Rejected & Gratefully Received

Further to my post a couple of days ago on Rejects Become Blessings, I've uncovered a little bit more of the story and I find it quite perplexing.

As I said in that post, some of the boxes we received were indeed rejected due to the odd leaky sachet, but the bulk of the boxes we received on Friday have been rejected for far stranger reasons.

As the label on the box in this pic shows, these boxes were destined for the Republic of Yemen via UNICEF, as Yemen, depending on which media outlets one follows, is in or about to be in a famine, due in no small part to the ongoing conflict in the nation.

Now here's the strange bit of the story... these emergency rations of peanut paste sachets were rejected because apparently their "oil content is too high". I have no idea who made that call, whether it was UNICEF or the Yemeni govt or some other body, but I do know that in a situation in which people are starving, turning food away is a bit bonkers! Especially when that food has been specifically formulated to cater for the malnourished.

Strange indeed!

Now, I don't want to be flippant here because this is a tragic loss for the children of Yemen whom UNICEF would have been targeting with this food. However their loss is our gain and yesterday on behalf of The Gathering I was able to deliver 50 boxes (7500 sachets) to two local primary schools in Macassar. My first drop of 50 boxes was too Marvin Park Primary School (see pic) and my second drop of 50 boxes was to Macassar Primary where one of our church members is a teacher.

Despite the episode with the trailer, Friday was a day of amazing blessings and it was a joy to be able to bless two schools knowing that the many kids who go to school hungry will now have something to eat at the start of the school day.

Thank you LORD!