Unbelievable Is Now Reality #1793 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called for the end of bombing hospitals in war-torn Yemen, accusing U.S.-backed Saudi forces of carrying out the attacks. The ICRC says “close to a hundred” hospital attacks have occurred since March, with the latest in the city of Taiz. Al-Thawra hospital, which has cared for about 50 injured people every day, was shelled several times on November 8. Before that, a Doctors Without Bordershospital in Haydan district of Saada was attacked on October 26. “The neutrality of health care facilities and staff is not being respected. Health facilities are deliberately attacked and surgical and medical supplies are also being blocked from reaching hospitals in areas under siege,” Kedir Awol Omar, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said. Officials in Saudi Arabia have not addressed the most recent bombing, according to Common Dreams, but have denied being aware that the October airstrikes in Haydan targeted a clinic. “Saudi authorities are denying the evident truth of having destroyed a hospital,” Laurent Sury, head of Doctors Without Borders emergency operations, said. “This is an alarming sign for the Yemeni people and for those trying to assist them. How are we to draw lessons from what happened when all we face are denials? How can we continue to work without any form of commitment that civilian structures will be spared?” Amnesty International has criticized the U.S. and other states for fueling the conflict while doing little to stop human rights violations. “The U.S.A. and other states exporting weapons to any of the parties to the Yemen conflict have a responsibility to ensure that the arms transfers they authorize are not facilitating serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s senior crisis response adviser, said. “Lack of accountability has contributed to the worsening crisis and unless perpetrators believe they will be brought to justice for their crimes, civilians will continue to suffer the consequences.” Your writer is a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected Army Medical Officer, since WWII medical units no longer display the red cross which, for many warriors was a signal for help. When I was a young Officer, the red cross would be on a field medical tent. Ambulances were marked with a red cross but, we found that the enemy enjoyed destroying medical facilities. Todays, and even in my day, the Military Medical Officer must turn inside the collar of his shirt, so that the medical caduce/military rank cannot be seen. The enemy enjoys shooting doctor's and nurses. To show how things have changed, during the civil war, wounded on either side were cared for by medics. It made no difference what uniform they wore. We hear on radio and television the blarney about the care for Veterans. 22 warriors commit suicide everyday, the Veteran's Administration wishes all Veteran's would commit suicide, it is far cheaper to bury a Veteran in a cheap casket than to care for one. To show you just how much Veteran's are appreciated, last week, Veteran's Day, this 85 year old Veteran was invited to a Veteran's Day event at the local Arboretum, sponsored by New Hanover County, NC. I seldom get out of the house, but one of my friends insisted that I go. I put on my suit, Veteran's cap and went to the event. Not one member of the arrangements group approached me. Another visitor there, a man who like me had never been in the arboretum before, said, "Colonel, they are serving lunch, I am going to get you some lunch". I could tell he was very embarrassed and soon left. He brought back to me, on a paper plate, a hamburger roll and some beans. It was supposed to be a BBQ luncheon but the food had given out. They had no food for the honored Veteran's. I'm sure some of the politicians, their families, the bureaucrats and their families were well fed. I wrote a letter to the County Manager about this embarrassment, he admitted that they ran out of food. Is not the incipient attitude as the irrational, radical indifference frevelant on the local level as well as in these warring places with "strange sounding names". The VA took from me the promise of America/my future/my security/now my dignity. Can you even imagine what warfare is taking from other people in war torn areas?

South Korean church plant finds home When Stuart Robinson, an IMB missionary in Seoul, South Korea, went walking around his neighborhood one day, something new caught his eye. In the window of a café there was a small sign that read “Closed on the Lord’s day.” Robinson was immediately curious. Though South Korea has had a great harvest of believers in recent decades, it isn’t common to see such a clear expression of faith from a business owner. He ducked inside. Stuart and Ashley Robinson, IMB missionaries in South Korea After only a few minutes of talking with the owners, a Christian couple, he realized God might be answering a prayer his church plant had been praying for a year. In South Korea, new churches face the challenge of growth before they have their own space. Cults are common, and many Koreans assume a religious group that meets in someone’s apartment is another cult that should be avoided. Also, meeting in an apartment is only feasible with a small group that can be quiet. Most Koreans don’t live in houses, but in tightly packed high-rise apartments. A bigger group might be noisy and disrupt neighbors, which is culturally offensive in South Korea. After his first conversation with the café owners, the Mins*, Robinson returned a few weeks later with other church members to ask about renting the space. The Mins said yes so fast that IMB missionary Kesiah Morris, a member of the church, called Tree Church, thought they hadn’t heard the question. “We meant every Sunday for the church plant, not a one-time thing,” Morris clarified. “Yes, we know,” the Mins replied. Andrew and Kesiah Morris, IMB missionaries in South Korea The Mins told the church they had felt God calling them to use the space for a church when they first opened the café in October 2019. Though they didn’t know when God would give them that opportunity, they continued to pray and seek His will. They even turned down lucrative opportunities to rent the space on Sundays because they wanted to make sure they were using the space for God’s purposes and not their own. “We’re so amazed at how God works,” the couple told the church members. Morris said the church was amazed as well to see God’s provision so clearly. The café gives them a place not only to hold services, but also to plan community outreaches to college students and families. The simple choice of one couple to faithfully and generously steward their resources is helping God’s church in South Korea blossom and bear fruit. Finding a place to meet has been just one challenge of many that the church plant has faced in their first year, but missionaries said each challenge has also given God a chance to show them He will always provide. “We have been amazed that, for every difficulty and challenge mentioned above, God has proved Himself greater than each one already,” said Morris. “He continues to prove Himself faithful to the call He has placed upon our lives for this time.” Stella McMillian is an IMB missionary and contributing writer. Read how Tree Church is using YouTube to reach South Korea’s young adults.

