Here is a math equation for one to ponder in the lunch-hour
restaurant – or over the dinner table crowded with bowls and platters and
plates.
If meals for homeless children in Uganda cost 12 cents apiece
through the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and giving through the fund has
dropped more than $2 million in the past two years, how many children in Uganda
are going hungry?
Give up?
Here is a math equation for one to ponder in the lunch-hour
restaurant – or over the dinner table crowded with bowls and platters and
plates.
If meals for homeless children in Uganda cost 12 cents apiece
through the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and giving through the fund has
dropped more than $2 million in the past two years, how many children in Uganda
are going hungry?
Give up?
So are too many other people around the world who are going
without food and are left without hope of finding any.
Meanwhile, giving through the Southern Baptist World Hunger
Fund continues to drop – down 11 percent already this year.
Louisiana is no different.
Indeed, giving in the state is down almost $32,000 from the
same time last year – which translates to a 24.2 percent drop.
Also, the simple fact of the matter is that the Louisiana Baptist
high for world hunger giving came along 17 years ago – in 1985.
This year, it does not look to get anywhere close to that $276,000
high.
Meanwhile, the needs grow – and not just in Uganda and
other isolated, desperate regions of the world.
Indeed, one recent government study says as many as 10 million
households in the United States lack enough food to meet their familys
basic needs.
Of course, one could argue that Americans have other things
on their minds these days, especially in light of last falls September
11 terrorist attacks.
However, a study by the Alliance to End Hunger found just the
opposite.
The alliance survey found that 68.2 percent of Americans are
more interested in helping those in need in the post-Sept. 11 world, and 70.1
percent indicate they are more likely to want to reduce world hunger.
In addition, 59.4 percent say the most important reason to
fight hunger is that it is “the moral and right thing to do.”
Of course, for the Christian, the motivation goes deeper –
it is a directive from Jesus himself. Indeed, as Jesus indicated on several
occasions, the test of ones Christian commitment lies in how they respond
to the needs of others.
“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers of mine, you did for me,” he reminded his disciples
even as his death neared.
But he also cautioned them moments later – “Whatever
you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
In other words, it is not too much of a stretch to say that
that hungry family in New Mexico is Jesus.
By those accounts, so is that woman in Myanmar – and the
man in Sudan – and the family of five in North Korea – and the mother
and baby in Ethiopia.
And the child in Uganda, seeking his 12-cent meal? By Jesus very own
words, in some kind of way, that is himself also – waiting, waiting, waiting
… for someone to do the math and respond.