Something wasn’t right. We were visiting the children at Chipanda Village and instead of running around and laughing, the children were quiet, almost lethargic. I asked what was going on and was told the children hadn’t eaten. I couldn’t believe it! Why not? Rose told me they had run out of food. I felt like I’d been hit in the stomach. How could this be? Slowly the explanation came out. The staff knows that it’s been difficult to acquire funding for the feeding program and they did not want to ask me or to give me ‘bad’ news. I’ve previously run into this cultural disparity in developing countries but I had a hard time grasping the fact that the food was gone and I was not notified!
We immediately left for the market with $250 the sum total of what was allocated for this project right now. Prices had increased and I hoped we could purchase enough food to last for a month or 2 as well as the mosquito nets and other things that we needed. I prayed that God would somehow ‘stretch’ our money. After several stops, the car was loaded with 50 kg bags of rice & beans. In order to save money we went directly to the factory for the 50 kg bags of phala and we purchased several dozen fresh eggs. Back to the village we went eager to get a meal prepared and served to the hungry children. While we were gone a man, a stranger, stopped by and donated 5 – 50 kg bags of maize! God certainly did answer my prayer to ‘stretch’ our money. The maize will be taken to the mill and ground into flour so it can be made into nsima, the staple food. We are grateful for a compassionate and caring God and are continuing to rely on Him for support.
(Photos show the donated maize and the beans at the market)
