CELEBRATING with IJM (Fighting Modern Day Slavery)

Praise God for:
"179 children, women & men were set free from slavery yesterday from a brick factory in India"

https://www.facebook.com/InternationalJusticeMission/photos/a.176996189728.115917.29717379728/10152432740049729

Why Was Judas Carrying the Moneybag?

Article of the week to critique:-

"Why Was Judas Carrying the Moneybag?"
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/why-was-judas-carrying-the-moneybag

Extreme Poverty Stats

http://www.compassion.com/poverty/poverty.htm
 :-

Learn the facts about poverty and how it affects children in need and their families.

• Worldwide 600 million children are living in extreme poverty.
• The cost of eradicating world poverty is estimated at 1 percentof global income.
• Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
• The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts forthree-quarters of world income.
• 1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity.
• 6.9 million children under five years of age died in 2011, nearly 800 every hour.
• The highest rates of child mortality are still in sub-Saharan Africa – where 1 in 9 children dies before age 5.
• The number of under-five deaths worldwide has declined from more than 12 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011.Nearly 19,000 children under five died every day in 2011.
• Globally, the four major killers of children under age 5 are pneumonia (18 percent), diarrheal diseases (15 percent), preterm birth complications (12 percent) and birth asphyxia (9 percent).
• 58 percent of deaths in children under age five are caused by infectious diseases.
• In 1981, 52 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty (defined as living on $1.25 or less a day.) Data from the World Bank released in February 2012 estimates that 22 percent of people live in extreme poverty.
• Country with highest number of under five deaths: India.
• Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
• 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries.

Sources: www.unicef.org, www.childinfo.org, www.crin.org, www.who.int,www.globalisses.com

What do you do in your spare time? ;)

A clip from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93hux7vQSyY Francis thinks it's the story of the most interesting man ; ) An incredible, mind-blowing, heart-warming, superbly-inspiring ministry accomplished in spare time! " .. With God all things are possible!" Matthew 19:26

27-Feb-14: STAND UP Against Modern Day Slavery!

http://enditmovement.com/

http://www.youtube.com/enditmovement :
"FEBRUARY 27TH. Will you stand by or will you stand up? Will you join the fight for FREEDOM? #enditmovement"

What is Right? What is Wrong?

As we all know, there has been an ongoing intense debate on the ethics surrounding the issue of pregnancy termination. Today, Dr. Page gave an intense talk, laced with Scripture verses, titled “Preserving Integrity in Medicine — A Look at the Debate on Fetal Pain“, to about 25 attendees in a lunch seminar co-hosted by a fellow organization.

Dr. Page is board certified in Neuro-musculoskeletal Medicine and is the Chair of the End of Life Care Committee. She is also a member of the Ethics Committee of the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association. She was recently called to testify for/against HB2 (which passed the 83rd legislative session) & SB03 (which did not come to floor for a vote).

It was a very good reminder - to know what is right and what is wrong, we go to Jesus - the Son of God!

We hope to continue hosting talks on Medical Ethics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ethics), as there has been a lot of interest in knowing what Holy Scriptures have to say on such critical subjects.

Trips to Turkey, Israel, ...

Global Health Missions Conference

CMDA partners with Global Missions Health Conference (GMHC https://www.medicalmissions.com/conferences/gmhc-2013) to help enable and equip doctors for medical missions.
 
Every year, in November, scores of students from various CMDA chapters go to Louisville, KY to attend the GMHC. The cost of registration has been quite nominal: $85. Also the members of the host Church (Kyle Idyleman’s Southeastern Christian Church http://www.southeastchristian.org/) open up their houses for free lodging to the student attendee (So you get to meet some very cool families from the Church)!! UTMB’s SGA and faculty also made available scholarships for any needy students! This year four 1st year medical students car-pooled and drove all the way to Louisville (from Galveston) to attend the conference!
 
There are many great reasons to go this international conference, few of which are:-
 
-1- It is a great place to learn about all kinds of existing healthcare related international mission opportunities.
 
-2- You get to actually meet missionaries stationed at various parts of the world, who fly in to this conference to share their experiences and answer any question you might have about international missions. You come to know how has been God moving across the globe through the profession of medicine!
 
