Dear Friend,

Three years ago, before the pandemic began, I attended an Easter Vigil service and found it quite moving. What struck me most was the lighting of the Easter candle in a completely darkened church, and then how we passed that light from candle to candle and person to person in the church, eventually filling the church with light.

After the sadness and gloom that characterizes the events of Good Friday and the burial in a tomb of cold rock, there we spread the light of the risen Messiah overcoming any darkness. The light always triumphs over dark and despair, poverty and insecurity.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out.” —John 1:5

I was thinking about the light that cannot be stifled this Lent as I journeyed to see CMMB’s work in Africa. I was blessed to see the work of CMMB staff and their partners in health facilities and in villages in South Sudan, Kenya and Zambia.

There were many examples of staff and community volunteers who sacrificed their own well-being and comfort to humbly serve people in great need. From the community case worker who walked 2 miles to share his own breakfast every day with a youngster who had no food so that the child could take his HIV medication with food as required, to a staff member who waded across a stream with his health education materials carried high over his head to ensure he could complete the health worker instruction that he was responsible for giving.

Evan Crossing a Stream

I saw examples of incredible love and self-sacrifice, something I could only hope to emulate.

So, as we celebrate Easter, I hope you too will be blessed with the assurance that the LIGHT will overcome the darkness even when situations seem desperate.

I saw that light, that spirit of JESUS LIVES AMONG US, in the work that CMMB is doing every day in communities facing tremendous need but who also equally share and profess the joy that He is Risen and walks among us. Alleluia!

Have a blessed Easter!

In grace and peace,

Mary Beth Powers
President and CEO