Answering The Call | Christmas Edition

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“ For to us a child is born…”

(Isaiah 9:6a, niv)

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“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”

“O Holy Night”

Traditional Christmas Carol

r e e h c y a d i l o h e to provid for my children.

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s Christmas approaches, there isn’t the smell of cinnamon and baked cookies hanging in the air or a home lit up at night, displaying a tall pine tree in the window. For one Guyanese mom, there is just the reminder of how desperate her situation is.

“I get more depressed around Christmastime with the lights and the festivities,” said Millie, a single mother of six children.

“I don’t have that to give them.” Millie says her children, ages 1 through 16, don’t know much about the festivities of Christmas.

They have never decorated their home or experienced the tradition of giving and receiving gifts. They’ve never spent the day cooking up a large meal, and then sitting around a table together to enjoy it.

That’s because this Guyanese family has almost nothing.

Millie’s family lives in a bare one-room shack on tall stilts, where water pools high beneath the home. When a strong gust of wind blows, the house shakes, rattling the zinc walls. The house is cold inside when it rains, and then heats up like an oven when it’s hot. On steamy afternoons, Millie sends the children to sleep in the shaded area under the house, when it’s not flooded.

No matter how bad her situation gets, Millie remembers the words of the Christmas carol “His law is love and His gospel is peace.”

“I always pray that one day things will get better,” Millie said.

But so far, things have not gotten better. Millie says the family barely eats every day. They usually have a little bread in the morning, sometimes a mere pint and a half of rice to share between all seven of them during the day, and a cup of tea before they retire at night. During a visit by our Food For The Poor team in Guyana, the oldest son, 16-year-old Julian (not pictured), rationed out a few crackers for his siblings. Tyrone, a 3-yearold boy with thinning hair — a sign of malnutrition — finished quickly, pouted, and then stared sadly at his empty dish.

Millie’s husband left and does not support the children. Millie tries to make a little money doing odd jobs here and there, but it’s not nearly enough to provide for her family. She feels sad when her children cry from hunger and she has nothing to give them. Too frequently, Millie must beg from her neighbors. Sometimes, the children follow her example and beg too, but Millie immediately puts a stop to it because she says they are too little.

“I cry a lot,” Millie said. “It’s really hard on me.” But Millie stands firm in her faith. “The sisters tell me, ‘Don’t give up. Keep on praying.’”

You can be the thrill of hope for weary Millie this holiday season. Your kind gift for food and a microenterprise project can provide a new and glorious morn for families like Millie’s. X

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heir last real home was a hospital ward, where the young couple kept vigil over their baby, praying he would survive another bout of malnutrition.

For 23 days, Jenier, 1, fought for his life in a hospital in Nicaragua while his worried parents kept watch. During their vigil, Jennifer, 20, and her husband, Neftali, 26, were evicted from their home because they lacked the $32 monthly rent.

“We couldn’t afford to pay the rent because we are poor,” Jennifer said.

Neftali lost his job rolling cigars, but found another one.

Yet he can’t keep up with the quota and gets paid pennies per cigar. It’s not enough to afford rent for another house. So in the meantime, the young couple is living in a closet-sized room given to them by a kind stranger Jennifer met in the hospital. It’s bleak and cheerless, but for now, it’s home. However Jennifer’s biggest concern is little Jenier. He’s already been hospitalized twice with malnutrition.

“When you’re poor, you just have to make do,” Jennifer said.

“Sure, it’s cramped but the alternative is we don’t have a place to go, so we just make do. I just don’t want him to get sick.”

Her eyes fill with tears as she explains how she has no family to turn to, and how the little family is on its own. Jenier is their biggest priority. Often, Jennifer takes what little food she has and goes without eating, giving her portion to baby Jenier.

“Sometimes if someone gives us something good, like a piece of chicken, the three of us split it and we rejoice,” she said.

