Malnutrition a reality in Philippines

Did you know that 30,000 children die every day due to malnutrition and preventable diseases? That's hard to believe, because it isn't constantly in our faces here in the U.S. like it is in Third World nations. As Christians, how can we sit idly by and not do anything? That's not what Jesus would have us do.

Every day at Love In Action we come face-to-face with poverty in the U.S. by reaching out to the homeless and the poor in our hometown of Dothan, Ala. Since obeying God and going overseas to the Philippines, we have experienced firsthand the struggles of living in a Third World nation.

The statistic of 30,000 children dying daily of malnutrition and preventable diseases is so much more than  stats. They are real children with mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. Last week we received a heartbreaking report from the Philippines as the baby of one of our pastors died.

The baby was born in November with a deformity. It was their second child who was born with a severe medical problem and the second one to die. The reason both times for the deformities and deaths were due to the mother being malnourished.

We know these indigenous pastors and missionaries. We love them, and it crushes us to hear and see this happen. One way Love In Action helps in the Philippines is support our Filipino pastors and missionaries with $100 a month. That small amount of money will feed a family of five for a month, and it works. Unfortunately, we were not able to support our pastor friend whose child died.

Currently Love In Action supports seven indigenous Philippine pastors and missionaries. After sharing this story about the child dying due to malnutrition of the mother, that pastor now has a sponsor, so our total is up to eight. Praise God, but we still have a long ways to go.

Sponsorship works. One of our pastors was having a lot of health problems when we first met him. He's in his 20s and is so dedicated to God's call on his life, as they all are. However, his health issues were slowing him down, and the issues were due to malnutrition. We have been supporting him for the past 10 months, and he is no longer malnourished. In fact, he and his wife just had a healthy baby. His church, which is just outside of Manila, is doing a great work for God, especially among the children.

When the pastors and their families are healthy, God works through them to reach so many people throughout their villages and towns.

Can you sponsor one of our pastors for just a $100 a month? Can your small group or church? If you can't give $100 a month, can you give $50 or $25? We can combine support to take care of these precious people. Through them, we are reaching people who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As the pastors and missionaries and their families are taken care of, we have plans of doing other initiatives like providing fresh water and raising animals and growing crops to help feed the hungry in their areas.

More than 3 billion people in the world live on less than $2 a day, so they don't have resources to do what needs to be done. Here in America, we do. As the Body of Christ, we need to come together and help our brothers and sisters who struggle daily in Third World nations.

We praise God we are able to do a great work here in Dothan, and we are doing a good work in the Philippines and Ecuador, but we need to do more. Please help us by praying for our brothers and sisters in these countries and by giving financially. Together, we are taking care of the poorest of the poor and reaching unreached people groups with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can give by sending checks to: Love In Action, P.O. Box 85, Dothan, AL 36302.
You can also give online through PayPal by clicking here and then clicking on the "Make a Donation" button.
Please note that your gift is for LIA Philippines.

Thank you and God bless you for praying and giving.