There will be no sermon today
Croydon is one of London’s underprivileged districts. Roughly 0.4mio people from all across the globe live here and if something happens here something really happens. Back in 2011 the pictures of the social unrest that exploded here flashed across the world and London held its breath.
Pastor Reuben Martin had not prepared a sermon for the West Croydon Baptist Church, since the Peruvian missionary doctor was going to give a presentation about the Hospital of Faith. 150 people listened attentively to Dr John and one only needed to a few moments to realise that these men and women did not live on the financially sunny side of life. Their fate was and is a fight for survival. For 45 minutes these Londoners learnt about the lives of people who were even worse off than themselves.
As soon as the German-Peruvian’s talk was over Pastor Martin spontaneously suggested taking up an offering for Diospi Suyana. The offertory was counted within a couple of minutes – its amount would cause many up-market congregations in Munich or Berlin to blush with embarrassment. The Africans, Asians and Latin-Americans had given £1,142.50 for the missionary hospital in Curahuasi. This money did not come from the bulging purses of families wallowing in luxury. No, quite the contrary, every coin was a real financial sacrifice.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive,” a man, whom now 2 billion of the world’s inhabitants revere, once said. The congregation of the West Croydon Baptist Church did not only give lip service to this sentence, but celebrated it practically. May God pay them back tenfold.
