Food For Thought | August 2015 by Food For The Poor

August 2015

FOODfor THOUGHT R E P O RT S F R O M T H E F I E LD

HUGE FAITH OF A LITTLE GIRL PG. 2 THANKS TO YOU, BABY ISMA LIVES! PG. 4 CHILDREN IN MISERY. HOW WILL YOU HELP? PG. 6 POVERTY LEADS A CHILD TO THE UNTHINKABLE… PG. 7

Page 2

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6,

Above: 9-year-old Jessica is steadfast and unmovable in her faith that God will provide for her and her family. Below: Jessica pours her heart out to God with prayers of hope for a better life for her family.

niv)

“When I ask something to God, I get an answer from Him,” said 9-year-old Jessica. “I ask Him to take care of my mother and father, to be safe. Every day, I ask God.” essica sits next to her mother and siblings in the rusted-out zinc and cardboard shack her father pieced together. The night before, a storm nearly washed away Jessica’s house into a fastmoving river.

Gloria, Jessica’s mom, knows her daughter is different from other children. Jessica has a love for God and spiritual maturity way beyond her years. “Jessica is very special… she is very sensitive,” Gloria said.

“When the river grows, I ask Him with all my strength to keep the river down, and in time, it dries and it’s back to normal,” Jessica said.

“I want to be a pastor when I grow up,” Jessica said. “So I can show the other children to see what I see, to feel what I feel, to have them blossom as I have bloomed.”

At a tender age, Jessica displays incredible faith. “I like to pray. When we pray, we are closer to God,” she said.

“Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks…” (2 Thessalonians 5:17-18a) Although she is growing up in extreme poverty, Jessica believes wholeheartedly that God is watching over her and her family. She prays without ceasing. “I go to church and I pray for my parents; for God to take care of them… I love to go to church,” she said.

Jessica and her family stand outside their zinc and cardboard shack in Honduras.

But Gloria sometimes cries and her heart aches for Jessica. Despite her daughter’s strong faith, Gloria can’t promise Jessica that her future will be any different than her own. “The best I want for her. Not to be a lady selling things like me,” Gloria said.

Honduras is the

THIRD-POOREST country in Latin America and the Caribbean. (World Food Programme)

But Jessica places all her trust in God and tries to comfort her mother with prayer and encouragement. “I grab her and we all hug and say God has better things for us,” she says. When it rains, the dirt floor of Jessica’s home turns into mud. The wind pounds and shakes the flimsy walls and frightens Jessica and her siblings. “I get scared when it rains,” she admits. The shack’s constant dampness invites roaches, rats and other vermin inside. Once, a snake hiding under some clothing bit Jessica’s mother and she had to go to the local hospital. Gloria was afraid, but Jessica soothed her by saying, “Mom, don’t worry, let’s pray to God, He is going to help us and make us healthy… The blood of Christ is with us…” Gloria says that Jessica keeps her strong despite the depth of the family’s poverty.

“After God, the one who gives me strength is Jessica and her faith… Jessica keeps our family together,” Gloria said. “God is going to save us,” Jessica chimes in. Jessica is clinging to God and praying for a better life. Your gift to Food For The Poor can help provide a new home and other basic necessities that Jessica and her family desperately need. You can help answer the prayers of this little girl. “It would be the best gift God could give me,” Jessica’s mother said. “A better life for my kids…” ◆

Page 3

Page 4

It is truly miraculous the difference you can make in the life of a starving child!

t 9 months old, Isma weighed 8 pounds. Thanks to the compassion of Food For The Poor donors like you, today she weighs more than 13 pounds, and is on the road to recovery. Living in one of the poorest slums in Haiti, Ismaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mother, Marie, struggled to find work and provide enough food for her to eat. Isma often went without food. Sometimes all Marie had to give her was a spoonful of banana soup. Thanks to your compassionate support, Isma is now much healthier and eagerly eats every bit of food Marie lovingly spoons into her mouth. Isma now bounces up and down like a typical healthy baby, interested in everything around her. She is alert and aware instead of sluggish from malnutrition. Instead of crying from hunger, she smiles!

ONE IN 14 CHILDREN in Haiti dies before reaching their fifth birthday. Isma could have become a sad statistic. Thank you for saving her! (UNICEF)

Ismaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mother sometimes had only a spoonful of banana soup to feed her starving daughter. Isma was slowly wasting away to skin and bones.

“Come and see the works of God, awesome in the deeds done for us.” (Psalm 66:5)

Isma now receives the nutritious food her growing body needs to thrive. You have made a remarkable difference in the life of this baby!

