This is the first of two postings by the Rev. Franklin Ishida, director for Asia and the Pacific, ELCA Global Mission. Find more information at www.elca.org/disaster and find related pictures at www.imageevent.com/chinaearthquake Thank you, Franklin! Sue

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Hello Everyone!

This is my last week with ELCA World Hunger. The summer has been a huge learning experience with many joys and frustrations that I’m sure will shape my life and the service that is to come! I have put together this slide show of the ELCA World Hunger intern experience from summer 2008. There are pictures of where we work, events we went to, and some are just plain fun! Please, let’s stay in touch!

Peace, Mikka 🙂

I often debate whether or not I want to have children. Although they are incredibly cute and are great sources of joy, they have constant needs you must fulfill.

Last weekend as my brother, nephew, and I were driving to a restaurant to go to dinner, my nephew began to ask for milk because he was thirsty. I tried to be a patient aunt and explain to my nephew “we have to wait until we get to the restaurant” and “just 10 more minutes”, but he could not understand my reasoning. My nephew kept on repeating “milk?”, “milk?”, “milk?” Rather than stay calm, I found myself frustrated.

Though at the restaurant my brother and I were able to order the milk my nephew wanted, I could not escape the pit in my stomach that had developed during my nephew’s questioning.

I could not believe how emotional I had become in that moment. I felt a mix of emotions. I felt desperate, guilty, horrible, distressed- basically, a mix of everything anxiety ridden. These mixed emotions were not just because of my nephew (I knew he was going to get his milk and have a continuous supply of it), but the stark realization that milk is not 10 minutes away for everyone. In fact, milk, in some cases, is never there.

This experience was a real “ah-a” moment for me.

Though I have been steeped in academic study of hunger, malnutrition, diseases of poverty, environmental justice, human rights, sustainability, occupational hazards, advocacy, community health, and much, much more, I have had a hard time feeling the power of these injustices in my heart.

The statement, the longest journey a person will ever take is from their mind to their heart, is true. When these perils of the world have journey from my mind to my heart, I acquire a new desire for justice.

My new conviction from this experience I received as a gift from my nephew, all of two years old. I need to question what I am hungry for in terms of attaining justice. And I need to question that hunger, again and again, until I feel like I can meet the wants or even the needs of communities I hope to accompany.

Although the verdict is not out to whether or not I want to have children (because, honestly, it seems very scary), the verdict is in that I will spend my future career as a public health worker questioning this hunger. I welcome that, knowing that I might not get a glass of milk at the end.

This past week, a few members of the ELCA World Hunger staff and I went on a “field trip” to St. Paul’s African American Methodist Episcopal Church, a program site for the Domestic Hunger Grant recipient program, Faith in Place. During the afternoon, we visited with some of the program coordinators and the energetic, enthusiastic children and young people at the church and learned about the ministry of Faith in Place.

Faith in Place works with people of all faith traditions, because they see that “There are two great responsibilities common to all faiths: to love one another and to care for Creation,” and their mission is to help religious communities fulfill those two responsibilities. According to their website, “Faith in Place gives religious people the tools to become good stewards of the earth […and] partner with religious congregations to promote clean energy & sustainable farming.”

At St. Paul’s Church, we were given a tour by some youth who showed us the projects they are participating in. Skye, one of the girls at the church, gave us a mini-tour of their raised plant bed (because the soil in the lot has a high lead content) where they are growing peppers, collard greens, cucumbers, and other vegetables. Next, I was eagerly whisked to the compost trashcan where Devon, one of the youth, proceeded to pull out leftover stems from the greens and onions they had cooked together for the “healthy lunch” earlier that day and shredded cardboard from their boxed lunches the day before. The smell wasn’t too bad, and the smile and pride on his face made the experience a true pleasure! The church also has a rain barrel project in the works, shops for food at the local farmer’s market, and leads the young people in discussions on topics such as energy to discover connections between the interconnectedness of consumption and creation. Faith in Place and St. Paul’s African American Methodist Episcopal Church are making their way toward greener tomorrows!

