{"id":161,"date":"2012-03-30T09:03:11","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T14:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/?p=161"},"modified":"2013-02-13T11:10:13","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T16:10:13","slug":"hunger-and-telling-stories-more-advocates-fewer-people-living-with-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/hunger-and-telling-stories-more-advocates-fewer-people-living-with-hunger\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunger and Telling Stories: More Advocates, Fewer People Living with Hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We close the New Mexico installment of the &#8220;Advocating on the Road&#8221; blog series with this piece. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>A reflection by the Rev. Chuck Exley,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>St. Luke Lutheran Church (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Albuquerque, New Mexico<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The concept of advocacy, in my vocabulary, means speaking up for those who do not or cannot speak up for themselves.\u00a0 It\u2019s an intercession, not unlike intercessory prayer when we turn to God on behalf of those in need.\u00a0 Advocacy, however, involves speaking to individuals of authority within the human realm.\u00a0 We take the time, the trouble, and the risk to express our concerns, our outrage or our pleas for compassion.<\/p>\n<p>In most cases such advocacy takes the form of signing petitions, writing letters, meeting personally with powerful people, or making some other public show of support.\u00a0 Many of us have advocated in this way countless times.\u00a0 We have been encouraged, inspired, or cajoled by any manner of activist to reach out beyond ourselves.\u00a0 In fact, it is often the very same advocates who are recruited time after time to make their voices heard.\u00a0 We know each other.\u00a0 We have worked together for years.\u00a0 We comfortably speak in each other\u2019s name.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tight group; almost an elite group!<\/p>\n<p>But, therein lies one of the critical difficulties in advocacy: finding more advocates.\u00a0 Prayer chains can bring innumerable individuals together, praying silently in the seclusion and anonymity of one\u2019s home.\u00a0 Advocacy, on the other hand, has no such luxury.\u00a0 To be an advocate means making your name \u2013 if not your face \u2013 known to everyone.\u00a0 Your feelings and your position on hunger policy or some other controversial issue are exposed.\u00a0 Taking such a step, especially for the first time, requires some degree of self-sacrifice.\u00a0 How do we motivate individuals to take such a step; to leave their comfort zone and stand publicly with people society would gladly dismiss; to put their faith out front?<\/p>\n<p>I think the answer lies in telling stories.\u00a0 None other than Jesus himself found stories to be essential.\u00a0 His parables fill us with the profoundly beautiful combining of knowledge and inspiration.\u00a0 No list of facts, no course of study could communicate so fully or touch us so deeply.\u00a0 But Jesus\u2019 parables are not the only parables around us.\u00a0 There are countless parables \u2013 stories that surround us with the telling of God\u2019s love in the midst of ordinary life.\u00a0 Parables contain the motivating spirit of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n<p>Let me tell you a story. My wife teaches first grade.\u00a0 The children she teaches include some of the poorest and most deprived children in Albuquerque.\u00a0 She has done this for a very long time.\u00a0 She teaches them in Spanish rather than English.\u00a0 For many, it is the only language they know.\u00a0 It becomes their point of entry into an experience that may well change their lives.\u00a0 But all the children, Spanish speakers and English speakers alike, learn each other\u2019s tongue very quickly.\u00a0 Within weeks they speak with each other as freely and easily as any children anywhere \u2013 playing, laughing, chattering as the teacher tells them to be still.<\/p>\n<p>Not so with their parents.\u00a0 It is they who must interact with the culture around them.\u00a0 But some \u2013 perhaps many \u2013 are completely illiterate; not just in English but in Spanish as well.\u00a0 Their inabilities lie at the heart of their poverty and hunger; seen most graphically in their need for food each month.\u00a0 But, imagine, if you can, sitting with a 6-year-old child who is learning to read.\u00a0 The lesson, however, is not about vowel sounds or spelling.\u00a0 Instead the teacher explains, \u201cIf you do this you can teach your mother to read.\u201d\u00a0 She goes on to demonstrate what the child might try while recounting his day at school.\u00a0 His expression changes as he listens with new interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is my wife\u2019s story.\u00a0 It is one of her experiences in caring for her students.\u00a0 And yet, the story of her experience becomes my parable.\u00a0 And my parable becomes the challenge to advocate that I can share time and time again.\u00a0 Such is the gift of a story: it can be told and retold to any who are willing to listen.\u00a0 Each telling touches a listener with the spirit of advocacy; with the challenge to tell others of something that touched his or her heart; with the imagining of possibilities for a more equitable world.\u00a0 Each telling becomes like the call to the disciples: Go and tell what you hear and what you know.\u00a0 Your experience becomes my parable, and every parable becomes an invitation to advocate for those God loves.<\/p>\n<p>We have been too quiet.\u00a0 We have been too quiet in advocating for our hungry neighbors.\u00a0 We know so much about God\u2019s work in the world that we have been unwilling to tell.\u00a0 I can imagine no other way of inspiring, gathering, or recruiting advocates than to touch their hearts with the active presence of God\u2019s love.\u00a0 We all have stories worth telling.\u00a0 And, they are probably more powerful than any of us know.\u00a0\u00a0 Your experience becomes my parable, which invites all listeners to advocate for God\u2019s people in need.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Go and tell!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We close the New Mexico installment of the &#8220;Advocating on the Road&#8221; blog series with this piece. A reflection by the Rev. Chuck Exley, St. Luke Lutheran Church (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Albuquerque, New Mexico The concept of advocacy, in my vocabulary, means speaking up for those who do not or cannot speak up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7389,7384,1400],"tags":[7388],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocating-on-the-road-series","category-hunger-and-poverty","category-post","tag-advocating-on-the-road"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hunger and Telling Stories: More Advocates, Fewer People Living with Hunger - ELCA Advocacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/hunger-and-telling-stories-more-advocates-fewer-people-living-with-hunger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hunger and Telling Stories: More Advocates, Fewer People Living with Hunger - ELCA Advocacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We close the New Mexico installment of the &#8220;Advocating on the Road&#8221; blog series with this piece. 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