CMaDFA: South America visit Learn about Meal-a-Day projects with Bruce Parker and Steve Johnson while they travel in South America.

Reflections

Bruce's reflections after 3 weeks on the road in South America for Meal-a-Day:

It's all about the little ones! The poorest, the little children, the widows and orphans and abused and neglected. Seeing the hard work the recipients of our help are willing to put in on the construction of water and power systems is incredible... they work sooooo hard. Trying to emulate Jesus' love and compassion for the most needy among us is a privilege indeed.

I'm continually amazed at our "Partners", people of great integrity who are working incredibly hard for the least among their societies. One was representative... "I could go to work tomorrow for the Gold Mine at a much higher salary and benefits, but I choose to work for the neglected of my country". We are actively visiting and corresponding with another 3 to 5 prospective partners. Many of our current partners would like to expand what they do with us. What we can do is up to our donors. We seek to demonstrate our ability and integrity, so North American Christadelphians will consider allowing us to steward all their charitable contributions. Steve's work on this blog has been amazing. We are trying so MANY ways to get the word out about Meal a Day. Having nearly 800 unique visitors to this blog from over 31 different countries  was incredible! So far Meal a Day of America has only received donations from a little over 100 donors (individuals, Bible school collections, ecclesias, and businesses), so the potential is there for the work to grow.

I've had a chance to think deeply about Meal a Day, often along with Steve. We really want to get more young people involved, and are dreaming of a 2 week hands-on project in Latin America, where 20 or more young North American Christadelphians can learn first hand of the needs, and help to meet them. We dream of developing the next generation of Meal-a-Day leaders so they can run this program within 5 years. We like having both Brothers and Sisters as Directors, Sisters give a needed perspective, especially when caring for women and children!

My time with Steve was wonderful... he has been a blessing to me spiritually and naturally. As you can imagine, this trip has been demanding... we did NOT share some of the dangers or health challenges. We slept in a total of 14 different places along the way, including a bus one night. As Steve noted, this is tough on us "old geezers". If you wrote 4 "M"'s in a row, like this MMMM, that was what our trip was like, moving from close to sea level to elevations up to 14,000 ft, again and again. If you have never done it in a short trip, you have no idea how physically demanding (punishing) it is, but that is what this trip required, visiting 17 projects or potential projects. Please recall that no Meal a Day donations were spent on any aspect of this trip, we footed our own bill because we want ALL of your donations to go to the needy!

Seeing more than a dozen Christadelphians along the way was wonderful. Nothing makes up for missing Joanie and other beloved family and friends, but to see people of faith enduring challenging conditions... well, please join me in praying for them, including the missionaries there.

It has been a privilege to make this trip, to be sure our partners are performing as expected, and to become better informed and more thoughtful about the "good works in the name of Jesus" that we will continue to support with your donations.

In the Master's service,

Bruce

Steve's reflections after 3 weeks on the road in South America for Meal-a-Day:

This trip has been about accountability.

I feel a great accountability to God and Jesus and to those who contribute to Meal-a-Day.   I want those we partner with in Latin America and the Caribbean to feel accountable to Meal-a-Day for the way they spend the money we give them.

This trip has been about learning.

- learning how to evaluate work being done on the ground and communicating with our partners about how we’d like to see our resources go to help “the poorest of the poor.”

-learning from Bruce about how to ask good questions...and learning from him how to focus on being a spiritual person.

-learning how to do a blog.  Using new technology (at least, new to me) is good for my 57-year old brain.

I’ve learned that the world is not that big, with wi-fi in nearly every place we’ve stayed between forays into the wild beyond the grid.  I’ve also learned that the world is huge in its diversity, something that helps me appreciate my place in it.

I’ve learned that there is a great divide between the  “have and have nots”...the poor and those not-so-poor (i.e. people like you and me) who may live just a few blocks or a few thousand miles away.

This trip has been about possibilities.

Possibilities for children:

-       who won’t become sick from bad water, or freezing, damp bedrooms, or smoky houses;

-       in poor barrios who are inspired to go to public school and get an education;

-       saved from abusive environments, who might now not only survive, but flourish and become productive adults;

Possibilities for teens:

-       who might make better life decisions once they get out of prison; who will make better life decisions while they live out their sentence in prison.

Possibilities for women:

-       to improve themselves and thereby improve life for their families;

-       who get “a voice” in their community which leads to better health care, better education and ways to support their homes;

-       who won’t get lung cancer at an early age from breathing smoke from cooking fires;

Possibilities for people:

-       who can harness the power of a little electricity to help them scratch out a living with a little less back breaking labor;

-       who can light their homes without smoky fires;

-       to mitigate the effects of poverty and to reduce suffering.

Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund of the Americas is not just about helping those who have less in developing countries.  It has the potential to become a training ground for our next generation, a place to learn new leadership skills that will serve our community and communities around the world.  If our Lord blesses our efforts we plan to grow Meal-a-Day into an organization that provides a place for young people to develop a sense of service, that gives them a way to give back in a practical way as they internalize the spiritual values of the Lord Jesus, and do good works in his name.

To me, Meal-a-Day is an extension in the present of the ideals of the Kingdom of God.  If we’re excited about the idea of Jesus coming back to bring equity for the poor, to satisfy every need, to set things right on earth again, if we’re looking forward to that… then doesn’t it make sense to try to spread those ideals now in practical ways?

Fundamentally, Meal-a-Day is your organization, if you want it to be.  I’m passionate about it but without money in the bank, there’s not much that can be done in a practical way.  The more financial support Meal-a-Day gets, the more good can be done, the more caring gifts from the Christadelphians can be given.  To that end, please consider letting us steward the money you might be giving to non-Christadelphian charities.  Please don’t divert any funds that you might be giving to preaching organizations like CBMA or WCF.  The work of spreading the gospel is vitally important.  But surely we all can do better when it comes to sharing our abundance with those less fortunate.

Thanks so much for sharing the journey that Bruce and I have undertaken in the last three weeks.  Please help us move forward into the future of possibilities as we wait for the Lord Jesus to return.

Que Dios les bendiga.

Steve

PS:    What are your reflections?  Hit Add a Comment and let all of us know.

PPS:   Please rank these catagories of projects from 1 to 6, 1 being most important to you and email me your list at   stephenjohnson@verizon.net  -   • child & teen prisoner education    •    child rescue and orphanages    •    pure water    •    basic electricity    •    women's programs    •    home improvements for health benefits