Backpackmission

January is usually an exciting time, filled with hopeful thoughts of new beginnings and fresh starts for most of us. When the snow arrived a few weeks ago I could not help but feel like a little girl again looking out on a winter wonderland. As day after day went by with a record number of below freezing temperatures the phone calls started coming in for help. Families were stranded without electricity and food.

One phone call was from a teenage boy asking if I could send money to a store so that he could walk a few miles down the road and buy food for his mother and him. They had spent the month of December combing the woods looking for sticks and dead trees to cut up for fire wood. When I visited them at Christmas they proudly showed me the results of all their labor. They had worked really hard to gather and stack that wood and because of their efforts they would be warm this winter.

When the electricity went out, they not only had heat but they could also cook on the top of the woodstove. But now they were out of food and his mother was too embarrassed to make the call herself. She had finally allowed him to call. Later when I called to check on them she thanked me for helping and told me they were having fried bologna and beans for dinner. You could hear the relief in her voice. As we were ending the phone call she very quietly said, “DeeDee, I am so sorry we had to ask you for help. I promise we will pay you back when we get some money.” I assured her that the food had come from the Lord and that she did not need to do anything put thank Him for His love.

The children were out of school from December 18th until this past week because of the snow, ice and sleet. The main roads were cleared but the backroads in the mountains are very shady and remain icy for a long time. It was very troubling to lie down at night and know that the children were not getting their Backpack food each week or their meals at school. Before school had let out for Christmas the teachers had packed as much extra food in the backpacks as they could, hoping to help them get through the two weeks they would be out of school. But as the days turned into weeks, I knew there were some very hungry children that we could not reach.

When the sun came out and the temperatures rose, we all hurried to gather and deliver the food to the schools so that they could fill those backpacks and feed the children again. This last trip we had so much food we had to rent a 22’ truck to deliver it all. What a wonderful, blessed time it was unloading that truck and imagining the faces of the children who had been waiting so patiently for someone to bring food.

Being out of school for snow days is only fun if you have a warm bed to sleep in and food to eat. We are so thankful that school is back in session and the children are carrying home their backpacks loaded with food again.

Thank you for your prayers and for your support. It is only because of you that we can carry out this work for the Lord.