St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church’s Lunchtime Ministry offers a warm meal, hospitality and community to neighbors in Hoboken, New Jersey. This important work is supported in part by a Domestic Hunger Grant from ELCA World Hunger. Stanley Enzweiler is the Program Manager of St. Matthew Trinity’s Lunchtime Ministry and has worked with the ministry since 2016. Below, he shares more about what this ministry means to the people of Hoboken. To apply for a Domestic Hunger Grant to support your ministry, visit ELCA.org/DomesticHungerGrants.

Everyone’s life, at some point, takes an unexpected body blow. An accident, an addiction, the loss of a job or family member. These forces come out of nowhere, and for a while, it seems like the world is against you. However, eventually someone throws you a lifeline—a good lawyer shows up, a friend makes a job offer, or time spent in the stability of everyday life heals that wound.

Lots of people who have come back from having their feet kicked out from under them believe that those in the worst shape—people who are homeless or living in poverty—are either lazy or helpless. “I helped myself, so why can’t you?” moralizes one person, while another shakes their head, saying, “I’ve been so fortunate, and all these poor people are just down on their luck. No one actually wants to be homeless.”

As anyone who has worked in a social service will tell you, both perspectives take it too far.  Many people in poverty have gotten the wind knocked out of them, but, unlike those in more fortunate situations, they haven’t had lifelines thrown their way. They often don’t have a stable job to begin with, or their family and friends are unable to give them a loan or a place to stay.  On the other hand, many people have simply rejected or misused the lifelines thrown to them.  And yes, some people do want to be homeless.

What I love about St. Matthew Trinity Lunchtime Ministry, a soup kitchen and drop-in center operating out of St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, is that we don’t care about that stuff. Of the 65 or so people we serve every day, some are looking for work, some are waiting on their benefits to come in, some are about to lose their housing, and some enjoy living on the streets. But we do not screen our guests based on why they are in need. We don’t ask for your fingerprints or your ID or your immigration status. Our only requirement is respect for the people and space around you. We’ll give you a warm meal, a fresh pair of socks, and a listening ear no matter what you did last year or last night. Whatever your story is, we will welcome you.

And here’s the really amazing thing. Even if you break the rules at Lunchtime Ministry and have to leave our community for a few days, we will always welcome you back. Everyone messes up a time or two, but no one is beyond forgiveness. We are one lifeline that never goes away.

Len (pictured at left), one of our longtime guests, was generous enough to share his story with us. Born in Jersey City in 1959, he attended technical school in Texas before getting deployed to California to work as a forklift driver for the U.S. Air Force. After his honorable discharge, he stayed in California until his father died, and he returned to New Jersey to take care of his mother. She died in 2011, leaving him with nowhere to go. Although he stayed at other county shelters, a few bad decisions got him kicked out of these for life.

Len came to Lunchtime Ministry as a last resort. Although we are not an overnight shelter, he is able to get a few hours of sleep on our benches or floor during our open hours. Like many of our guests, he helps out when needed by cleaning tables, taking out the garbage and posting event flyers. He also attends church services, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and Bible study. Most of all, he is known for encouraging our volunteers with one-liners such as “This is the best food in town…and I’m not just talking about the prices!”

Like many social services, we are a community effort.  We welcome volunteers from all walks of life and enjoy partnerships with numerous other social services. Our financial support comes from various sources, including ELCA World Hunger’s Domestic Hunger Grant, whose recent gift toward our food and supply costs will assist us in continuing to dish out delicious and filling meals every day.

It’s easy to list the things that make Lunchtime Ministry unique—the food donations from restaurants as diverse as Qdoba Mexican Grill and Schnackenberg’s Luncheonette, the free haircuts on Mondays, the cardboard barn in which we collect spare change for ELCA World Hunger, the “billritos” that our chef Bill makes from scratch on Wednesdays, the guitar music half an hour before we close. But when we’re asked why our program is necessary to Hoboken, there’s only one answer: respect. For many people in town, we are the one place where they can spend a peaceful morning, the one place where they have a forgiving community, the one place where they can go when they have burned all their other bridges.  In Len’s words:

“A little respect goes a long way.  A lot of respect could be eternal.”

Each summer, the churchwide organization of the ELCA hosts interns for ten weeks. Interns help the ministries of the ELCA with a variety of projects and learn more about working within the church along the way. This year, ELCA World Hunger is happy to welcome Jasmine Bolden, Hannah Norem and Petra Ricekrtsen to the team!

Jasmine Bolden, Hunger Education Intern

Hello! My name is Jasmine Bolden, and I will be the ELCA World Hunger intern for hunger education this summer! Originally from the Eastside of St. Paul, Minnesota, I was exposed to the injustices of the world at a very young age, which helped push me in the direction of the Lutheran church, as well as piquing my interest in social justice. Recently, I graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., with a degree in Social Studies Education. As requirements for receiving my Bachelors of Arts degree, I was able to not only take courses on what has led and continues to lead to social injustices, but I was also able to work hands-on with those in my community who have experienced marginalization and exclusion.

I have participated in multiple practicums throughout the Twin Cities Area and volunteered at the schools near St. Olaf. One opportunity that has greatly impacted me and helped lead me to my position here at the ELCA, however, was Breakthrough Twin Cities. At Breakthrough, I was able to teach English to a group of underprivileged and under-resourced middle school students within the Twin Cities area for the summers of 2016 and 2017. As a teaching fellow, I learned much about myself and those in the world around me, and through listening to my students, I saw how education is so much more than school.  I was able to realize more deeply the inequities present not only near me but throughout the world, while I was also able to see hope for the future.

