Did you ever see the movie "Elf"? Remember the part where the dad proclaims, “I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do and I’m way behind”? I’ve been over quoting that. It’s not even funny any more, just true. Our house has looked like the Chiquita banana packing plant for weeks because banana boxes are strong and stackable and we’re putting everything we own into them. We had columns of them everywhere until last week when we took a truckload containing half of our possessions up to Nebraska to clear out the house for prospective buyers. Packing up, listing the house, and finishing the homeschool year in time for Andy’s early graduation was more than enough to make us all crazy, in spite of the fact that we had a team of people from the church help us prepare the house. We’ve been hyper focused on our own stuff, and I was pretty sure I had reached my limit and couldn’t do one more thing when Snoden called.
We were ready to tell him we would have to get back to him when he said that, since the president declared a state of emergency earlier in the year, the price of grain has gone up so high in Malawi that people are coming to him asking for food. They’re starving. We knew the rainy season brought unexpected flooding and drought, which did not produce the crops needed to replace last year’s reserve, but we didn’t know how serious the problem was until now. The grain supply is running out. All of a sudden our critical tasks weren’t so critical. We had to stop everything and address the real emergency.
Snoden had the idea to travel out to where the elevation is a bit lower and the ground a bit damper to buy a piece of land we can use to grow more food. He believes we can raise crops year round there, not just during the rainy season. He has two cousins we know personally who can come work the land and protect it from squatters. We talked about hiring them to do the job, and Snoden went to search for a good piece of land at a fair price. He found two acres and we were in the middle of that negotiation when our son Andy got sick and was admitted to the hospital. Now we had a new priority, so we told Snoden to go ahead and buy the land and hire his cousins and plant the crops, using some of the money we sent last month for the feeding program. We assured him we would do our best to replace that money as soon as possible so nobody goes without.
We are not being modest when we say we can’t do this without you. We need your support to continue caring for the 125 kids we feed each day and now for the land we will use to grow food to provide for people when the famine hits. This is not outside the scope of our ministry, which is to care for the children in our program and their families. Many of the people we will feed from this land are family members of these kids. When our money runs out, there will be other people with money to buy what’s left of the food in the country. But when the food runs out, there will be nothing more anyone can do. It will be too late. It’s happened before. If you haven’t read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, it’s helpful to understanding the situation. That’s why we are planning for that day by developing new farmland. We expect to save lives through this purchase.
We just spent $4,000 to buy the land and we need to replace that immediately to be sure none of the children in our program skips a meal this month. They really cannot afford to. We understand that everyone is struggling financially right now, but any amount will help. Whatever we have left to raise after next week will be posted as a video on DonorSee, but we have high hopes that our supporters here are going to take care of this. I know we’re all super busy and way behind in something, but please take a moment now to pitch in because food for young children is not something that can wait. There is so much need and we want to be able to help as many people as possible during this time of crisis. Thank you and God bless you for your generosity and care for these precious kids and the people of Malawi!
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