It's Saturday evening here in Nairobi. I flew back from Lodwar this morning, got a Covid test for my flight tomorrow to Zambia, and reconnected with Rob, whose flight home was delayed by two days. I fly out to Zambia to visit my cousin Liz Trautman, who runs an orphanage in Lusaka called the Lighthouse at Kasupe. I was also reflecting on our famine relief efforts this year to which so many of you contributed. What we do is important in providing food for Turkana families in dire straits, and yet it is just a drop in the bucket. Turkana has been several months without significant rainfall, and I have never seen this place drier than this year. Life is a struggle for so many who often have to walk for kilometers every day to find water just to sustain life. For the most part, all the men have taken their herds toward greener pastures near Uganda to keep them alive, but the old men, women and children have been left behind to fend for themselves. I'm asking that you continue to keep these people in your prayers, and go to our website and give to our famine relief effort. https://agapekenya.org/donate/donate-now.html. As you donate for this effort, we will be sending the money to our API associates in Turkana who are heading up this relief effort. Thank you for your partnership with us in this.
As is true in the rest of the world, prices for everything have skyrocketed. Prices for maize flour and beans have doubled, cooking oil has quadrupled, and fuel is 40% higher than when I was here this spring.
Nevertheless, we managed to buy bean, maize flour and cooking oil to distribute to 7 villages and to all the pastors and church leaders who attended the Lodwar and Kakuma conferences. We have four villages yet to reach and Pastors Lokuruka and Lokwawi will be delivering food there next week. So far we have been able to feed about 650 families and we anticipate another 300 or more next week.
All told, we were able to purchase $9,000 worth of these staples to hand out.
The strange thing is, there are relief organizations in and around Lodwar, but none of them seem to be giving out food. And the relief food that comes through the U.N. and U.S. aid appears to be hijacked and sold in the markets.
Thank you for your prayers and faithful partnership with us!