It's early, but today's picture is what we are excited to see all over Zambia over the next three months. If my math and yield expectations are correct, we will need around $150,000 just to buy back the harvest from the 442 growers for whom we provided inputs at the start of the season. That amount would purchase around 7,000 50kg bags of shelled maize and would feed around 2,400 families in 88 church communities for the subsequent twelve months.
So far, we have collected around $26,000 towards that effort and believe we have another $20,000 or so committed. That is only a third of the amount needed to accomplish that initial goal. That means we have a lot of work to do over the next two months. We hope you are considering being a part of this effort.
This coming week I plan to send over our April wire. This will include amounts for grinding for the 2,900 families that are still receiving maize monthly from our church communities from last year's harvest; it will include amounts to purchase maize from dealers for the 400 families in communities that don't have any of last year's harvest stored either because it was not available for purchase nearby or they don't have a workable solution for maize storage. It will also include regular monthly amounts for the 6 guys running all of our programs in Zambia, as well as a budget for travel to visit one region during the month (which is our custom). And, finally, it will include funding for yet another clean water project. Should be another fun month!
As today is the Sunday when Christian people celebrate the resurrection in many different traditions all over the world, I thought I should just acknowledge the beauty of that tradition. And throw in a twist from the work in Zambia. What would it feel like to go to your church on Easter Sunday morning to worship...knowing you didn't have anything to eat before the service and there will be nothing waiting for you after the service. Many in our communities and in their neighboring communities will experience just that.
We know we are making a difference in so many lives there, but the struggle remains. And it haunts me on days like today.
I woke up here in Ankeny, Iowa. Did 40 minutes of yoga. Had my traditional breakfast of two pieces of toast with butter and jam, followed by a bowl of cold cereal and milk - it was Raisin Bran today! Then I drove to a service where the resurrection story of Jesus was told out of the book of Luke. Then I drove out to Ronda's parents' home in rural Pleasantville and tried not to eat too much of the good food she prepared.
I'm guessing most Americans did something similar with your own favorite foods and people in place of mine.
Not so all around the world. And certainly not so in Zambia. It remains difficult, even for me, having actually been there on two occasions and met many of our Zambian brothers and sisters in person, to fathom a life without enough food. Or a life without a convenient clean water source. That is reality for so many.
We are making a difference. I realize it isn't this easy, but here is our battle cry: GOT SURPLUS?
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul writes this as he encourages his brothers and sisters in Corinth, Greece, to be generous with his brothers and sisters in Judea who were experiencing a famine:
This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even.
There is a LOT in those three sentences. But the bottom line is the same bottom line today: we believe in a Kingdom of God that Jesus came to introduce and demponstrate in His short time on earth where there is supposed to be a LOVE for each other that drives us to care for one another. If one of my daughters was hungry, I would certainly want to make sure she was fed. These ARE my spiritual daughters! If my brother or sister in Huxley or Polk City, Iowa or Indio, California had no source for clean water, I would certainly want to make sure I was a part of the solution for their deficit. These ARE my spiritual brothers and sisters!
All Paul asked the brothers and sisters in Corinth for in this text was their SURPLUS. What is our SURPLUS doing for us anyways? Are we saving it for our kids or grandkids? My kids are WAY ahead financially of where I was when I was in my 30's. They do NOT have a DEFICIT to look forward to. Are we saving it for our retirement? I don't want to get into the arguments for or against retirement savings, but seriously... how much do we need? Our brothers and sisters and daughters and sons are STARVING. Shouldn't that take precedent at some level? Can't we carve off some portion of that surplus to help them NOW?
"Their surplus matching your deficit." We actually beleive that is about FAITH. You have never seen a people of FAITH until you have met with people living in deficit. Especially when those people have PRAYED to God for relief and then seen God deliver. These people have FAITH. And our SURPLUS stands largely in the place of FAITH in our American lives. We don't need FAITH to live here. We have our SURPLUS. We believe when we share SOME of our SURPLUS with our brothers and sisters in deficit our FAITH GROWS! It has to, because we have less SURPLUS for whatever we had previously been saving it for. And that requires FAITH.
If you made it this far, thanks. I hope I have given you something to consider.
When I sat in two different services in Zambia in August of 2024 and watched as monthly allotments of shelled maize were handed out to struggling families, it reminded me a LOT of RESURRECTION. That family had NEW LIFE because of a bag of maize. It is a great day to think about that.
