(K-LOVE Closer Look) – When the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of Americans out of work Spring 2020, Convoy Of Hope (COH) launched a bold initiative to provide 10-million meals to struggling families. The disaster relief ministry succeeded beyond its wildest prayers, surpassing 130-million meals – and still counting. "Our (revised) goal is to hit 150-million meals by the end of the year,’ says COH spokesperson Jeff Nene. “And the beautiful thing about it is, most of those meals have been provided through churches.”
“When those Convoy of Hope trucks rolled in we knew everything was gonna be okay.”
COH uses its fleet of 18-wheelers to haul in relief items like food, water, cleaning and building supplies and turns the load over to local congregations. “You see people coming to Christ as a result of that,” Nene reports. “People that would normally never darken the door of a church, they’re now able to drive into that church parking lot, get a couple of boxes of free food that are gonna tie them over and they’re saying – ‘why are you doing this?’” That gratitude and curiosity provides opportunities for volunteers to share their faith in Jesus.
Click below to hear a Closer Look conversation about Convoy of Hope ministry in 2020.
Even before COVID-19 required a relief response, Convoy Of Hope was quite busy with several ongoing operations, including continued aid to two islands slammed by hurricanes in the Bahamas in 2019. COH also provides aid to people suffering civil unrest in Venezuela and sent supplies to people affected by the bush fires of Australia. In addition, Convoy of Hope responded to the massive factory explosion that devastated parts of Beirut, Lebanon in August. “We have worked in that part of the world many different times, some of it is refugee camps,” says Nene, and in this case, working through local contacts on the ground, “we’ve been providing containers of food and supplies.”
In the United States, 2020 brought a record number of tropical storms and hurricane across U.S. coastal regions, so many that the weather service ran out of names. “Hurricane Laura when it hit in Louisiana that was a big, big storm, so many people were without power,” says Nene, a big storm that was very quickly followed by Hurricane Delta. “We had blue tarps on every house down there then the second hurricane came through,” he describes. “Some of those people are starting from scratch again.”
And most recently, fires on the West coast required more than 25 tractor-trailers full of supplies from Convoy of Hope so far, delivered to devastated communities in California and Oregon. Fires in Colorado have threatened the homes of COH staff in the local office.
Despite the uptick in needs and the ongoing challenge to respond, Convoy Of Hope continues its commitment to meet needs and deliver refreshment to the souls of communities wounded by disaster. “It’s a ministry and a blessing that starts with food, but it ends with Jesus.”
Moving forward, Convoy of Hope has scheduled public holiday events in 10 U.S. cities in November and December, including Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh, each with careful attention to social distancing protocols. Which is hard to do if you’re a ‘hugger,'” Jeff laughs, “that’s the hardest part for me.” The events are geared not only to provide some material needs but to uplift the spirits of tired and sad communities.
“There’s so much unrest right now in some of our major cities, we just truly believe we need to be a light in the darkness,” says Nene, an opportunity he credits to God and to the generosity of Christians nationwide. "It's so encouraging to us when people respond… we have people from the East coast giving to people on the West coast because of the fires, and people on the West coast giving to people down South because of the hurricanes.”
Convoy of Hope has a long-standing commitment to staying in a disaster zone as long as the need persists and is committed to that duty as long as donations and spiritual support remain strong.
"We bring people food and supplies, but really what we do is bring them is hope.”