Faith is her rock, and trust in God gives her comfort when she doesn’t know where the next meal will come from — or when she worries if little Jenier will fall ill from the cold, damp living conditions.

“I pray, ‘God, give me a home. I want a home for my child.’

Every morning and night I pray. When my child is in a grave state, I pray. God gives us strength and when I pray, I feel much better.

I know in my heart that God is the only one who can help.”

Jennifer has deep faith in the Lord and believes God will send someone to help her. “If you don’t love others, you can’t love God,” she said. “I live by the grace of God because God blesses me. He touches the hearts of others to help me.”

Perhaps God is touching your heart to be a blessing to Jennifer and her little family. This Christmas, you can help ensure one less child shivers in the cold with your gift toward food and a real home for a young family like Jennifer's. X

“Do you know what I know?

A child, a child, shivers in the cold…”

“Do You Hear What I Hear?”

Traditional Christmas Carol

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G

loria’s home in Guatemala resembles the stable where Jesus was born. There is no furniture, other than a blanket on the floor they call their bed. There is no heat, except from the roaring fire they must build inside, and there is no door.

The house isn’t even hers. It’s a storage shed belonging to someone else.

In bare feet, her body stooped and her face careworn, Gloria looks far older than her 42 years. She lost her husband two years ago, was kicked out of her home, and ended up squatting in the storage shed. The family has nowhere else to go. Sometimes when they see the owner coming down the road, they run and hide, praying he won’t evict them.

The house offers little protection. Gloria gets scared sleeping here at night because strangers can easily walk inside and hurt her and the children.

“I get scared because we don’t have a door, just a blanket,” she said.

To make matters worse, Gloria had a bad fall while collecting firewood to sell. It was her only means of buying food for her children. She injured her knee so severely that now she hobbles about with a cane, and her children frequently go hungry. Evelyn, 10, and Fernando, 12, must search for firewood to sell while Stephania, 7, remains home with her mother. If the children don’t find firewood and sell it, the family goes hungry.

Gloria and her children are almost always hungry. They rarely eat even one full meal most days. They forage for whatever they can find to throw into the cooking pot… even if the food is rotting. “Five days ago, we found a dead chicken by the river and we brought it back,” she said.

A single mother, Gloria struggles to feed and shelter her three children. But despite her sufferings, Gloria has a deep faith and thanks God for every single blessing.

“I thank God for the life of my children. Even though we struggle to get food, He does not abandon us,” she said. “When I suffer, I just pray to God for help.”

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The girls beg from neighbors, but are often turned down.

And some days, the family has only boiling water to drink to ease the pain in their empty stomachs. Gloria cools down the water by tenderly blowing on it so the children can drink it faster, careful not to spill a drop.

“Today we only had some water because Evelyn is too sick to go to the mountains to find firewood,” Gloria said.

Gloria prays for a little house of their own, where her children could feel safe.

She also prays for a job to support and feed her family.

“I pray and ask God that someone will help us and I’ll be able to feed my children,” she said. “I pray that one day my children and I will have a house of our own.”

You can be the angel that God sends to answer Gloria’s heartfelt prayers for food and shelter for her children. Through your gift, you can ease loving parents' fears and bring hope to families in desperate circumstances. X

“The hopes and fears of all the years, are met in Thee tonight.”

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” Phillip Brooks

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Peace and safety . n e r d l i h c y m r o f

“O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy.

O tidings of comfort and joy.”

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” English Traditional Christmas Carol

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t the tender age of 3, little Alenna has already seen her first dead body.

The man died on the street outside Alenna’s house, a victim of the gun violence that is ravaging the neighborhood — violence that terrifies her mother.

Karen, 43, fears their ramshackle house will get broken into and someone will hurt her four children.

“Sometimes I don’t sleep through the night. I tend to be on the alert. I get up and peep outside. It’s not easy. It’s a very difficult area because of the violence. You can’t relax,” Karen said. “The last time I got a good night’s sleep? Maybe about three years ago.”

