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Dear fellow pilgrims,

I travel a great deal to the countries we serve, and I am happy to have this forum in which I can share my experiences. It is my hope that one day you will join us on a mission to see the wonderful work that is being accomplished by the collective generosity of caring people. It is definitely a life-changing journey!

In February, I had a very hectic travel schedule. In the space of 2-1/2 weeks I traveled to New York, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Haiti, with a half-day at work and one night at home between most of these trips — God bless my laptop! In Jamaica I was accompanied by a wonderful couple from Kansas City, Joe and Judy, whose desire was to see the need firsthand and then decide how best to give back some of the gifts which they have been fortunate to steward on God’s behalf. The night before our departure (Sunday), Sister Joanne of our Donor Relations Department and myself brought them to visit our new building here in Coconut Creek. Sister Joanne was a wonderful tour guide and they were very impressed with the breadth and scope of our organization. I told them: “This is the place that God built.” I can only imagine how much more impressed they would have been if our wonderful staff were here!

In Jamaica, we were welcomed by our own very efficient Susan James, Country Manager for Jamaica, accompanied by the gracious and knowledgeable Marcia Walker, the Pilgrimage Coordinator of our Jamaica Food For The Poor (FFP) office, and the incomparable David Bailey, a man who delivers in equal parts the skills of an Indianapolis 500 driver and the thrills of a roller-coaster operator.

Because we were there for only two nights, we wasted no time in taking our guests to our FFP offices in Spanish Town. The mountains of food in the warehouse were impressive, even for those of us who have been there often, but even more exciting was the fact that they do not last long there, but rather go to churches and missionaries who anxiously await them to continue the business of saving lives. As Robin, FFP’s President, always says, “We are not in the business of storage, but of distribution.” As we were treated to a delicious Jamaican lunch in the office, I realized that I had quickly abandoned any thought of keeping up with my diet.

After our tour of the Food For The Poor (Jamaica) complex, we proceeded to Phoenix Park. This area boasts three of our very beautiful projects that we had wanted to show our new friends. The first two involved FFP housing — Eileen Mary Village and Barbara’s Village. It was inspiring to see how many of the residents here had improved on their beautiful homes — some had tiled the floor, others had added to the original structure, many had beautiful gardens, not only with the more pragmatic fruits and vegetables, but also with beautiful flowers — especially the sunflowers — that they had grown from seeds that we had distributed to the community. It gave me a feeling of pride that the generosity of our donors had raised the standards of entire communities to the point where they were now also concerned with the aesthetics of their village. We spoke to many in those communities and they were so proud of what God’s love had achieved through our combined efforts.

The last project is in Eileen Mary Village, but shared by both of the above communities — the inspiring Promise Library. As nice as the physical structure is, and as useful as the books inside it are, the truly inspirational aspect of this library comes from the fact that it was funded largely through the motivation of Anna Menze, a 17-year-old student who, with the help of the Student Council at her school, was responsible for its construction and outfitting. Anna made a promise to herself and to God that she would see to it that this project was realized after a visit to this area and, soon enough, she sent not only the funds for construction, but also a 20-ft. container filled to capacity with books! Again, my fellow pilgrims, through your generous hearts, we now have the library staffed with a loving caretaker who also helps the children of the two communities experience the joy of books, while also supervising and helping them with their daily homework. The kids, under the direction of the charming Mrs. Pearl Barrett, in charge of Social Development and Education for FFP (Jamaica), regaled us with some lovely songs. We could see so much potential in them… these would not fall victim to the ravages of ignorance.

Early morning of the next day we left for the long journey to Westmoreland, to a seaport town called Belmont in the Bluefields Bay area. Belmont is the community where we plan to install a new FFP fishing village with the funds raised from the proceeds of the Palm Beach Gala. Breathtakingly beautiful country: majestic mountains, lush vegetation (they get a lot of rain in that part of the island) and an exquisite harbor. Here we met two community leaders — Wolde and Livingston. They reminded me of Don Quixote and Sancho: Wolde was the idealist, the dreamer — energetic, enthusiastic, proactive, articulate, talkative and witty; Livingston, like Sancho, had his feet well-planted on the ground — he listened much more than he spoke, and it was obvious that he was the solid anchor that helped temper the dreams of the other with his practical view of the world. In unison, they formed one of the most impressive teams of community leaders that I have ever encountered. I know that the Belmont fishing village will be in good hands.

