The Practical Work of Matthew 25:35-36

Tomorrow is President's Day and just a couple weeks ago free pancakes were given away by IHOP for National Pancake Day.  You might be surprised to learn what other foods have their own day or month.  There is National Cream Puff Day (Jan. 2).  February is supposedly National Macadamia Nut Month (who knew!?!?).  National Potato Chip Day is in March, 14th to be exact.  Soft Pretzels get a whole month, April.  Just in time for baseball season.  Pigs-in-a-Blanket are celebrated April 24 and National Fudge Day is June 16 -- now that's a day I could get behind.  The month of September has been made the month of chicken, honey, mushrooms, papaya, potato, and rice.  An interesting combo.  I'm sure an Iron Chef could make something pretty tasty out of those ingredients.

My birthday is supposedly National Cheese Pizza Day...Tom would probably think that is fitting as I'm a bit of a cheeser.  Everything you could think of seems to have a National Day: peanut butter, tempura, Irish coffee, croissants, flour, cereal, animal crackers, jelly beans, gingerbread, baked beans, s'mores, and soda.  And the list goes on and on and on.  Check out the list and see what food is celebrated on your birthday.

In addition to the food holidays there are also the health related ones: Breast Cancer Awareness Day, American Heart Month,World AIDS Day and World Malaria Day.

January 27 was World Leprosy Day.  Leprosy isn't prevalent in the United States so the day probably comes and goes without much notice here at home.  And while leprosy might seem like a Biblical disease that couldn't possibly still exist, it does exist and more than 200,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every year.  New cases are primarily in Asia and Africa. 

World Leprosy Day was established about 60 years ago and it's intended to raise public awareness of leprosy, also known as Hansen's Disease.  The day was chosen in commemoration of the death of Gandhi.  Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded diseases, and seventy percent of present day leprosy cases are in India.

To mark World Leprosy Day, Gospel for Asia conducted many ministries that day in nine provinces.  Missionaries in Karnataka visited a leprosy colony and distributed fresh fruit and shared the Gospel of Jesus.  Food packets were distributed to leprosy patients in Uttar Pradesh.  Hygienic items were provided to patients in two leprosy colonies in Chhattisgarh.  Blankets were distributed in Haryana and Bihar.  Leprosy patients begging in railway stations in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were ministered to by missionaries.   


The work that Gospel for Asia does to minister to leprosy patients extends beyond one day and is done year round. You can learn more about Gospel for Asia's Leprosy Ministry by clicking here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Letter I Never Wrote

Walking in History...Visiting Normandy during the D-Day Anniversary

The Joys of Nature Journaling