By Dorie Panganiban — Farmington, New Mexico … When this coronavirus pandemic hit, millions of people were impacted. Sad to say, the Navajo Nation where La Vida Mission’s ministry revolves, has been hit so hard that it had the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate in the United States, even surpassing hot spots in New York City.

A lockdown, stay-at-home order and nightly and week-end curfews were implemented throughout the Nation to provide safety, but undeniably, it made life harder for our Native people in terms of mobility and securing food for their daily needs, especially on weekends. Add to this the loss of jobs and the resultant income, and you’ll understand why many families were struggling.

One of our activities during La Vida Mission’s lockdown was reaching out to the community through our small “care packages delivery” of fresh fruits, purchased with our limited church outreach funds. To that was added supplies of rice, beans and masa flour from the school cafeteria.

With a delivery from Montrose Adventist Church, as reported in NewsNuggets (May 22, 2020), we prepared not just care packages and food bags, but also food boxes to deliver to our Native friends.

In the first week of May, “when our food supplies run extremely low, we stopped our general food distribution, but left our church’s door open for community’s requests for help,” reported Dori Panganiban, La Vida Mission’s community outreach director.  She added, “I believe that the Lord isn’t done yet with what He wants us to do for His precious Navajo children because by the second week of May, Sherman Mohler, president of  Southwest Paleontological Society, drove up to the Mission with loads of assorted food, groceries, and clothes for the community, along with household appliances for the Mission. He also told us of cash donations from his Go-Fund-Me fundraiser.”

A Facebook fundraiser generated many donations as well. “We used these [funds] to order flour, assorted groceries and toilet paper online for the next food distribution. Neal Kelley and his wife drove down from Montrose with a pick-up load of food from the Sharing Ministry to add to our supplies. Putting all these donations together, we were able to make 150 food boxes that we distributed at one time in our church parking lot on May 28 instead of delivering them to individual houses. “It was strategic to do so and would make these necessary packages reach the people quicker in preparation for the coming whole week-end curfew and lockdown,” Dori added.

But the fun was not over yet. Towards the end of our food box distribution on May 28, “Navajo Strong” from Utah drove up with 80 gallons of hand sanitizer to help with our ministry. “When I returned to my office after the distribution, I received a call from Brenda Maldonado of Colorado Springs Central Church, asking me how their church could possibly help with our community outreach, so we discussed together another relief operation. Coming home that same day, my husband gave me an envelope that he found lying on a bench in our sunroom with a generous check to the church from a local church member appropriated specifically towards our Food Box Distribution Ministry. I could not believe all these happening in just one day,” she reported.

“On Friday morning of June 3, we did another “drive-in food box distribution” in our church parking lot with Pastor Mike Maldonado and his wife Brenda joining us in the fun,” Dorie enthused.

“Just as He made the five loaves of bread and two fishes multiply, He multiplied our small care packages into something bigger to impact our community for Him,” she concluded.

Dorie Panganiban, office manager and community outreach director, La Vida Mission; photos supplied.