Mud Cakes

I read something a few days ago that I can't get out of my mind. Something that has both bothered and convicted me.

I had picked up an informational booklet about the organization Feed my Lambs, a ministry which provides housing, food and education to the impoverished in Haiti.   As I read it, I came across this:

"As soon as I arrived in Haiti I was overwhelmed by the enormous need that was all around me.  There were ladies on the side of the street mixing mud with oil and salt to bake and feed it to their families for the evening meal.  Mud cakes they called it."- Philip Rego, Founder of Feed My Lambs

I read this and my heart grew heavy. Eating MUD? No way!!  I had to Google this. Not because I doubted the credibility of the organization but because it was so unbelievable to me that I wanted to know more.  I found several reports and pictures online that provided more information.   Although most of the reports were from 2008 and 2010 directly after devastation of hurricanes and the notorious earthquake it is probably still a reality for some.

I did not consider myself naive to poverty and world hunger.   Sure,  I have seen the pictures of starving children,  I have seen begging firsthand in my mother's homeland but something about this spoke to the desperation of these mothers struggling to keep their families alive and it shook me to my core.

We are a family of six living on a single income in a country with a very high cost of living.  Over the past few years, there have been many departures of foods from my shopping cart that I once thought of as necessities. I have had to be very creative in the kitchen to make meals stretch especially when there has been more month than money.

But we have never been hungry.
                           My kids have never missed a meal.
                                                       God has always provided...
...but yet I have complained.

Complained that we couldn't afford strawberries.
                    Complained that the budget didn't allow for a new recipe I wanted to try.
                                                      Complained that we've had the same meal for a few days.

Not out loud ...but in my heart.

Wanting more.   Wanting bigger.   Wanting better.  Wanting easier....

All while mothers are feeding their children mud.

Oh God,  please forgive me.