Meeting the needs

There are so many needs on this island that at times it is heart breaking to see.   We are grateful that we are able to help.  We are grateful for those of you who have begun to see the vision of living beyond yourselves and choosing to help those less fortunate.  This is an account of the way we used some of the money that we received from our dear Canadian friends.  I am choosing to keep their names anonymus so as not to rob them of the blessing they will indeed receive from God.  :-)

 please click on the collages to make them large so 

you can read the write ups by the photos

What is the main need on the island?   Food.  Plain and simple.   So I got together with Zenola and asked her to tell me what a family of 6 would need to buy for 2 weeks.    Here is the list:

rice

flour

sugar

lard

red beans

milk powder

eggs

toilet paper

soap

We were looking to give to people who had desperate needs:  either they were very ill, a single mom with many children, no employment due to illness, or disabled.   After much thought, consideration and prayer we came up with 10 families that we would give approximately 2 weeks of food to.    One family who has 11 children received double the portion of the other due to the size of their family.

We are blessed to have Jeanette and Laura come over one day to help us put the food into 10 lb. bags.  We had quite the little assembly line happening and in no time it was done.   The only problem with having the food at our house is that it didn't take long for the people of the colonia to 'hear' that we had all this food in our food and people started to come by looking for food.  It broke my heart to say no.  I was able to explain to Carlos, our gardener, in very broken spanish that this food was for the desperate and those in extreme needs.  Everyone has need on the island but I explained that we weren't going to randomly hand on small packets of food in the colonia but instead wanted to provide some "relief" to these other families and hopefully take the pressure off their lives.   He understood.  I feel pretty confident he went up to the colonia and told them that because we didn't have any more coming to our door.   Thanks Lord for that!!

The other component to this project was that one night the Lord reminded me that food was only temporal and they needed the Words of Life to sustain them.  So I was prepared to share the good news of Christ with them as well.  I am grateful that Zenola was available to help translate into spanish.   Many hearts were touched and although no one received Christ at the time I know that they heard and know that He longs not only to forgive, help, provide for them here but also to provide an eternal place with no sickness or pain.

I must say that at times it was very difficult to witness that level of poverty and it almost threatened to break my heart.  We are prepared to do this again as we still have money left over (imagine getting 400 lbs of food plus other essentials for just over 300 dollars... !) 

this was taken out at hottest sparrow.

we left food for three families out there and we are trusting that

the pastor will distribute as needed.

the man in the striped shirt is the local pastor in that area.

i think it is important to work along side the churches in the area.

as I said to the people we gave food to:

this food isn't from us,

it isn't from our Canadian friends.

it is a gift from the Lord to remind you that

He hasn't forgotten about you in your difficult time.

Thanks again to those of you who gave to make

this project happen.

Lord bless you deeply and profoundly!  

xo