Poverty Quick Facts

• Children under age 18 make up nearly 48 percent of the population of the world's least developed countries, compared with 21 percent of the population of the world's industrialized nations.
• More than 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity and modern forms of energy.
• Over 1.4 billion people in the developing world live below the poverty line (U.S.$1.25 per day).
• Every day 1,500 women die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth that could have been prevented. Each day 10,000 newborns die within a month of birth, and daily the same number of babies are also born dead.
• Annual world economy breaks down like this:    

         1. Low Income, $935 or less: 37%
         2. Lower Middle Income, $936 to $3,705: 38%
         3. Upper Middle Income, $3,706 to $11,455: 9%
         4. High Income, $11,456 or more: 16%

• In developing countries, approximately 130 million children and teens — age 17 or under — have lost one or both parents.
• More than 9 million children under age 5 die each year. Two-thirds of these deaths — more than 6 million every year — are preventable.
• Approximately one-third of the world's poor people live in India.

Sources: www.compassion.com, www.unicef.org, www.undp.org, www.worldbank.org, www.who.int,
www.freeworldacademy.com, www.un.org, www.timesofindia.com

Blessed are those who dwell in Your house

What a beautiful home, GOD of the Angel Armies! I've always longed to live in a place like this, 

Always dreamed of a room in Your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive! 

Birds find nooks and crannies in Your house, sparrows and swallows make nests there. 
They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship. 
GOD of the Angel Armies! King! God! How blessed they are to live and sing there! 

And how blessed all those in whom You live, whose lives become roads You travel; 

They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!

God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn--Zion! God in full view!
(Psalm 84: 1-7, The Message)

Check this out!

But God...I don't have to do this.....

I came back to my sister’s house for an 'emergency' call after spending 3 weeks at my parents’ house. She has to go out of town for 9 days for her career-related program. She asked me to look after his 4 years old son, cook for her family,  and take care of her household.  Her husband is actually still in town, and they have a part-time nanny, but my sister insisted that  I have to come to her house. After all, I haven’t had any job yet. Yes, I’m still unemployed, and that is another story. Anyway, so, I took a long journey back here, 11 hours by bus, plus trapped in the seasonal Indonesian Idul Fitri traffic, when in fact I should've just continued my long holiday with my parents instead. 

I know it won’t be easy here. My nephew is an attention-seeker, violent-screamer, and rebellious kind of kid at this stage. Not all the time, but most of the time. Sometimes he is cute and nice. Well, I know it wasn’t 100% his fault. I don’t know how his parents had raised him.

His dad, my brother in law,  is a workaholic kind of dad. As long as I’m in his house, he will just leave his son with me whenever possible, so he is free to work at home. He is a lecturer. He likes to bring his works home. So, in other words, I'm a substitute player for a mum/nanny/housekeeper.