Wed. 22 Dec. 2021

Love

Outside the Box Team

The long history in Afghanistan is beyond our small committee’ s knowledge and understanding although we are grateful that one of us has served in Afghanistan in the State Dept before her retirement.

However it is within the OTB experience for our hearts to break when we imagine the pain and extreme hunger of mothers and children in Afghanistan. The numbers are staggering and hard to grasp. The World Food Program predicts 1 million children under 5 will starve and die this winter.

https://www.wfpusa.org/countries/afghanistan

So what can we do? We at St John’s together can respond. We can pray together, we can learn together and we can give.

Our Diocese awards grants to parishes in NH as part of its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals . We are so grateful that St John’s has been granted $4000 towards the OTB appeal to support the work of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Afghanistan. This gift has encouraged others to contribute too, (check to St. John’ in the memo line Afghan children WFP).

Feeding starving children 7,500 miles away from Portsmouth is not easy. The good news is that the WFP has been doing this in Afghanistan for the last 60 years. When many international agencies had to leave the country last Summer the WFP stayed and is continuing to deliver food - bags of beans and rice to children and their mothers. We carefully checked the WFP program and can report their strong reputation for delivering food where the need is greatest.

We, the OTB team of St John’s, are extremely grateful this Christmas for the love, generosity and prayers of you all.

Merry Christmas

Charlie Bickford, Linda Cheatham, Carol Gruen, Sandie Dika, Sooky Lassen, Sandra Pagel, Ned Thompson