Our Daily Bread

Scripture

Give us this day our daily bread.

~Matthew 6:11, LSB

Quote

In a world where we produce enough food to feed everyone, 821 million people – one in nine – still go to bed on an empty stomach each night.

~Food Aid Foundation

 

There are many places where food is scarce and one of those places is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo is a natural wonder with beautiful forest and rivers. Like most Africans, the people are very gracious and they are wonderful host but in the Congo, food is not taken for granted. Christians in the Congo recite Matthew 6:11 in their prayer before meals. They pray this way because they do not know where the next meal will come from. You and I sit down to the table with two refrigerators filled with food, one or two freezers filled with food, one or two pantry’s filled with food; plus the knowledge that Krogers is less than 15 minutes away. Honestly, we are never worried about the next meal. Our worry relates to the type of meal: pork chop or steak. According to the World Hunger Association, 821 million people still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Even more – one in three – suffer from some form of malnutrition. Plus there are multiplied millions who live hand to mouth.

Our good friend Jim, a member of our bible study group at the POINT, shared a bit of his testimony with us a few weeks ago. Jim’s mother died when he was a child and I think he was raised by grand parents who had taken in Jim and his siblings, giving them seven mouths to feed. Jim said, “We lived from day to day. Always one day at a time and our main focus was on getting something to eat.” In case you are wondering, Jim is 93 years old and was born during the final days of the Great Depression. His testimony brought back some old memories.

June and I moved to New Orleans in the fall of 1971. By the time we got checked in to our one room apartment, we had eleven dollars to our name. Neither one of us had a job. I found a job the second day but it was a week before they let me start and then two before my first pay check. The eleven dollars did not last long. Thank the LORD, we some WMU soup mixture. We learned to live hand to mouth. It would be years before we had a pantry, or a freezer. For the last twenty years, we have had two refrigerators, two freezers and for some years we had three freezers filled with food. June has a pantry closet and a pantry in the utility room that would compete with a Dollar General. Our daughter Hannah tells everyone that we were poor when she grew up, and we were compared to others here in the states, but we were rich compared to those in third world countries. This is exactly why everyone needs to visit a third world country. Most Americans, including the Bailey’s, don’t know what poverty is. Daddy averaged feeding eight mouths at the table. We took no vacations. We never went out to eat. We were thrilled to get a coke, ice cream comb or candy bar. We ate a lot of black-eyed peas and turnips in the winter but there was always food on the table. The only time I have went hungry was when I fasted, and that has not been often. Everyone living in these United States is blessed: the problem is–the great majority have never seen how the rest of the world lives and most Americans are ungrateful. Instead of thanking God for what we have, we clamor for more.

Extra

I can tell you one thing: I never remember being out of school on account of rain. The kids are getting a long break. School was canceled today and they are out Friday and Monday. This means worship attendance will be down. It should not be but it will.

Bill Southern got to come home yesterday. Ann Edwards of Somerville, was promoted yesterday around 5:00 pm. Her sister, Sue Ransome has attended GP. June and I are going to try to see them today.

I love sharing good news when I hear it. Keith told me Sunday night that CNN was having all kinds of problems due to their low ratings. There was an 80% drop since the peaceful demonstration in DC on January 6, 2021. It was a peaceful demonstration of Trump supporters. There were no weapons, no vandalism, no violence {except for Capitol Police}, and yet CNN reported it as an insurrection. They portrayed the Trump supporters as thugs, anarchist and criminals. I have been praying for the leftist media to implode and perhaps God is answering that prayer and I praise HIM. I also PRAISE HIM for what is going on in the Methodist Church, thousands of Methodist churches are pulling out of the United Methodist Conference due to their liberal leaning and their blatant disregard for the word of God. Reports are coming in that REVIVAL has broken out on the campus of Ashbury College in Kentucky. Ashbury is a conservative Wesleyan Methodist College. I say, PRAISE THE LORD.

Quote of the Day

If you want real joy, you can’t gain it by comparing yourself to those whom you believe are greater sinners than yourself.

~Calvin Miller {Out of the Depths}

 

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