When 79-year-old Precious lies down at night, he finds momentary relief from the pain that gnaws at his bones by day. After working more than fifty years cutting sugar cane in the Dominican Republic, the Haitian-born immigrant has little to call his own.

Precious, a 79-year-old Haitian immigrant cane cutter who is too old to work, has food to eat every day because of food shipped by Cross with the help of American Christians.

He had to stop cutting cane five years ago because of his health, and since then has had to depend on the kindness of strangers to survive as he has no source of income. He lives in a ramshackle hut made of old boards and rusted tin among other cane cutters in a small shanty community.

Before he began receiving a bag of monthly food staples through a Cross International feeding program, Precious would go many days without regular meals. During a recent trip to the field, he told some staff members from Cross: “When you bring me food, I know it is God who sent you to save me from hunger.”

The feeding program that keeps Precious from going hungry is one of many supported by the food we ship with the help generous American Christians. Shipping food is an easy and effective way to meet the needs of the poor in many countries — and not just their physical needs.

Shipping food sends a tangible message of God’s love to someone who may never have read the Bible or stepped inside a church. While your support helped feed the bodies of the hungry, their hearts were also edified by the knowledge that a Christian cared enough to step out and do something about their need.

In Proverbs 17:22 we are reminded that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…” Over the last several months we have been overwhelmed with images of sadness and despair from Haiti and, more recently, Chile. Sometimes it is nice to be reminded that the poor smile. Below are recent photos from the field of some of the individuals who we’ve helped through the generosity of American Christians. Remember God’s promise from Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Nicaragua

Guatemala

Dominican Republic

Philippines

A small group of staff members just returned from Haiti. They were so moved by their experience, they had a hard time holding it together as they spoke to the rest of us about it.

Their trip took them through Gonaives where Cross flew in food and supplies last year when roads were wiped out by four major storms in row that battered the country. Today the town is still devastated. In fact, there’s now a permanent lake where houses used to sit. Our guys were amazed by the people’s resilience.

Dr. Scott Nelson, director of the Christian orthopedic hospital Cross helps support in the Dominican Republic, creates casts for a baby with clubfoot during a recent medical mission in Cap-Haitian.

The final destination was Cap-Haitian, where a team of visiting doctors worked under primitive conditions to help children with clubfoot and other crippling, but treatable, deformities. When the team arrived, a crowd was waiting outside the clinic. Some had been waiting in that spot for two days for the chance to see a doctor who might be able to help their children!

Tom Lewis, one of our staff members, said, “The first child to run up to the doctors was a very beautiful 7-year-old girl. Because of her condition, though, she ran on her knees. That’s how she’d been getting around her whole life. The good news is, the doctors said they could fix her legs!”

A few of the doctors were volunteers from the U.S., but the core group came from a children’s orthopedic hospital the Dominican Republic that we help support. Just watching them work, their love for the Lord and their tender compassion toward the poor is evident.  Click here to read more about their work in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.

In reflecting about all the people he met on the trip, Tom said, “How many of us, with our three-bedroom homes, stuffed closets, and two-car garages are embarrassed when someone drops by? These people had absolutely nothing, but they proudly opened their tiny, dirt-floor homes to us and welcomed us in; they were willing to share what little they had. It was incredible.”