“Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11
What did you have for dinner last night? Did you have enough to eat? Did you go to bed hungry? Did you have something to eat before you came to school this morning? Those are a sample of the questions that a Trinity/HOPE mission team member will ask about a dozen or so children while visiting their school in Haiti. Answers don’t very too much, seventy percent generally answer ‘no’ to eating questions and ‘yes’ to the question about going to be hungry.
When was that last time that you would have answered ‘no’ to eating before bed or before you left for school or work? In North America we might ‘skip’ a meal if we are in a hurry to get somewhere. Our children come home after school and open the fridge door and stand in that cool air spend time just considering all the options for a snack before dinner.
A dietitian from Vanderbilt University was asked to put together a good meal for Haitian children considering the ingredients available. The photo is what a child in Haiti quite often has for lunch at school, if there is a Trinity/HOPE feeding program; many schools have no such program. A bowl of beans, rice, vegetable oil, tomato paste, onions, maggi and little bit of smoked red herring for seasoning; the children absolutely love it.
This bowl is for a medium sized child, costs a quarter for their meal for the day. What a bargain. When they pray the Lord’s prayer and come to the “Give us this day our daily bread” their heads nod as the words leave their lips. Sadly, we take that petition for granted too often as our cupboard and fridge are generally full of food. Next time you pray before your meal, pause and think about a child in Haiti and their noon meal, praying over that bowl of beans and rice and consider how blessed you are and how you could be a blessing to one of them with your abundance.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay