A missionary in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, reports that recently an African pastor passed through on his way home to Chad, where civil war was raging.

"What would you like to take to complete your forty-four pounds of baggage allowance?" asked the missionary. "Sugar? Powdered milk? Medicine?"

"If I could have some Bibles or a few good books..."

"How's that?" the missionary asked.

"Back home we lost everything in the war, and we learned to place less importance on that which passes away and more importance on that which lasts."

The missionary mused: "Was I dreaming? We have heard so often 'The hungry stomach has no ears' that we misread the Epistle to the Romans to say, 'Faith comes from what one eats,' instead of 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.'

"We must not fail to share our bread with those who are hungry, but neither dare we forget that 'man shall not live by bread alone.'"