Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

iring, and courage to the fainting. ‘Time and again, one heard the expression, “Your help came just in time, else my children would have died.” ‘The food came just when all the supplies were exhausted,” etc., etc. Another picture of a most pathetic nature presented itself at the time when we reached the Molotschna. The kitchens had been in operation for two weeks and had brought new cheer and courage. But the thinking people realized that not enough food could be brought from America to provide for all. Their own supplies were gone, and the prospects for a crop were most discourag- ing. In a meeting with some of the more prominent lead- ers, the following conversation developed. American, “Take courage brethren, trust in the Lord and He will provide help.”” First Russian brother, “A year ago I had enough grain in my granary to feed this entire village for a year. But all of it has been taken, stolen. Nothing is left.’ Second Russian brother, ‘“‘We have not baked bread in our home for three weeks.” Third Russian EFFECTS AND AFTER EFFECTS 411 brother, ‘‘We have not baked bread for three months. To save and make it last longer we mixed what little flour we had, with various food-substitutes and prepared a kind of porridge, which has been our only food.” As the spring wind is heard through the open window several say to- gether, “We saw our only chance of surviving in the winter-wheat crop. In the hope that it would rain, we had entrusted our last grain to the dry earth last fall. It rained, but only enough to sprout the grain and it barely came up and now! See, our last hope is being blown away,’ as they wistfully pointed to a great cloud of dust rolling across the field and settling in dunes along the highways and among the adjoining dry weeds. ‘‘We can- not stay, we must all flee!” Despair seemed to grip these good people, tending to make them refugees, like thou- sands in Russia who wandered from place to place in the hope of finding food, until they could wander no more, then fainted and died, often alone, unwept and unmourned. In one village, Alexanderwhol, we were told that practically all were intending to Jeave for Crimea in a few days, hoping somehow to get across the Black Sea to Constantinople, where help from America was expected. But we had just passed through the region of Crimea, and had seen the suffering, the dead and the dying in large numbers. We knew that precipitous flight meant certain death to a very large percent of the refugees; so we coun- seled them to stay, using our best efforts of persuasion both in private and in public. Through the grace of God we succeeded in convincing most of them that it was the lesser evil of the two to stay. The situation was rapidly developing into the stage of panic and would have had very serious results, if it had not been checked by the timely arrival of the Americans with food supplies. Space will not permit further description and