People Who Received Food Relief Will Never Forget How They Felt
SEMMY
People have struggled with food shortages since the pandemic began, but the last five months have been frightening for the poorest and most vulnerable families. For many, it has been the worst famine in their lives. The rains didn’t come and the sunshine was too strong. The lockdowns only compounded the problem by making it impossible for the people to move around to find help.
I thank God that we have been able to deliver food to many of the most vulnerable, especially to widows and orphans. A few weeks go, I had the joy of being part of the distribution team in one of our hardest hit communities. On arrival, I met with many moms and grandmoms who had been identified as the worst off. They told me that all their maize and beans were burned up by the sunshine, and the only rain they had received since March was a three-day hailstorm that destroyed all their cassava (their last staple crop).
The women didn’t know we had come to bring them food, and you could see the weariness and worry on their faces. Semmy told us, “Everything we have planted is gone. Our children are there and we have nothing to put on the fire.” Kevin added, “I had to sell my goat and chickens to survive, and now I have nothing else. My younger children don’t understand ‘no food’ and keep crying. There is nothing I can do.”
You can’t imagine the relief they felt when they saw our truck driving up with bags of food loaded on the back. Milla couldn’t stop laughing as she told us, “Now my grandchildren don’t have to sleep hungry. I can’t ever forget how I feel right now!”
After everyone had received their food, we all huddled together and gave thanks to God for His great provision, and for how He had worked in the hearts of people from far away to give them this life-sustaining gift. As our eyes opened, I could see joy written all over their faces. Then, they skipped up the road together with their precious bags of food on their heads. I found myself running after them, not wanting to lose the joy I felt.
