The most unlikely people can be God’s answer to prayer

.

Grab a handful of tissues and read on:

Friday, the day after I posted True hunger is— 

I read a heart-pounding, tear-inducing story

from World Concern,

a ministry dear to my heart

(a story I want to share with you sometime).

It was a perfect follow-up for True hunger is.

It shows that the most unlikely people

—because they are the most needy—

can be God’s answer to the pleas and prayers

of those who are starving.

“This week we received a donation of $60,” writes Cathy Herholdt of World Concern, a Christian ministry that provides emergency food, medicine, and water for families affected by famine.

“While that [relatively small donation] might not seem worthy of its own blog post, it is,” she said. “Trust me.”

Women of Hope International had sent the check—which seemed unusual to Cathy because WOH is a nonprofit humanitarian agency in Sierra Leone, West Africa, that helps needy women with severe disabilities.

Why, Cathy wondered, would WOH send World Concern money instead of using it for their own needs?

This question led Cathy to call Kim Kargbo, WOH’s Director, for the answer.

Cathy learned that most of these women are beggars living on less than a dollar a day. Most are illiterate. Some are crippled, some are blind.

In recent years, Sierra Leone has been torn apart by war.

These women have witnessed the murder and mutilation of tens of thousands of people.

They’ve watched the destruction of crops, health clinics, and schools.

More than two million of them have been forced into refugee camps.

On top of that, the WHO women suffer with a variety of physical disabilities—many were “thrown away” by parents or abandoned by husbands. According to the WOH website, “They have no place in society, no common ground, and nowhere to call their own.” 

WOH addresses the women’s physical, emotional, economic, social, and spiritual needs. It offers them a safe place to heal, regain their dignity, and learn to support themselves and their families.

In November, Kim told the WOH women about the ongoing famine in Somalia. Because of limited educational opportunities, some had never heard of Somalia so Kim showed them World Concern’s Eyewitness to the Famine video online.

They also discussed 1 Kings 17 in which a widow, suffering in a severe drought, was gathering a few sticks to cook what she expected would be her last meal and, she said, “then my son and I will die.”

At that moment, Elijah arrived and asked her for food. Can you imagine what thoughts must have gone through that poor dear’s tormented mind and heart?

But that impoverished, hopeless widow gave all she had—because Elijah promised God would provide for her. She put her trust in God and His mysterious ways, and He did, indeed, meet her needs.

In Sierra Leone, those WOH women could relate to the widow in the Bible as well as those in the Eyewitness to the Famine video—they knew all about hunger and malnutrition. They knew all about refugee camps in their own devastated country.

But they also knew—from experience—that God can provide in the most unlikely times and ways.

Cathy tells what happened next:

“Kim asked them a question. ‘If any of you didn’t eat today, would you die?’ They all shook their heads, no. They might be hungry, they said, but they wouldn’t die. ‘Well, some of these [Somali] people, if they don’t eat today, will die,’ she said. ‘Do you think there’s anything you could do to help?’”

They answered yes, pointing out that even if they donated only a few coins, they could help a little. Then Kim stepped forward and told them that WOH would match whatever they offered.

Cathy continues:

“The women returned a month later … and had raised a bit of money, but not much. They wanted to do more. So they decided to take an offering that night. What happened next was amazing.

“About 50 women came forward to give. One by one, they lined up—blind women being led by the hands of children, and others in wheelchairs—to drop their few coins in a cardboard box.” (Click here to see a picture.)

Those dear souls collected $30. With WOH’s matching gift, they sent $60 to World Concern!

“‘I know it’s not much,’ Kim said when I spoke with her on the phone,” Cathy says.

“‘Oh, but it is,’ I said. We’ve been asking donors to give $60 to provide emergency food rations, access to clean water, and long-term assistance to a family affected by the famine.

“‘It’s perfect.”

Perfect, indeed!

I hope you’ll join me in praising God for those dear women in faraway Sierra Leone. Pray with me that God will provide for those impoverished, hopeless women in the same way He did for the widow who gave, for Jesus said,

“Give and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands—more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.” (Luke 6:38, New Century Version)

Let us never doubt the truth of these words, spoken by a man who knows—because he has seen it over and over again:

“God can do so much with just one person

who is willing

to respond to His call.

What He asks is not that we possess great skill

or ability or fame.

Instead, He simply asks

for us to be willing to be used by Him.

Whether that results in

the liberation of nations or racial groups,

or whether it means that one child can go to school,

saying ‘yes’ to God changes the world.”

 

Rich Stearns, President of World Vision