Hungry

Can you even imagine true hunger?  Eating once a day?  Not having anything to give to your hungry children?  On top of hunger there is sickness like Malaria and no money for treatment or treatment that doesn’t work.  Not having money to provide for your family’s basic needs.  Your animals die because of drought and sickness.  No money for food let alone school fees. 

Honestly, most of us cannot imagine.

People deny it when I say it, but the truth is we (from the Western world) are rich.  Most of us will never know what it is like to depend on the land for food and then experience drought resulting in no food and no money.  We don’t know true hunger.  We have never had to deny our children meals, sent them to bed hungry, or look into their hungry faces and not be able to provide.  Most of our children have not been sent home because there is no money for school, or had to watch our sick kid suffer because there is no money for treatment.

No, if we are honest we are use to over eating, going out to eat, over stocking our homes with food, and going to a store anytime to buy just about whatever we want to.  We don’t think about not eating unless we want to loss weight.  We don’t worry about where we will get our next meal or how to feed the kids.  We throw away food – because we have so much!  Our entertainment is often built around food.  We take for grated all we have because we have always had it.  Our stores, the ones who grow food for us, rain, restaurants, money…  We now see it as our right to have it all.

I know most of you are thinking, “Ok Mandy, what do you want us to do?  Send our food (leftovers) to Africa?”  I know because people have said this to me.  They say it teasing but I think they are trying to dismiss their uncomfortable conviction.  Maybe we can’t send our leftovers to Africa, but do we care?  Do we think, feel, pray about, or do anything with our wealth and the poverty in the world?  Does it effect how we use our money and how much we eat or waste?  Do we take all we have for granted or are we truly thankful?

Poverty and hunger are a part of daily life here.  I am well aware that I am wealthy and well fed.  I don’t have to worry or think about how to get food to eat, but my neighbors and friends do.  Every day (three times a day!) our family sits around the table to eat.  We pray for our neighbors and I think about them as we eat so well.  It is hard.  I know not feeding my kids or us going into their hunger is not the answer, but sometimes I literally feel ill thinking about their hunger compared to my fullness.  There is a tension. 

We do help people here and feed those who are most in need.  But we are a family in the midst of about 4000 people in our village.  We are so thankful for caring, generous people in Michigan and other places in the States who have given toward food distributions.  We had one food distribution in Obulle where every family received 100kg sacks of maize flour, another food distribution in December where five churches received flour for each family in the churches. Now we are planning for another distribution this Sunday.  I am so grateful for this food that has blessed so many families.  I believe as we share the Good News and share food people are receiving the love of God.  He provides.

            We are thankful for those who gave, but we still wrestle with the tension.  The food is soon gone again.  Rain comes, giving hope, then stops and the gardens dry up and die.  Hunger and no money continue.  It has now been almost a year of not enough (sometimes no) rain.  I am well aware that it is most of Uganda and goes beyond to many countries that are suffering.  It can be overwhelming.

The amazing thing is that I don’t hear the people here complain – or shall I say I don’t hear my neighbors or friends in Obulle complain.  It challenges me.  I still see smiles, we fellowship as normal, they are thankful, we worship God with thankfulness, we help those who are in greatest need…  It seems everyone is in the same suffering so why complain.  Wow.  Our church leaders talk about praising God even when we are hungry – because He is God.  Or having joy in their suffering.  They trust in God.  I am so challenged by their faith and joy in the midst of sufferings.  I am convicted on my own complaining (“I have a right to food!”) ways.  Is God enough?! 

There are no easy answers.  No quick fixes.  I am not God; nor are Americans and their money, though He wants to use all of us.  God is always the answer.  He is God - in control, right, faithful, healer, provider, sustainer, Father…  He has a plan and it is always good and loving for those who trust in Him.  I see God answer and provide for His people everyday.  Sometimes He uses us, sometimes the believers here meet a need, sometimes Americans give, sometimes the rain comes, or God heals…  I do believe God has a greater plan in all of this.  Although I may not understand the inequality, the drought, the poverty, I do know I can trust in God.  He knows and He is holding all things together for His glory.  His ultimate desire is for all to know Him.  So maybe He is reaching the lost through this suffering and His provision.  I also know He is righteous and that suffering is the result of sin.  There is a lot of evil here – there is also a lot of evil in America – I am not saying all disaster and suffering is from sin.  But God will use it to call those in sin back to Him.  Like I said, I am not God and cannot understand, but I put my faith in Him – a loving, Holy God. 

My conclusion, pray.  Seek the Lord.  Trust Him.  Choose joy in Him during the hard times.  Do 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”   Amen!