Behind the Hands of Compassion are Hearts of Flesh

straight from the horse's mouth: a personal account from a Singaporean in the trenches of relief efforts in Banda Aceh. Click on the link to read....got it from my favourite local food blogger at shiokadelicious:

"...All this is incredibly human work. You want to break down in tears, you are exploding with adrenalin. For example, someone might call and ask you what they should do with the body of their baby which they just found. Or beg you to search such and such an island for their missing relative. And you need to translate that desperation into the deployment of helicopters and armed forces personnel - if we had the time to stop and reflect on it, we would be struck dumb by what we are all doing. We would probably be paralysed...."

I repeat - our local boys in SCDF blue and army green ROCK DA HOUSE.

Through Ezekiel 11:19, God declares, "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. "

Here's to hoping more of us feel that transformation in the years to come where a sustained relief effort will be much needed...alongside with sustained efforts for all the sidelined, ongoing woes in Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Ethiopia etc.

am sure in the later part of the year we are going to see a flood of calls for small scale rebuilding efforts initiated by Habitat for Humanity or Operation Mobilisation, sponsorship/adoption drives by World Vision and more. All of us, especially Christians who know the mercy of God, should chip in best that we can to serve.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to see cell groups working together to go on a small scale rebuilding trip? I think it would be incredibly meaningful...not to mention poignant in the light of Pastor Chris' plea to ARPC cell groups to become more global and community minded in our perception of the church. As soon as there is some form of greenlight for individual groups to step up, I hope we can get an ARPC inter-DG little mission trip going.

It's never about how we start the race but how we carry on and how we finish.

May we finish it hands worn out in work for our neighbour raised in glory to God
and hearts pained but pumping from being transmogrified into flesh.

Damn yo' namby-pamby rat race, paper chase, money trail and battle of the sexes!

THIS is what life is about:
the demonstration of Love for our neighbours made manifest through our love for God.

Now that's worth a fight to the finish.