ASSEMBLIES OF GODThank you for giving to BGMC!
What fun! This week we’re adding one more segment to our aquaponics garden—a 30’ long vertical growing area for 375 Pii Chay or Pak Choy plants, which are delicious and rich in iron. In about 40 days or less, these vegetables should be ready for harvest and gratefully received as a supplement for often skimpy meals of poor people attending Family Circus. Last week we harvested 500+ catfish from the fish pond and distributed them to our grateful families. Note: Convoy of Hope just sent us a container of food with 142,542 packaged meals designated for the Family Circus feeding program. That’s enough food to provide one meal a day to our 1,000 registered and qualifying malnourished children, widows, pregnant and nursing mothers. That should last us until May, providing we add no new malnourished kids or widows to the list.
It’s hard to say “No” to the malnourished hungry kids. We pray even now, asking the Lord to supply more food. While we pray, we work, planting and expanding our aquaponics garden. Clearing customs for the container cost over $5,000, about $.02 cents for each meal. The meals were donated and shipped to us from the US. If we received another full container of meals added to what we just received, it would give us 427,662 meals for the year. That would be so much better. Can you see me smiling? ;-)
We’d also like to be able to respond to disasters and perhaps even give our extra-needy children more than one meal per day. Some of our children, with what we currently give them, are able to eat two small meals a day. At that amount, it’s a slow process to rescue them from the negative impact of malnutrition. We want so badly to put extra weight on their thin bodies. Can you see His tears? In 2011, we gave an average of one meal a day for a total of over 320,000 meals. I pray we do way more than that this year.
A wonderful testimony occurred when the local Food and Drug person came to certify that the food was proper and not past expiration date, and took a tour of the Family Circus campus, dental lab, food distribution, gardens, etc. The Food and Drugcertification lady marveled at all we do weekly for
the thousands of kids, and wiping tears from her eyes, she said, “I’ve never seen anyone helping the children like you are.”
Thank you, BGMC, for partnering with us. We could not do what we do without your help!
Darrell & Sandy Blatchley
Missionaries to the children of the Philippines