Thursday, November 15, 2012

Comforted to Comfort Others!

(FROM JOSHUA AND ANNE'S NOVEMBER PRAYER-LETTER PAGE 1)


Once, I saw a movie about a man who is about to take his life by jumping off a bridge because of his problems.  But when he was about to do it, he saw a woman at the other side of the bridge wanting to jump off too.  So instead of pursuing his end, he hurried to the other side to prevent the woman from jumping.  Soon after saving her from committing suicide, he realized how tiny his problems were compared to hers.  He then helped her overcome her difficulties, forgetting his own problems and the desire to take his life.

I just felt the same way.  Not that I am contemplating to jump off a bridge (I need to travel at least 30 minutes to find a  bridge where I can jump off and I am afraid of drowning) but, many times, in the last four months that I realized how small my problems were compared to what other people are experiencing.  After helping them, I didn't just forget my own problems; my heart is also filled with an overflowing joy.  It is as if, my own problems are solved when I see other people recovering from theirs.

Just like when me and my son got sick with a viral infection which rendered us so weak with high fever and rashes for two days.  It was scary because it happened during the height of the Dengue incidence in Metro Manila.  Josiah almost died three years ago because of this virus.  Thank God it was not, on the third day, we recovered as if nothing happened.

A few days after, we heard that a pastor friend of ours lost his wife and daughter due to complications while she was giving birth.

I found myself forgetting my own problem and made all possible means to visit him.  What a joy indeed just to provide a listening ear and an encouragement to a grieving friend.  We left knowing that God has strengthened and encouraged him.

Same thing happened when Lois, my daughter injured her knee.  We're back at the hospital again in a span of three months.  With mounting bills to pay, we couldn't afford another trip to the hospital.  To make it worse, I know that we don't have a house to stay in a matter of months.  We're staying in a parsonage of the church we are serving and according to the agreement we made with the church leaders, we can only stay until October 2012.  If not for the goodness of the leadership of the church who extended our stay in the house we are using right now, I don't know where we will be staying.

While her knee was receiving treatment, an urban poor community close to where we are ministering was being demolished.  Violence erupted and a score people were injured.  A lot of people lose their houses, illegal they may be, they now don't have a place to stay.  Members of our church who are also using a plot of land not their own just a stone throw away from the demolition site are now in fear that they will suffer the same fate.  Where are we going to put more than 20 families if the owner of their land decides to evict them?  It doesn't help either to know that Christmas is just around the corner.

Again, all my troubles seem to evaporate in the light of what my members might face in the near future.  That week, as I think of how I will encourage them, the opposite happened.  Instead of me encouraging them, they are the ones who encouraged me. 

One of my workers told me that instead of being afraid, some of our youth in that community started to say, “Let's dream that God one day will give us a house of our own - a big house with many floors and rooms.  All families can live there.  We have a big God; there is nothing impossible for Him!

When I heard that, I realized how small my faith is.  I also realized why the Lord is letting us pass through some difficulties, trials and challenges the past few months.  So that we can encourage those who need it by the same encouragement we receive from the Lord. 

I remember Paul once said, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).