Tuesday, April 15, 2008

News from Darfur, Sudan


Over the last few months, Feed The Hungry has sent containers of meals to Niger, Benin, Liberia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and Swaziland. Most have made their way through Customs & government red-tape and into the hands of people in real need of NOW help.

Two containers carrying 541,720 fortified rice & soy protein meals destined for the people of Darfur have gotten 'stuck'... momentarily. Please take a minute and put a prayer before the God of Heaven & Earth that these two containers will get 'unstuck' and speed their way to South Darfur.

This is a photo of Haija, a semi-blind widow. During one of the Darfur food distributions in 2007, Haija showed up as the trucks were unloading their grain and began to pick up the bits and pieces that fell from the 50 kilo sacks. The workers told her, "Come back tomorrow, that's when the distribution will take place." But she continued to 'glean' what she could. Haija and the unknown widows, women, children, elderly, and others having to get by day by day are why we have to see the two containers in Port Sudan released and on their way to Darfur asap.

I love the simple, powerful, clear cut take-it-or-leave-it way that Jesus communicated with those who followed him and expressed their questions & concerns.

"With men these things are impossible, but with God all things are possible"... even liberating 42 tons of much needed food supply from the hands of an apathetic and antagonistic government bureaucracy. Jesus followed up by saying "All things are possible to him who believes"-- trusts in, relies on, and clings to.

When we come to him with questions & concerns, he puts the ball back in our court and points us upward to trust in, rely on, and cling to the God who considers our "impossibles" nothing more than ordinary.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The World's A Crazy Place

Thinking about Haiti, Zimbabwe, Kenya, China/Tibet today and the friends we have in each of these places... just met a guy here in South Bend yesterday with family in Gaza for goodness sake...

Billy Joel lyrics keep creeping into my head too...

birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again, Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock, Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline, Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide, Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz, Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law, Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

"We didn't start the fire, it was always burning since the world's been turning"... what a philosopher.

Yet in every place and in every situation God hasn't left himself without a witness; his people doing his work, making sacrifices, standing in the gap, executing justice and mercy, being salt and light to counter the decay and darkness in the world... the hands, heart, and feet of Jesus in living color, demonstrating His love in word and action.

I can hear his comforting words to those who choose to take the road less traveled and follow him, "In this world you will suffer trouble, but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world." And the beloved Apostle John, "For this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith."