Do What Thou Wilt

From MR:

One of SR's old roommates and good friend from college had her husband pass
away from a heart attack on Jan 16th.While a loved one dying is always painful
what makes this a very trying situation is that they have five children, the
oldest 7 years old and the youngest 5 months old. To add to their difficulties,
they are currently in Jerusalem. They had been working as volunteers for the past three and a half years for an organization called Shevet Achim –
Light to the Nations.

The main role of Shevet Achim is to help infants and children with
congenital heart defects get the surgery they need. While this in and of itself
is a commendable task, the children they were helping were not Israeli, they
were Palestinian.

This presents a difficult situation in that Israeli doctors were potentially helping the enemy. All that being said, they were truly followers of Jesus, we see this as obedience to his command to "Go and do likewise" as the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Since they were volunteering, missions work, they were not paid for their work. You can read about the impact that Philip had on some of the people around him on two different blogs. Here and here. Also there is additional information on the website of the church they attended, Narkis Street Congregation and the funeral service that was held. This is a message that Philip gave at his church, "Testiphony".

There are a couple others there as well. I only met Philip once, but he
came across as being wise. This message shows a bit of that wisdom. A few things...

1) Martha and the kids need prayer. She has not yet decided if she will be
staying in Jerusalem or not. Staying there would be so like Martha.(To give you
a quick background on some influence in her life... her father use to smuggle
Bibles into China back in the 60's, 70's and 80's. He may still be doing it
although no one will talk about it now).

2) Simply put, they need money (Philip would take odd jobs to bring in
extra money beyond their support, they do not have that "extra" income
anymore). And speaking of support I am not even sure they had regular
support other then from friends and family. There is a secure
server on the Shevet Acham site, where you can specify who the donation will
go to if you (or anyone) does feel led to give. If you feel led to, would you be
willing to post this?

Any prayer would be greatly appreciated. Philip Berg is survived by
his wife and five children:Martha Berg, Asher (7), Adam (5), Nathaniel (4), Sara
(2), and Anna (5 months).

Thank you,

MR


It's hard for me to post stuff like this. Its hard for me to even read it. Its just a struggle I have within me. I read this... I research Shevet Achim and I can't help but look at the pictures of those little kids... and I am ashamed to admit that the before anything else... I wonder how many of them will repay the generosity shown to them by the organization by blowing themselves up on a bus.

But we are not called to judge. We are called to give. They are responsible for what they do. We are responsible for our own action and only that.

Due Diligence.