Life continues to be exciting here in Mpumalanga, South Africa because doors continue to open in all sorts of interesting ways for spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.  Although we had never planned nor had given a thought about being used in the ministry of food (except for our House Church penchant for eating together at least once a week), we have stumbled into opportunity after opportunity to receive free food.  I’ll explain in a moment how we are distributing this food but it’s important that we give credit to the Lord and to the farmers who are giving what they have to the poor.

One farmer invited us to pick cabbages in his fields.  The vegetable vendors had already picked the biggest and best cabbages.  The farmer could have made money from the remaining cabbages but he and his wife said that the Bible talks about harvesting once and then leaving the rest for the orphan, widow, and alien, ie: the poor!  In the last two weeks Scott and Kobus DeWitt have picked and delivered about 1000 heads of cabbage.  Cabbage is an important food in Africa as the people cook it and eat it with paap/sudza, a white, corn meal stable, piled high on the plate!

A family poultry-egg producer in a nearby town has been contributing 45 dozen eggs a week for the past three weeks.  They ask for no money.  They just want to know that this important protein is getting to the most vulnerable people.  They said that we can come and collect the 540 fresh eggs every week!  Jeanette De Witt felt that the Holy Spirit led her to make a call to this egg farm and ask if they had any eggs to contribute.  She had no idea how generous these people would be.

Although the season just ended, for several weeks we were invited to glean in the fields of a local citrus farm.  Darryl Mather-Pike ran into an old acquaintance that owns the farm and asked, “Do you have any oranges that you can’t sell?” The farmer gave us permission to take every orange that was lying on the ground.  The citrus farms aren’t able to sell fruit that has fallen because by the time it gets to the market in other parts of the country the fruit has developed bruised areas.  All in all we were able to collect and distribute 1,200 to 1,400 hundred pounds of oranges! 

God is amazing!  All of these gleaning opportunities came to us immediately – within 48 hours -after our team prayed for a way to get food to the young people, (many orphans) with whom we have started Discovery Bible Studies/Simple Churches and for their neighbors in need.

We (Strategy Coordinators; Darryl, Jeanine, Kobus, Jeanette, Scott and Becky) have taken this food to two different Townships.  The eggs and cabbages have been given weekly to a feeding center connected to the church where we are part of a Sewing Guild/Small Business and Discovery Bible Study ministry with 12 women from the sprawling Masoyi Township.  250 orphan children eat at this outdoor center, (very primitive-two giant pots cooking paap over an open fire) each weekday.  The 12 women in the sewing guild also receive this food.  They take what their family needs and they distribute the rest to needy neighbors.  (That is part of the Discovery Bible Study emphasis)

Each week we’ve taken a pickup truck load of eggs, oranges, and cabbage to the Msogwaba Township where we meet with young adults for a Discovery Bible Study.  We remind all, “We didn’t pay anything for this food.  It’s a gift, “With Love from Jesus”; take what your household needs but distribute all else to those in your neighborhood who are hungry, especially the widows and the orphans, and while you’re doing that ask them if they have any prayer needs and pray for them “In the name of Jesus”.  To see how God answered this prayer for food has made a big impact on the young adults’ level of faith for God to supply all of their needs.

We’ve had such an abundance of food that we’ve been able to give another pick-up truck load to Iris Ministries South Africa to take to the three townships where they are feeding the poor.

So…although we never intended to get involved in food distribution the Lord has been helping us to understand more and more how we need to find creative ways to “help” meet the baseline needs of the people He sends us to.  Food, shelter, and job opportunities really need to be addressed as we move forward in “Making Disciples Who Make Disciple-making Disciples”.  We are very reluctant to just “give” and thereby make those we work with dependant on us.  We rejoice that the Swati and Zulu people we work with can see that this gift of food is truly a gift from God. We also rejoice that those who are in great need - even “Nmonpondo”, the tiny Zionist (a cult) woman with advanced AIDS - get to join in the joy of taking food to others in great need.