Father of the fatherless

God is doing great things at Gentle Hands!



Remind baby P, who was severely malnourished and had worms and TB when she came to Gentle Hands nearly 2 months ago? She went home to her family yesterday worm-free, taking medicine for TB, and weighing a whole lot more than when she came! Here she is with Ate Tasha - she looks like a different baby!

Pray for P and her family, that they would be diligent and able to take care of her at home. Pray that they would see the Lord's hand in the situation and would come to have a true relationship with Jesus because of it. Pray that Gentle Hands could continue a relationship with this family to share Christ with them. Pray that as P grows, she would would be physically strong as well as strong in the Lord!

Praise God for how He restores life and health.

Also, be in prayer for several children at GH who may be adopted soon. It is difficult for foreigners to adopt from the Philippines; for many the process takes years. But things look promising for several cases at GH, which is really exciting! Pray for paperwork to go through, for the courts to process things quickly, and for the kids to be adopted by loving Christian families.

God created us for family. Adoption is a picture of how God adopts us into His family, giving us the right to be His children and heirs with Christ. That's just cool.

"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him." - Psalm 103.13

Grow up in every way into Him.

I (Media Mary) have spent an awful lot of time with babies recently. It has been wonderful and messy and rewarding, but mostly the Lord has used it to remind me how important it is to grow up.


When we first become Christians, we are babies in the faith. We drink spiritual milk, as Paul put it. And at first, that's appropriate. None of the nannies complains that an 18-month-old is still wearing diapers or spilling their soup, because developmentally that's where they should be. But if that baby still struggled to feed themselves as an 8-year-old, it would be another matter. In fact, this summer I have seen several older children who, because of disabilities beyond their control, are physically and mentally still on the level of a 2-year-old. It's heartbreaking.

Spiritually, it's much the same. That's why discipleship is so important: without that growth and discipline, we would all still be baby Christians, stuck in a stage of life that we should have long outgrown. The Lord is mighty and sovereign, but He can't use a stagnant, immature Christian the way He can one who earnestly seeks growth and maturity. It is good and right that we should constantly be growing in Christ.

And it is good and right that our evangelism should always be followed by discipleship. We may not always be able to do the discipling ourselves, but we have a responsibility to our new brothers and sisters to find someone to help them grow in Spirit and in truth. The goal of Nehemiah Teams is not to make "converts," nor to perform a lot of baptisms, but to lead people to the truth of salvation and equip them to grow into mature, committed Christ followers who will, in turn, make more disciples.

So as you pray for all who will come to know Jesus Christ this summer through God's work in Nehemiah Teams, don't forget to pray for their growth and discipleship.
As my professor likes to say, "Mature believers act like mature believers, and mature believers help produce mature believers." May we all grow up in every way into Christ so that we may no longer be children!

"And he (Christ) gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

- Ephesians 4.11-16

Worth 1,000 Words

The week at Gentle Hands in pictures.

[teaching Bible stories to the GH kids using a story cloth]

[Rachel and T walking to a nearby park]

[bath time! Chylsea stays busy keeping these babies clean]

[Hannah (working a shift in the nursery) with a happy, clean baby S]

[Ate Charity gives medical treatment and advice in the Malabon community where GH does outreach each week]

[Chelsea, a friend and visitor at Gentle Hands]

[the Gentle Hands logo painted on a building in Malabon]

[craft time in Malabon - Philippians 4:13]

[singing praise to God in Malabon!!]

[a little friend in Malabon was curious about Rachel's Bible]

"For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered."

Isaiah 56.7-8

Gentle Hands: learning, loving, serving

I (Media Mary speaking) just spent 5 days with the nanny team at Gentle Hands. What a blessing and challenge that time was!

For their mamas: this nanny team is alive and well - and busy! Gentle Hands describes itself as an agency "meant to be on the front lines of rescue and rehabilitation of the needs of at-risk children and youth, working towards improving human community life through the love of Jesus and family-centered care." Currently, GH is home to over 50 children and 30+ staff members. I want to describe it as full of "life," which is especially significant because many children arrive at Gentle Hands on the brink of death.

I've been told that writing blogs about nanny work is a challenge because the work is not especially thrilling. It's true that changing poopy diapers and helping with math homework is not breaking news, but this week at Gentle Hands has taught me some important lessons about true service and love.

