We sent funds late this week and are still working to get back on track. With that in mind, our team asked the leaders to do their September feeding programs ASAP. Today's pic is one of several received this morning, as our partners got right to work in their respective communities. Hoping to impact households in 133 communities this month!!
I also just received a message from one of our team this morning asking about our plans to provide inputs at the beginning of the growing season - which is now just around the corner. As we have the last several years, our hope is to provide as much support as possible to the destitute farmers who would possibly not even be able to plant this season without our support. Tracy and ZIAP have trained them. And our goal is to just give them a boost towards self-sufficiency until they get to the point they are able to care for their own family.
Would you help us? I don't know where the exchange rate is going, but in past years we have been able to provide some seed and fertilizer to a grower for around $100 each. Whatever surplus you may have to share with these brothers and sisters over the next couple of months would be received with open arms! Arms that will be working hard to turn that gift into food for their families. These are not people who are just sitting around hoping for handouts. These are our brothers and sisters, who have been born in a time and a place that was not at all conducive to meaningful career choices. They are eager to use the land that is readily available. They will work hard to prepare the land, to plant the seed, to apply the fertilizer, to weed the fields as the maize begins to grow, to fight of the pests that will try to destroy their fields, and ultimately to harvest it all by hand.
This reminds me of Paul's encouragement to the Corinthians in that two-chapter treatise on the collection he was taking for the suffering brothers and sisters in Judea. I imagine in his mind's eye he is remembering that one guy, or that group of people in Corinth that he knew would push back because they worked hard for their surplus - and now he is asking them to share it with someone who they are suspicious of, have never met, and who might just be wanting to take advantage of their generosity. Here is what he said:
2 Corinthians 8:13-14 (The MESSAGE) 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.
I'm not going to get into that surplus for surplus trade Paul seems to indicate but let me just tease that WE NEED WHAT THEY ARE GIVING BACK TO US IN THIS TRANSACTION!! Maybe more than THEY NEED WHAT WE ARE GIVING THEM IN THIS TRANSACTION. And they may starve without our support. Let that simmer for a bit...
If you have some surplus you could share, our Zambian brothers and sisters would be grateful for an opportunity to put it in the ground and grow some food with it. Thanks for your consideration.
God=Jesus=Love=Sharing
