James 2 : 15
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you say to him Go, I wish you well ; keep warm and fed, but does nothing about the physical needs, what good is it?" NIV
On November 4th a team of 36 Americans and five Hondurans followed Christ's example to feed His people. For a week the Carpenter's Heart was allowed to serve Christ simply by handing out a four day supply of food for a family of four to over 250 families. You may wonder why food, or what good is a week of food? Simply put, it is what Christ called us to do.
You see all throughout the gospels Christ show us the way to demonstrate true love. Meet physical needs as an example of the love we have in our hearts for a person. After we have shown our love in an outward example we can then tell of the reason for our love. In the same way that Christ came to the world and met physical needs through miracles before He paid the final price for our greatest need, we can do the same as we point to Him.
IN a country the size of Tennessee, there are 7.8 million people living in mostly rural farming communities struggling to survive. Over 50% of this population lives below the poverty level of less than 745 dollars per year(US). over 80 percent of the poorest population leave in the mountain's with less than 40% having access to safe drinking water. To us a week of food doesn't sound like much, but imagine being in the shoes of a 15 year old girl. Abandoned to care for your 3 younger siblings in a 5 X 5 house on the side of a rain drenched mountain. As you lay down each night on the dirty floor you pray that you can protect your family and maybe give them a hot meal. You awake to the reality that you must go to the river to get dirty water and hope that no one will hurt your siblings or even worse take what you may have while you are gone. You pull a bucket of somewhat clean water and return home to hungry brothers and sisters. Crime is all around and starvation is a reality you know to well.
This is why Christ fed the hungry, clothed the poor, and loved the hurting. We are called to do the same. You have herd and read over the last few years that we are raising money to build an orphanage, but we want you to understand that this is more than an orphanage. This will be a ministry center that is already glorifying Christ. Just last week two of the local residents that are helping build this home came to know the Lord while working with a group from Enon Baptist in Marshall NC. This is just one of hundreds of stories of what God is doing through this ministry.
Last week while visiting a village around the work site we where amazed to see over 100 families come from the mountains to get a few simple gifts and here the Gospel. Thanks to the prayers and support of so many this team of 36 was allowed to love on people in the name of Jesus. It has an eternal impact not only on those who received the food but even more those who where able to share in the giving.
This building can not be built fast enough. There are many more families that are hungry, more children without clothes, and most importantly there are children without parents or a home. We pray that as Thanksgiving approaches you consider giving to complete this project and allow the real work to begin. Block, mortar, and steel are the necessities of the building but just as Christ described the church as the people this project is the same. The sooner the structure is in place, the sooner lives can be changed. Not just food or education but the hope for eternal salvation.
Luke 11: 11-13
If a son shall ask bread any of you that is father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask and egg, will he offer a scorpion. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
What will you give?
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