Get a group and get involved in World Hunger Day!
When Southern Baptists observe their annual World Hunger Sunday on Oct. 9, they will be called to act out the powerful love of Jesus, who the Bible says was "moved with compassion" for people in desperate need.
Scripture recounts several instances, like the one recorded in Matthew 14:14, when Jesus saw a large crowd, was moved with compassion for them, and took powerful action to meet their needs. The Greek word translated 'compassion' refers to tender emotions, deeply felt feelings, or a deep churning in a person's spirit. We might call it "gut wrenching."
That kind of compassion compels a response, and Baptist Global Response offers multiple ways to get involved. You can discover some of the avenues by clicking on the Updates, Donate, Volunteer, Pray, and Media tabs above. You also can engage the hunger issue by planning to participate in World Hunger Sunday on Oct. 9, using the resources and suggested listed below.
Since its inception in 1974, Southern Baptists have given more than $235 million through their World Hunger Fund to meet hunger needs both at home and abroad. In 20010, more than $4.5 million was given, but as recently as 2005 Southern Baptists were giving $6 million a year to the offering.
Hunger needs have not subsided, however. Nor has God's love for hungry people diminished. The Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund reaches hungry people in the farthest reaches of the world, helping families survive disaster and famine, providing clean water, improving health and nutrition -- and all along helping people discover how to have hope and purpose in life.
Below is a list of resources, drawn from several different Southern Baptist ministries, that you can use to help your church understand the hunger needs that claim thousands of lives each day - and mobilize them to make a life-changing difference in the lives of suffering people. We hope you'll make the best use of them possible. We pray Southern Baptists will continue to demonstrate that they are a people who care for people in need. We believe we have barely begun to see all God wants to do to help a hungry world experience the life-changing power of his love.
Resources
Clicking the Media tab above will take you to a range of useful resources -- videos and a prayer guide -- for promoting World Hunger Sunday and mobilizing your congregation or other group to engage the issue of hunger.
A new item for 2011 is World Hunger 101, a two-hour churchwide event that explores the issue of world hunger. The downloadable event pack includes suggestions about ways to introduce the topic and how to consolidate a full understanding of issues related to hunger. Each age-level session plan includes promotion ideas and hunger project ideas. World Hunger 101 is available for download at www.wmustore.com, where you also can find the popular World Hunger Bread Bank.
A wide variety of resources also can be found at www.worldhungerfund.com, the homepage for the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund. Among the free downloadable resources available there are bulletin inserts, the World Hunger Fund logo, mini-poster ads, videos and a PowerPoint presentation, soup can labels to create receptacles for WHF donations, a mini coloring book depicting real people whose lives are being touched through Southern Baptist hunger ministries, and a drama script that can be used to educate church groups on the Christian mandate to minister to the poor. The site also has low-cost items such as "Impact World Hunger," a four-page publication, sized for easy placement in most church bulletins, that also can be used as a stand-alone informational handout.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission's website, erlc.com/hunger, provides topical articles on biblical directives for combating hunger and poverty and how to begin a hunger ministry, as well as sermons like "Do Justice to the Afflicted and Needy."
Domestic hunger issues are important too. You can find an excellent array of resources on combating hunger in North America at www.namb.net/hunger.
World hunger awareness and fundraising event ideas
Here are a few ideas to help you get started planning a successful world hunger awareness and/or fundraising event for your church, Bible study, youth group and/or community. Incorporate your own creativity to suit your group's interests. (Click on the names of the activities to download.)
1. f30 Weekend – A fun way to help people, young and old, become aware of and impact world hunger. This event is also great for team building, prayer, fasting, college campuses, or weekend retreats.
2. Harvest Festival – Incorporate hunger awareness in your harvest festival. A variety of educational activities designed to help children better understand world hunger and what they can do to make a difference.
3. Hunger Meal – An activity that will help you focus on the lifestyle of many in our world and on their daily struggle for food.
4. Run for Their Lives – A 5k run to raise funds. Instead of “running for your life”, this is truly a race to “Run for Their Lives”. This is a great and simple idea to raise money and community awareness for world hunger.
