"A Good, Productive, Day"

Today, at 12:08, I received a phone call from Pastor Tom. Here is what he said:

"Another good, productive day in Pama. No rain today, so we were able to get a lot done on bricklaying and putting on the roofing materials.

Sue and Jillian went back to the Health Center and did some more work with people, bandaging up cuts and stuff. RAD was playing soccer a bunch this afternoon. He feels like he is getting older than the rest of them there, which is probably true.

The rest of the ladies went over this morning and this afternoon doing reading first to the kids this morning, and with the ladies in the village this afternoon.

So it was a good, productive day. Chad got some good video so hopefully we can put something together when we get back. But wanted to give you this update.

A SPECIAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM TODAY, AUGUST 10TH." (TOM)

I hope you are encouraged to know that your prayers are being answered. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for the wonderful messages you are sending to your friends and loved ones half a world away. When they go back to Bangui and find those messages, they will know once again how much you care.

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade

For those of you who are wondering whether PAMA even exists on the globe, I did a little experiment on my computer last night. I typed in "PAMA, Central African Republic," and among other things, a satellite map from index mundi came up with a red point indicating exactly where that village is in the CAR. Then I started playing around with it and eventually found Bangui, the CAR Capital city, only 200 miles south, but approximately six hours by car. So, if you are wondering if this place even exists, wonder no more...

Our team from Wooster was in that same village last year. Upon entering this village one cannot help but notice the number of children roaming around. Later, I learned that many of the villagers practice polygamy. When a man dies, then, he can leave behind two or three families of fatherless children. This creates a huge burden to a community of believers already weighted down by so much suffering.

Pastor Tolozombo, a faithful man of God. That day, he gave our team a "banquet," prepared by his wife and some other church ladies.

I talked to the pastor, Gaston Tolozombo, and he told me that his church alone was trying to care for 58 orphans last year. In the end, they could only have enough money to keep four of these little children in school. Since then, I have learned that our sister church, Ashland West Main, has picked up the support of most, if not all, of these children, through the hand to hand and Hope and Charity projects sponsored by GBIM.

Needless to say, the needs in that village are still great. Our church can play a significant role in helping these children and that is a major reason our team is there now.

Here are some pictures we took of the beautiful people of PAMA last year.

The roads to PAMA, probably looking exactly like this again this time of the year.

These kids, they look so beautiful, their smile could throw the world at their feet. Don't let their faces or the color of their clothes fool you. They live in abject poverty, amongst the poorest in the world. They have some significant skin and respiratory issues. I never heard the sound of coughing so frequently, so near, so incessant. In all sincerity, and it pains me to say this, it was like visiting a hospital with some very sick patients, only these were children playing on the streets of another African village.

I say "another" because the world can care less about the children of PAMA. They are not on anybody's radar screen. They don't pose a threat to anyone nor are they sitting on some soil that has any strategic importance to the West. They are, for all practical purposes, forgotten, less than props, lower than dirt, in the eyes of the world.

But not in the eyes of Jesus, our Master. For Him, they are to be blessed. He would take time to put them on His lap, look at them in the eyes and whisper "I love you." You look at the faces of these kids and tell me how in the world you cannot fall in love with them. In less than thirty minutes in this village, I was teaching them to sing "Jesus Loves Me," in English, of course. They were having fun, running around, screaming, acting like they wanted to scare me and running away when I motion to run after them.

But if you pay close attention to some of these pictures, the arms, hands and heads of these children will betray signs of hardships the likes of which you never even dreamed existed. The littlest ones are carried by the older ones. Many of them are orphans and some orphaned by AIDS. School is virtually non-existent, only a few being able to afford the fee that is charged. A village of 2,000 to 4,ooo people, with only two functioning well for drinking and cooking water and a couple of latrines. Death awaits one at every corner.

But that is precise the reason we are there now. We believe God has called us to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to the last, the least, the lost of this universe and we will continue to pursue this with all our might. We have only started. We need a lot more people who can help us. We need to multiply our resource and put them to good use to alleviate poverty and bring the gospel to these beautiful people. We need to have people in our congregation who will be provoked to action. We need some of you NOT to be able to sleep. To wake up in the middle of the night and allow God to speak to you: Is God calling ME to do something? Is it time for me to start giving back to the least of these? How can I modify my lifestyle so I can free resources to help people like the children of PAMA?

We need many of you to feel a sense of outrage and be alarmed. But in the good sense. We need you to channel that outrage and energy toward love and good works on behalf of those who have no voice. We need you to be deliberate and not rest until you fulfill God's calling in your life, whether it is here or abroad. Anything short of that cheapens the act of Christ who paid the ultimate sacrifice. And I don't want anyone out there to give any contribution to the idea of a gospel that doesn't come with a price.

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade