Calvin Echodu, the director of Pilgrim, and Dorothy Caplow, the subsequent director of The Three
Loaves Fund, met at a time when Dorothy was looking for a way to get involved in Africa.
At that time in 2002, Calvin had mostly suspended any development efforts in the Teso region.
Instead, he was engaged in relief trips to Soroti-area IDP camps that were isolated from major aid agencies because of the
danger of reaching them across roads regularly ambushed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Pilgrim volunteers regularly
risked their lives to bring food, medicine, and prayer and trauma counselors to these camps. One young man was killed by
LRA soldiers in the course of this humanitarian effort.
The dedicated vision and Christ-like witness of the Pilgrim volunteers' willingness to lay their lives on
the line for the sake of others deeply impressed Dorothy. She began raising money for Pilgrim in the U.S. - at first on a small scale.
Eventually, she founded The Three Loaves Fund as a means of connecting Pilgrim with more people and more resources in the United States.
In 2005, Calvin and a young trauma counselor on his team, Suzan Akwii, visited the U.S. for three months as invitees of the International Trauma
Treatment Program, a program that provides counseling skills and support to victims of terror who are themselves acting in their own communities as
counselors.
Both Calvin and Suzan had, as children, suffered personal violence and tragedy as a result of LRA activities. In the U.S., many more people met Calvin
and Suzan and were moved to offer support. Three Loaves provided a vehicle for a tax deductible contribution to their efforts.
A trip to Uganda brought further contact with Ugandans there, and several new projects were born. Among them was the Namuwongo Revival
church, a body planted intentionally by Pastor Wilson Opio and his wife Christine Abago in the midst of one of the poorest shantytown slums
in Kampala.
In September 2006, Three Loaves plans to coordinate the trips of as many as six Americans to Uganda, who will lend their construction and
emergency medical skills to plans in the camps and elsewhere in Teso. Though Three Loaves will pay for Ugandans to come to the U.S. if appropriate,
and will coordinate the working trips of Americans within Uganda, we do not directly fund airfare for Americans to travel to Uganda.
Three Loaves takes its name from a parable in the gospel of Luke, in which Jesus describes the reluctant benevolence of a sleepy householder:
5)Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of
bread, 6)because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
7)"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and
give you anything.' 8)I tell you, though he will not give up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness
he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9)"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10)For everyone
who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
It is a truism in the international relief fundraising world that the same natural care any of us would extend to a child dying of malnutrition right
on our doorstep is much much harder to secure for children who live thousands of miles away.
Three Loaves believes that this is a sad state of affairs, but a very
natural one given the profoundly relational character of human society. What we find artificial and unnatural is the state of affairs we experience in
which much of the world lives near neighbors too poor to loan bread, while here in the U.S. many of us live in relative wealth but minus needy neighbors.
The result of this is that very few among us have the discipline to go without a small luxury such as a daily latte in order to feed those in dire need,
and yet all of us of good conscience feel disturbed by this fact.
On the other side of the equation, many deplore the "handout" mentality in the developing world, fear corruption and fraud, and simply are unsure of
whether or not their resources really will make a dent on the need.
At Three Loaves, we believe that this "failure" of material succor, painful in different ways to both Africans and Americans, is best remedied by acknowledging
the deeply relational character of human compassion. Most of us will pour ourselves out most fully for our friends.
Jesus puts it like this, "Greater love has no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends." While it is also possible to lay down one's life for strangers,
it is much rarer to see sacrificial giving at that level. Few among us would donate a kidney to an unknown person, few among us would withhold anything from our own child.
We have the goal of promoting greater giving by establishing friendships amongst ourselves and with African Christians, and we ask ourselves how best to love our
neighbors.
The rudely awakened householder in the parable is reluctant, at first, to go to his door - we understand this reluctance, and in our role of "empowering persistent
doorknockers" want to facilitate the communication between Africans with guests to feed and those of us snugly asleep with our children.
Our vision is for people, especially Christians who have a real obligation to leap to the aid of the poor, but really for all people of compassion and good, to take it
upon themselves to "move their doorsteps" so that they will be in the vicinity of needy neighbors and may be called upon personally for a bowl of sugar.
Although our vision is inspired by Jesus' words, ministry, and lordship in our lives, we welcome the participation of any like-minded people, whatever they profess.
Please join us in truly befriending those in material need. We think we can promise you will end up receiving more than you give.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. And the
greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
The Three Loaves Fund was established on the premise that miracles are wrought through the intangible gifts of love and friendship, and tangible gifts of funds and hard work.