-3- And you get to visit Kyle Idleman’s Church : )
 
(Overall, it is always a good habit to regularly attend such international conferences, to stay in touch with what all God is doing across the globe)


Some pictures from the conference:-
https://www.medicalmissions.com/conferences/gmhc-2014/media
https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/110853797696397985169/albums/5976674748142494497

Outdoor Evangelism

We partner with a local Church, from where a leader leads a group of Christians to parks, streets, beaches, etc. to engage people, they meet there, in conversation about God.  While some people will not talk, but many do engage in very interesting conversations about God. Some people have also prayed to commit their lives to God in these trips.

One thing was learnt that many people are just waiting for someone to talk to them about God. So these trips have always been meaningful and fruitful.

People ask and say a lot of interesting of things. Some say they think Bible has been changed over the time (which we refute using historical evidences). In-fact recently we got a New Testament (NT) Scholar (Dr. Mike Licona; www.risenjesus.com) who taught CMA-ers how to show NT Scriptures are reliable.

Some say “they believe in Science and not God”. To them we clarify that Science and God are indeed compatible!

When people ask for evidence for God, we point them to many fulfilled prophecies (only God knows the future), etc. We also pray for them so that they may experience the power of prayer! Christians also share stories of how God has miraculously changed their lives, as evidence of God!

In these trips, participants always learn and see how much difference the power of prayer makes. God is the one that open hearts of people (John 6:44). They also experience Matthew 28:20, coming alive, in which Jesus promised that He will be with His people as they go out and make disciples!

Nevertheless, Christians who go out on these trips learn SO about their own faith, especially how to communicate it, tying it with reason and logic as well This is one reason we always encourage CMA-ers to go on these outings.

Students Coming to Faith

We have been consistently seeing students coming to faith in the community. Some recent stories:-

- J came to free lunches and fellowships where he met some CMA-ers. Initially he questioned Christianity and did not seem to be interested. But over the next one year, he kept asking questions and bumping into CMA-ers. Very recently, he utterly surprised CMA-ers by confessing that he did started believing in Jesus as Lord and Saviour! Wow.

- A CMA-er did a summer Bible study with couple of non-believers from India. During the two month of study they seemed to be totally sceptical. But after couple of months, one of them confessed on facebook that he started believing! He was then seen going to Church!

- A first year medical student once came to a free CMA lunch seminar. But, he did not at all seemed interested in God. But we prayed for him, behind him! And lo and behold, we now see him going a Church after a year!

- A CMA-er and his friends from Church once came across a teenager who claimed to be agnostic. They witnessed to him and shared the Gospel with him. But he kept refusing to believe in the existence God for a while. But, after couple of months he did start coming to Church!

- A CMA-er testified how a postdoc from China started believing in Jesus. He was watching Christians for a while and was eventually convinced that Christianity was legit! 

- A Chinese friend and some of his Church friend did summer outreach (dinner fellowships) to visiting Chinese college student. More than dozen of them were baptised by the end of the summer!

- ...

We consistently hear stories like these, around us, in the community … God is always busy saving people! :-)

Story of Raj

A guy named Raj was introduced to Jesus by a missionary in India who also helped him with his education expenses. Soon after, he arrived in US for his post-doctoral training. He came in touch with CMA. We are now helping him find a Church. He is now trying to help poor kids in his home country with their education expences (by connecting them with sponsors in US) - Isn’t that amazing?

Human Trafficking Conference

Recently we encouraged CMA-ers to attend a Human Trafficking Conference (http://www.freethecaptiveshouston.com/houston-anti-human-trafficking-conference.php). The conference was a much needed eye-opener. It educated the attendees about the growse and awful things (sex trafficking involving minors) happening in our own backyards! We are hoping to educate CMA-ers more about this issue in the coming months. http://enditmovement.com/ is calling everyone for mass anti-rafficking campaign on 27 Febuary, 2014.

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CMDA Regional Conference with John Patrick

Mentoring kids from needy families

Couple of CMA-ers have been mentoring kids from needy families (via a local Christian ministry). A kid could come from a family struggling financially or one with single parent finding it hard to meet ends. The kids of these families definitely need members of the community to invest in them, else they remain in the danger of falling out of school and even de-void of spiritual nourishment. Hence we always encourage CMA-ers to invest in the lives of such kids in the community!

Caring for the Orphans

Every last Saturday of the month the Redline Church invites us to go to an orphanage maintained by Galveston Children Center. The volunteers do Bible lessons, fun/play activities, and lunch with the children there. Most of children there have been rescued from the dire circumstances of human trafficking and illegal immigration.