Buckets of Love

Baptist churches in three states; Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee recently helped pack 1,378 “In-Home Care Kits” or “Buckets of Love.” The items in the buckets will be a tremendous blessing to families that must care for terminally ill relatives at home because access to health care is so limited. And although there are more than 22.5 million s and children in Sub-Saharan Africa who are living with the HIV virus, the need extends beyond even those families. Thousands of people in the region die at home each year from sicknesses like cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, and other life-ending diseases. In-home care is all the care they will receive.

The buckets include a wide range of everyday supplies needed by a caregiver – from lotions, ointments, and vitamins to bedding, bandages, and thermometers. The “Buckets of Love,” which were packed in five-gallon plastic buckets – were delivered to the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia’s human needs program in December. Our team is going out over the next couple of days to deliver some of these buckets to families that have terminally ill patients in the Manenekela area. Pray that the use of these items by loving caregivers will show the love and compassion Jesus Christ has for the terminally ill. Pray that they would come to know the True Hope that comes from a personal relationship with Him.

Today we met with some of the home based care people in our area to show them the buckets and discuss the distribution. In these two pictures, Kevin is explaining what each item is and how to use it. Today, we were able to make one visit and I'll write about that later. Tomorrow and Saturday our team will split up into two groups and give out these buckets. Since we saw one of my patients today I only need to go and visit 6 tomorrow. Kevin and Van have many more to see over the next couple of days. Please pray for our team as we go out, to be able to reach each location without problems(because of rain/mud), be a light for Jesus, that we will share hope to the hurting, and that we would be an encouragement to all we come in contact with.