by Callum Henderson
Thank you for your generosity during the Covid-19 emergency.
There are times in the life of a charity when great challenges are met by amazing acts of help and generosity by its supporters. The Covid-19 emergency brought on by the lockdowns in our African countries of operation is one of those seminal times, and we want to get a message of thanks to you so that you know how grateful we are for your intervention over the last four months. Your response as our supporters has been quite extraordinary. In terms of our direct Covid-19 emergency relief, you have given £19,000.
That doesn’t include the special fundraisers that people have undertaken because they have seen the challenges to the charity’s income from the charity shop closure, curtailment of church meetings, shutdown of fundraising events, and the general squeeze on the income of many people. To see people shave their locks of hair, campout for a month, cycle for 7000 Kms, call up and say ‘my expenses have been less this month so I’m donating to Comfort International’, has been truly moving.
Within three days of lockdown we had received messages from contacts saying they had not eaten since those three days began. What your support has meant is that we have been able to provide immediate emergency food to all the street kids projects in Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. We have been able to provide support for GNI and Solace in the face of their drastic loss of income from their guest houses. We have provided health insurance to genocide widows whose income from their jobs or businesses dried up overnight. We have provided piles and piles of sacks of rice and other food to Congo teachers, we have sent funds to Uganda where our partners have distributed food to the most vulnerable families, we have given emergency funds to the Children of Liberty in the face of food shortages brought on by price hikes, we have been able to send partners the means to distribute food to genocide survivors communities, we have supported vulnerable mothers and babies who were going hungry.
Our partners are deeply grateful for your support. It has been such an encouragement to them to know they are not facing this alone. We have always sought to work with the most needy and vulnerable, and your intervention has saved them from extreme hunger. With our inability to have groups in Africa this year, your extraordinary support has assured them they have not been forgotten.
Covid-19 has been a real pressure cooker in society – putting people under strain in so many ways. And yet we have seen it bring out the best in so many of our supporters and we are grateful for you and privileged to have you.
In 2 Corinthians 9:12-14, when Paul had faced a very similar situation of need and called for help on behalf of overseas partners facing hunger and starvation he was amazed at the response of the church and wrote,
‘For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for the liberality of your contribution, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you.’
It is that surpassing grace of God in you that we have seen and are so blessed by.
Thank you.
Watch the Director’s Thank You Video HERE