Poor St. Peter!

I've been meaning to write this specific blog post for sometime. It seems I can't escape it. I've seen it with my own eyes first in India, then in Unionville, TN, every month at my nail salon in Springfield, MO, and at San Pedro Hospital in the Philippines.

You see, this spring in the Philippines, in typical Mary Beth fashion I got sick, and if I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it BIG so double pneumonia in Davao City, Philippines it was. The double pneumonia has come and gone and the Philippine health care system was surprisingly just fine, but I can't forget this; the statue to the left of these words.

This statue of St. Peter & his rooster stand tall in the

lobby of San Pedro hospital. I'm sure poor St. Peter enjoys

not being able to get rid of that stinking rooster! I mean we

all like to be known by our biggest failure don't we!? I'm not

offended by the statue. We owe a lot to St. Peter as Christians!

Here's the deal. In India, I watched a father pick up a baby who was literally just skin & bones,

worse than any child I've ever seen on any infomercial or in any other nation. He picked up this

baby, it's eyes were empty and bore into mine as he walked in front of me. I saw that he had coins

in his hand, I thought, good! he must be going to get something for the baby to eat. We

followed him and I watched him throw the coins into a cage holding a tree & kneel and ask the tree

for blessing. Horrified I watched him return with the baby to the street. A father looking for hope.

I worked with families in Unionville, TN for a short time, one day a child had several viles. I asked her

about them and she said they were part of her religion. Curiously I asked further. These viles were

part of a wiccan ceremony ritual. Her family needed money and happiness she said so tonight they

were going to have a prayer meeting. A child looking for hope.

Every month I'm in country, I go to a cheap nail salon on Glenstone. That and McDonald's cokes

are my treats! I am greeted by a dusty plastic Buddah idol. It's no wonder Buddah is fat, every time I

see him he has donuts, some sort of meat, or other food offering in front of him. He never seems

to eat very much of it though. The same person who puts those out in the morning has to throw

them away at night. It makes me sad, and not just the wasted donuts! A people looking for hope.

And now this leads me to San Pedro Hospital in Davao City! Short of breath I leaned against St. Peter

one day while visiting my pneumonia doc! Although the lobby is quite large I noticed everyone who

came through the doors insisted on getting really close to me. Don't they know we Americans have

space issues? Later I saw that they were all coming in to touch St. Peter, poor guy, his paint was

tarnished because of the excessive touching. I wanted to tell them that I got up close and personal

with St. Peter each visit & he didn't seem to be helping my double pneumonia. A people looking for

healing!

My mind wanders back to the temple in scripture where they found all the idols and the altar to

the unknown god. People have been looking for hope in all the wrong places for some time it

seems. Please take THE HOPE to as many people as you can, you may think they don't want to

hear about Jesus, but they're throwing coins at trees for blessings, trying to find happiness in viles &

wiccan rituals, feeding plastic idols, & rubbing the paint off poor st. peter for healing! It's no

time to be quiet & tolerant, it's time to give people the hope they're looking for!