The experience was a fulfilling JOY for me on two levels. First, it was great to get out of “the cube” (my affectionate nickname for the cubicles that we sit in at the ELCA offices) and out into the communities where the work we do is realized and manifested. It was a rejuvenation of commitment! Second, I am a self-proclaimed “nature lover,” who grew up in the woods of Northern Minnesota and is still adjusting to life in the “big city” of Chicago. To see the connections that people are making as part of God’s good creation to the land they are on, even in the midst of concrete and polluted soil, was a beautiful thing to see.

Earlier this year, I was at a presentation where the emerging theme of ecopsychology was introduced. Ecopsychology, in my understanding, is the human experience of being disconnected physically and, therefore, mentally, from nature, which the presenter linked to materialistic and self-centric societies that “big cities,” especially, can cultivate in individuals. I do believe that the understanding of and connection with creation is essential to our ability to care for creation and for one another.

As taken from the ELCA Social Statement, “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice:”
“ ‘To serve,’ often translated ‘to till,’ invites us again to envision ourselves as servants, while ‘to keep’ invites us to take care of the earth as God keeps and cares for us (Num 6: 24-26).”

How good it was to see a group of young people partaking in care for creation with such vigor and purpose! May we be that enthusiastic to dig around in the (sometimes smelly) compost of our own lives and know the contents of the rich soil out of which we grow!

I could hardly believe the headline of a New York Times article I read about three weeks ago: “Hoarding Nations Drive Food Costs Ever Higher.” I had to read on. I had to uncover what this headline not only means to the world community and economy, but also to me.

As I read on, I was amazed. In the first line of the news story, the writer pointed out this fact: “at least 29 countries have sharply curbed food exports in recent months, to ensure their own people have enough to eat, at affordable prices.”

I had a knee jerk reaction and realization. Our difficult times are real. After this stark realization, this article made me question, why do countries need to hoard? And, is this okay?
As I continued to peruse the article, phrases like “export restrictions have led to hoarding,” “latest blow to farmers”, “developing world”, “new restrictions are just an acute symptom,” or “ensure their own people”, I was gravely saddened. On one hand nations are securing their people’s viability and food sovereignty, and on the other hand, nations of people will go hungry.

I am not an expert in food distribution and know only surface information about food hoarding, but this article made me question a lot (as you will see) and demanded that I attempt to grasp the results and implications of this practice. For example, hoarding practices might mean the denial of a human’s basic right to food. Even though this could happen, how can we be upset with hoarding nations when it is important for their own country to retain their food sovereignty? Or how can we be upset when there are structural agricultural policies that at times have nations deciding between money or hunger?

Along with thinking about hoarding on a macro level, this article made me think about the many reasons why people hoard on a very micro, personal level and question if it is okay. Besides the seeming economic and social benefits , we hoard for many other reasons. Admittedly, some good and some bad.

We hoard because we are scared that there will not be enough, we can’t let go, or because it is all we know. Though, I often think the root answer to the reason why we hoard is because it speaks to our human inability to conceive the unknown.

But the interesting reality is that our Christian paradigm is based, built, and prospers in the unknown. When God told Moses to tell Egypt to set his people free, the Israelites could not ever imagine leaving bondage and living in a land flowing of milk and honey. When Jesus fed the thousands, it was unknown if he could break the bread in such a way to feed everyone. He did and there were remnants. There is no way we can ever foresee the ways God will speak to our hearts and make God’s presence known in our lives. Yet, we have confidence in God’s will.
But how does this principle of surrendering ourselves to God’s will and trusting in His power to take care of the unknown in our lives apply in the real world and to a system that is breaking under financial pressure.

In Proverbs 11:26 we are told that “the people curse those who hold back grain, but a blessing is on the head of those who sell it”. I am having a hard time reconciling this proverb because just as I am cursing these hoarding nations, I also understand the desire and rationale for hoarding. These countries are trying to secure the economic, social, and political future of their people, culture, and nation. I sympathize with the 29 countries that hoard in order to lessen the unknown and to secure their prosperity.