Seeing Isma so healthy is an answer to Marie’s prayers. She prayed constantly for God to save her daughter. “I feel better because the baby is doing better. I believe in God so I knew God would send someone to help.” Marie is so grateful to you for helping her daughter. If she could thank you in person for giving Isma nutritious food through Food For The Poor, she’d say this:

“In the name of God and Jesus, we are doing better, both of us, thanks to you. Otherwise, we would have been dead,” Marie said. Many more precious children like Isma need your help. Please, be as generous as you can and help save another life today through your gift for lifesaving food. ◆

Page 5

Page 6

Born into extreme poverty, 1-year-old Martin has struggled to survive from the moment he took his first breath. His future is uncertain. Sadly, his sister, 2-year-old Maria Elena, is enduring the same fate. Even the loving embrace of his mother cannot comfort Martin.

he tiny plastic and zinc shack in El Salvador is an oven inside. Drenched in sweat, Martin spends his days sleeping because it’s the only way he can escape from the unbearable heat. It’s not only Martin who suffers from the heat. “Maria Elena gets rashes and she asks for a bath first thing in the morning,” said Mariela, the children’s mother. Martin’s father works sporadically as an agricultural insect sprayer to try to support his family.

But with such a meager and unpredictable income, Martin has gone to bed hungry many times. “When you are poor, you suffer,” Mariela said. Seeing Martin and his sister weak from hunger and miserable from the heat deepens Mariela’s sadness. “It makes me feel bad because I know how much they are suffering, because I feel it and I know they feel it, too,” she said.

“Give us today our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)

19.2% OF CHILDREN UNDER 5 in El Salvador are chronically undernourished. (World Food Programme)

Mariela depends on her faith in God to carry on. “I pray that God will give me my daily bread so we can survive every day,” she said. “I pray that my children will have a better life somehow.” Martin often wakes up in the night barely able to breathe from the intense heat inside the shack. “I douse him with water to cool him off,” Mariela said.

Rainstorms have twice torn the roof off the tiny shack Martin lives in.

At night, Mariela doesn’t sleep. She watches over Martin, listening to his breathing while keeping a look out for snakes. “I’ve found snakes on the beds — big ones. Some will run away, but most are not scared so we have to kill them with a stick,” she said. When she puts her children to bed, Mariela prays over them. “I pray to God every night to keep us safe, and I pray that each day will be a better day,” Martin’s mother said. Food For The Poor depends on your support to provide shelter and nutritious food for children like Martin. Please help save children from the misery of poverty. Please give today to help relieve their suffering. ◆

Living in Jamaica, a bright, thoughtful boy’s future was being robbed by extreme poverty. Feeling his life was hopeless, in a moment of despair, he tried to take his own life.

leven-year-old Rushane and his family live in a wobbly shack in Jamaica. Holes in the walls allow rodents and bugs to scurry in at night. Intruders are also a constant threat. One night someone broke into their dilapidated home, but thankfully was scared away by neighbors. Rushane was so afraid he was shaking. “I was trembling,” Rushane recalled. Rushane is constantly taunted and bullied by neighborhood children over the poor condition of his family’s house. Feeling overwhelmed by the depth of his family’s poverty, and the cruel bullying he was enduring, Rushane felt that his only escape would be to take his own life. On one such attempt, his mother, Amanda, had only been gone for a few moments, when upon her return she found Rushane hanging from a beam in the home. In disbelief, she frantically shrieked at Rushane to wake up, and yelled for his sister to come help. Thankfully, they were able to get him down in time and Rushane woke up to his mother crying and hugging him. “We take him down and we hug him…” Unable to afford treatment, health clinics or doctors, Amanda turned to her faith.

“We took him to church and the pastor pray with him. I think that’s what’s helping us today: prayer,” Amanda said.

In Jamaica, about

30% OF THE TOTAL YOUTH POPULATION is unemployed and not enrolled in school or any training course. (United Nations Population Fund — Caribbean)

Since this time, Rushane has kept a private notebook filled with letters he writes but never sends, addressed to people he hopes will help him and his family out of their poverty. It is a way for this poor child to cope with his dire circumstances. “If I don’t write, I might cry,” Rushane tearfully said. Rushane prays to God for the bare necessities in life. “I beg Him for a home and to provide food for us and clothes,” he said. Amanda is anxious and worried over her son’s sadness about the future. “… I cry,” Amanda said. “I tell him hope is on the way. We soon get a place to live.” You can be that hope by helping to answer the desperate prayers of a little boy. Your gift can help a child like Rushane escape the crushing grip of poverty, and put him on a path toward a brighter future. Rushane’s letters may be addressed to others, but they are really meant for you. You can be the answer to Rushane’s letters by giving a gift to Food For The Poor today. ◆

Rushane, 11, keeps a journal to cope with his family’s dire circumstances.

Page 7

“We are pilgrims on a journey, We are brothers on the road; We are here to help each other Walk the mile and bear the load.” Excerpt from the hymn: “The Servant Song” ~ Richard Gillard, 1977

We hope you will join us, and lend your support to an upcoming Food For The Poor event.

An Evening in the Tropics

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Giovanni’s Restaurant, Rockford, IL www.FoodForThePoor.org/rockford

Orlando World Center Marriott www.FoodForThePoor.org/orlando

Funds raised at each event go directly to programs that help the poor!