise among the forty Christian orphanages with which we've partnered around the world. Recently, we've not only helped expand fish ponds, but we've provided beds, funded wells, built sanitary toilets and much more. Now we've made it possible for compassionate believers to contribute automatically each month to this special fund, either by credit card or through automatic bank withdrawals. 100% of every contribution to the Orphan's Tear Special Gifts Fund is sent overseas to help needy orphanages.

Three Shy Guys by David Servant
The Safe Water Fund at Work in Vietnam

An H'roi family in front of the new village well funded by HF

They live deep in the central highlands of Vietnam in Quang Ngai Province, but they are not Vietnamese. They are a tribal people called the H'roi. Until a few years ago, none of them had ever heard of Jesus. No missionary had ever brought the gospel. But one of them heard a radio broadcast from a Christian shortwave station in the Philippines, and he believed in Jesus. Then he told his friends. Before long, he had planted seven blossoming churches among the H'roi, and he became their pastor. The Lord raised up other pastors from among them. Many H'roi have since come to believe in Jesus.

A Vietnamese church-planter from Ho Chi Minh City named Vinh who has helped Heaven's Family distribute The Disciple-Making Minister to hundreds of Vietnamese pastors was providentially informed of the gospel's spread among the H'roi. He began sending some of his pastors to visit and teach them. Here is part of his report to us in his best English:

My pastors told me that if I come to this place I cannot help crying for their poverty. Most of children are naked or only wearing shorts. They have to go to a long distance to the stream to get water for use and drink. The water they take from the stream is also very dirty and bad-smelled. The whole village don't have toilet, so they have to go to bushes up on the hills or down the stream. You know my brother last time December 2008, three of my pastors went there to organize the Christmas evangelistic meeting. They had to stay there one week and they could not go to toilet because they are shy to go to bushes. Coming back, they looked like pregnant people, because they kept food inside the stomacth one week. [Which is why I almost titled this article, Three Pregnant Pastors.]

Before their well, the H'roi villagers had to trek quite a long distance to get drinking water from a dirty creek

Vinh asked if we could fund a 100- to 150-foot-deep water well for the believers in one village, writing, "They are poor Christians, but very faithful to the Lord, living as true salt of the earth." He sent us a photo of a circle they had drawn on the soil by faith where they wanted their well to be dug. $500 was needed. We agreed to help.

In central Vietnam, tribal Christians are often regularly persecuted by the local authorities. When the well was almost completed, the H'roi pastor was called in for questioning by the local chief of police. He wanted to know about the source of the well's funding. He feared the worst, but he told the police chief the truth. The funds had come from a Christian pastor in Ho Chi Minh City. At that, the police chief replied, "Can you ask your pastor to help our people in this village for one more well? Because this one is not enough for the whole village!"

At left is the location the villagers marked in faith while praying for a well. At right is their faith being rewarded!

The Bigger Picture: Through gifts to the Safe Water Fund, Heaven's Family is able to help provide safe drinking water for members of our spiritual family in a growing number of poor nations by funding wells, water reservoirs, and water filters.

Twice Saved by CJ McDaniel
The Education Fund at Work in Kenya

Elias and Rial, two brothers with brighter futures thanks to Heaven's Family

Often cold and hungry, the two young brothers slept at nights on the streets, using each other's body heat for warmth. They survived by begging and through occasional odd jobs they could find, which were few and far between for two malnourished children.

Elias and Rial were the sons of poverty-stricken peasant farmers who lived outside the agricultural town of Kitale, Kenya. They lost both of their parents in a span of four months due to undiagnosed diseases. Like many orphaned children in Africa, Elias and Rial found themselves with no place to live and no food to eat. They were about six and seven years old. By the time their uncle, who lived over 250 miles away, heard of the their plight, they had spent three years living on the unforgiving streets of Kitale.

Things improved when their uncle moved to Kitale to take care of them about seven years ago. He paid their school tuition fees and provided food and a humble home. Earlier this year, however, on a trip back from his home town, he was killed in an automobile accident. Elias and Rial were on their own again.

Erick Situmah, a Heaven’s Family-sponsored national missionary who is planting house churches in a Kitale slum, was sharing the gospel on the streets. He was specifically targeting teenagers, which is how he first met Elias and Rial. At that time, the boys were still living in the house that their uncle had been renting for six dollars a month. Elias and Rials’s deceased parents had been worshippers of trees and rocks, and they had instilled many of the same beliefs in their sons. When Erick told them about Jesus, however, they immediately received Him and began attending one of Erick's house churches.

With their uncle gone and no one to pay their school fees, the brothers began accruing tuition debt until the school eventually refused their admission. Elias was just half a year away from graduating from high school, and Rial was one year behind him. Through gifts to our Education Fund, Heaven’s Family stepped in and paid their past debt as well as their school fees through to graduation. If it were not for the compassion of their spiritual family on the other side of the world, Elias and Rial would once again be on the streets with no hope for the future. Both, however, now have big dreams. Rial, who plays soccer for the high school team, dreams of being a professional soccer player. His older brother, Elias, wants to apply himself to become a medical doctor. On their behalf, thanks so much.

The Bigger Picture: Generally, the Education Fund is used to help older children—who live in one of the forty orphanages supported each month through our Orphan's Tear division—prepare for a vocation by which they can support themselves upon leaving their orphanage. Needs seem to always exceed the resources of this fund. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Islamic Injustice by Elisabeth K.
The Persecuted Christians Fund at Work in Pakistan

An Urdu Bible recently burned by Muslims in Pakistan

Ghafoor Masih has lived in Hajware Town, Pakistan, for thirty-five years, the last twenty of which he has operated a small grocery store to support his family. Although he is a Christian and thus part of a persecuted minority, Ghafoor has enjoyed a long-standing, good relationship with the local Muslim community. That dramatically changed, however, just a few weeks ago.

Imran Masih

Even though the large majority of Pakistani Muslims cannot read Arabic, a few who observed Imran thought they saw some Arabic words on the papers he was burning, and they accused him of destroying the Qur'an. He denied it, but they rushed to the nearest mosque to broadcast their accusation over the minaret loudspeakers that are used to call Muslims to prayer five times each day. An angry mob gathered at the front of Ghafoor's grocery store.

Within minutes, they looted and destroyed everything. Then the mob attacked Imran as his brother was trying to take him to safety. His life was spared by the arrival of the police, yet those same police beat him once he arrived at the police station. When Imran's two accusers arrived, they filed a charge of blasphemy against him. As of this writing, Imran is still in jail awaiting his trial for blasphemy. His father, Ghafoor, moved his entire family to a secret location for safety, where they remain.

Pakistani Christians whose homes were recently destroyed by Muslim mobs

Heaven's Family has sent funds to help sustain Ghafoor and his family and to hire an attorney to defend Imran. They would all appreciate your prayers.

The Bigger Picture: Through gifts to Heaven's Family's Persecuted Christians Fund, we are ready to come to the aid of fellow followers of Christ in restricted nations—like Imran's family—when they suffer for their faith. Now we've made it possible for compassionate believers to contribute automatically each month to this special fund, either by credit card or through automatic bank withdrawals.

Please Pray for Mah Yin by Emily Growden
The Critical Medical Needs Fund at work in Myanmar

Mah Yin with her eye infection (inset) and now much better

Meet little Mah Yin Yin Nwe of Myanmar. We met her last year when Heaven's Family provided a small business grant to Amine, Mah Yin's widowed mother. With that grant, Amine opened a noodle shop to support herself and her three children.

Some months later, we heard from one of our national missionaries, Khamh Lian, who lives in the same city, that Mah Yin was suffering from a severe eye infection and an oozing sore on her abdomen. With contributions to the Critical Medical Needs Fund, we rushed funds to provide some medical attention.

Mah Yin was first taken to an eye specialist who treated her infection, but with no improvement. She was then referred to the best general practitioner in her city. He ordered tests that indicated the infection had not begun in her eyes, but rather in her liver. Mah Yin was suffering from severe liver damage, and it was no longer filtering harmful substances from her blood as it should. The result was multiple infections that were plaguing her body. The doctor began long-term treatments for her liver and eyes and also sent her to a skin specialist.

Mah Yin's infection before and after three months of medical treatment

Three months later we received photos of Mah Yin that showed her remarkable improvement. She looked like a completely different little girl. However, Mah Yin's ordeal is not over. Missionary Khamh learned from one of Mah Yin's relatives that her father had died of AIDS. He immediately took Mah Yin to have a blood test only to learn the sad truth that she'd been born with the HIV virus. This meant that her mother, Amine, was also infected. Khamh agonized and prayed whether to tell Amine and little Mah Yin. A few weeks later, he wrote to us:

We haven't seen Amine for three days. She has left her three children at home and even her children do not know where she has gone! . . . Doctors have told her of her infection and we believe that would be the reason for her running.

As of this writing, Amine has not returned. Her three children have been taken in by a friend of Khamh's. Long-term treatments will be needed for Mah Yin to battle the HIV virus. Her doctor has agreed to continue those treatments without cost, but there will on-going traveling costs to transport little Mah Yin to the doctor. We're committed to continue helping her. Please pray with us for her mother, Amine, to return soon.

The Bigger Picture: Through the Critical Medical Needs Fund, Heaven's Family provides funding for ill and very poor members of our spiritual family around the world to receive needed medical attention. 100% of every gift to this fund is sent overseas to meet critical medical needs such as Mah Yin's. Thanks for caring.

David Servant's New DVD Teaching Series
Ready to Ship: Jesus' Parables, Part 1

Jesus often spoke to His followers in parables in order that they might understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God. In this soon-to-be-released video teaching series, David Servant takes a closer look at nine of Jesus' parables that were specifically directed towards believers. They include the parables of The Sower and the Soils, The Wheat and the Tares, The Hidden Treasure, The Unforgiving Servant, The Laborers in the Vineyard, The Good Samaritan, The Rich Fool, The Unrighteous Steward, and The Rich Man and Lazarus.

David makes no attempt to alter or soften the challenging messages contained within any of Jesus' parables. The result is a thought-provoking study that is perfect for personal devotions, group Bible studies, and home churches.

The four-DVD set in an attractive compact case includes thirteen 30-minute teachings that were filmed in the Alaskan wilderness. Also included are short and interesting side-trips as the camera follows David to some of Alaska's most interesting places. You can order your copy for $35, which includes free shipping in the U.S., by clicking here. Jesus' Parables, Part 2 has already been filmed, and is now in the editing phase.

Parting Shot
Forbidden Love

Husbands and wives don't show any public affection in rural Myanmar, and when we were taking portraits last year in a remote village that we've served with various projects, this older couple had a mixed reaction when I wrapped his arm over her shoulder! The watching crowd of villagers hooted!