Because of this understanding, I am asking God to bless both individuals and nations so that eventually humanity will have a food distribution system that does not encourage hoarding in times marked by the unknown. The sad truth is, through hoarding, we are creating another dismal outcome in the global food chain. And this outcome may ultimately exemplify our interconnectedness; when one country, one person, one world mechanism falters, so does the world.

Reference:

Bradsher, Keith et al. “Hoarding Nations Dive Food Costs Ever Higher”. New York Times. June 30, 2008. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/worldbusiness/30trade.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=hoarding%20nations&st=cse&oref=slogin.

In June I had the privilege of traveling to Jordan, Egypt, Israel, and Palestine with a group of folks connected to my congregation, St. Luke’s Lutheran in Park Ridge, Illinois. Carolyn Kees, a former member, was one of our companions on the journey. After visiting Tabgha, on the Sea of Galilee, where the church remembers Jesus feeding the multitude, Carolyn (AKA Grandma Kenna) told me a family story. I asked her to write it down for me. Here’s what she wrote.

According to Bloomberg.com, as of 10:23 a.m. EST this morning, the price of petroleum in the United States is $127.14 per barrel. The Energy Information Administration states that, as of July 21, the average price of gas in the Midwest is $3.91, which is down from a week ago, but up an entire dollar from the price at this time last year.

In our truly, globalized economy, most everything is interconnected. As the price of gasoline continues to climb, it is amazing, and somewhat alarming, to watch as the entire market begins to change. This past week, Newsweek magazine did an article in the business section entitled “Life at $200 a Barrel.” The article research comes from different sources and is based on the estimated effects of $200 per barrel oil. Here are some of the projections (all in USD):

Barrel of Oil
Now: $147
Future: $200
Gasoline
Now: $4.11/ gal.
Future: $6.30/ gal.
Diesel Fuel
Now: $4.50/ gal.
Future: $5.55/gal.
Tomatoes
Now: $1.77/lb.
Future: $2.86/ lb.
Lettuce
Now: $0.90/ lb.
Future: $1.45/lb.
Shipping containers from Asia:
Now: $8,350
Future: $15,000

The article makes a good point, stating, “When people and businesses spend more on fuel, they have less to spend on everything else,” and argues that $200 per barrel oil “would cause economic growth (in [Gross Domestic Product] GDP) to slow by a couple of points a year.” As of now, people are still spending more on food than on gas, but it is forecasted that around fall 2009, we will begin to spend more on gasoline for our cars than on food for our stomachs.

I read articles like this often, and I am always left with the question, “What does all this mean?”

My thoughts are these. First, with the price of oil on the rise, which directly and indirectly affects everything else, it will be important for minimum wages and salaries, in general, to change in response to increasing prices. I know there is a need for much more extensive planning and long-range thinking, but what do we do in the interim? Second, if we are heading toward a world where we pay more of our hard earned money on gas to get to work than on food for dinner with our family and friends…how does that affect hunger, both the physical experience of hunger and, possibly, the experience of emotional and relational hunger?

The future at times looks bleak, but, I am struck by these words from an African proverb, “For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” People of peace, let us begin to prepare, intentionally and carefully, today!

Music has always been an important and influential part of my life. It is the one art form that speaks to me in such a way that has given me entry and understanding to the world.

The other day while out on a run, the lyrics of one song became really apparent to me. The song is by one of my favorite social justice singers/artists Michael Franti. The song is called “Never Too Late”.

And though you might think the song title is cheesy because the phrase “never too late” is cliché, the song is not. The song is about friendship, family, and the idea that life is meant to be lived and learned.

For such a clichéd phrase, there is much meaning and a reminder that change is possible.

Working as a World Hunger Intern and studying Public Health, it would be easy to become depressed about the daily goings-on of the world. Between poverty and racism, malnutrition and disease, climate change and hunger, there are more than enough problems to spend your day in tears.

This is where I get excited about my work and my future.

It is never too late to start the day over, because if it was, I would not ever be gainfully employed. Besides my employment (which is insignificant in the grand scheme of things), in our lives and in the world, we would never have change, we would never prosper, and we certainly would never look forward to the future.

Just as Franti says it is “never too late”, he also artfully states in the song, there is no need to “fear the long road, because on the long road you got a long time to sing a simple song”.

This summer I’ve realized that we all need to sing our own simple songs to help us grasp that it is “never too late”. We all need to find our vocation in helping to heal the gravity and depth of problems that exist in the world.

Though the answers to my vocation are being revealed to me now, I am thoroughly excited to live out my call to advocate for change. It is my hope that I will always live by the phrase it is “never too late”, because if I don’t, not only is my innate optimism gone, but also, my fire for life would be extinguished.

It’s the creeping feeling I get when I am drinking my $4.14 USD designer coffee as I snub a woman asking for change on the “L.” It’s the slight grimace I make when reaching for my favorite Gap t-shirt. It’s the sinkhole in the pit of my stomach that falls out when I finish a delicious meal and the bust person (who is usually a person of color, hopefully making minimum wage, maybe experiencing poverty or hunger) silently cleans my plate, the plate that I would not exactly enter into the “Clean Plate Club” competition.

I have come to recognize these sensations as personal guilt feed by my realization that I live, work, and breath a hypocrisy, of sorts. As workers for peace and justice…how do we wrangle with our own “guilt” that our “talk” is sometimes in direct opposition to our “walk?”

Last week, July 7-9, 2008, The Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial nations met at the Windsor Hotel Toya Resort and Spa in Toyako, Japan on the holiday island of Hokkaido.

EXTRA! EXTRA! “THE TALK” Sounded Promising!
According to an article by Environment News Service, “climate change, world hunger, oil production and rice production, energy security and disaster reduction” were top agenda items for the summit. One news source went so far as to call it the “World Food Shortages Summit.” Additionally, an article from the online newspaper, Telegraph, states that on board his flight to the summit, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown commented:

“If we are to get food prices down, we must also do more to deal with unnecessary demand, such as by all of us doing more to cut our food waste which is costing the average household in Britain around £8 per week.”

It seems as though the Prime Minister is a fan of simple living and good stewardship!

EXTRA! EXTRA! THE WALK—Maybe Not so Much!
An article by The Guardian points out that dinner for the evening was entitled “Blessings of the Earth and Sea,” an eight-course, 19-dish dinner prepared by 25 chefs. Click here for the full menu of the dinner, and just in case you’re wondering (because I know I was) according to The Guardian, the “G8 Fantasy Dessert” consisted of “a special cheese selection accompanied by lavender honey and caramelized nuts.” Mmm…

There were 15 guests present at the meal, mostly comprised of “key” leaders and their wives. Click here for a picture of the dinner. Now, notice who is not at the table– namely any of the African leaders, from countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Senegal, who were invited, but apparently only to the talks during the day. Additionally, since I’ve breached the subject already, how many people of color are seated around that esteemed table—at all?? Hmmm…

Oh, and, as a full-circle note, the plane that Prime Minister Brown was on when he made his remarks, was allegedly chartered out of Texas and had to fly, sans-passengers, to pick him up in Britain. Classy.

The total cost of the three-day, G8 Summit, according to The Guardian, £238m or about $473,765,280.54 USD. That amount of money:
1. Could, according to the ELCA World Hunger “Good Gifts” catalog, provide a nutritious meal for about 172,278,283 people at a congregation-based food program– that’s a little over half the population of the United States.
2. Is over 23 times the ELCA World Hunger annual budget.

It is easy for me to cast blame about these world leaders’ hypocrisy and laugh at the ridiculous-ness of the monetary reality. However, I realized that the week-long, 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA will cost an estimated $30 million USD, which is 1.5 times the ELCA World Hunger budget for the year.

Don’t get me wrong, events like the G8 Summit and the Youth Gathering, of course, have incredibly positive aspects—I am in no way discrediting the importance of such events. There is most certainly much to be said about face-to-face, relational contact and cultural understanding, and the gathering of people together. After all, “wherever two or more are gathered in God’s name, the presence of God is with us,” (Matthew 18: 20)!

It all comes down to this. With the “realities” of costs and the limitations of resources and supplies available to us—hey, Prime Minister Brown couldn’t exactly have walked, biked, or swam to Japan, and I can’t always be certain that my Gap t-shirt is completely legit — how do we continue on without being overburdened by our hypocrisy and subsequent “guilt?”

Then again, wait, isn’t guilt a selfish sentiment to begin with centered on…ourselves??

In my estimate, we usually do the best with what we have. BUT—What if what we have simply just isn’t good enough? Some choices do seem “unavoidable.” However, just maybe, all the “unavoidables” are, in fact, avoidable if we make the choice to challenge ourselves to think prophetically, outside the norms and the seemingly all-encompassing “box.”

Call me an idealist, but I do think that “realities” can be relative, and I like to think that we have an important stake in creating new paradigms in which to serve and live as people of God. Amen!

References:

“G8 Summit Opens with Climate Target Up in the Air.” Environment News Service 7 July 2008. 11 July 2008 .
“Man-Made Hunger.” Editorial. New York Times 6 July 2008.
Winnett, Robert. “G8 Summit: Gordon Brown Has Eight-Course Dinner Before Food Crisis Talks.” Telegraph 8 July 2008. 11 July 2008 .
Winnett, Robert. “G8 Summit: the Eight-Course Menu.” Telegraph 8 July 2008. 11 July 2008 .Wintour, Patrick, and Patrick Barkham. “Just Two of the 19 Dishes on the Dinner Menu At the G8 Food Shortages Summit.” The Guardian 8 July 2008. 11 July 2008

If the answer is “Augusta Victoria Hospital, water project in Zimbabwe, new homes for cell phones,” can you guess the question? Find clues by scanning the excerpts from the ELCA News Service July 14, 2008 posting, found below. Blessings! Sue

SALT LAKE CITY (ELCA) — Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) celebrated the close of its second decade July 12 with the distribution of its 20th anniversary offering, updates on current programs and the introduction of a new program.

Women of the ELCA gave a financial gift of $25,000 to two international Lutheran projects — Augusta Victoria Hospital, operated by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Jerusalem, and a Stand With Africa/LWF water project in Zimbabwe.

The Rev. Twila Schock, director for global mission support, ELCA Global Mission, Chicago, introduced the Rev. Mark B. Brown, LWF regional representative, Jerusalem, who thanked Women of the ELCA for the gift via video. “Your financial support, advocacy and prayers strengthen our ability to serve those most in need in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Your encouragement helps us to remain firm in our resolve to offer healing and hope in a land exhausted by violence and injustice.”

Kathryn Sime, ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal, ELCA Development Services, Chicago, thanked the women’s organization for its “generous and faithful support of ELCA World Hunger and Stand With Africa.” She noted the organization supported such projects through “a lifetime of giving through this ministry.”
The water project in Zimbabwe is especially significant, she said. “We could hardly have imagined the great needs in Zimbabwe today,” she said. “Following months of political unrest, social upheaval, staggering unemployment of 85 percent last year and devastating inflation … through all of this, this country is now gripped in disaster, leaving many in dire poverty, hungry and homeless.”
Lutheran Development Service in Zimbabwe, an independent program of the LWF, will receive the funds for safe water development projects, she said. The organization is focused on sustainable community development in Zimbabwe, including providing access to safe, drinkable water supplies, Sime said. By the end of 2009 Lutheran Development Service is planning to provide all households in its targeted area with nearby access to safe, drinkable water. “Your gifts change lives, and it all begins with water,” Sime said.

The Women’s Funding Network, in association with the Good Deed Foundation, is holding a cell phone recycling drive in which two-thirds of revenue received will be invested in programs that build women’s financial assets, job opportunities, skills and entrepreneurship. Women of the ELCA is one of 128 organizations that are a part of the Women’s Funding Network. According to the Good Deed Foundation Web site, recycling 1 million cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 1,368 cars off the road for one year and recycling 100 million cell phones would save enough energy to power more than 194,000 U.S. households with electricity for one year. Chris Grumm, president and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network and former vice president of the ELCA, San Francisco, said the network hopes Women of the ELCA can recycle up to 250,000 phones through the drive.

Find ELCA News Service postings at http://www.elca.org/news
Find the ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog