One year ago this month a friend of mine wrote an email to me here in Mozambique to ask if I would be interested in working on a project together to deliver a million meals to our Ray of Light project here in Dondo. Now, let me ask you my friends, "What do you think was my answer?" Of course I jumped up in down inside and very calmly responded by stating, "Well, I believe that would be a tremendous blessing to our project here." From that moment on hundreds of emails, personal visits to the Wooddale church, and encouraging our friends and loved ones here in Mozambique that there will be relief come the rainy season.
The anticipation and excitement of this project coming to fruition has been quite a journey with God. It took slightly over 4,000 volunteers to pack the food and a total of 9 months for the first container to arrive. But I have to tell you that just like our God always does, it arrived just in time! The transporting company ran into problems with the World Cup Soccer games but it was divinely scheduled to come into the hands of the recipients just when it was supposed to. I love how God works in this way. We get all up in arms with ourselves and our schedules and what should happen and when it should happen and all along God has His plan. And of course my friends it is perfect. It is perfect in time and with whom shall receive the blessing.
The very first distribution was for the poorest of poor with AIDS in Project Life and then we delivered boxes to two poor church plants in the bush, Savane and Centro Emissor. Centro Emissor being the church that Val and I attend! Woooo Hooooo! We have scheduled deliveries for our 12 other church plants and other groups such as the Association of the Blind, YWAM, the pre-school and our private school here ElShaddi and many more opportunities to bless the poor with food. But here is the real deal, this was the first of 4 containers coming with 285,000 meals so really we are getting.... ta da.... drum roll please......
1,140,000 meals!
It was such a blast being able to give food to our beloved church family at Centro Emissor. We started with a message on the faithfulness of God and then had a meal for each person. Now keep in mind that every person who will be gifted this food has their name on a pre-determined list developed by the leader of the project or church. We gave a short teaching on how to prepare the bags of rice and how to make it stretch to last. It was so sweet to watch each person, adult and child listen very closely to all of the instructions. This made me wonder, "what are they thinking? How are they perceiving this food? Did this come just in time because the money had run out? Were they relieved that they could pay their rent this month because of the gift? Did they believe our teaching of the nutrition in the packets and how this could help their bodies become stronger?" Only God really knows.
Living life here is a wonderful journey of love. Jesus taught us to love God first and to love others next. His word tells us also that the poor will always be with us and that we are commanded to take care of the poor, the widows and the orphans. Thank You Wooddale church for your love being like the love of Jesus in helping the poor, the orphan and the widows. We have them all here everywhere. I encounter each of these everyday in my inner circle of friends. Thank You Wooddale for your time and commitment to make this happen all in the name and love of our King and Savior Jesus Christ!