Karen and her family live in a rural area in Jamaica. The house is crumbling and infested with rats. The roof has a giant hole and leaks so much, she often has to cook using an umbrella.

Sitting atop a hill, the house has a rotting door that any stranger could easily kick down to break inside. But this single mother can’t afford to move or even make repairs.

“Sometimes when I hear gunshots, everything goes through my mind. I get up to see if anyone is running past the house. It’s nerve-wracking. I think maybe we should get under the bed or maybe we should go to a neighbor’s house because I know this house isn’t secure,” she said.

Fearing the gunshots, son Andrew, 13, refuses to leave the house after dark. He says a prayer to help keep his mother and sisters safe. “God watch over us. God, get me through the days and nights. Don’t let anyone attack us in the street or at home,” he prays.

Karen’s Christmas wishes aren’t for jewelry or a luxury car.

Her wishes are for peace and safety for her children, and a real home where they can sleep through the night without worrying about someone breaking in. She longs for a place where her children can walk outside and not see victims of gun violence or risk getting hit by a stray bullet.

The stress of living in this house is incredible. “The children are my life. That’s why I’ve not gone off the deep end, because of them. Sometimes when things get real bad, I cry but I don’t let them see me,” Karen said.

She gets through with prayer and faith. “Why do I pray a lot? Because I need help. I need strength from God to get through life daily,” she said. “If you don’t pray, things happen.

You don’t want to go down that road. You need to seek God’s guidance in how you go through life.”

You can help fulfill Karen’s Christmas wish for a secure home for her children through your gift. Your support can give the gift of comfort and joy to a mother who only wants to keep her children safe. X

You delivered

holiday cheer to this family

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hanks to your loving generosity, this Guyanese family is praising God this holiday season for the “glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love.”

Your compassion has made blessings flow for Bibi and her children more than she could have ever imagined. This season, they will be able to gather under one roof to cook together, eat together and be merry in a home that’s warm and dry, even when it’s raining outside.

Before you blessed this family with a new home, they were living in a one-room zinc shack with a leaky roof. Bibi’s four children, between the ages of 1 and 15, had only known cramped, damp conditions, where they often suffered from colds and flu. Rainfall regularly soaked their clothes and bed, forcing them to huddle in a dry corner; waiting for the downpour to end.

But even dry days could be miserable. On some nights, the family slept outside because the inside of the home was still too wet. “Sometimes we cry; sometimes, we’re sad,” Bibi shared with us when we first met her. “We beg God that we come out of this poverty. We want to get out of it.”

God used you to answer Bibi’s prayer for her children. Now, her family no longer shudders when the rain falls, which it does

quite often in tropical Guyana. “We’ll be able to keep (the house) clean,” said Bibi’s daughter Lalita, a smiling 15-year-old.

Beaming with pride, Bibi said, “I never thought I would get one. No one offered me a home,” as she watched two men finish painting the front of it a crisp gray with white trim. “I’m very happy I own a home,” she said, and it showed. Bibi had lined the path leading up to the entrance with several planters, each containing various decorative plants, including leafy green crotons and yellow and red flowers she called “jump and kiss.”

The land the house sits on is special to Bibi. The family’s newest addition, 1-year-old Ariane, was born in the far corner of the property because Bibi couldn’t afford transportation to the hospital. Little Ariane will never know how much Bibi and the rest of the family suffered on that land, where they cooked outside over a fire pit, and ate on the bare floor of their shack.

As she lovingly held Ariane, Bibi said, “She has a place to play, a place to sit and eat; a place to sleep when the night comes.”

You have magnificently blessed this loving family, and brought great joy to their world! X

“No more will sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He’ll come and make the blessings flow.”

“Joy To The World” Traditional Christmas Carol

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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

(Romans 15:13)

To watch a slideshow about the families

featured in this newsletter, please scan this QR code, or visit: www.FoodForThePoor.org/christmas

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