Miracle Peanut Butter

“Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and He will give a reward to the lender”-Proverbs 19:17

You know the amazing thing with studying the Scriptures, you can read a text a 100 times and on the 101st time a verse or truth jump off the page and like some flashing LED lights on Time Square.  You want to ask, where have you been hiding all my life?  I had one of those LED light moments last week as I have been praying through my personal involvement in the Advent Conspiracy (worship fully, spend less, give more and love all) as a life style adjustment, not just a seasonable observance.  The verse that jumped off the page at me was Proverbs 19:17.  Though I had read the verse many times, this time my heart was more pliable.   Couple a more pliable heart with resent conversations about the malnutrition opportunities in West Africa I found the verse to be biblical confirmation that the McDaniel’s, and prayerfully GPC, would be a part of showing kindness to the poor and allow the Lord to “reward” us as the lender.  I figure God owns it all anyway, I must be willing to release what he has entrusted to me if someone else needs my resources more than I do.

“Mark,” a field representative we support through our church Global Mission Offerings, called me recently from Mali and told me of an opportunity to help be a solution to a horrific hunger problem in the country.  He told me that 38% of the children in Mali suffer from malnutrition.  The malnutrition problem is a major contributor to the fact that 25% of Malian children die before 5 years of age.  Mark spoke of going into a village and coming a across a one year old child who could hardly hold themselves up.  In the adjoining picture you see the mother holding the child steady for the photo.   At 1 year old the baby weighed 11 lbs.  Mark was able to get the child to a clinic where it was weighted and examined.  The clinicians classified the child as being in the top 3% of malnourished children in the world.  The clinic gave him some enriched peanut butter called “Pluppy Nut.”  However, pluppy nut is not readily available in Mali.  It must be imported it into the country which as you might imagine can make is cost prohibitive to developing countries for many.  GPC wants to do away with this hurdle or limitation.

It is our goal to dedicate 1/3 of Grace Points Churches Christmas offering this year to start a Pluppy Nut manufacturing plant in Mali.  It will be approximately a $20,000 investment into the country and the people of Mali that will have zero monetary return to us, but will give life, sustain life and enable many more children to have a chance to hear of the greatest love and gift of all.  This gift we celebrate this Christmas season, Jesus Christ.

See the video below and learn more about pluppy nut and the value it brings to life.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.