And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they knew not what it was.”
– Exodus 16:15
In all the years that Bobby and I have lived in Haiti, our greatest burden is the starving children that we see every day around us. So many years ago we struggled to find sources of food to give the starving children. In the beginning, it was powdered milk, and then it was rice and beans or whatever we could afford, and find in the local markets. We struggled to help hungry families for several years…
Over the years, we formed a great partnership with Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), an organization that develops food for starving children around the world. They make a wonderful rice food (MannaPack) with added protein and essential nutrients to help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of starving children around the world. Each cook adds their own local flavors, a few Scotch Bonnet Peppers to spice up the food or any fresh vegetables they can grow.
When we moved to Haiti 26 years ago, we never thought that our outreach to feed the starving children here would develop into the Feeding Program that we run today, feeding over 20 million meals last year!
Thousands of starving Haitian children will often not eat any food for several days. Some will be given salt water to drink to make their stomachs feel full. Some will go through mountains of trash looking for something to sell or something to eat. Some will eat mud cookies to relieve their hunger. Many will find nothing to eat.
One of our heaviest burdens is the need to feed the “poorest of the poor” in Haiti. Haitians cannot afford to feed their families and babies. The people of Haiti are facing a food crisis. The lack of food grown in Haiti and the high price of imported rice and other foods, and the need to feed so many increases each year. Many of the children are lethargic and can’t study at school or go out looking for wood or water and their other daily chores that must be done to support the family.
Over the years of working with Feed My Starving Children, our feeding program has grown to over 90 organization that pick up their food each month and go on to feed thousands of children in Haiti. The food that we receive each month (8-10 40-foot containers) is our most significant undertaking, and most challenging. Mark Crea, the Executive Director/CEO of Feed My Starving Children, is standing with Bobby, while his volunteer team works with our Love A Child crew helping out with our monthly food distribution!
For each container of food, Love A Child spends $10,000 in transportation fees. You might say this is a lot of money, but it’s a small price to pay for one container of 272,000 meals to feed starving children, so with 8-10 containers that adds up to a million and a half meals to feed the starving children, and their families each month. We are so grateful to Jentezen Franklin and his Kingdom Connection partners who sponsored the Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Warehouse. Thank you to all our partners for your continuing support.
Each month, we have over 90 organizations come to the Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center and pick up their monthly food share. They come in every imaginable vehicle, and our volunteers help load up their food. Over 500,000 meals will go mostly to those who have orphan homes, schools and ministry feeding programs in the interior. Thank you, partners, by faith each month for the $80,000 for the shipment and transportation of the food to Haiti.
These children are precious and Love A Child makes every effort to feed as many of them as possible each day. Feeding hungry children is not easy, and it takes all of us working together. Love A Child partners help pay the costs associated with getting donated food to Haiti, released from Customs and to the poor villages throughout the country. In 2017, we shared more than 24 million meals with the poorest of the poor.
Feeding programs are very dangerous here in Haiti! We have had bad people who burned tires in front of our road because they demanded food from us; and we have had gangs of men throw rocks at us, threaten to kill us or “put Voodoo on us.” The people who live up in the mountains have to walk for several hours to come down with their donkeys to pick up their food. They often return to their mountain village “under the cloak of darkness” because of local robbers trying to steal the food.
One of the organizations with which we share our food is Melissa’s Hope. They care for these precious children with mental and physical disabilities. When you give to Love A Child, your sacrificial offering goes throughout many places in Haiti feeding children who are depending on your love.
We recently visited our Love A Child School in Lastik, Haiti. Mark Crea and his team from Feed My Starving Children loved serving the children their hot meals! I remember when Mark first came to this school in the beginning, when we first started the feeding program for our schools. The children were all in bad health with red hair from malnutrition. Oh my, look how the FMSC meals have changed lives. No red hair, just healthy and happy children! Thank you Feed My Starving Children, and thank you, partners, for making a difference. Love Is Something You Do.
At Love A Child we believe that sharing food is the perfect opportunity to share God’s message. Our missionaries have found that it is easier to “win someone to the Lord” while demonstrating the love of God. We love the children of Haiti, and it is our heart’s desire to feed as many as we can this year. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world now, and children here spend many nights with the pain of hunger. Let your heart be touched with the “cry of the poor.” Please consider donating any amount you can to help save thousands of children this year.
Please prayerfully consider becoming a partner.
Your support will save a life!
God bless you,
Sherry