Have you ever been really hungry...eating things that aren’t food to fill up your stomach hungry?

Have you ever been really hungry? I mean, eating things that aren’t food to fill up your stomach hungry? Most of us haven’t. But in Haiti, a Mud Cookie, made of actual mud, is a traditional remedy for the hunger pangs that accompany starvation.

In the wake of each new disaster, relief funds often flood into Haiti. Unfortunately, though, the funds often don’t make it out of the cities to the poorest areas of the countryside, like Chapoteau, where St. Mathieu’s school is located.

No roads lead to Chapoteau. The people who live in this mountain village cross a lake in a dugout canoe to reach the nearest major road. The teachers who walk to the school every day take their job seriously: they wear suits and ties, and carry their dress shoes, walking barefoot in the dirt trails until they reach the school, where they put on penny loafers or wingtips. Similarly, the students take pride in their uniforms, often the only good clothes they own. They come to school and hope to be doctors, teachers, or accountants one day.

But it is difficult to learn without anything to eat, and school often lets out when the children can no longer function without food. The organization that was previously supplying food to St. Mathieu’s left the village, and although the mission team I accompanied to Haiti for seven years supplied children’s vitamins—9,000 of them—we were asked to stop. The daily gummy vitamins reminded the children of how hungry they were, and the nutrients can’t be absorbed into the body without food anyway.

Can you imagine being so hungry you can’t eat a single gummy bear?

We proudly proclaim, with a garden right in front of our church doors, that feeding people—physically and spiritually—is how we know and share God’s love. It costs just $50 to feed every single child at St. Mathieu’s for one day. Frankly, my family spends more than that on a single Uber Eats or Takeout Taxi meal for four people. It’s clear to me that in a world full of problems that can feel totally overwhelming, this is one need we can fill, one problem we can fix. Please think about how many days you can sponsor. There are 250 children whose lives will be immeasurably changed as a result, and yours might be, too.

-Genevieve Zetlan, Lay Preacher

Join us this Sunday, September 19th at 5 PM for our Benefit Concert & BBQ!

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