Wolde and Livingston then took us to a nearby hilltop community, Auldayr, which has an interesting history. The people are descendants of slaves that the British captured from a French ship in the 19th century. Since England had already abolished slavery, they brought these people to Jamaica as indentured laborers and they worked in the sugar cane and cotton plantations of that area until the relatively recent demise of sugar as the “king” crop of the island. It was difficult to believe that an island that boasts a tourist industry offering such extreme luxury to visitors would have a community living in such deplorable conditions. I was truly shocked by the level of poverty of these people. Their attitude was a bit hard and cynical, since they have been offered much by many, but to date, all promises have proven hollow.

Because of the abundant rain, the people used rocks all around the community to keep from being overwhelmed by mud. Unfortunately, the rocks get muddy and wet, and they become a hazard for the residents, particularly the elderly, who walked cautiously but wobbled dangerously close to a bad fall on many occasions during our visit. Their homes (I truly could not call them “houses”) were tiny in size, at times with as many as 11 people to a one-room hovel. Rotten wood, cardboard, mud, plastic and pieces of badly rusted zinc were the main materials of construction and, like in medieval times, there were goats and chickens sharing the living space with the residents. The good news is that, because of the kindness of people like you, we are going to be building Food For The Poor houses there. Imagine the joy and peace that will be experienced in this community when they come to realize that our word is our bond and, God willing, we will not disappoint them with our offer of help.

From here we drove to a sugar estate called Monymusk. Because of the decline of this product, the management of this estate has been most kind to FFP in giving us their excess land to build villages for the poor. For obvious reasons, unemployment and extreme poverty are rampant in these once-prosperous areas. People are living there in conditions that would rival the conditions under which they lived during the times of slavery.

We drove around the area and observed with sadness what were once thriving communities. We then stopped to visit a very special family. As we entered their “yard,” we saw the father, Richard, cooking a meager dinner. I was surprised to see a young man so gallantly helping out his wife with this chore, and I asked if he was a good cook. He answered affirmatively, laughing, and explained that his wife, Petrine, had given birth to their third child less than 2 weeks ago. He really wanted to “help her out.” His wife came out from the small shack to greet us. We also met their eldest child, a precious girl about 6 years old named Olivia, but they called her by her pet name, “Angel” (which we have in common-but she was more correctly named). I believe their other little boy was at school. The mother took me inside to see the newborn boy - also a little angel. There was a sweetness and gentleness about this entire family that positively affected all of our hearts. I have often seen children in my travels that I have wanted to take home with me, but in this case, I wanted to adopt the parents as well.

I noticed that one had to climb a wooden ramp to get into the house, which was elevated a couple of feet off the floor. Once inside, all the signs of extreme poverty were apparent — missing floorboards, lack of paint, broken window, cramped space. Yet, the house was immaculately kept with regards to tidiness and cleanliness… everything in its place! I also noticed that they had two small beds-one for the parents, Angel and the new baby, and the other, a single bed, where the older boy slept. It had only a thin piece of cardboard for his mattress.

I asked why they needed a ramp to get into the house. The truth behind it is indeed stranger than fiction. Before hurricane Ivan, they were living in that structure, which housed four different families, and it was elevated on large cement columns. They had a small kitchen on the ground floor behind the elevated structure. They had decided to weather the storm in the kitchen and, during said storm, the elevated structure got hoisted up by the wind and came crashing down on top of the kitchen, nearly flattening that structure while destroying the cement columns at the back! Incredibly, no one was badly injured — has to be God’s grace — and they all crawled out from the midst of the debris. They have been living in their little home (now with only minimal elevation and in much worse condition) since that time (September, 2004).

There is a happy ending for this story!

Touched by the beauty and plight of this family and by the Holy Spirit, Joe and Judy announced to us the next morning before leaving the hotel that they had decided to build a large village of FFP homes in the Monymusk area for families like Richard and Petrine’s. This will include the infrastructure that facilitates proper sanitation. At the center of the village will be a community center and school (equipped with computers) that would serve the entire complex. The community center would serve as a meeting place, skills training facility, emergency shelter and worship center. AMEN!

Angel A. Aloma
Executive Director