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Our Blog

SUFFERING

     Thousands of miles and a whole continent in between are two women.  They don't know each other, nor will they while on this earth.  Yvonne and I know them both.  Both of them are suffering.

     Several weeks ago Yvonne was coming home after visiting a friend when she came upon Bernadette.  Wrapped in little more than rags, Bernadette was laying outside the doors of local clothing and jewelry stores, barely conscious.

     Though we did not know her name at that time, we've seen Bernadette before along with countless other beggars that roam our neighborhood.  We had never seen her in this condition.  

     Her lips were white, her eyes yellow and her hair speckled with grit from the street.  She sat in a puddle of air conditioning condensation and her own urine.  Without help she couldn't sit up, let alone stand up.  

     Someone nearby had given her a cup of water and a morsel of food, but she was too weak to lift her hand to put them to her mouth.  Two young women had stopped to comfort her, but really did not know what to do.  Mostly, people either just walked by or stood and stared.

     With the help of our translator, Gerand, we were able to extract enough information to know that if we didn't help her she was going to die.  The three of us were eventually able to lift Bernadette into a tuc tuc and transport her to the local hospital.

     Within a day she had regained much of her strength.  Within two days she was able to walk to a bathroom (without her cane) and bathe.  A week later she was able to leave the hospital.

     The curious thing about Bernadette is that she has family not far away.  They have enough to provide their sister food and shelter, but Bernadette prefers wandering the streets and begging.  We have seen her several times in the last week, right where she has been before.

     While it is apparent that Bernadette, who is 60 years old, suffers from some form of dimensia, it is also apparent that she has enough awareness to know she has a place where she could live in a semblance of dignity.  She prefers indignity.  Her family is well aware of her condition, but is unwilling to fight through Bernadette's obstinance to help.

     Back in the states, there is another who is suffering.  She did not grow up in squalor, but in middle class America.  As a young girl she contracted polio.  Now as a 74-year-old woman she is battling cancer.

     What we know about Jeannine is that she is a fighter.  She fought through polio and raised a family without the help of an absentee husband.  She persevered through adversity and was able to provide.  The ultimate fruits of her labor are two children of immense character.  

     Her son and daughter are the picture of what any parent's heart would desire; both accomplished and both with healthy families of their own.  Most importantly, they love their mother deeply.

     When we heard of Jeannine's challenge Yvonne and I really didn't know how to respond.  You see, Jeannine is a friend of ours.  We have shared Christmas and Thanksgiving together, but we did not know how to share in her suffering.  So, we prayed.

     Just recently we exchanged e-mails, and Jeannine said this: "I believe the only way I'll succeed in winning this challenge is with God's help."

     What I see from a distance is the success of Jeannine's suffering.  She has already won.  The rewards are her children and grandchildren, who are now at her side with love and compassion.  In return, Jeannine has persevered with courage and grace.

     No matter how pragmatic or accurate a doctor's prognosis, where there is God there is always hope.  And where there is hope there is love.  The Bible says, "...God is love...Now there abides these three; faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."

     You see, the difference between Bernadette and Jeannine is love.  Bernadette's family is ambivalent when it comes to her suffering.  There is defeat and separation.  There is no desire to ensure the one who is suffering any sort of comfort and in exchange they receive no comfort.

     On the other hand, Jeannine's family is tied together in love.  They are bound by compassion and mercy.  I suspect that though they might not even recognize it, that their hearts are set on the prospects of justice prevailing - that ultimately their hearts are united in eternity.

    So, one family is divided, the other united.  One is forlorn, the other hopeful. One woman suffers in bitterness, the other in love.

    We are reminded of a Savior, who's birth we are about to celebrate.  He lived, He suffered and He died...for us.  Then He was resurrected...for us.  

     Yvonne and I pray that you would know this love this Christmas.  That it would resurrect purpose in your life.  And once you know it, share it with someone who is suffering.  It is the greatest gift we could possibly give.

A Call To Prayer

Mike Broadhurst

     Yvonne and I need your help.  We need your prayers.

     Corruption permeates Madagascar, yet there are many who desire to see things change.  It would be easy to blame the malfeasance on the rich and powerful, but greed and avarice can be found top to bottom.  

     In the last 10 days three of our start-up entrepreneurs have been robbed.  Of the 16 businesses to which we have provided financing, four (or 25%) have lost all of the capital it takes to operate their businesses to thievery.

     Yvonne and I are not discouraged.  If anything, we are more determined than ever to exhaust every effort to press toward the goal the Lord has given us...to plant seeds that will change the face of Madagascar forever.

     We look at these setbacks not as defeats, but as evidence that the enemy is mad.  In response, we urgently call out to you for covering us with prayer.  And not just us, but the whole of Madagascar.  

     If you want to know specifically what to pray about, it is the strangling FEAR that is prevalent in Madagascar and for the Lord's love to prevail.

     Today two of our friends who are partners in a pig and charcoal business came to see us.  On Saturday one of them was duped down a secluded path in the countryside and was beaten and robbed.  As he lay in the dirt, bound and semi-comatose, he listened to his enemies talk about how to kill him and get rid of his body.   He managed to loosen his binds and run to safety.

     Last week another one of our new entrepreneurs was in Antananarivo (the country's capital) on a crowded bus when perpetrators managed to slit open his pocket and take all of his money without him sensing a thing.

     A few days earlier one of our friends was bilked of all of his capital.

     We could go on ad nauseam about how the politicians, the judges, the police and the rich leech the life out of the poor, but the truth is the poor are as equally vicious toward one another.  When it becomes apparent that one of their own kind is making any progress they become a target.

     Our feeling is that there is such a sense of desperation here that prince-to-pauper will go to great lengths to either protect what they have or take what they don't have by hook or crook.  Where there is no hope, fear creeps in and self-preservation prevails.

     Gratefully, the Lord is bringing HOPE to this community.  

     Over the weekend we visited one of our entrepreneur's fish pond farms and the site was nothing less than spectacular.  Close to 30 people scurried about constructing three ponds that equaled the size of one-and-a-half football fields.

     Two-and-a-half months ago the valley was covered in a thicket of underbrush and 30 villagers had no source of income. They built the ponds with 7 small shovels and an assembly line to move the dirt in bags. It was all quite remarkable.

     Today we visited another one of our friends who has opened a cooking pot forging company in her yard that employs two men.  She is on her way to tripling the income she made while she was working at Mercy Ships.

     Last night, one of our friends told us how he gave a 72-year-old beggar woman the equivalent of $12.50 to start a charcoal business.  When he saw her two-weeks later he asked her if she still had the $12.50.  The response was nothing less than miraculous.  

     "Oh, I still have the (money) you gave me," she told him.  "I make $10 with it every time I buy more charcoal.  The money you gave me is my seed and I'll never eat that."

     God has a plan for Madagascar.  It is to take the foolish things of this world and confound the wise.  Just as it was in Jesus' day, the profane and wicked don't like it one bit.  

     Won't you please join us in prayer as we battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

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