Our team in Zambia received funds early this week and went right to work. Our pastor partners have received their December allotment for the provision of supplemental food for their most vulnerable members. Hoping, once again, to make a difference in over 3,600 Zambian families this month. As usual, as soon as we provide those funds, many of our pastors spring into action. Today's photo is one of many I received already this morning documenting their feeding efforts this month. We have been talking a LOT about the ZIAP training program we are supporting, but I just want to remind our readers of our primary purpose: we have brothers and sisters in Zambia, many of whom Rog and I and others have seen with our own eyes, who live in a place with an economy and an ecology stacked against them to the point that they struggle to have food with their meals; and we believe LOVE demands that we do what we can to share from our SURPLUS into that DEFICIT.
We also received more pictures of TRAINING efforts happening this week. The test plots have maize that is up out of the ground. One plot was hit with HAIL this week, but the hope is it was early enough the plants will recover, and they won't have to replant. As this training has been ongoing, we KNOW there are brothers and sisters among the growers learning these new techniques who won't be able to put into practice what they are learning because they can't afford any seed or fertilizer. Along with the feeding funds, we also sent over funding so that more than 400 of these small farmers can receive some seed and fertilizer. Our team will spend a lot of time this coming week distributing those funds back through the same distribution system we use for the feeding program. The pastors will work with the trainers to make a best effort to ensure that the inputs reach the growers most needy and most likely to be successful in the coming season. Each recipient will be able to plant a very small plot similar to the test plots so they can put what they are learning into practice AND grow some maize on what we hope is a step towards greater self-sufficiency.
Thank you, once again, to all that are taking part in our monthly feeding program with your monthly giving. And thank you, especially this time of year, to all that donated specifically towards the provision of inputs.
I heard in a webinar this week that a very significant portion of annual giving in America happens in December, and if you are among those that still have some giving to do over the last two weeks of December, we would beg you to consider these brothers and sisters in Zambia. We have NO overhead. ALL of your donation goes directly to Zambia. And you can help us finish 2025 strong and roll into the new year with a great start towards another record-breaking year. No gift is too small or too large. Thank you so much for considering this act of LOVE.
