“Give us this day our daily bread” is raw reality throughout rural DRCongo.

I caught another glimpse of how poverty and God’s provision go hand in hand, during my recent visit to hospitals at Boko, Kipata Katika and Moanza.

At Kipata, with first light, a stampede of shrill voices and small feet jarred me from sleep. I peered through the window curtain, to see hundreds of children equipped with cups and plastic soda bottles bolting down the path to the savannah hills beyond. “Minuni!” they sang. In cool morning hours, children gleefully gathered this small, “oily” green grasshopper to roast over a fire and eat with “luku” (manioc) – a succulent, protein rich, “daily bread” for the family, as long as the Minuni season lasts. This is God’s amazing provision at this time, and in this place, where protein sources for children are scarce.

Further down the road at Moanza, while exquisite fog still blanketed the valley, I caught sight over the high grass of basins of manioc bobbing along on the heads of women who’d gone to the valley long before light. Moanza, nestled in hills, down a rutted, sandy, winding road, is as isolated ever. As almost everywhere in Congo, God provides for people through manioc, a starchy root with natural insecticide, but growing it is back breaking work, particularly for women.

In sandy Boko, there is no market, and “daily bread” is truly sought daily. Our visit imposed four visitors onto the doctor’s family, so I brought a gift of food to ease the burden. None-the-less, we began hospital rounds early, without waiting for “breakfast”, but it was nearly noon before the Mrs. Kapata summoned us to a table laid with luku and red mushroom sauce. This specialty is scavanged in November from early morning grasslands –– another of God’s provisions.

Praying for daily bread is biblical, but bare survival from grasshoppers to mushrooms, with back breaking cassava cultivation in between, isn’t. How blessed we are that God calls us, and gives us skills to work beside ladies like Mrs. Kapata, and villages whose children delight in “Minuni”, to seek solutions to hunger, contaminated water, diseased bodies, and broken relationships. Your partnership through prayer and financial contributions is an essential part of this ministry.

Thank you for being part of our team!