We have been closely updated by our staff in the Philippines regarding the impending typhoon (set to hit later this week, perhaps Thursday), and also the dire conditions that many in the Philippines (including our staff and Director) are still suffering through after last month’s typhoon. Scores of people have lost all of their possessions, if not also family members and friends. Please do keep this nation in your prayers this week as yet another devastating storm looms.
Reuters – Philippines starts evacuation ahead of new typhoon:
“The Philippines began evacuating thousands of people in northern areas prone to floods and landslides on Tuesday ahead of a powerful typhoon that has gained strength over the Pacific, officials said.”
Other news of note today from IJM casework countries:
Manila Bulletin – Andrey Sawchenko addresses Cebu’s sex trafficking problem: “The local branch of international human rights organization, International Justice Mission (IJM) lamented Tuesday the continuing problem of human trafficking in the Philippines, including Cebu, despite the country’s fading out from the international sex tourism radar.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/19/guatemala.police/” title="CNN">CNN – Two killed in attack on Guatemalan police: “Lethal assaults on police and prison guards in Guatemala continued over the weekend, with an attack on a national police patrol that killed two officers and left one wounded, authorities said.”
AP – Full results of AIDS vaccine in Thailand show drug is of “modest help”: “Fresh results from the world’s first successful test of an experimental AIDS vaccine confirm that it is only marginally effective. Yet, the findings are exciting to scientists, who think they may show how to make a better vaccine.”
[Gary Haugen serves as President & CEO of IJM Click here to listen to his sermon from this past Sunday.]
This weekend I had the privilege of being with the Imago Dei church community in Portland, Oregon. Imago has been championing the work of justice both locally and globally. It was such a joy to be given the opportunity to preach at each of their Sunday worship services, to experience the way God moves through His word and His work, inviting us into the adventure.
I was profoundly moved this weekend to hear the personal testimony of a young nurse practitioner who had just returned from a mission trip to Liberia – a nation simply demolished by the wrecking ball of civil war. She and her small team from Imago Dei had helped local Liberian nurses establish a makeshift “clinic” that served more than a thousand people in a few days who otherwise had no access to any medical care. Humbly and authentically, this sister shared the trauma of confronting all the healing she and her team could not provide. She manifested the costly price of authentic, Jesus-like love in our disastrously fallen world. In order to save a few from death and excruciating pain, this sister had to be willing to endure the heartache and trauma of confronting all those whom she could not save.
Painful, disorienting, not fun. Nothing tidy or easy here.
For me, this is perhaps the most fundamental barrier to actually getting out there and doing something. I want to share with a suffering world, but I’d rather not share in the world’s suffering. And yet, in the real world, that is what love requires. And the literal truth is this: if the whole Body of Christ were willing to love like this sister, every Liberian could have access to reasonable health care. In 2008, there is certainly nothing impossible about 3 million people getting basic medical care.
These challenges of caring for the sick are so much more doable than we imagine – especially when we consider the global capacities and resources of all those who seek to follow Jesus in our world. Likewise for the work of justice; that is, addressing the problem of violence that lies underneath so much of the suffering of the poor.
The nurse practitioner reported that 40% of Liberian women are victims of rape – which comports with WHO data which states that gender violence accounts for more ill-health in our world than malaria and car accidents combined. But who is working on stopping the violence?
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We just received word of a very difficult case that has opened in Uganda. Below is the information we have thus far from the field - and in addition, we suspect this case may be drawn-out over many months, so please do keep Veronica in continued prayer over the weeks to come (and pray that resolution may come quickly):
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