COON RAPIDS, MN – When I saw a headline in The Christian Post that 5,000 people from a church in New Jersey would spend December 6 & 7 packing one million meals for an annual Christmas Outreach, I had to reread it. As I was doing my usual fact-checking, I noticed that The Parsippany Patch carried a similar story, except that the volunteers would exceed 6,000. Then I checked the church’s website and learned that all volunteer positions at all seven of the church campuses were filled!

“Lord, I believe. Forgive my unbelief.”

I discovered that the Christmas Outreach was in support of the Christian FBO Feed My Starving Children. Rarely have I read about any organization that describes accomplishing its mission with such resolve:

“Feed My Starving Children is called to feed God’s starving children hungry in body and spirit.

You will hear us say this again and again: “We want to reach everyone, until ALL are fed.” We truly mean this. This means reaching the hard-to-reach people and places, the “least of these.” They will be found, and they will be fed.”

Perhaps that determination is a result of something else rarely heard from any Christian organization.

Feed My Children was founded in 1987. The initial efforts of the team were focused on developing highly-nutritional foods and developing best practices for packing and shipping their products to their intended destinations.

Thanks to food science partners creating the food product and the Green Giant company providing the first million packages, FMSC began shipping MannaPacks in 1994. The first shipment was delivered to a pediatric hospital in Rwanda in cooperation with Operation Blessing. Shipments to Haiti (via Mercy Ships), Belarus, and Paraguay followed.

As many businesses do, FMSC hit a plateau in 1998, not able to exceed more than three million MannaPacks per year. Reaching these plateaus typically indicates that some organizational changes need to be considered. Here is was FMSC did:

In 2003 . . . the organization was rededicated to the Lord. We placed our focus back on Jesus Christ, committing to honor Him. He has called us to feed his kids, and with his help, we will keep reaching farther around the world until ALL are fed.

Things began to change. Additional operational sites were added in Minnesota, Illinois, Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

Between 2008 and 2010, a leading HIV nutritionist assisted FMSC in the development of two potato-based MannaPacks. Potato-D became the world’s first food to treat diarrhea effectively. The “W” in Potato-W stands for “weaning.” That MannaPack “provides complete nutrients for babies 7-12 months old.”

As of 2017, 1.2 million volunteers have helped to pack MannaPacks for shipment all over the world.

FMSC partners pay for the shipping cost of meals, ensure that the shipments clear customs, cross borders, and reach their intended final destination. The meals are supplied free to those who need them, regardless of race or religion.

If there is a lesson to be learned from Feed My Starving Children, it is that the success of any ministry – regardless of how success is measured – comes by keeping our focus on Jesus Christ. He accomplishes the impossible all the time.

To read more news on Children in Poverty on Missions Box, go here.