What Will You Do?

Yesterday I read this article: Ethiopia Underestimating Drought Need.  The information in it made me sick to my stomach.  I was there twice in the past nine months.  I witnessed the people and the poverty and the daily trek, usually miles long, to get fresh water.  I love Ethiopia and its beautiful people.  

It's hard enough to feel helpless from this side of the world, while people starve to death.  Then I read the comments on the bottom of the article.  I couldn't quite believe what I saw.  The ugliness and hate shocked me.  It's easy for us Americans to look down from our lofty, self indulged lifestyles at the poor and needy in this world and feel completely disengaged.  Most of us have never seen true poverty.  We can't imagine what it is like to actually be without food. 

Right now, we don't have an income.  Justin cannot work this summer while he does clinic at the law school.  It's scary,  terrifying, really, to worry about not being able to feed our kids.  But, we knew this was coming and we saved and prepared and we'll be okay.  If we weren't okay, we could borrow from family, go to a food pantry, or even use credit cards to provide food for our children.  Worst case scenario, we could turn to the government for help and it would be there.  

People in Ethiopia and Somalia and Kenya and Uganda and many other places do not have a safety net.  There's no one to borrow money or grain from.  No where to turn.  Can we as Americans even wrap our minds around that reality?  How many of us know what it truly means to go hungry?  Three months ago I looked into the eyes of a man who has no way to feed his children and hugged his bony body and my heart shattered.  Let me tell you - this is real.  These are real people who are suffering, people who love God, and love their children.  People just like you and me who happened to be born into different circumstances.

Did you know: 

• ONE in seven people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight

• 925 million people do not have enough to eat  and 98 percent of them live in developing countries

• 65 percent  of the world's hungry live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia

• 10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths

You can look HERE to see why people are starving when there is enough food in the world to feed everyone.

I don't claim to know what the answer is.  But, surely awareness is the first step to eradicating the problem.  The second step is to not be complacent and detached from the realities of this world.  What's the third step?  You tell me.  You could donate money for hunger relief, sponsor and child or family, help put in wells, there are SO MANY things.  Just do something.  Please, for the sake of someone else's children.  If you couldn't feed your kids, wouldn't you want someone to help you?

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  - Matthew 25:35-40