It’s not too often that the United Nations uses the word “famine” to describe humanitarian emergencies. But the serious food crisis in the horn of Africa, where the UN estimates that 10 million people are at risk, including 2 million malnourished children, is deserving of such an alarming title.
The response to the famine, which is particularly severe in Somalia, has been too little too late. With millions of people on the brink of starvation and aid deliveries complicated by Islamist militants’ control of the famine zones, the response is both necessary and urgent. Read this New York Times article to learn more.
The combination of one of East Africa’s most severe droughts in 60 years and Somalia’s unrelenting conflict has exhausted the country’s food supply. Two years of erratic rain have resulted in brutally reduced access to drinking water and major crop and livestock loss. Speaking at the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that a total of $1.6 billion was needed to help, with about $300 million of it required in the next two months to mount an “adequate response.”
Many of those who are able are fleeing the most affected country, Somalia, using what little funds they have left to pay for buses. Thousands are walking hundreds of miles through desert regions with children by their sides or slung to their backs. Thousands of Somali refugees have been crossing the borders of Kenya and Ethiopia every day.
That’s where refugee and relief programs supported by ELCA World Hunger and the ELCA as a whole meet. Luley Hassan Aden is 19 years old, living on the outskirts of Hagadera Refugee Camp in Dadaab, Kenya. This is where many people fleeing Somalia, like herself, are settling, and it is one of the places where the Lutheran World Federation is serving.
The ELCA’s response to the current drought in the horn of Africa started in December of 2010. That’s when the ELCA pre-positioned $250,000 for use in East Africa to meet the needs of the local population in future disasters. These funds have proven to be a great blessing and are at work, helping those who are affected by the famine. Lutheran World Federation has the strongest roots in these refugee camps and is already using the ELCA funds to provide water in Dadaab to both refugees and the local population and enriched porridge for those older adults and children too weak to take solid food. The ELCA is sending an additional $400,000 to assist Ethiopian and Kenya communities at increasing risk as this crisis unfolds, as well as Somali refugees who are in search of refuge in those countries.
Luley was visited by an LWF block leader who took her details and gave her a ration card for food distribution. She was also visited by a team of staff in the camp. “We found her in an unbearable state and based on the criteria we use, she was given priority. We have done follow-up visits and provided her with a tent to sleep in” explains Keinan, a LWF social worker based in Hagadera.
We need your help! Donate to help support the work of the ELCA to refugees fleeing Somalia and other areas affected by the severe drought. Also your prayers are greatly appreciated! The act of leaving your home in search of resources can be a terrifying and exhausting activity, with some people moving as far at 300 miles on foot. Please keep these people in your prayers that God will continue to protect them on their journey.

God Bless,

Karen

Friends, I wanted to share this “Fourfold Franciscan Blessing” with you. In the context of the ELCA Malaria Campaign, I find this blessing to be inspiring and challenging.  May God bless all of us with these “gifts,” so that we are motivated to work with our companions to bring just and comprehensive health care to communities in Africa, as well as preventative and educational measures to overcome malaria!

“May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.”

Amen!

The recent rise in cost of the basic Netflix plan I use has got me thinking. What do I spend money on that I ultimately do not need? And what could that money be used for to better serve the world?
This is not a black and white issue. This is something that each Christian needs to discern personally to become a better follower of Christ in the world. Our American culture has desensitized us to really think about how much we are spending and what we are spending it on. Think about the miscellaneous purchases you make throughout the week that you don’t plan or the things you buy that you don’t really need.
For example, my personal stumbling block is one of the latest ways consumers are obtaining their entertainment: Netflix. Recently Netflix announced a price change that made consumers think about how much they’re paying for these services. Mostly they’re really mad about having to pay a lot more. But I took this opportunity to re-evaluate what I need out of my entertainment, how it helps me grow as a child of God, and ways I can use my excess spending to support those around the world.
Previously subscribers could get unlimited online streaming and 1 DVD at a time for $9.99 a month. Come September the same plan will cost $15.98. I’m not interested in making a comment on the price increase. I am interested in how this has caused me to re-evaluate my priorities. Perhaps it has (or could? or should?) for you, too? If I choose a different plan that ends up saving me money come September, I want to think about how I may better use that money to help fight world hunger. If I were to switch to just an online streaming plan or just a 1 DVD at a time plan for 7.99 per month I would have enough to provide someone around the world a microloan that they would use to help start a new business. This may seem like tedious math but I think this is the kind of thinking that is needed to end world hunger. Check out how microloans help women in Mexico overcome poverty and hunger. Also visit ELCA Good Gifts to see all the different ways you can make a difference.
All of our abundance comes from God and he intends for us to share it with those in need around the world and in our local communities. As members of the body of Christ we need to take a good look at what we spend and ask if it’s serving God in the best way possible. We trade in the bigger houses, better cars, cooler gadgets, and the latest fashions for the hope to reduce global poverty, ensure social justice and work to make sure everyone is fed. Just by making small adjustments in what we buy we can make that difference.
So here are my questions to you. Have you thought about this issue? What’s your stumbling block that tempts you to spend? What are you doing to get over your stumbling block? I’d love to hear from you!