The same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him!" Romans 10:12 This verse is full of precious consolation. As "Lord over all" He is able to enrich others. He possesses an inexhaustible stock of spiritual blessings, by which He can "be rich unto all who call upon Him." Note the objects of His enriching grace: "Unto all who call upon Him." He enriches the guilty one, with the pardon of all his sins, however numerous and flagrant. 1 John 1:7; Acts 13:38. He enriches those condemned by the law, with deliverance and justification. Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; 8:1. He enriches the unrighteous and defiled, with cleansing grace and regenerating power, to make them "new creatures in Christ Jesus." 2 Corinthians 5:17. He enriches the outcast and abandoned, with adoption into His redeemed family, and all its precious privileges. He is a rich, full, free, and inexhaustible fountain! What more can be said? He enriches . . . the ignorant--with wisdom, the weak--with strength, the fearful--with courage, the depressed--with consolation, the soldier of the cross--with armor, success, and conquest, the tempted and tried--with support and a way of escape, the afflicted and bereaved--with strength according to the day, the dying--with the hope of immortality, and afterwards with Heaven itself! He can make all grace to abound to all His people! "The LORD gives grace and glory. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly!" Psalm 84:11 (Above taken from daily Grace Gems subscription. We have published Grace Gems for JUNE, 2014 in one file! ~ ~ ~ ~ Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!) Addition Dr. Morris: This writer cannot imagine any human being, saved or unsaved, not being blessed at any time in life by reading the Psalms, God's "Song Book" to us. Perhaps Psalm 84 is my favorite. This world traveler was in a small, clapboard church on the island of Samoa (pacific ocean) in the brightness and clarity of a Lord's day. As with so many days, I was stumbling through a time of discouragement, despair and despondency with my blindness. The little church was filled with barefoot natives, they were so excited about the blind stranger in their midst. When I had come into the church, they were singing, in their language, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", I knew this was the hymn because I could recognize the piano music (This was my grandmother's favorite hymn). A woman with a high-pitched voice (I think she was a missionary) came down the aisle to greet me and she said in English, Psalm 84:5, "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee." That day, as this day, my life was changed because I knew that all the strength I needed for any minute, any day, any year would come from God. This year, Mt. Olive University honored me for my philanthropy to them. I said at the occasion, "You look at a totally blind man and think of disability. My greatest disability was not the poverty in which I was reared, the struggle for my education, my military experience (a 100% disabled, totally blind, medical officer veteran of the Korean War era) but rather, my greatest disability has been the lack of encouragement. Particularly, by family members, associates and those who the world would think would have concern but, as General Colin Powell said long ago, the lost word in most vocabularies is the word concern. I think this is particularly true when it comes to veterans and the disabled. Do not think for one second that I am playing the victim card, my strength is in Him, AND, as he has reminded me over and over He is all that I need. However, it is so sad, that in a world where 57 Million innocent babies have been killed, where we pay taxes to support abortion clinics ($500 Billion collectively last year) and where we pay taxes for our government drop bombs on innocent mothers and babies all over the world. There are so few disabled people at the church house, in the restaurants, or any other place you normal people like to go. One restaurant owner, actually said to me, we do not like the disabled here because it makes our other customers feel bad. My hard working tax paying God fearing, great hymn singing Daddy's birthday was on July 4th. He was always working too hard to celebrate his own birthday. Only those reared in the impoverished tobacco fields of eastern NC, 84 years ago when I was a child can know about poverty. My passport has been stamped in 157 countries in the world. I have never known worse poverty than that of my childhood in eastern NC. And yet, politicians-pastors-poets actually talk about illegals doing the hard work that Americans will not do. On this July 4th, 2014, please remember this if you forget everything else I have ever said from my platform or written in any form of communication. "In the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation has been its treatment of disabled veterans and the handicapped." Our fellow citizens may forget and not care about the disabled, the disenfranchised, the discouraged, but, there is nothing between us and our Savior. In that old church, in which I was reared, built in 1874, I can still hear my ancestors, now mostly in Heaven, singing that old hymn, "Nothing Between". 1 Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Naught of this world’s delusive dream; I have renounced all sinful pleasure; Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, So that His blessed face may be seen; Nothing preventing the least of His favor, Keep the way clear! Let nothing between. 2 Nothing between, like worldly pleasure; Habits of life, though harmless they seem, Must not my heart from Him e’er sever; He is my all, there’s nothing between. 3 Nothing between, like pride or station; Self-life or friends shall not intervene; Though it may cost me much tribulation, I am resolved; there’s nothing between. 4 Nothing between, e’en many hard trials, Though the whole world against me convene; Watching with prayer and much self-denial, I’ll triumph at last, with nothing between. Source: http://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/372#ixzz36PRuZFvh