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One of the projects for the week was to lead a feeding brigade for the hungry in Jalapa. There were a number of things that had to fall into place for this goal to be realized. First, the feeding brigade team was responsible for distributing tickets to the villagers. A ticket equaled a bag of food – pretty important little piece of paper for hungry people. Mrs. Georgia said it had been a while since a group of volunteers had done a feeding brigade; so, the timing was especially critical. We were to distribute tickets through our walking door-to-door, house-to-house in Jalapa and sharing with the families. (I know lots of people have journal entries on that; so, why don’t you dash some thoughts off to me and I’ll post those soon from varied authors? Thanks!)

Due to the power being out our first night (any stories here?) and other extenuating circumstances, the tickets weren’t quite ready on our first visit to town. Other factors for the feeding brigade were the monies all balancing and the food being delivered on time.

As the week progressed and the days dwindled, we were afraid that our project would not be completed. However, as always, God’s timing is perfect. We received word that everything was settled and the food was being brought out to the mission house for us to sort. So, our eager feeding brigade team walked up to the mission house to prepare those bags.

In the old days, everything had to be measured out and individually bagged. Can you imagine? These days, things are more streamlined and efficient. There were boxes and bags of individually-wrapped items: cornmeal, rice, clover, bouillon cubes, cooking oil, oatmeal, salt, and cookies. The beans came in one huge bag; so, we had to measure and bag those items. But, considering the old ways, we were okay with this.

Basically, we made an assembly line of chairs and items to sort. We would pass a pink bag down the line and each member would drop their item in it. By the end of the line, a family would have a substantial gift. By the end of the bags, our mission would be complete.

So, we began the line: a bag of beans, a bag of cornmeal, two salts, bouillon cubes… We were starting to get the hang of it.

However, just a few bags into the whole process, we reached in to pull out cornmeal . The meal poured out of a gaping hole in the side of the bag. We all gasped! That hole would not have been a big deal at home; but, we knew 100 people would be present for that food and it looked like someone would be going without. An audible sigh occurred.

Someone said, “Pray. Let’s just pray that’s the only one.” So, we breathed our prayers and quietly continued our work, anxiously peering into the depths of those bags.

As we worked, we soon were chatting again. No more holes, no more spills. Weren’t we amazed when we got to the last few bags? There had been 100 servings of salt. 100 bags of cookies. 100 bags of rice. 100 servings of everything… but, there were one hundred and one bags of cornmeal!  God provided exactly what we needed – in an immediate, physical answer to our pleas and prayers.

None of us will ever look at cornmeal in the same way again…