It was only two hours, but they experienced more in that short time than I could have possibly hoped to teach them.
It wasn't book-learning, head-knowledge stuff.
It was open-your-eyes, break-your-heart kinda stuff.
The kind of stuff only God can teach.
We watched the training video that told us, "10.9 million kids under age 5 die each year in developing countries? Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60% of these deaths."
We saw the heart wrenching photo of the distraught three-year-old girl who weighed little more (14 lbs.) than my youngest did the day he was born (9.2 lbs.).
We saw the amazing photo of the same little girl after she had been fed consistently for seven months, her pudgy face smiling and happy!
I had come to this MobilePack prepared to serve, but not quite prepared to be so moved, to be so grateful for our blessings and yet so convicted of our excesses.
This amazing organization, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), prepares enough food packs every day to feed 420,000 children. They send these packs to nearly 70 countries "to quickly reverse and prevent malnutrition."
Each pack is filled with chicken, vegetables, soybeans, and rice and all the vitamins and minerals a child needs to grow healthy and strong.
Each little rice pack contains six meals.
Each of those meals costs less than 25 cents.
There are 36 rice packs in every box.
If you do the math, that's 216 meals in each box.
One box of Manna Rice Packs is enough to feed one child for seven months.
And it only costs around $50 per box.
I had not realized how meaningful it would be to watch my children's hands work to make a difference in someone else's life.
They scooped and poured and measured and packaged and did it all without complaining.
We cheered as we filled each box.
Today, in an hour-and-a-half, our crew packed 81boxes.
That's enough to feed 47 children for an entire year.
Last night my children ate until their bellies were full.
They went to bed satisfied and secure.
In the last 24 hours, 18,000 children died from hunger.
I wonder to myself, how will I ever sleep thinking about those 18,000 children,
and the 18,000 who will die tomorrow
and the day after that and the day after that...
How will I ever recover?
I hope I never do!
And I hope my children never do!
How will I ever recover?
I hope I never do!
And I hope my children never do!
Tonight, they will go to bed satisfied and secure - again.
And tonight, we know there are 47 other children who can go to bed satisfied and maybe a little more secure.
Thanks to the efforts of FMSC, enough food will be produced tomorrow, every day in fact, to feed 420,000 more.
And they do it all through volunteers working a two hour shift. Visit FMSC's website to find a MobilePack near you or to host your own MobilePack.
Two hours is all it takes to save 47 lives.
It's a very small price to pay!
It's a very small price to pay!
...if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
