The World is Hungry!
Jimmy PorterThe pastor began his sermon with this statement, “The world is hungry!” He paused and stood silently to allow the words to rumble around in the minds of his congregation. Then he asked, “How many of you are wondering why they are hungry and for what are they hungry?” Over half raised their hands.
The simple truth is that the world is hungry for food, not peace, not universal health care, nor more money, just basic food. It is fairly safe to assume that you, like me, know very little about malnutrition and hunger. But many in our world face a crisis every day—no food. The United Nations reported in June 2009 that approximately 1.02 billion people are acutely hungry every day.
The world’s population is estimated to be around 6.788 billion as of Sept. 30, 2009. Approximately 1 billion live in developed or industrialized nations like the United States. Over 5 billion reside in developing countries where 1.2 billion live below the international poverty line of income less than $1 per day. Among this latter group 820 million plus eat less than the amount of calories necessary for health and growth. Throughout the world there is estimated to be 854 million people undernourished.
The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 13 million homes in America are “food insecure.” It is factual that 23 million adults and 12 million children consume less calories than is deemed necessary each day.
Hunger and poverty are directly related so that means there is hunger in Mississippi. No city or county is immune to this situation. Too often we never go into areas where it exists, therefore “out of sight, out of mind.” October is World Hunger Month for Southern Baptists so this is a great time for us to ask, “How can I help with this need?” “What is my church doing?”
We can all pray for those who are experiencing hunger at this moment. We can pray for those who are attempting to minister to those who are hungry in our communities, states, nation and world. Also we can pray for God to show us how we might personally get involved with a ministry that is focused on alleviating hunger.
Many of our churches and/or associations have ministries that supply food to those in need. They are always in need of volunteers and food supplies. Be creative and get the children and youth involved. In one church I am familiar with, the G. A.’s are mixing up bags of beans for soup and offering them to the congregation for a donation. The proceeds will go to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund.
Why the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and what are Southern Baptist doing about world hunger? In 2008 Southern Baptist missionaries were instrumental in implementing 500 hunger and relief projects around the world. Over 5 million meals were prepared and fed to the hungry in North America alone. The gospel was shared over 785, 000 times due to these hunger ministries and 36,000 people professed faith in Christ.
The reason I prefer our World Hunger Fund to other programs is that 100% of your gift and mine goes to minister to the hungry in Jesus’ name. When a dollar is given, 80 cents goes to the International Mission Board for overseas hunger projects and 20 cents goes to the North American Mission Board to support hunger projects in the United States and Canada. The fact is that we have the organization in place to manage these funds and projects, and there is NO overhead or administrative costs.
In Mississippi all of the monies collected through our churches, groups and individuals for world hunger are forwarded to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund for distribution. Some of these funds are returned to our state when requested by the local associations for their hunger ministries.
God cares for the needy and so should we. Hundreds and thousands of churches are providing for the needy in addition to what the SBC is doing but more needs to be done. Did not Jesus tend to the physical needs of individuals first which opened the avenue for Him to deal with their spiritual needs? Proverbs 21:13 states, “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”
Additional information and resources can be found by visiting www.WorldHungerFund.com and/or www.ChristianAction.com. You are always welcome to call us at 601-292-3329 if you have a question that needs immediate attention.