God Bless,
Karen

Several recent blog posts have discussed food production, gardening, etc. — perfect timing for the following announcement!

ELCA World Hunger is holding an ELCA World Hunger Ethics of Eating event in Region 7 on September 29 – October 2 in the Philadelphia/Allentown area!  Synods that are included in Region 7 include Metro New York, New England, New Jersey, Northeast Pennsylvania, Slovak Zion, Southeast Pennsylvania, and Upstate New York synods.

Please help spread the word about this exciting event!  Our goal is to have a racially and ethnically diverse group of approximately 20 participants, including young adults (ages 18-35).  Don’t live in this area?  Do you know someone who does who may be interested?  Pass this information on to them!

Interested?  If you are connected with the ELCA and are in one of these synods, email Erin.Cummisford@elca.org for an application — completed applications are due on AUGUST 15, 2011.  Detailed information about the ELCA World Hunger Ethics of Eating event is at http://www.elca.org/hunger/ethicsofeating

Event information:
ELCA World Hunger has held regional Ethics of Eating events for the past few years to discuss the food production system and how the ways we eat impact the environment, those who are hungry, and those who work in food production.  These issues are explored from a theological perspective, and with respect to organic, local and conventional farming.

ELCA World Hunger will invite a diverse group of approximately twenty participants to attend this Region 7 Ethics of Eating event in the Philadelphia/Allentown area from Thursday, September 29 – Sunday, October 2, 2011. To fully leverage ELCA World Hunger’s investment in this event, participants must commit to attendance at the entire Ethics of Eating event.

Email Erin Cummisford (Erin.Cummisford@elca.org) to request the Ethics of Eating application. Completed applications AND a letter of support are due by August 15, 2011.  Applicants will be notified of invitation decisions shortly thereafter. ELCA World Hunger will underwrite the cost of participation.

After this event, each participant will:
1.  Have increased capacity to advocate for a just and sustainable food system, in response to hunger and on behalf of the environment.
2.  Implement a follow-up project, action or activity.
3.  Participate in the ELCA World Hunger Leader Network and online community.

If you have any questions, please contact Erin Cummisford (Erin.Cummisford@elca.org).  Thank you!

When I have the privilege of hearing Presiding Bishop of the ELCA Mark  Hanson speak, I pay attention.  Recently I heard Bishop Hanson speak to a group of people gathered to help shape the future of the ELCA Malaria Campaign. Bishop Hanson speaking about malaria? I was all ears.

Here is my interpretation of some of the things that I heard (with apologies; my notes were taken in haste, trying to keep up with his enthusiasm for the topic!):

This is “an Advent moment” in the ELCA. We’re excited to see the new thing that God is doing with us, and we’re leaning into the Holy Spirit for guidance. Because a church can’t be sustained by overcoming challenging times, we must also find a way to make an impact in the world, to do something concrete and forward-looking. The ELCA Malaria Campaign is one of the primary ways we as a church can do that.

Overcoming malaria is doable.  It’s something that will tap into the energy of our young people and the passions of our leaders. It’s something that will give ELCA members the joy of being part of what is happening in the world. It’s something that will deepen our existing relationships with our companions and provide achievable goals for us to strive for together.  The ELCA Malaria Campaign will begin with the capacity we already have– and our companions in Africa have– and grow from there. We will deepen our partners’ capacity to engage in sustainable development and holistic medicine.

The ELCA is poised to jump wholeheartedly into the ELCA Malaria Campaign, because who we are as a people of God is inseparable from what we do (and what God does through us). Working toward healing and justice is a mark of our self-understanding as a church.

The need is there. ELCA members “get” the vital importance of overcoming malaria and the impact that our partners can make on countless lives. The ELCA Malaria Campaign reflects the priorities of the church and the commitments that we have made to our companions. The time is now!

Amen. May it indeed be so!

~Jessica Nipp, ELCA Malaria Campaign

The twists of travel have put me in South Africa on July 18, Nelson Mandela’s 93rd Birthday, a day that is celebrated by service to neighbors in South Africa.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to tour the Apartheid Museum with some of the Lutherans who lived through the struggles.  The Christian community’s effort around the world to stand up for justice in South Africa is an important part of the story of freedom, democracy and reconciliation.

The Church in South Africa on its own might have been more easily dismissed had not other churches joined them in solidarity.  Conversely, we in the churches around the world could never have created the condition for change from our position outside.  It reminds me much more why we need to walk together in our witness—locally, regionally, and as the book of Acts says, “to the ends of the world.”

A few months ago Nelson Mandela was quite close to death.  Today his birthday is celebrated.  All over South Africa people are committing to provide 67 minutes of service to their neighbors. That is one minute for each year of Mandela’s leadership to the country (some on the streets, some in prison, some as head of state).  Certainly such service is not the final pathway to some of the struggles for justice that to this day continue, but it is a start and a great way to celebrate a man of inspiration.

Wars continue to rage, drought spreads, poverty stays around, and the church continues to strive in its service and witness.  We are stronger and truer because we have one another.  Thank you for being present in so many places and ways through the ELCA, our companions and missionaries, and with ELCA World Hunger.

Dan Rift, Director of ELCA World Hunger

The state of the world is discouraging. But I’m a functional optimist. I try to live as if my actions and decisions made a difference. And when change shows up, I like to think I played a role in its birth.

My last post on the disappearance of garbage is a case in point. I’d like to believe that every can and bottle I’ve recycled since my junior high recycling project in 1970 has been like a dripping faucet, slowly and steadily advancing the idea that garbage is silly. That slow, steady drips from millions of like-minded people pushed this notion at all levels of government and civil society. That those drippers worked together on legislation, testified before waste management boards, set up municipal recycling programs or got degrees in product design or lifecycle engineering, the better to create products that use less energy and produce less waste.

I’m pretty excited about the drippers who work for manufacturers. In industry magazines, they are discussing compostable, returnable and reusable containers, and the radical notion of providing no packaging at all. In the retail industry, drippers are discussing In.gredients, a zero-packaging store opening in Austin, Texas, this fall. In.gredients was inspired by Unpackaged, which opened in London in 2006 by a dripper who has been praised for her “system-changing idea.”

That’s what these drippers and their drops are doing: changing a system. Which is what it takes to make lasting change. Individual efforts will always be important, but they must be multiplied to have an impact. Go ahead and light your candle in the darkness—but your light will be greater if you link up with some other candle holders. (I’m mixing metaphors, but water and light are elements that transform!)

Says the press release from In.gredients: “Americans add 570 million pounds of food packaging to their landfills each day, while pre-packaged foods force consumers to buy more than they need, stuffing their bellies and their trash bins: 27 percent of food brought into U.S. kitchens ends up getting tossed out.” Now that’s a system.

If I see that system as powerful and oh-so-distant from little me, I’ll feel overwhelmed. But if I can see zero-waste stores and returnable packages as another response to the steady drips of my 41-year-long recycling career, I can get up and live another system-changing day.

Jesus knew the power of the tiny mustard seed. (Oops! Metaphor # 3.)  In fact, he was counting on our mustard-seed faith, habits and practices, joined with others, to coax system-changing ideas like the kingdom of heaven into existence. For people of faith, life is a system-changing enterprise. Let’s live into it and see what emerges!

Anne Basye, Sustaining Simplicity

One of the most well known bits of theology that make Lutherans Lutheran is our idea of faith vs. works, most notably our insistence on justification by faith. Even though I had heard the words thrown around in various sermons through the years, I didn’t really start learning and thinking about this concept until my Church History class in college. I have wrestled with this concept ever since. I wonder if it may be one of the root causes of the inactivity I see in some churches, especially in regards to service to the community and around the world. In my own mind (perhaps over-simplifying it all) I wondered, “Well if works don’t get me to heaven, why bother?!” Now perhaps most believers don’t think like this… but what if this simple misinterpretation of theology did somehow encourage the church to be disengaged in the world?
Over the years I’ve witnessed many churches whose main focus was directed within the walls of the church. These focuses can range from trying to pay for the building, discussing the layout of worship or decorating for various holidays. Don’t get me wrong, these are important aspects of a worshipping community but I genuinely believe that being a follower of Christ, and specifically being Lutheran, means being able to reach out into our community and around the world as well. A few years ago World Vision conducted a survey among parish pastors across various denominations. They wanted to find out what these pastors’ and their congregations’ highest priorities were. The results, which are outlined in Richard Stearns’ (the current president of World Vision) book The Hole in Our Gospel, concluded that 79% saw worship as a high priority while only 18% saw “helping the poor and disadvantage people overseas” as a high priority for the church.
This is distressing especially since scripture portrays a very different priority list for Christians. James 1:26-27 advocates that religion that is pure and undefiled before God is one that looks after the least, the lost and the forgotten. Isaiah 1:10-17 says basically the same thing. God doesn’t want us to just go through the motions. Although maintaining the status quo might be the easiest thing to do, it is not the way to engage in deep committed relationship with Christ that God is looking for. The best way to do this, I think, is to show one’s faith in and love for God, is to show God’s love tangibly to others through compassion and by seeking justice in the world.
This August the church-wide assembly’s theme “Freed in Christ to Serve” echoes those hopes for the ELCA. The theme comes from Galatians 5:1, 13: “For freedom Christ has set us free … only do not use this freedom as an occasion for self-indulgence, but serve one another in love.” The concept behind the theme is that we are “bound to be free from the power of sin, death and the devil, and free to be bound to God in faith and to our neighbor in service.” By the grace of God through Christ’s death on the cross we have been liberated from the powers that separate us from God and one another. The ELCA is a “church that roles up its sleeves” to work together for the common good. The “common good” will perhaps take form in the new Malaria Campaign that the church will be voting on or other ministries of ELCA World Hunger and other Lutheran organizations. No matter the form it takes, this is our “faith and our way of life.”
As always, I would love to hear your comments. I’m aware that not everyone agrees with some of the things I’ve said in this blog and I would love to have open dialog so we can all have our opinions on the table. Thanks!

God Bless!
Karen

In recent days, my colleagues have been restless and anxious about doing more to share the story and seek financial support for the “hunger” related emergency in Eastern Africa, particularly in Kenya and Ethiopia where abnormally low rainfall in the last two years has created serious drought and famine that will affect approximately 10,000,000 people.  The situation in Kenya is further impacted by a population explosion of people arriving daily into the refugee camps from Somalia and Sudan.  (See ELCA news release).

The ELCA Disaster Response has been involved in this region during the last year by providing funding to The Lutheran World Federation to assist in the operations of the Dadaab refugee camp in Eastern Kenya.  Ideally this camp supports a community of 90,000, but at the present has had to expand to accept approximately 380,000.  Additionally, the ELCA Disaster Response can be so effective in dire times because of the base of relationships that already exist in these countries through the history of ELCA World Hunger funding and program support.   

When disasters occur, my colleagues at the ELCA Churchwide Office respond like a machine out of shared compassion and concern.  A new fund may be opened to specifically define how gifts will be used.  Press releases, congregational bulletin inserts, and gift forms are created to describe the emergency conditions and how the ELCA is involved or affected in the community that is suffering.  These messages encourage action through prayers of support and making gifts to provide relief and recovery.  Situation reports are then posted on the web site to provide updates on the critical details of the response and related progress in the communities being served.

What can we do to help?

• There is nothing more powerful than prayer.  Pray for those who may be hungry and thirsty as a result of the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.
• Make a gift to support the ELCA’s ongoing response to one or more of our related funds such as the Horn of Africa Drought Relief, ELCA International Disaster Response and/or ELCA World Hunger. 
• Follow these programs through the situation reports and information posted on the ELCA Disaster Response and ELCA World Hunger web sites.

Thank you for your awareness of and participation in these efforts.

In peace, Sharon Magnuson, ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal

“After leaving the synagogue [Jesus] entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. Then Jesus stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.  Immediately she got up and began to serve them.  As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them.”   ~Luke 4:38-40

Looking for a way to begin a devotional or educational activity about the ELCA Malaria Campaign? One of our favorite Bible stories is the story of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law, whose most prominent symptom looks achingly familiar: a high fever that probably meant malaria. Which gives us… a story of Jesus curing malaria!

There are wonderful insights to be gained from this brief passage. Recently I heard The Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, coordinator of the ELCA Malaria Campaign, give a devotion based on this story. I remember her passion as she noted that this vignette takes place at the setting of the sun. In Jewish tradition, the old day ends and the new day begins at sunset.

We, too, are coming to the end of a day– the end of the day that sees a child die of malaria every 45 seconds. The end of the day that allows pregnant or immuno-compromised people to die of a preventable and treatable disease.  The end of a day where the tiny parasite wins. We’re entering a new day– a day in which, together with our partners in Africa and all over the globe, we can overcome malaria.

Rebuke the fever! (photo: ACT alliance)

Like Jesus, we see healing as a vocation– a call from our creator to heal all of God’s people.  A call to work together with our companions in Africa to “rebuke the fever.”

~ Jessica Nipp, ELCA Malaria Campaign