Southbury Church Reaches Out To Aid the Starving

Written by:  Melissa Trinci

Calvary Church of Southbury has been working with pastors in Malawi and Mozambique, Africa for some time now.  The original reason for a trip there was for their pastor, John Eastwood, to teach newly converted African pastors.  What started as a one-time trip to help teach has turned into so much more.

While speaking to the people, it came to the team’s attention that the Bible was a hard thing for these Christians to come by.  Some pastors were actually ripping the books so that they could share different portions among many.  This brought on Calvary’s first answer to a need in this area; Bibles were bought and distributed to those who wanted to read the Word.

Several needs were slowly brought to their attention and the Africa project has grown quite a bit since that first trip.  There is an abundance of orphaned children due to the AIDS epidemic in this region and there is not enough food to feed them.  These children are often abused due to their needs adding more strain on an already struggling society.  Goats have been purchased for these children so that they would be seen as an asset rather than a burden and treated fairly within their villages.  A feeding center was also built to feed orphans and widows twice a day.

There are often droughts and crop failures in this region.  Wells (or boreholes, as they are called in Africa) have been installed also.  It was found that several villages are in need of clean water.  Women and children are spending days traveling to the cleanest water source and the water is not even close to our standard of clean here in America.  The installation of one well can impact the lives of 2,500 people and only costs around $7,500 US dollars; last year Calvary Church was able to install four.  This year, seven boreholes have been installed so far.  One well allows children to attend school; they were not able to previously due to the time it took to travel to the water source, sleep there overnight and return the following day.  Women are able to work their land and feed their family and neighbors more with the time saved.

Earlier this year, there was a great need due to a drought.  People were unable to plant crops who were already suffering from malnutrition.  Reportedly, there were approximately 11,200 families in crisis.  Calvary of Southbury immediately went into action.  Through their ISEND program, they collected information on what areas were affected and began to devise a plan on how they could help.  After several meetings calculating the cost to supply a family with enough food to get through this crisis, the rest of the church was informed.  The church came together and along with some generous outside donations as well was able to bring some relief to 252 families by providing each with 22 lbs. of corn and 10 lbs. of beans by distributing to those the ISEND pastors labeled as most vulnerable.  The food was distributed through the feeding centers already in place.

This is just an inkling of the need and the work being done by a small church located in Southbury; imagine the possibilities if the surrounding community was also able to donate a portion of their prayers, time or resources.

If you would like to find out more about this African mission, please call Calvary of Southbury at 203-267-5441, visit www.epicentersolution.org or www.calvarysouthbury.com.