January is always one of the hardest months of the entire year for those who are
working to help others. For many, even among the most generous, the holidays of
December were a great expense, leaving bank accounts depleted and extra cash hard
to come by. Many are forced to reduce their spending to a bare minimum and even if
they do not, the post-holiday letdown leaves them worn out and weary with well-
doing. It is simply hard to care about anything but mundane, bare survival in the
cold, dreary months between the excitement of Christmas and the sense of renewal and
rebirth when spring finally comes.
Unfortunately need takes no time off. Little children get hungry every day and some
of them get sick or their parents need help to find a place for their families to
stay. Pregnant women come to term and need medical care so that they can have safe
deliveries and healthy little babies. People of all ages need food, shelter, and
basic medical care for emergencies. Need and suffering do not care about dates on
calendars.
P9 has a had a very difficult month. John, our contact in Ghana, has been very ill.
Because of his continuing health problems he had surgery not long ago and over-
exerted himself before he had fully healed, leading to a relapse that has strained
his ability even to care for himself, let alone care for anyone else. Others on our
team have been facing their own challenges, causing distractions even in
those who are trying their best to hold things together. And in much of the US
where the work is based the weather has been harsh and demanding.
The more funds we have to work with the more we can do to help others. The main
philosophy of P9 is to help people in emergencies, to give them the daily bread to
make it possible for them to handle immediate challenges like sickness, rent, and
hunger so that they can survive to solve their more long-standing problems on their
own. The saying, 'give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to fish
and he will eat for a lifetime' is all well and good, but sometimes a man
desperately needs that fish for that day. So we attempt to provide that and keep
people alive. But there is endless need. There is always more work to do.
This month has been especially difficult and we still have a week to go. We have
had to cut back on providing aid to many of those we have been helping until our
resources recover enough to make it possible for us to once again help our others
to survive and work toward the future.
We will do what we can with what we have and we hope soon to be able to step
forward to new projects on a higher level. But for now we are working simply to
hold things together and to help as many as we can to survive.
