teenagers of faith Hebrews 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul...

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Living in the Tombs

Bible reading: Mark 9:33-37

Unfortunately I missed the last two Tofs meetings. I hope you all had fun without me! I have a good reason for my absence - I was visiting the Philippines with a team from a Christian charity called Compassion Australia.

The Philippines is an amazing country, with over 100 million people living on about 2,000 islands. The largest city, Manila, has a population of over 13 million. The food is wonderful, and the traffic is absolutely insane!

Many people in the Philippines live in terrible poverty. One family I visited lives in a small plywood shack in the mangroves. When the tide comes in, their one room home becomes a tiny island! Another family I visited lives in one room that is barely larger than a storage cupboard. They have no natural light, and the room sometimes floods after heavy rain.

It’s easy to lose hope when you see people living in such awful circumstances. But I also met many people whose lives have been changed by the gospel and the generosity and love of the church.

In Cebu, I met a lady called Ermelita. Her friends call her Erms. Erms got married when she was a teenager, and had a baby when she was nineteen. When Erms and her husband lost their tiny home built from scrap materials, they had nowhere to go and were homeless. In desperation, they managed to get access to a cemetery, and for two years, that’s where they lived. Each evening, they would enter a grave house, and sleep among the tombs with their two children.

Erms’ life began to change when someone at a nearby church heard their story, and invited her to join a program designed to help young mothers and babies. Over time, Erms and her family began to attend church, and she and her husband put their faith in Christ.

They experienced a major setback when a typhoon hit Cebu in 2013, but the church helped them find a home, and they were able to find work. Erms started studying, and earlier this year, she completed a Bachelor of Education with a major in mathematics. She even earned a special academic award!

Instead of trying to find a high-paying job with her new degree, Erms has decided to work for her church, helping children living in poverty.

Erms and her family are a living testimony of God’s grace, and the importance of the church. They are also a reminder that we all have a responsibility to take God’s grace to our community. I don’t know who realised that Erms and her family were living in the tombs, but someone at the church in her community took action and showed God’s love in a practical way.

In Mark 9, we read that the disciples argued between themselves about who would be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom. Jesus soon explained that His kingdom would work differently to earthly kingdoms. In His eyes, the most important people are those who serve. In verse 37, Jesus said that serving a child was just like serving Jesus, and serving Jesus is no different to serving God Himself.

Sometimes we make serving God much too complicated. We think that serving God requires preaching a sermon or doing something prominent at church on Sunday. But Jesus just wants us to serve other people, particularly those who are in need - people like Erms and her family.

You might not know someone who is sleeping in the cemetery, but we all know someone who needs a helping hand. Let’s all go out of our way this week to show the love of God to someone in need!

Jesse Young