5. Progressive Hunger Meal – A creative way to illustrate how challenging it is to deal with struggles many people around the world experience each and every day, including that of having a simple meal.
6. Box Social – Revisit a common way, used in pioneer days, to raise funds for causes such as World Hunger.
7. World Hunger speaker -- If you would like to request a speaker (a field practitioner) for your group's world hunger event or for a world hunger focused church service, please contact Jeff Palmer at jpalmer@gobgr.org. We will do our best to accommodate your request.
In a bamboo home on the Filipino island of Poro, a coconut farmer’s wife holds a ginger leaf carefully over a spoon. She squeezes a few drops of juice onto the utensil while her 3-year-old son watches.
Najia Khatun* knows what her life would be like without the Light of Hope Center. She knows she would be hungry. She knows she would be uneducated. She knows she would be working long hours at a garment factory.
Through your gifts to the World Hunger Fund, you are an active part of this team. You make it possible for them to physically help people in poverty while sharing Christ’s compassion and love literally to the ends of the earth.
The young mother rushes out to Saachi Sarkar* as she walks up the jungle path to the village. The mother is all smiles as the two embrace.
With World Hunger Sunday approaching Oct. 9, churches and other groups who want to engage the issue of world hunger have a variety of resources available to them, in addition to the resources already available at www.gobgr.org.
Southern Baptists face a “red alert” crisis in their World Hunger Fund, just as a massive drought/famine cycle threatens almost 11 million people in the Horn of Africa, a Southern Baptist humanitarian leader announced July 25.
When it comes to engaging a world in need, we value prayer above everything else. But Jesus specifically commanded his followers to "Go," and Baptist Global Response (BGR) encourages God's people to personally take the love of Christ to people in need. Each project described below includes contact info to learn more about how volunteers can help. General information about volunteering through BGR can be obtained by e-mailing info@gobgr.org.
During rice harvest two months ago, there was a hailstorm that destroyed the standing rice fields in two Asian villages. BGR partners will help by providing rice to each of the homes affected. Pray for the people who were affected by this storm, that they will have their physical needs met, through this project.
The world produces more than enough food to meet the needs of all its six billion people, yet 25,000 people die every day due to hunger and malnutrition. That is one life every 5 seconds. Pray that as BGR and partners distribute food parcels and kitchen sets, long‐term solutions will be developed so that the world’s food can reach those in need. Pray that those working in agricultural areas will find ways to make food more affordable for everyone.
This video takes a close look at what the Southern Baptist World Hunger fund does, as well as the need around the world.
BGR's Francis Horton explores Central and South Asia in search of hunger relief projects supported by the World Hunger Fund. This trip takes us to the hill country of southern Bangladesh, where garden projects are improving the lives of village famil
Do you know the world's #1 health risk? You can be part of the cure by getting involved with the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund at www.worldhungerfund.com.
A team of passionate community development workers make a treacherous journey by motorbike each week to help residents of a remote Thai village beat hunger. The team's work is made possible by donations to the World Hunger Fund.
Food aid is essential to combating HIV/AIDS, because good nutrition allows people to fight off the infection, regain strength and live productively. Learn more about the World Hunger Fund at http://gobgr.org.
A free, 30-day prayer guide from BGR that focuses on world hunger.
Revisit a common way, used in pioneer days, to raise funds for causes such as World Hunger.
A creative way to illustrate how challenging it is to deal with struggles many people around the world experience each and every day, including that of having a simple meal.
An activity that will help you focus on the lifestyle of many in our world and on their daily struggle for food.
A 5k run to raise funds. Instead of “running for your life”, this is truly a race to “Run for Their Lives”. This is a great and simple idea to raise money and community awareness for world hunger.
Incorporate hunger awareness in your harvest festival. A variety of educational activities designed to help children better understand world hunger and what they can do to make a difference.
A fun way to help people, young and old, become aware of and impact world hunger. This event is also great for team building, prayer, fasting, college campuses, or weekend retreats.
