Today is a day that Pam and I had looked forward to from before our trip, the Manna Food Distribution. Manna is IMFC’s bread and butter ministry. It is somewhat unique and it is where we begin in Kampala.
Joseph picked us up at 9:00 AM. We went by the ministry center to pick up James, Beatrice and Emmanuel. Douglas had left early to meet the truck carrying the food when it arrived at the distribution site. We parked at the Shell station across the street from the entrance to Katanga at about 10:00. After crossing the street we made our down into the heart of Katanga where Douglas waited with the food.
Many of the Manna recipients were already present, sitting along the front of one of the stores or standing nearby. The fifty bags of food were neatly stacked next to one of the stores just off the side of the main road.
When we begin this ministry four years ago, we were warned of the problems that arise when you bring food into areas where people are starving. Frankly, we were scared of food riots, so for a couple of years we hired security guards to guard the food. But there was no need. There is no problem. Today, the food set in the open unprotected. And no one tried to steal it or cause problems. In fact, local people, volunteers, are used to carry the food for many of the recipients who are to week to carry it themselves.
People begin to slowly appear. No one gets in a hurry in Africa. Simon and Agnes came. IMB missionary, Andy Berry, came with a group of twelve IWC (International World Changers) that were in Kampala for a mission trip. As people gathered, we greeted each other and exchanged stories. No one seemed to be in a hurry.
At about 11:00, James, part of the IMFC team, begin to give the bags of food to the people who where approved to received. One by one the bags were lifted off the ground and onto the heads of the recipients. Most all of them are women. It is an amazing thing to watch these women walk off with 110 pounds of food balanced on the top of their heads. And for those too weak to carry the food, some local volunteers carried it for them. There was no confusion. Everything happened in a very orderly way.
The ones who had come to minister to the people followed some of the recipients to their homes to share with them and pray for them. Pam and I had Emmanuel with us to translate. We went to the homes of three recipients and were about to leave when others begin to ask us to visit with them. We ended up visiting with six families. Everyone wanted someone to visit them.
We made it back to the distribution site by 12:30. Some of the IWC volunteers were playing with the children in the street. I spoke to a couple of them and all were deeply impacted by what they had just participated in. There is no way to explain to you what it is like to step into a six foot by ten foot room with no light and talk to people who are dying with AIDS. People who have no money, and very little way of every getting any. One person had spoken to an grandmother taking care of seven grandkids – ages 4-14. Their parents had died with AIDS. Now, each child was inflected with the virus and taking ARV’s.
As we left the distribution site, I reflected on the scriptures that speak of the destructive nature of sin. I had just left an area caught in the devastating affects of sin. God never created this world with disease, poverty, hunger and death. It was all good until man sinned – Genesis 3. Sin has wrecked God’s beautiful creation and devastated the crown jewel of His creation, human beings.
But there is hope. Jesus paid the ultimate price for sin, death. His resurrection from the dead assures us that a better day is coming. In God’s new world, the Katanga’s of this world will not exist. Sin will not wreak the new heaven and the new earth that God has prepared for His people. Sin and death are defeated forever and ever. Hallelujah!! Amen!
