Sulad Alejandro "Jhun" Cardeinte
A nature and pet lover family invited me for a walk at “Lumpini Park” the most known and biggest park in Bangkok. Everyone was excited as we were heading to the park. The smiling 8 years old Luisa(not real name) brought her cute puppy with her. We went straight inside the guarded park after we stepped off from the taxi.
But as we walked about 200 meters, we realized that no one is allowed to bring dog at the park. The two guards at the gate did not notice the small girl Luisa carrying the small puppy with her. And so we were admitted. We passed by several public sign boards at the park that no dogs are really allowed.
And so Luisa’s mom said we should go back home before the roaming guards would send us outside. But pet lover Luisa fight for her cute puppy. She said “no” and tried to insist that she only brings puppy with her and not dog. But as we kept on walking, we realized that there is no such thing as puppy in Thai language and it belongs to one name “ma.” No matter how small or big it is!
But we can’t let the puppy go. Luisa loves the puppy so much that we decided to help her carry it wherever we go and trying to hide it whenever we saw a roaming guard. As were walking through, Luisa understands the situation and promised her mom not to bring the puppy anymore next time. It was a bad experience that I was physically and mentally involved and affected! Our planned to enjoy and get refresh at the park was ruin just to save the small puppy.
When it began to dark, we decided to go home. Many strict guards were guarding at the gate but fortunately they all stayed in one place and we easily outsmarted them and were so happy to make our way out from the park without their knowledge. Then we ate outside and enjoy at the small restaurant with the cute puppy!
Then finally we waited for the cheaper public bus, hoping we could save some money. It seemed that we were waiting for the last bus since we waited for more than 30 minutes. But finally it arrived and we happily hop in right away.
Unfortunately, we were not aware that people bringing animals are not allowed to ride the bus. When the unforgiving conductress saw the puppy with us, she was so upset and asked the driver to stop and with all her authority ordered us all to step out right away from the bus in the presence of many passengers! To avoid more embarrassment, we stepped out right away just because of a small puppy. Still in the feeling of shame and humiliation, we decided to ride the expensive taxi.
Do you have small puppy in your spiritual life? The silly things that you love most that is so hard to give up. Ask God on how to surrender your small puppy-sin. Christians who won’t give up their small puppies will be put to shame in the judgment day.
Friday, October 31, 2008
What News Are You Bringing?
Alejandro Cardeinte- excerpt from his unpublished book "The Gospel Call"
“Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Acts 3:6
When I sat down one day to watched the news on TV, one of the headline news was about government humanitarian program distributing 2 kilos of rice to each family. Those were distributed in elementary grade school, to alleviate the country’s poor situation. Some government officials were not impress about the program since they felt it did not offer real help to the serious economic problem.
In the mission field, missionary sometimes mistakenly did the same thing. We come to the mission field we bring goodies for the people. As young missionaries, we still have much to learn about how to dispose our mission and our mission itself. But basically, missionary knows that they are involved in the gospel business.
There are two choices the missionaries are going make, to please God or man. This is where problems begin. Scared to loose the financial support from homeland and the confidence of the supervisor, there is often a temptation to immediately turn to good report. Because of this, missionaries tend to use the wrong methods to gain the villagers confidence.
We should understand that we are working among the group of people who have real problems, difficulties, and struggle that needs real help. Missionaries often bring unreal solution by giving temporal relief for the people. The villagers are given something to eat or a small trinket in order to keep them coming back. This is goodnews to the villagers but these things are not long lasting.
I personally witnessed this kind of motivation when I was working as student missionary in South Korea. Snack had to be a part of every activity planned. The church spends a lot of money because the children would stop coming to Sabbath school if they did not get a treat. However, even food didn’t hold their interest for long. It is comparable to home churches that use “rewards” for every activity at the church expense.
I observed that few months later, the children’s desires for snacks died. One Sabbath when my Korean co-teacher distributed the snacks, some children simply return them to her. Many times when I helped the janitor swept the floor, the things that had been distributed were left on the desks or scattered on the floor. Snacks did not satisfy the kids anymore.
My point is that the children need something more substantial to satisfy them, and could not get it from the snacks or toys. The teachers refused to put some time an effort into designing attractive, Christ-centered activities. Instead, they spend a lot of money for things that temporarily attracted the children.
May we bring them the goodnews not the goods news.
“Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Acts 3:6
When I sat down one day to watched the news on TV, one of the headline news was about government humanitarian program distributing 2 kilos of rice to each family. Those were distributed in elementary grade school, to alleviate the country’s poor situation. Some government officials were not impress about the program since they felt it did not offer real help to the serious economic problem.
In the mission field, missionary sometimes mistakenly did the same thing. We come to the mission field we bring goodies for the people. As young missionaries, we still have much to learn about how to dispose our mission and our mission itself. But basically, missionary knows that they are involved in the gospel business.
There are two choices the missionaries are going make, to please God or man. This is where problems begin. Scared to loose the financial support from homeland and the confidence of the supervisor, there is often a temptation to immediately turn to good report. Because of this, missionaries tend to use the wrong methods to gain the villagers confidence.
We should understand that we are working among the group of people who have real problems, difficulties, and struggle that needs real help. Missionaries often bring unreal solution by giving temporal relief for the people. The villagers are given something to eat or a small trinket in order to keep them coming back. This is goodnews to the villagers but these things are not long lasting.
I personally witnessed this kind of motivation when I was working as student missionary in South Korea. Snack had to be a part of every activity planned. The church spends a lot of money because the children would stop coming to Sabbath school if they did not get a treat. However, even food didn’t hold their interest for long. It is comparable to home churches that use “rewards” for every activity at the church expense.
I observed that few months later, the children’s desires for snacks died. One Sabbath when my Korean co-teacher distributed the snacks, some children simply return them to her. Many times when I helped the janitor swept the floor, the things that had been distributed were left on the desks or scattered on the floor. Snacks did not satisfy the kids anymore.
My point is that the children need something more substantial to satisfy them, and could not get it from the snacks or toys. The teachers refused to put some time an effort into designing attractive, Christ-centered activities. Instead, they spend a lot of money for things that temporarily attracted the children.
May we bring them the goodnews not the goods news.
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