EMERGENCY PANDEMIC RELIEF
A worldwide lockdown began over the weekend of March 20th, 2020. In the developed nations, as the economies shuttered, lower income families were forced by the millions to seek help at foodbanks. Lines stretched for miles as suddenly impoverished families had no other means to feed themselves and their children.
For middle America and for the wealthy, the lockdown has been more of an inconvenience, or an annoyance; those with means still have full refrigerators and their children still have full bellies. Their biggest challenge is finding something to entertain the children with while one or more spouses works at home. They don’t have to awaken every morning to the sound of their children crying because there is no food to eat.
May God have mercy on us all. For those who chose to look, the suffering caused by the global lockdown within the slums of third world countries has become unbearable and for many, it is no longer survivable. And they don’t have foodbanks to turn to and the only outreach available in some of the world’s poorest slums are the relief efforts being conducted by small churches and Christian orphanages, themselves operating on shoestring budgets. But the believers who oversee these ministries are real Christians who see the need, and are trying to respond as their means permit.
How bad is it? It’s worse than you can imagine. Whole families have been trying to commit mass suicide by eating rat poison. A Christian couple was planning to kill their 3 children and then themselves with razor blades they had purchased with their last 5 cents to stop the pain of starvation. It had been days since they had eaten anything. The father works as a sewage cleaner and hardly earns enough each day for the family to survive but after the lockdown, this family was hit so hard that survival became impossible. The father at first decided to rob someone but then his wife told him “what are we teaching our kids?” so the couple decided, it’s better to die than to starve every day.
That is when Jesus intervened and a Christian relief worker from one of the poorest orphanages in the country showed up at the front door with a small portion of food. When the family opened the door and saw the food, both husband & wife started shaking. When asked, are you okay, they shared their story which was so heartbreaking. They were given extra food and also shared God's word. They both repented and gave their hearts to Jesus. They were told soon we will come back and give them another food package so keep praying and keep trusting God.
These stories are endless. Farmers whose crops are ruined, drinking insecticide to die and suffering Christ-less eternity. We who are the true Christians of the west must respond. Christians all over the 3rd world are now starving because of the shutdown. We must stand up for the poor, the widows, and the orphans. That is our duty before our God. When we were living in spiritual poverty in some of Satan’s worst spiritual slums, Jesus stood up for us. Now its our turn to stand up for Him.
At Answer the Call International, we are responding. Through our outreach ministries in the poorest parts of India, Nepal and Panama, our ministry partners are feeding thousands. We are working to expand our relief efforts into the Christian communities of Pakistan. But we are not a wealthy ministry. No one on our staff has ever earned a salary. So far, the only funds we have raised are from our own volunteers who already give of their time and money to reach the poor and rescue orphans from the street and poverty. Please pray about helping us! A friend of our ministry, Benjamin Baruch, was praying about what we should do to reach the poor in the third world slums and the LORD told him, “if not now, when?”
Lea Haisch, the Director of Answer the Call International, and Benjamin Baruch, have developed a relief plan which will enable our ministry partners to reach thousands who are suffering with vital food and with the vital spiritual truth of salvation in Jesus name.
Our vision is to provide for meals for thousands of people each day over the next 6 months, and give a total of 500,000 meals. Food prices have increased and it is very costly to feed so many people.
Please pray about helping us.
We at ATC are already stepping out in faith and spending the funds for the first week before even asking for your help.
Please make a generous gift, of $10, $100 or if you are able, $1,000 or more.
If we have the funds, we can go beyond our vision to provide 500,000 meals in these countries.