Filling Bellies

Recently I got a catalog from World Vision in the mail. The cover story and

main article was over the famine in the Horn of Africa. They had pictures of children with sunken

eyes and frames of skin and bone. The children's mom was there too, with a frame no different.

Her eyes are filled with such sadness, devastation and despair. In turn, this brings tears to my eyes.

I cannot imagine the grief that comes with not being able to provide your children with food. I

want Levi to be happy and provide him with so many good gifts, and the thought of not being able

to give him enough to keep him alive is unbearable.

So the question I asked myself, and God, is what could I do about it. I pray

for these people, send extra money when we can, and we have 2 beautiful sponsored children, but

it doesn't seem like enough. How can I sit here and worry about eating too much as to avoid gaining

weight, when these people don't have enough food to stay alive.

So I got to thinking practically. As far as talents go, I don't feel to be

overflowing with them. I am not an eloquent speaker, good teacher, and you don't want to hear

me sing. But one thing God has given me a passion for is feeding people. I love to make meals for people. I feel like it is such a privilege when I have the opportunity. I really love to bake, which might have something to do with how much I love to eat sweets, breads, you know, anything ridiculously high in calories. All this to say, "So what God, I can't mail the food to Uganda." But I continued to pray about it, and God is crafting a vision in my heart. What if I could sell some things that I make, and all the proceeds go feeding the hungry around the world?

I talked to a wonderful lady yesterday named Marti. She owns a local bakery called Sisters in Thyme on Commercial Street. This place is seriously amazing, and I gain 5 pounds just walking in there. For all you who come and visit, we will definitely go there. Anyways, I told her a bit of my heart, and she gave me great advice. The very small plan right now is that I am going to start selling some baked goods at our local farmers market. It's on Saturdays and it runs April through October. It will be a good way to start out and see what sells the best and build up a clientele. Later on I may be able to sell some out of Sisters in Thyme and other bakeries, but I just want to take one step at a time.

And it might take a while to raise a substantial amount of money. But I pray and know that whatever amount it is, God can multiply it to do great things. So just keep this in your prayers. God will totally have to lead all of it for many reasons. The main 2 are that, while I feel I am good at baking, so are a lot of people, so I hope that people will buy stuff. Secondly, I know nothing about business. But I am excited to see what He will do. It always surprises and amazes me.