[sometimes service looks like this - donated clothes, sorted by size]

[Rachel, Maegan and Hannah taking the toddlers for a walk]

• Service doesn't always make for great stories. Sometimes the Lord calls us not to preach or plant churches, but to bathe an elderly woman who is unable to get out of bed. Sometimes it's not a matter of blazing a new trail but of obediently submitting to an authority. These nannies probably don't have a passion for cleaning oatmeal out of a squirming toddler's hair, but that is the service that the Lord has set in front of them for the summer. And as such, it is a vital part of the Kingdom story.
• "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward." (Col. 3:22) The test of a true heart for service is how you respond when no one notices. Sometimes I think I want to serve when really I want the assurance that my service is appreciated.
• God loves the unlovely and calls us to do the same. In most of my pictures the babies are sweet and smiling. But those babies also cry. They scream, in fact. They dump water on you at 5 AM; they poop in the bathtub; they refuse your outstretched arms. If you love them less in those moments, you don't really love them at all. If you do not love the troubled teenager or stubborn six-year-old as you do the cooing toddler, you don't love as God does. As my friend Lizzie reminded me, as ambassadors for Christ we cannot be selfish with our love. It's not ours to keep and give as we please. We, too, are often unlovely.
• God loves the unlovely, but He doesn't leave them there. His love is the kind that transforms. It redeems. It disciplines.

Pray for the Gentle Hands nannies, that the Lord would continue to give them hearts of true service. Pray that they would "put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Pray that through this team, the children would know they are loved uniquely and individually by their Father.
Pray that all glory would be His.
- Media Mary

Prayer for Gentle Hands

While these are only a few examples of the prayer needs at Gentle Hands, I wanted you to see faces and know stories. Please know that each face represents a dozen more whose needs are just as great.

L (at right) is a new resident at Gentle Hope, though she has been a friend of Ate C's for a while. She is 95 and has tuberculosis and a dislocated hip, among other things. L cannot walk or get out of bed. She knows the Lord. She sings worship songs and talks to the many children and visitors that stop by to say hi. She speaks Tagalog, but she sings Oh Come Let Us Adore Him with her friend Rachel. It is beautiful.
Pray that L will know that she is loved and valued at Gentle Hands, and that she understands that Christ loves her even more. Pray that she would not be lonely. Pray for physical healing and relief of pain. And praise God that she will have eternal life with him! She is a blessing to everyone she meets.

Meet baby P, who came to Gentle Hands 3 weeks ago from the squatter area of Malabon. P is about 1.5 years old. She had worms, tuberculosis, and was malnourished. She is now being treated for TB and the malnutrition - the worms have all come out now. P has parents who love her, but were unable to provide or care for her physically. P is one of the smartest and sassiest babies you will meet!
Pray for P's physical recovery. TB medications are very hard on babies, especially when they're underweight. Pray that the Lord would strengthen her little body and restore her health. Pray that the Lord would use her time at Gentle Hands to draw her parents, and that her family would know Jesus! Pray also for J, who takes care of her at Gentle Hands, for peace and wisdom.

• Pray for the squatters in Malabon, where the Gentle Hands team goes each week to visit, provide medical treatment, lead the children in worship and crafts and provide a meal. God has a plan for this place. Pray that these small, tangible acts of love would point to the gospel. The gospel is hope; Malabon needs hope.
  
• Pray for the children at Gentle Hands. They have suffered in ways most of us can't even imagine. But they are precious to the Lord who made them, and they are precious to the people at GH. They are each unique, with their own story, their own needs. Pray for their physical, emotional and spiritual healing. Pray that they would know the love of a Father who will never leave them. Pray that families would find them!
  
• Pray for Ate C as she fights for these children.
  
• And pray for the parents - the ones who did the leaving. It would be easy to despise them after seeing the way they treated their children. But who knows what they, too, have gone through? Who knows what abuse they suffered as adults, as children? Pray that the Lord would fill us all with compassion for the parents. Pray that they would call on the name of Jesus and find salvation. Pray that they would understand the value of human life and would stop the abusive cycle. Pray that the Lord would begin a work of radical transformation in them. They are thirsty. May they drink Living Water.