A deepening food crisis is threatening the lives and health of more than 14
million people in southern Africa – and Southern Baptists are working to prevent
disaster and share Christs love with hurting individuals.
Officials estimate 300,000 people could die in the next several
months from famine caused by drought, floods, civil war, AIDS and other factors.
A deepening food crisis is threatening the lives and health of more than 14
million people in southern Africa – and Southern Baptists are working to prevent
disaster and share Christs love with hurting individuals.
Officials estimate 300,000 people could die in the next several
months from famine caused by drought, floods, civil war, AIDS and other factors.
The United Nations has requested more than $600 million for food, agriculture
and health aid – and relief organizations are sending thousands of tons
of food into the region.
Meanwhile, missionaries in southern Africa are partnering with
local believers to identify groups overlooked by major aid organizations, which
often focus on heavily-populated areas.
“We attempt to identify the cracks in the plans of the
major donors to see where we can be of some help,” says Sam Upton, a Southern
Baptist missionary who is coordinating relief work in Malawi.
Upton and other believers have made plans to share Christs
love with at least 8,000 families using $90,000 in world hunger funds. The believers
will work in all three regions of Malawi, including the mega-city of Blantyre.
“Over the last 40 years, Malawi has been one of the most
responsive places in the world to the gospel,” Upton says. “We pray
that this opportunity for sharing the gospel will continue to stay open wide.”
Mid-September through mid-October, missionaries and local believers
were planning to distribute starter packs of seed and fertilizer in hopes of
facilitating a better harvest next year. They will use churches as distribution
points, and pastors will share the good news. Believers and non-believers alike
will receive aid.
Next January through March, when hunger is expected to be worst,
Southern Baptists are planning to share maize with the people – beginning
with the elderly, widows and orphans.
“It may get worse before it gets better,” acknowledges
Jim Brown, Southern Baptist International Mission Board human needs consultant.
One pastor reports that families in his village are eating
just two meals per day, usually skipping the noon meal so they do not have to
go to bed with empty stomachs. He says he anticipates they will cut down to
one meal before the April harvest.
Meanwhile, after the pastors adult daughter died, he
began raising her children, along with his own. Eleven hungry people look to
him for food. Many grandparents are in this situation, as hunger – magnified
by drought, disease and the AIDS crisis – takes its toll.
“AIDS has really decimated the southern part of Africa,”
Brown says. “It hits middle-aged, productive people, and youre left
with grandparents and kids.”
Many grandparents do not have the health or the skills to earn
a living, so children are forced to quit school and work to support their families.
“My wife, Marlyn, and I are praying that, as in biblical
times, God will just stretch the corn, and it will not run out,” Upton
says of the situation.
Meanwhile, in Angola, where decades of civil war have just
ended, close to half a million people face starvation. Four million people –
a third of the population – have been driven from their homes.
Southern Baptist missionaries have been providing food, blankets
and other supplies to the displaced people of that country, and they have looked
for opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Because of the generosity of Southern Baptists, missionaries
around the world have hunger funds to turn to – and doors for the gospel
are opened. When missionaries alleviate physical suffering, non-believers see
the love of Christ in action and often become curious about the love that motivates
Christians to help them.
Also, as missionaries meet physical needs, they earn credibility
and are able to share the gospel with village chiefs and government officials.
Disciples are made as local believers serve side-by-side with the Southern Baptist
missionaries.
Southern Baptist workers in Malawi already have used $15,000
in world hunger funds to begin the relief effort. For work planned during the
next several months, they will need $75,000 more.
It is a relatively small amount of money, but the missionaries
have a well-developed strategy to reach people with food, farming supplies and
the gospel. “The plans are very strategic,” Brown says.
In the southern part of Africa today, Southern Baptists are
seeking – and working – to meet hunger needs before the situation
becomes a crisis.
“There is shortage of food and hunger in Malawi, but we
are not yet to the stage of famine,” Upton says.
“Whether or not we reach that stage will depend upon the
response of the world community, including Baptists.” (BP)
(Contributions toward the efforts can be sent to: International Mission Board,
Southern Africa Relief, P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, VA 23230. Every dollar given
will be used 100 percent for relief ministries in southern Africa.)