Stories
Seven in the morning yawning and cold we are waiting for the fresh chicken to arrive.
Over the next three days chickens and cartons filled with beef, rice, oil, vegetables, fruit, and cakes will pass through our hands to 500 families just in time for Christmas dinner.
Each of these three mornings the team walks in clean and walks out covered with dirt from vegetables and with tired muscles from filling and giving out boxes.
“This box needs rice!” and “I need potatoes here” are shouted across the room as everyone works together to sure that each box is full and ready to be handed out. As the boxes are filled they begin to overflow out the door, as we don’t have room for everything inside.
The people start to arrive and the tent must go up. The rain is coming. We can’t stop there are too many boxes and the guys helping carry the baskets get the ‘short end of the stick’ as they go back and forth with baskets, in and out of the rain.
Many of these families are early anxious to be able to give their families a Christmas meal. Because of the economic situation in Lebanon and the dramatic decline in the currency most families cannot afford any chicken or meat in their diets. To be able to have chicken on Christmas is a special treat, and some have tears in their eyes as they receive their box.
On the Monday after Christmas as the team arrived there were over 100 messages on our hotline. They were messages of thankfulness and gratefulness from families that were able to celebrate because of our work.
During these tough times we want to be able to bring a light to Christmas just as we were brought the light of Christ.
It was a dark time filled with uncertainty that Christ came as the light to bring hope. We in the same way want to bring His hope through bringing practical help. It starts one by one. Bringing practical help to the body, that allows us to speak the hope of the Savior to the soul. He is the hope that fills empty stomachs and empty souls. This is Christmas, the coming of hope, the coming of Christ.