Many Venezuelan families have been forced to flee the country over the past five years due to either political unrest or economic struggles, which is understandable given that the nation’s average monthly minimum wage salary only covers .57% of a person’s essential needs.
Send Relief has been hosting feeding programs through the nation’s Baptist churches to ensure that more than 10,000 meals are given away each month to those most in need. These projects also provide basic food supplies to pastors and their families, empowering them to continue serving their communities and sharing the love of Christ.
For Venezuelan pastors who feel called to stay in their home country, this encouragement you provide through Send Relief helps them know they are not alone and not forgotten in their time of need.
Food has been the bridge these pastors needed to open doors to gospel conversations and new church plants in rural communities. Many Venezuelans are so exhausted that often a bowl of soup and a word from the Bible are all they need to face another day.
A Send Relief partner and project director shared the following story from one of these emergency food projects:
Onar opened the refrigerator. It was empty. In a country where his monthly wage of $4.00 will buy only a few eggs, where runaway inflation means he has no savings, where a partially filled tank of gas costs five months’ salary, this is no surprise. It has become “the norm” in Venezuela. This Baptist pastor, his wife and their young son have nowhere to turn.
“The situation we are living has generated severe scarcity,” says Pastor Onar. “To be honest, it is terrifying. You stand there and think, ‘What are we going to eat today?’”
At that moment, a knock sounds on the door of the family’s small home. Basic food items have just been delivered, a gift made possible through the generosity of believers in other countries.
“The impact [of this gift] is of immediate benefit to me, to my family,” continues the pastor, “not just this month but every month. Receiving this help is gratifying and we know we can count on you. It is extremely beneficial. This bag of food arrives punctually each time the refrigerator is empty – literally empty, no exaggeration.
“At the moment of hunger, at the moment of critical need, this help arrives. Seeing how God supplies our needs through this [project] is a testimony. It is a testimony every single month.”
Thank you for caring for pastors and their families in countries experiencing hardship. If you would like to help more people in crisis access the food they need to survive, give below.
Help families in need now!
Give the gift of nutritious food today.
Published February 9, 2022