God’s Work Our Hands: Bearing Burdens for Smiles

2020 has been a difficult year for all of us. But despite the hardships, many of us have experienced God’s presence and provision in new and mighty ways. This is especially true for the people of India. For the past several months, through God’s work our hands, God has faithfully provided food for thousands of desperate families. These families are not just receiving food, they’re also hearing the good news of Jesus Christ and experiencing the love of God in a real and tangible way.

News From India

The following is an update from an indigenous CWM pastor, only edited slightly for security and readability. We hope you are both encouraged, and challenged, by this brief first hand account of the amazing work of God in India.

Greetings once again in the mighty name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We are thanking the Lord for the great provision we had during this lock-down. We have been able to feed and show the love of God to thousands of poor families around our church area. It is a joy to reach them with the love of God. Not only that, we receive great honor and respect from these religious people, which we had never seen before. They used to be hard-hearted and angry towards us.

We have had many challenges during this world pandemic. In addition to COVID, we have been facing weather disasters (many hurricanes) which makes things spoiled and causes the price of the food and groceries to go up. At the beginning of the pandemic, we started feeding about 400-500 families each week, and now it reaches about 2,000 families every week. We also share food with children and about 400 widows every week.

Last week, as we have been short of funds, we did not feed the people. But the people lined up Wednesday as usual and stayed until about 2 or 3 pm, although I told them that we are not going to do anything as we had no funds. When they called me, I said maybe on Friday and they did the same thing, lining up at 4 am and waiting for hours to get vegetables.

Winter is beginning here. This is the season we get fevers, colds and coughs. People are afraid that they are COVID symptoms. Still, things need to be settled from these world calamities. Kindly continue to pray and seek the Lord to help these people at least until the end of the year, maybe another two months to help them to survive. It is another hard work for me in many things, but I am glad to bear it as I see smiles on the faces of the aged and of the children.

I am continually praying and thanking the Lord for all your love and care. On behalf of all our church believers and people in our village, I am thanking and glorifying God for what we all do as a team.

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Pastor S

God’s Work, Our Hands

It’s an incredible privilege to be able to partner with God. It’s God’s work, our hands that join with him to make it happen. If you feel the Lord’s prompting to be involved with this effort, there are two ways that you can make a difference.

The first way to help is to pray.

Pray that:

• The Lord would continue to provide for the people who are showing up week by week for food
• The Lord would open people’s hearts to receive spiritual food as well, the gospel of Jesus Christ
• The workers distributing the food would have God’s strength and protection

The second way to help is to give.

Jesus teaches us to “not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matt 6:19-20).

Giving to feed the hungry and further the gospel is a great way to store up true riches! If you’d like to join God’s work and be his hands and feet, you can give safely and securely here.