We drove past the villages where we work and came to the end of the road. We parked here by a rickety footbridge to have our lunch between community meetings in the two villages. As it turned out, this is a busy place, with both bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Bicyclists hauling heavy sacks of maize approached, then dismounted and pushed their loads across, as the structure bounced and swayed. We were soon to learn that the faith of many people in the villages has been shaken. They must learn to trust God on a whole new level.
Rickety Bridge
Without a traffic director, everyone moved smoothly, waiting their turns to cross from both directions. One woman with two small children and a 50 kg bag balanced on her head approached the bridge, sidestepped down the bank, then she stepped into the rain swollen creek with her children trailing along behind her.
As we were finishing our meal, a woman approached the window of our vehicle and waited to be noticed to strike up a conversation. She said, "You know I attend your classes in that village. I want you to know all of my crops were washed away in the storms." How should I answer that?
All morning we had been meeting with community leaders and villagers. When we offered words of encouragement to pray and hope in God, the people in one village received them gladly and believed with us that God can make a way where there seems to be no way. In the other village, hearts were heavy and despairing. We prayed and asked them to pray. George read Habakkuk 3:17-19 and told them they can trust God when it seems all earthly hope is gone. Some were receiving George's words gladly, but in some hearts it seemed these seeds of faith were bouncing off a wall.
This is a community meeting where George was teaching from Habakkuk 3:17-19.
Many friends led us to their fields to show us the devastation. Although generally, people who applied Farming God's Way fared better, in some fields, the flooding was just too much. In many fields, ground cover had washed completely away and laid in heaps along trails left by the flowing water. Many fields are still waterlogged and the maize stunted and yellowing.
Some crops were completely destroyed, and some were stunted and badly damaged.
These are one crop farmers, so no maize crop means no food for the family for the coming year. It's as simple and heartbreaking as that. We could see the despair in their eyes as over and over, we had heard this same story from people as we walked throughout the villages.
The home of a friend that I often visited was completely gone, and all that was left was a pile of crumbled mud bricks. She, as most extremely poor people, had made her own mud bricks to build her small two room house, but she was too poor to fire them. I asked her to describe what happened. She said that the typhoon came in the middle of the night while she was asleep in one room and her children in another. She woke to the sound of cracking as the walls began to collapse. She ran to her children's room and managed to get them out before the walls could fall upon them. She, her family, and her brother's family are now living in a small building we had been using for the clinician's examination room on clinic days.
We were standing on the site where her home stood. The rubble under our feet is what is left of her home.
Nearby was a home that had been badly damaged and one entire wall missing and cracks in the others. Nevertheless, families were living inside. There was a cooking fire in the middle of the floor. The multipurpose building we built a few months ago was occupied by several families. No furniture, no beds, of course, only clothes piled along the walls indicated people who had lost everything were sleeping there.
Several families are living in this badly damaged house.
All of us have watched on the news as a disaster unfolded in some distant place in the world. Those events can seem rather abstract to many people, and some may conclude, "Thank God that is not me and my family." The absolute devastation in these villages is not at all abstract or distant. These are people we know and love. If we take no action, we know the logical consequence of poor subsistence farmers losing their crops, then losing hope.
Love cannot be just words. The kingdom of God must come through us, and we must represent in every way the heart of the Father. We believe He will give us wisdom and resources to help them recover, with faith in God intact that will make them stronger.
Let me tell you how you can help. We need much prayer support, that God will give us wisdom and the resources to carry out this assignment. We need many people to give generously for new seed, fired brick, and cement, and a year-long feeding program for the children. Ask God what you can do, and we know if everyone responds with their part, the need will be met. You can make a tax deductible contribution securely online at www.surefoundationministry.com . Or, you can mail contributions to Sure Foundation Ministry, PO Box 30332, Winston-Salem, NC 27130. May God bless everyone whose heart God has stirred to give.
