In the second half of 2021, global shipping was at a standstill. Hundreds of ships were afloat in the outer reaches of many ports, especially on the West Coast of the US. This congestion delayed necessary consumer items from being delivered and also tied up thousands of sea containers that were waiting to be loaded with items leaving the US. The backlog prohibited over half a million GAP meals from being delivered to partners in need. As I was stressing one night, thinking of how to get these meals out to those in need, my wife compared this situation to that of Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 41:46-57), and how God used the storehouses of food to feed millions of people. She simply said, “This is your ‘Joseph Moment’ and God has a plan for these meals.”
Fast forward to Thursday, February 24, 2022, when Russia began its advance into Ukraine. This advance caused millions of people to leave the country. Almost at once, IDES received aid requests from mission partners and many of those requests were for food! Within days, IDES was able to ship out over 500,000 GAP meals to countries surrounding Ukraine. God had indeed provided! The meals shipped from the East Coast where there was little backlog and plenty of containers waiting to be filled. During a time of need God had plans for the abundance!
-Jody England, IDES GAP Director