We have our first egg!!! Today's cover pic is very simple, but also very meaningful. Rog and his team just spent 11 days building a demonstration animal farm in eastern Zambia, and by the time they left there were three structures, a 3.5 acre fenced in demonstration area, 100 hens (layers and not broilers) and 3 goats (one of which is pregnant). They have been home for just a week, and we have now seen the fruit of their labors just beginning to kick in. The actual egg production at this farm is sort of a bonus in terms of the purpose of the facility. The purpose is as a training farm where people from all around the region can come to learn how to better handle animals. But we need to have animals on site for that training, which means we will have eggs! How the eggs will be distributed remains to be decided, but the possibilities are very exciting in light of the overall mission of Shoulder 2 Shoulder.
Dr. Youngs, who was the visionary behind this project, believes the most effective usage for these eggs in terms of benefits to the recipients would be either pregnant moms-to-be or young children. We have LOTS of children in the communities around the facility, but there also happens to be a maternity hospital where we have been providing maize and salt for more than 5 years located just 30 minutes away! I can't wait to see their excitement when we ship our first crates of eggs to those ladies!
Meanwhile, because of the trip, we delayed our August feeding program to this week, so our communities have just received their funding for August, and the hope is that many of them will distribute maize this weekend so that if we can get September funds out earlier next month, they will be ready to go again. The numbers are still evolving, so I'm hoping by the time the September program has run to be able to report to you exactly where the program has progressed based on the harvest offering this year. In fact, as I finish this early Sunday morning in Iowa, I am getting all kinds of pictures of the feeding effort taking place all around Zambia today!
This month we expect to impact over 2,800 Zambian families. So far this year we have had a grand total of 57 Americans share from their surplus in order to make that happen. The numbers are always so fascinating to me. What could we do if that number were to DOUBLEĀ over the next few months? That would certainly set us up for something spectacular in 2027!
For now, we are continuing our feeding program. We are just getting started on our farm program. Rog and IĀ are meeting with Tracy this week for breakfast to learn what his plans are for training this fall. We believe Dr. Youngs is hoping to go back later in the year for some sort of a first group training program. And here we are just managing that effort from little old Iowa. It continues to amaze me the efficiency of this work. Ā How so few here can impact so many there.
In the Good News we know as the book of Matthew, at the end of chapter 9, we see this:
Matthew 9:35-38 And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues and announcing the good tidings of the Kingdom and healing every disease and infirmity. And seeing the crowds he was moved inwardly with compassion for them, because they were in distress and cast down, like sheep having no shepherd. Then he says to his disciples, "Indeed the harvest is abundant, but the laborers few; Pray to the Lord of the harvest, therefore, that he may send forth laborers to his harvest."
In this text, we hear of Jesus, first of all TEACHING - IĀ believe this teaching (here labeled the "good tidings of the Kingdom) was about LOVE. Then we hear of Jesus HEALING - this is very near to a "surplus for deficit" transaction, with Jesus sharing His "surplus" with those living in some sort of a health deficit. Then we are specifically led to the HEARTĀ of Jesus, as He was "moved inwardly with compassion" for the poor souls that were hurting around Him, and IĀ wonder if we can somehow grow into a heart like that. More and more compassion for those around us who are hurting. Whether the neighbor who just suffered some sort of a loss here in America or the neighbor who is struggling to feed their family in Zambia. And it is in this context he utters the famous text inviting his followers to pray for more help.
Just to be clear, that is what I am doing even as I type these words. Some of us can teach. Some of us might even be able to heal. All of us can love. I am praying that the Lord of the Harvest will touch more and more of us with a love that can be moved inwardly with compassion for suffering brothers and sisters around the world, and then that compassion will be turned into action as we share from our surplus with those that are living in deficit. Can we be that kind of "laborers?" We don't even have to get out of our pajamas to make a huge difference in the life of another human. We just have to be moved enough to share.
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