SWAT REPORT # 53    04-03-06

LIFE IN A DUMP…A PINE BOX…A FRESH GRAVE…THEN HELL

Luke16:23-24 “…man also died, and was buried; and in hell…”

For many in Racos village this is all that life has to offer.  The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ gives them the potential to improve their life in a dump…offers hope beyond the pine box and grave and changes the destination after the grave to glory forever.  Photos #5303, 5302, 5305 in that order tell this story.  We arrived in Racos this past Saturday for our weekly meeting…as we walked up the hill someone yelled for us to come another way…there were a group of men standing around a pine coffin in the process of being built.   They know who we are and that we have helped folk in the village many times…in the house next to the coffin…the body of their neighbor lies on his bed covered with a sheet…the door is open and the body can be seen…they ask us for financial help and physical help to bury the dead.  They have plenty of men to aid physically and our primary goal is not to help financially and when they discover that their begging will not yield benefit they begin to chide us…in answer to this Mihai, one of our Bible institute men and their next door neighbor, gives them a brusque reply… “Let the dead bury their dead!”

PRIORITY PROBLEMS

Ecc 1:2  Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

In photo # 5304 you see that this homeowner would prefer a new TV antennae over a new roof.  I watched him put this up last fall BEFORE winter set in but I did not have my camera with me.  It would seem like extreme poverty would cure vanity but it only distorts values and priorities.   How much more difficult for them to put the Kingdom of God first above their material kingdom.

HE’S NOT HEAVY…HE’S MY BROTHER…

John 1:42,43 “…he first findeth his own brother Simon…and he brought him to Jesus.”

In photo # 5301 a little girl carries her brother over the MUD to bring him to hear the Bible story.  I wish we could get our adults to care that much about their brother. Do you care that much…???   Maybe these weekly Bible studies will change the priorities of this coming generation in Racos.

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE…I’M GONNA LET IT SHINE

Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

In photo # 5306 I am leading the SS children up and down the street in front of our church…Bro. Logan is far left in the picture…then from L to R are Bethany Ann Logan, Mary Bethany, Mihai (back row next to Bro. Logan…then Alexandra, Naomi, Anna Maria,…Dorin, beyond me is Ruben and finally Benjamin Logan…in the front are two of my sidekicks…Paul and Solomon right beside me…we are waving at our neighbors in their high-rise blocks as they peer out the windows to see what is going on.  For several weeks now we have had a SS campaign to let your light shine…the kids were to bring a visitor to SS and win a tiny flashlight…we sang the song in the headline above each week in both Romanian and English…I told them that on the first sunny day of spring we were going to march up and down the street…waking the neighbors by our singing of the kids song… “There is a flag flying high from the castle of my heart”…to the top of our lungs.   Some neighbors looked and smiled and waved and some closed the window and drew the drapes.  The kids really enjoyed it and I had my usual euphoria for the Lord.

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