Kent Brently's testimony: "God Saved My Life" and CMDA's report

Earlier CMDA published: "Kent Brantly is Not A Hero"

URGENT REQUEST: Pray for and Help the Persecuted in Iraq

http://time.com/3091932/yazidi-iraq-isis-obama/

Quoting from above:-

8Aug14:- "On the peaks of the Sinjar mountains, 50,000 members of the Yazidi people are facing a slow death from dehydration and exposure. Below them waits the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a militant extremist group who will kill any that descend."

The Misery of Healthcare

Last week at CMA, we talked about stress/worries that attack students around exam times.
 
At the end, the audience was pointed to this recent posting by CMDA on "The Misery of Healthcare":-
http://cmdathepoint.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-misery-of-healthcare.html
 
This could be a good time to reflect on this article.

Praying for the Persecuted Church

One of this highlights this summer was "Awareness and Praying for the Persecuted Church", led by Sofia.

#FreeSaeed

Some of the CMA-ers went to meet Saeed Abedini's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeed_Abedini) wife Naghmeh, earlier this year, at a nearby Church! She gave a very powerful testimony:- http://vimeo.com/channels/724451/91924970

Jesus and Chinese Students

During summers we have the privilege to partner with a local Church (Galveston Chinese Church) to reach out to visiting Chinese students. This is a picture from last year in which Ray Meador was introducing Jesus to the visiting students. Over the last summers, many students were baptized before they left US!

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.