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FEEDING BODY AND SOUL
On the night of October 3, 2016, Hurricane Matthew tore through the southwest region of Haiti. Powerful winds and torrential rain washed away fields, livestock, and homes and ripped roofs off houses, churches, and schools. The only bridge linking the region to the rest of the country was destroyed. Suddenly, farmers who had been exporting agricultural produce could no longer feed even their own families.
People of The United Church of Canada responded generously. The money raised was divided among Mission & Service partners in Haiti: the Methodist Church in Haiti, ACT International (an ecumenical emergency and development coalition), and the Institut Culturel Karl Lévêque(ICKL). $25,000 was directed to ICKL, a popular education and development agency that is a long-time United Church partner. ICKL used these emergency funds from the United Church to purchase rice, maize, beans, and cooking oil and to truck it over nearly impassable roads to communities where people had gone for days without food or shelter from the heavy rain. The food was distributed not only to groups associated with ICKL but also to the wider community. “They were hungry, too,” the farmers say.
It is this spirit of cooperation, mutual support, and self-sufficiency that ICKL encourages and nurtures through its training and group animation workshops that are supported by our ongoing gifts for Mission & Service. Mission & Service supports our ongoing partnership with ICKL and its work that feeds both body and soul.
If Mission & Service giving is already a regular part of your life, thank you so much! If you have not given, please join me in making Mission & Service giving a regular part of your life of faith. Loving our neighbour is at the heart of our Mission & Service.
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