No Food Today…Again
Dear Family,
4-year-old David only eats one meal a day…on a good day.
You can change that.
By giving up just one lunch per month, you can provide one lunch each school day for David or one of his friends for an entire month.
Unfortunately, David’s situation is all too common in the Kenyan slum he calls home. Until recently, David’s mother searched for work—and food—every day, while David waited at home alone. Some days she succeeded. Many days David went hungry.
Thankfully, young David now attends a Christian school called Jocada Academy. If you could see the dangerous, trash-strewn streets of David’s Nairobi slum for yourself, “hope” would be the last word that would come to your mind. But that’s exactly what Jocada is: A light and a hope in a desperate place. Jesus is at work here. David and 216 other young children receive life-changing love and education at Jocada.
But David and many of his fellow students still suffer from hunger, making it difficult for them to learn. Family, you can change that reality for one child.
The devoted Christian staff at Jocada run on a shoe-string budget (with the help of Heaven’s Family’s Education Ministry). They do all they can just to provide a Christian education for these young slum children. Providing food for the children is currently on their “wish list.” In other words, it would take a miracle to happen.
Without food, lunchtime at Jocada looks very different from the local school you or your children once attended—a place where kids happily gobble down a school-provided lunch. (During my elementary years I can’t recall ever seeing one of my fellow students go hungry during lunch. Rich or poor, the school made sure we all had food to eat for lunch.)
Not so at Jocada. The children are supposed to go home during lunchtime. But about half of the 217 students choose to stay at school—hungry—because there is no food waiting for them at home, either.
Let me tell you a story I think will inspire you to help.
Kasyoka, another student at Jocada, recognized the dire situation of her fellow students, and acted with compassion. Instead of sitting around in misery during her lunch-less lunchtime, Kasyoka chose to fill it with purpose. God’s purpose.
With help from some of the other students, Kasyoka organized various clubs for her hungry classmates to attend during their lunch break…to distract them from having no food. Some of the groups meet to sing. Some of them meet to talk about God’s Word and pray. Some groups play soccer. And others read books.
Although their bellies are aching with hunger, the children are singing praises to God.
The children refer to their lunchtime club time as “fasting for the love of God.” They would rather stay at school than scavenge the dirty streets hoping to find rotten fruit discarded by street vendors to fill their bellies.
When asked what motivated her to help start the clubs, Kasyoka told us she wanted to help create “a safe place to be since they [her classmates] cannot afford to access lunch. They would rather praise God and sing to Him for loving them and giving them a peaceful home at Jocada school to stay.”
The teachers at Jocada tell us that the children are eager to learn but hunger prevents them from doing that…or from reaching their God-given potential.
If you’re like me, family, you’re inspired by Kasyoka’s example and want to help these kids succeed. It’s this easy: you can provide one child at Jocada with nutritious lunches for only $6.75—for an entire month!
I don’t know about you, but I typically don’t blink an eye when spending $6.75 at a restaurant for a single fast-food lunch.
Every day at lunchtime, the children at Jocada are “fasting for the love of God.” But their fast is not actually a voluntary fast. But that’s what I’d like to ask you to do.
Will you consider joining these children in “fasting for the love of God”?
An entire school year lasts about 9 months for the children at Jocada. $6.75 will feed one child (like 4-year-old David) for an entire month. That means it costs about $61 to provide hot, healthy lunches for one child for an entire school year.
In total, 112 students are involuntarily skipping lunch each day (and are lucky if they eat at all when they get home). Our goal is to feed all of them a daily, nutritious lunch. We have the knowhow and the ability to get the food to them, but we just lack the funding. Can you step in and feed one child?
Will you consider skipping ONE lunch, once per month, for the next 9 months? If you spend $6.75 per lunch, for example, this will enable you to send $61 to feed a child like David for his entire school year! If you typically spend twice that, you could feed two children!
Or, if skipping one lunch each month seems too difficult (or cannot for health reasons), will you simply sacrifice $61 to feed one child at Jocada Academy for a year?
Family, will you join with me in transforming the future for these precious children? Most of them are believers, and they certainly qualify as the “least of these,” concerning whom Jesus will one day say to everyone, either “I was hungry, and you fed Me,” or “I was hungry and you didn’t feed Me.”
I look forward to hearing from you.
So thankful for the “us” in Jesus,
David
P.S. The slum children at Jocada Academy have chosen to trust God even in the midst of their hunger and extreme poverty. I believe God is calling you and me to act with compassion, just like Kasyoka did, and to be Jesus’ hands to feed these precious children so they can learn and grow strong in Him.
$6.75 is all it takes to provide each child with a healthy lunch for an entire month. Can you help us feed one?
