Send Relief provided funds for two food relief projects in Luanda, Angola, this summer. My husband, Steve, and I worked with national missionaries at Baptist mission sites affiliated with our Angolan home church—First Baptist Church Luanda.

We asked our pastor, João César, who is also president of the Baptist Convention of Angola, where he would suggest the greatest needs were, and he suggested the missions.

We had enough money to provide food for 75 families at each mission site. With gifts from a donor, we produced a flier with COVID-19 information on one side and a gospel presentation on the other. We provided these for each family with their food parcel.

The missionaries selected the families with the greatest need. We asked them to choose families in the community as well as families who are part of the mission. One of the sites was the most organized and had the best distribution and follow-up plan, so we went there twice. At that site, they know of 15 people who accepted Christ as a direct result of the distribution. It also had a very positive impact on community leaders.

Please give generously to Send Relief, as the needs continue to be great. You can also give to support projects in Angola.

Learn more with the photo gallery below and spend time in prayer for the ongoing relief work being done in Jesus’ name.

João César, president of the Baptist Convention of Angola and pastor of First Baptist Church, Luanda, meets with IMB missionary Carla Evans to review the accounts of a recent food distribution project that helped over 1,000 people in two especially needy areas of Luanda. The project was funded by Send Relief, a Southern Baptist relief agency, in response to difficulties created by government restrictions due to COVID-19. The projects were carried out with the help of two national missionaries and their congregations. In one area where emergency food was distributed, 30 people received Christ, with 15 of them being directly attributed to the distribution. In addition, the elder of the region gave an expansive plot of land for a church to be built. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve the people of Luanda in this way.

Our city of Luanda has been in COVID-19 lockdown for over five months, and the people face issues common to people in many places around the world: rising crime, no work, acute hunger, no schooling for the children, domestic violence, depression, fear and anxiety. Through the generosity of Southern Baptists and others who have contributed to Send Relief, we are now able to do a second food distribution in two especially vulnerable areas of Luanda. Our last project helped approximately 930 people, and several prayer and Bible study groups have started in homes.

In one area of Luanda, a local church is under construction. Prior to the food distribution at this location, emergency food supplies were stored at the mission center there. We are so thankful that 72 families–over 400 people–of that area facing severe hunger because of COVID-19 restrictions were touched not only with physical food but spiritual food. It was mostly women and children who collected food, and they were very appreciative of the help. We pray the Bread of Life and the Living Water will live and remain in their hearts after being touched by the love of Jesus.

With the food, families received a flier with COVID-19 precautions on one side and a gospel presentation on the other. At one food distribution site, many who received packages said, “Please thank those in America who made this possible!”