Saving Them Twice

As many of you know, much of what I talk about here has to do with food- how we grow food, recipes for food, how we can and freeze food, how our chickens provide us with food (eggs and meat), and I even talk about how the menace-that-is-sugar isn't food from time to time.  Today is no different.  I'm here to write about food once again, but this time there's a twist you may not have been expecting.

Can you imagine 900 children showing up at your house twice a week for lunch?  Can you imagine feeding a baby special formula every 15 minutes, around the clock after clock after clock after clock?  Can you imagine living in a place where almost daily people bring you children and infants on the verge of death due to malnutrition and starvation?  Now try imagining that you're a mother who has nothing but water to feed her baby because your milk has dried up from lack of food (and water) and you have no means to buy food.

Hm.  Not usually what we think about when we think about food, eh?  Before a couple months ago, I was right there with you- happily going about my day to day life, going grocery shopping whenever I needed anything, experimenting with recipes and the food that literally overflows from my garden, fridge and cupboards. I was feeling pretty good about the food choices we make- to grow much of our food or buy it locally.

Then, via their blogs, I met Katie and Renee.

These are two young women who have decided that others needs should come before theirs in the name of Christ.

When I was in my early twenties, I was finishing up college at a private university.  I was looking forward to marrying Jamey, finding a job as a social worker, making our apartment a home and starting a family before too long.  You know, living the American dream.

Well, when Katie and Renee were in their early twenties, they chose to move to Africa.  Each works for a different non-profit agency they started to bring aid and the gospel to the people of Uganda.  Katie (who is 21 years old) has adopted 14 orphaned Ugandan girls as her own, sends over 350 children to school, has helped develop feeding programs (feeding 1200 a day) and a women's group, providing them with an income through these necklaces.  Renee takes in severely malnourished infants and babies who require around the clock care, nurses them back to health, educates their caregivers, and returns them to their families as well as feeds over 900 children lunch two days a week.

Even more amazing than their dedication and love for these people is the incredible transformations God is working through them in the lives of so many children and their families.  Katie and Renee are acting as God's hands and feet.

I wasn't called to this kind of ministry in my early twenties.  I take that back.  I read the Great Commission many times in my Bible (Matthew 28:18-20), but I didn't act on it.  Instead, I wanted a husband, children, a house, a yard, vacations, nice clothes, to live near family, enough food...you get the picture.  It was a choice.  But, nowhere in Matthew 28 does it say, "Some of you, go and make disciples of all nations" or "A chosen few, should baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit".  Oh, yeah and then there is James 1:27, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world".

And, I'm pretty sure that if I consider myself a follower of Jesus, I'm to listen to what Jesus told his disciples.  But, we're not all Christian robots, programmed to do what will please Him.  We get to choose and I made a different choice.

Because of Katie and Renee, I want to change my choice.

Or rather, I want to adapt the choice I made.  Some changes are going to be happening around here and thankfully, Jamey is fully on board.  We live on a budget (because we have no job currently).  But that budget is as cushy as all get out compared to the needs of those children and mothers in Uganda.  We've decided to  tighten our belts so we can provide more, not just for our family but, for others.

Have you heard of the saying, "Live simply so that others can simply live"?  Well, I'd like to take it one step farther.  Our new mantra around this house is going to be "Live simply so that others can simply live- now and forever".  Filling bellies is saving someone once.  Introducing them and their families to Jesus Christ, could save them forever.

Becaham, when he first came into Renee's care and Becaham,  4 months later, with his mother.  

Photos courtesy of Serving His Children.

Please read more about Katie and Renee's incredible work (there are more pictures that show the incredible transformation that occurs when children have access to food).  If you feel lead and able, join us in making changes so more children can be fed and saved (maybe even twice).  Both blogs give you opportunities to give. Pin It