“If you give your bread to the hungry, and relief to the oppressed, your light will rise in the darkness.” Isaiah 58:10
One day in Sierra Leone, Amie was walking along the road, when she saw some new mothers coming in the other direction with plastic bags in their hands.
Amie approached the women and asked what it was they were carrying. The women replied that it was special food for malnourished children, given to them by the Handmaid Sisters’ Clinic.
The women pointed Amie in the right direction and told her to ask the Sisters for some food for Lombeh. So she made her way straight there.
Sister Anthonia, who Amie met at the clinic, was not convinced that Lombeh would survive, because she was just so small. But she gave Amie the food anyway in hope that it might help. Within a week of receiving the beni mix, a nutritious paste, Lombeh’s condition started to improve.
Amie said, “I feel very happy now that she is still alive. I thank God for her life, and I also thank the people who came to her aid, like the Sisters.”
These two small acts of love, from the women on the road, and from Sister Anthonia, were life-changing for Amie and Lombeh. The light of their actions truly shone through the darkness of the worry and fear that Amie felt for her child.
This Lent, may we let our light shine in the darkness that others face, through acts of love and solidarity. May we share our bread with those who hunger.