Christmas Carol!
On December 21st we held a last minute Christmas Carol on our land for the school. Here is an update from the team on the ground:
If I have opportunity of giving a title to this carol, I will tag it, “People are Suffering”. As we drove in, trying to negotiate the final bend to park the car, a young boy quickly moved to the road and checked from some distance away to see if we are the ones. As soon as he recognized that this is RHM, he ran back to the crowd that are already waiting to declare unto them that we have come. It became very clear to me, the excitement in the people of old time whenever Jesus passes, He’s in the house or standing on the way. A parent told me how she woke up and could not see the grand children, only to realize that they had already gone for a carol that would commence by 4pm. She made it to the venue, saw them there, returned home to clean up and eventually stayed with them till we arrived. Definitely, it confirmed what our host told me, that as early as 8am, people had started arriving. Another one told me of a child that quickly told the parents to bathe him as early as possible and went to the venue to wait. Therefore, when we arrived some minutes after 3pm, we decided to buy them crackers and sachet water and straightaway we served 144 biscuits. So, we knew from that point that we must get our plans right when it came to serving the main food.
Thanks to God and to the Public Relations Officer of the community who had helped us arrange the chairs and canopy. We had nothing to do until we swung into action close to 4:30pm, kick starting the carol with 4 carol song sessions, exhortation and reminding all about the RHM vision. The chairman of the housing corporation zone gave the vote of thanks and some minutes to 6pm, we started distributing the cooked jollof rice served with meat. By our counting, we served 196 people. I ensured that the parents (about 20 of them) went home with a double package of jollof rice.
Tracts were stapled with the program and over 20 people made a decision for Christ. We commended them to God’s grace, trusting Him to guide their paths.
As I close, I remember how I struggled to convince some of the parents that the core focus of the RHM vision is for the poorest of the poor in the society. Two different groups of parents, without discussing with themselves, argued with me that they are equally poor and needed support as well. They pleaded with us to include their wards in the vision. It was after much discussion on this that they agreed that there are some worst cases and then pointed a family to me. Like the word of Jesus paraphrased here, the poor will continue to remain in the land. Though the needs are really too much and we can’t satisfy all, but I can understand why Jesus wept when He saw the sheep without shepherd, asking for more laborers. We will continue to give ourselves unto God in prayers to send help and laborers into His fold.
I conclude by saying brethren, “People are really Suffering”. Till this moment, it is still unthinkable for me how human beings, both children and adults, could wait all day for a plate of rice without complaining. They kept on drinking water from our neighbor’s house while waiting and I saw one with 5 liters of water using it to fill his belly as they waited. Thanks to God for I know that last night, several homes in that community did not cook dinner, especially those parents who followed their children to the venue. This is because God used Rescue the Hopeless Mission/African Hope Ministry to meet their needs.
Maranatha!
– Yemi, Vice President, Rescue the Hopeless Mission
