Heavy on my Heart

My heart is breaking. My heart is breaking.

I just got out of the Masoyi HBC staff meeting. It’s a reporting meeting from all the programs under Masoyi HBC (Forward Education, Young Mums, Food Delivery, Youth, etc.). We report on how each program is running.

Every week, it is a sad report from Food Delivery. I had mentioned in an earlier blog the problem. The funding they used to receive has expired and they are scrambling to feed all the children under their care (approximately 3000)in the six areas within the community. For the next 3 months only, MHBC can only afford to distribute food parcels to 10 houses in each area. ONLY TEN. That means 60 homes total. The purpose of home-based care is just that – home based. There are desperate children traveling to the office to get food. They are pushing their wheel barrows all the way to K2 to obtain food and we are turning them away because we have no food. They come with an empty wheel barrow and they leave with an empty wheel barrow.

They have calculated that it costs approximately R250 to feed a home consisting of 1-2 children for the month. R250 works out to be approximately $33 Canadian.

How can I feel okay about this? How can I feel okay about teaching these children during the day and then sending them off to a foodless home while I’m fantasizing about the chicken and rice dinner that I’m going to prepare. What gives me the right to eat? And it’s not because I’m “following God’s will” for my life that I deserve it. It’s not because God has blessed me that I should dwell in the riches I have. Has God not blessed them? Is God not with them? I don’t believe God has given me all these things so that I may enjoy them, and continue to live above others. God wants for them as he wants for us. And if that means giving half of what I have to my neighbour who has nothing, then that is the purpose of my riches.

The volunteers at MHBC are becoming so desperate that they are talking about paying out of their own pocket. They talk about how starving children is unacceptable. They made promises to the children’s dying parents that they would care for the children. They say they are not holding up to their promises. MHBC does not receive pay. They are volunteers and are willing to pay out of their empty pockets to feed these children.

This, I believe, is unacceptable. It’s time for the church to feed the orphans and vulnerable children. It’s time for the church to step out of their affluent religions and take action.