Who Is Charlie?

Sam and Janey Stewart’s son Charlie was born with a serious heart defect. Charlie remained one of the most spiritually alive kids you could ever meet, and he was a beacon of joy who loved to give. Tragically, on February 1, 1996, Charlie’s heart just couldn’t hold out any longer, and he went home to be with the Lord.

One day around lunchtime, there was a knock at Janey’s door. When she opened it, she found two little boys begging for a piece of bread. Janey felt the Lord was telling her, “Give them Charlie’s lunch.” And so she did. Sam and Janey shared what God was doing with their family, and they created Charlie’s Lunch. There was confirmation and vision that God could multiply “Charlie’s Lunch” to feed thousands of hungry children all over the world, and the Charlie’s Lunch ministry was born!

To learn more about Charlie’s Lunch or make a direct donation to their cause, please visit the Charlie’s Lunch website at http://www.charlieslunch.com

Where does Initial Outfitters fit in?

At Initial Outfitters, we believe that we have been blessed so that we can bless others! With that in mind, Initial Outfitters has partnered with the organization “Charlie’s Lunch” to help in their mission of goodwill, fellowship, and feeding.

Through our lunch money collections, and the sale of our Charlie’s Lunchboxes and Charlie’s Lunch Cookbooks, Initial Outfitters now fully sponsors 12 lunchrooms and the Charlie’s Lunch Orphanage each year!  Located in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Zambia, and India our lunchrooms provide hot lunches, bible study, and love for 420 children!  But this is not just a charity that we send money to!  Alicia and Jim Storbeck have personally visited and spent time in our Charlie’s Lunchrooms, giving out hugs, lots of love, leading evangelism activities, and getting to know the communities.

These children and their families are counted among the poorest of the poor.  But as a part of this ministry, they are made to feel rich as they are fed physically and spiritually, and are ministered to on a regular and personal basis. This is where the “eternal differences” will be made!

The changes that we have seen in the children are dramatic!  Their families are joining the church, and their priorities are changing to reflect their new faith.  When a Charlie’s Lunchroom comes to a community, the community is changed forever.  We are proud and humbled to have had the opportunity to participate in this project, and look forward to many more communities experiencing the same!

 

Honduras/La Travesia/ Garifuna

Three years ago, Charlie’s Lunch partnered with Toribio and Daisy, the pastors of this now thriving church in the La Travesia area of Honduras which is home to a Charlie’s Lunchroom that serves 80 children lunch three times each week. La Travesia is on the coast about 20 minutes from the port city of Cortez (1 hour out of San Pedro Sula towards La Ceiba). The lunchroom serves the Garifuno children, who are mostly black Hondurans whose ancestors came from Africa around the 1700’s. With this heritage, the culture is filled with music, amazing rhythms and drums, dancing, and tribal influences. Pastor Toribio is from the Garifuno community. His wife Daisy is Puerto Rican with a Methodist background. This lunchroom lost support at the beginning of last year, and will be thrilled to hear that they are now fully funded for 2012.

Guatemala/Los Ocotes

Our first ever feeding center is moving through a transition as Luis Villatoro and his wife Eva prepare to leave for India as missionaries in the next year. The program and church need the stability of Charlie’s Lunch for a season (1 to 2 yrs.) so the effect of Villatoros exit is lessened with one of our flagship works. They are presently feeding 120 children 2 times a month, with subsidized funding we will be able to increase this to 2 times a week.

This lunchroom was the first Charlie’s Lunchroom, founded in 1999. What began as a small church of less than a dozen people is now a thriving church of over a hundred, which has actually financially supported another Charlie’s Lunchroom in India! The members of this church know what the presence of a Charlie’s Lunchroom can do for a community, and believe fully in the idea that feeding a child physically opens the door to feeding them spiritually, and have seen that through children, the community can be reached and changed eternally. The stories out of this lunchroom are astounding.

We met Luis and his family when we were in Guatemala 3 years ago, and are excited to see what God does through them in India. They are wonderful people with a passion for reaching others for Christ. Their sheer determination to answer this call to India has been a long term project that they as a family have made many sacrifices for. What they have done in Guatemala is nothing short of incredible. We expect their impact in India to be no less than this, and are happy to be part of the plan!

Zambia

120 children 3x/wk
Pastor Mubanga of Hope Church in Zambia heard the story of Charlie’s Lunch through Sam’s nephew-in-law who runs Heart For The World ministries in Africa. He fell in love with the story and the idea, and ran with it on his own, raising funds and doing what he could. In addition to the lunchroom and church, Pastor Mubanga has also built a school to provide education to this community. He is passionate about these ministries, and solicits donations locally every chance he gets. The children in this lunchroom are Aids orphans, many who have symptoms themselves. In 2011 the corporate funding from Charlie’s Lunch dried up, and Pastor Mubanga has written many letters pleading for funds, explaining that without the nutrition that they were receiving from the Charlie’s Lunch program, the health of the children is deteriorating and the symptoms and signs of Aids are returning.

India

Charlie’s Lunchrooms began in India in 2003. At the beginning of 2011 there were 9 lunchrooms in operation. Currently none are in operation, because of lack of funding. Initial Outfitters will be funding the following:

Warda

100+children/3x/wk
Pastor Aschu has built a church in cooperation with a church in Atlanta and YWAM. A great leader, he has a vision to plant 700 churches, and currently has 10-15 pastors-in-training living with him. This lunchroom is in a slum area of Warda where over 100,000 people live. Victims of India’s cast system, they are unable to break the cycle and leave the slum, where many educated people have resorted to a life of crime just to survive. The kids are transported to the church in rickshaws and 2 jeeps that were donated by the church in Atlanta. These are some of the dirtiest kids that Sam has ever seen, but you quickly see when they get to the lunchroom that they are “just kids…” like every other kid, and desperately need the love and nutrition provided in the lunchroom.

Miracle Church

Pastor Kumar has several brothers who are all involved in the ministry and are supportive of Charlie’s Lunch. Kumar has run 5 Charlie’s Lunchrooms over the years, until March of 2011 when funding dried up. He actively works to teach life skills as well as the gospel, having taught local ladies how to sew, purchased sewing machines, and then how to sew saris and sell them in a local fishing village to make money to live on. His church – Miracle Church – feeds 120 children every Sunday after Sunday School.

Charlie’s Lunch Orphanage

$300/month, 26 children
Home to 26 children, this is the only Charlie’s Lunch Orphanage. Pastor Kumar oversees this project which is run in conjunction with the school and Miracle Church. The 26 children are housed there, fed 3 meals a day, and attend school.