December 16-22, 2015
“Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”
— Proverbs 31:8-9
Why are these children starving to death?
Why are so many Haitians unable to find food for their children?
In the beginning of our ministry, we preached about the love of Christ, but we did not feed the poor. We held huge Gospel Tent Crusades and thousands came to hear the Word. I will never forget one late night while we were finishing up and Bobby was closing the crusade, a frail Haitian woman in the very back, held her baby high above her head and in Creole she said, “If God is so good, why is my baby so hungry?” That moment changed our ministry forever. We knew that we had to do more than “preach the Gospel.” This was the beginning of our feeding programs.
Two and a half million Haitians live in extreme poverty. Haiti is the poorest country in the northern hemisphere and the government is fueled by corruption. One hundred thousand children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, while one in three children is stunted, or is very short for his or her age. For me, the hardest part is seeing children who eat out of the garbage dumps.
Since moving to Haiti 23 years ago, we have found that winning adults and children to the Lord would take more than “preaching.” There is a Creole Proverb that says, “A hungry stomach can’t hear.” This is true. When we find children and families who are hungry, we feed them and share God’s love.
Every month we receive food for 73 organizations that come to our Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center to pick up their monthly supplies. Usually about half of these are orphanages. Feed My Starving Children donates food to Love A Child to feed the poorest of the poor!
We receive eight 40-foot containers each month to be distributed throughout Haiti. Our biggest burden is raising $80,000 to cover the costs associated with shipping the food from the States all the way to Haiti! Each container holds 270,000 meals and costs $10,000 to ship it to Haiti, get it out of Haiti’s custom house and distribute the food throughout Haiti. It is a small price to pay to feed thousands of starving children.
This is Orphelinat Joie de Vivre, just one of the 73 orphanages and missionary organizations that we share our food with each month. Notice the handicapped child in the wheelchair. It is because of your love and prayers, that these children have food to eat each month.
We go to many remote villages giving families their monthly food supplies. This has been an especially tough year with widespread drought across Haiti and thousands of people unable to grow any crops to feed themselves. Many parts of Haiti are experiencing famine conditions.
We are so thankful for our 17-year partnership with Feed My Starving Children and bringing food to the poorest of the poor throughout Haiti.
Distributing food to hungry children and families is not an easy job. Our food trucks often travel to remote areas, up into the mountains, or through riverbeds.
Once the poor families reach our destination, they have to carry the food on their heads…
On a small boat…
Or by donkey to their little huts far away.
The hardest thing about being a missionary is not being able to feed “all the hungry children” we see. However, the most rewarding part is seeing children with full plates of food and smiling.
When we join together to feed and care for the hungry and the poor, God is blessing us and He helps those who need it the most. We thank Joyce Meyer Ministries—Hand of Hope for sponsoring one container each month. That provides 270,000 meals to starving children throughout Haiti. We are also grateful to Pastor Jentezen Franklin and his Kingdom Connection Partners for sponsoring one container each month.
By FAITH, each month we trust the Lord to provide the necessary funds to ship eight 40-foot containers loaded with food to Haiti. If you would like to help get nourishing meals to hungry children in Haiti, please call the Love A Child office at 239-210-6107 to help. Love is something you do!
God bless you,
Sherry