Imagine, you’re doing your best to raise 3 kids, and money is so tight that none of you have eaten for days.  You hear about a gig where if you show up to help butcher a pig, you’ll get paid with a small share of the meat.  At last, the kids will have something to stop their grumbling stomachs for a day or two.  You get up at 3am, walk 30 minutes, help with the pig and all the meat processing that ensues and walk home, exhausted.   But the day isn’t over, some strangers come to visit.  Because you know God loves a cheerful giver, you offer your odd guests a bowl of the precious pork rinds you’ve just fried up. 

I was one of those strangers in that group, visiting the neediest people in the rural mountains of Guatemala with Food for the Poor.  When we showed up to meet Maria, her 15-year-old Norma, 12-year-old Marjorie and her little 7-year-old son Joseph, we felt welcome and loved.  Teeny Joseph was so malnourished from illness, he weighed in at a mere 35 pounds.  He looked four. When Maria offered us the pork rinds, I choked sobs down from deep in the back of my throat, mustered a smile and graciously declined. 

Maria had no idea when she would find another gig to earn a little food for her precious family, yet she gave cheerfully. We all learned about the widow’s mite in Sunday School.  But to see that kind of sacrificial, cheerful giving in real life changed me.  

When people ask me and Kevin, “What’s one of the best parts of your job?” Without hesitation, we both answer, “helping raise money for Food for the Poor”. It’s such an honor to bring you stories of faith like Maria’s.  We’re so humbled and moved by how YOU respond, knowing that your donation will be given through the local church whether it’s Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, or many of the other countries they serve.   You, our fabulous Fish listeners are cheerful givers. 

We look to our next Day of Hope with Food for the Poor on Tuesday, March 16^th with much anticipation.  As we try to help God’s children in the Central American countries FFTP serves, the needs are great.  The pandemic is raging, back-to-back Hurricanes have ravaged the countryside, destroyed crops, and huger has never been more rampant.  Will you be that cheerful giver?  Will you share from the lot or little you have to share God’s heart and God’s love with the least of these?  My prayer is that you will be changed by this experience as well and you know the feeling that it truly is better to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)