As I continue to grow throughout this summer with the ELCA, I look forward to taking what I learn and implementing it as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Thailand this Fall. I know that this summer the ELCA is where I am supposed to be, and I look forward to growing and learning with those around me and those within the community.

Hannah Norem, Fundraising Intern

My name is Hannah Norem, and I am honored to be the ELCA World Hunger intern for fundraising this summer. A lifelong member of Messiah Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas, I was born and raised in Houston and just graduated from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with a degree in government/international affairs, religion and French. After this internship, I will be going to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to attend Wake Forest University in a 5-year joint degree program between the School of Divinity and the School of Law with the end goal of earning a Master’s in Divinity (MDiv) and Juris Doctor (JD).

I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with the ELCA World Hunger team because I have always been interested in working at the intersection of religion and justice. Advocating alongside neighbors experiencing marginalization because of my deeply rooted faith is a skill I have strengthened in college, so advancing the initiatives that ELCA World Hunger has put forth to serve others is something I am interested in. A special part of this internship that I am thrilled about is the ability to spread the message of ELCA World Hunger at the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering. Since my middle-school and high school years as a day camp counselor at my home church, I have loved working with young people, and to be able to go to my hometown and work with young people is a unique opportunity that I am blessed with this summer.

When not at work, I enjoy reading a good book, trying out local coffee shops, and attempting to finish the “easy” sudoku puzzle in under a minute (with varying degrees of success). I am excited to bolster the mission of ELCA World Hunger until all are fed!

Petra Rickertsen, Network Engagement Intern

Grateful for the opportunities which led me to the ELCA, I am elated to serve with ELCA World Hunger as the network engagement intern this summer! Attending California Lutheran University and serving our Southwest California Synod Hunger Team have been great outlets for my desire to accompany people in their mission to live out their purpose. Friends and co-workers know me to be working on several projects at once, whether it be initiating a hunger-focused project with Cal Lutheran’s Lord of Life Student Ministries, participating in an Interfaith Allies gathering, or helping a friend with a filming project. But they also know I’m never too busy to be found on a camping trip with good buddies. I also intern with a fitness and education-based nonprofit local to Thousand Oaks, California, called Fit 4 The Cause  as Advancement Intern, helping them fulfill their mission of making healthy lifestyles an option for people who would like some extra support in their fitness endeavors and who hail from low-income backgrounds.

In my breathing and being time, I will often pull out my guitar, pop open a book, dance around a park, or hang in my hammock, generally milking as much of the California sunshine that I can. I spent last fall continuing my Business Administration, Management and Theology and Christian Leadership studies in Paris. There, I also traveled to both experience new settings and visit distant relatives with new friends. I look forward to the coming Fall semester where I will be blessed to learn from the people of Europe again, this time through Cal Lutheran’s traveling Oxford program. Thereafter, I anticipate graduating from the university next May.

After five summers of helping make camp an open, loving environment for youth through Lutheran Retreats, Camps, and Conferences, I feel more prepared than ever to learn how the ELCA does the same in God’s great world. Thank you for taking the time to get to know me, and have a lovely day!

This post originally appeared on the ELCA Advocacy blog. You can subscribe to the ELCA Advocacy blog by following the link.

On Monday, May 14, 2018, people of faith and low-wage workers gathered in Washington, D.C. and more than 30 statehouses across the country to kick off the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. This initiative seeks to move poverty to the top of our national consciousness through energized grassroots organizing that will expose, confront and take aim at forces that keep people in poverty. At this moment of rising income inequality, this campaign brings together the moral power of organized people of faith, the voices of those living in poverty and the urgency of addressing our national priorities.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. planned the original Poor People’s Campaign of 1967-68 to build on the momentum and strategies of the civil rights movement to address the denial of human rights and dignity to Americans trapped in poverty. Moved by the struggles of people and communities he encountered in his journeys, he sought to bring together low-wage workers, faith leaders and activists to highlight inequities and demand our nation prioritize programs that support workers and jobs, access to housing and a war on poverty. The initiative lost momentum after the assassination of Dr. King.

Fifty years later, in 2018, a new Poor People’s Campaign is growing up from the seeds that Dr. King planted. The campaign will address the roles that systemic racism, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism play in perpetuating generational poverty in the U.S. As a faith community initiative, it is bringing together religious leaders who will engage in mobilization, advocacy and civil disobedience to make their voices heard. Read more about the 2018 Poor People’s Campaign.

The Rev Dr. William Barber and the Rev Dr. Liz Theoharris, the campaign leaders, are at the fore of a multiracial and interreligious coalition that launched 40 days of protests and direct action on May 14. Over the course of these 40 days, causes, concerns and solutions to persistent and generational poverty will be highlighted through marches, worship events and nonviolent direct action. The initiative seeks to change the moral narrative in our nation, from blaming poor people for their own poverty to involving them in solutions to it. The campaign highlights the role that entrenched systemic racism plays in perpetuating poverty and the result of a national budget that prioritizes military spending at the cost of anti-poverty programs. The renewed campaign also takes on environmental degradation and promotes sentencing reform as areas where our collective moral voice must break through for change.

The 2018 Poor People’s Campaign is bringing together Lutherans who are concerned about the increase in income inequality in our nation, the intersections of poverty, race and environment and the toll of cuts to anti-poverty programs on their communities and church members. As a new, faith-led grassroots movement by which to advocate on the local, state and federal level, it offers congregations a new way to act to address hunger and poverty. It highlights the urgency of this moment for action with and on behalf of our neighbor.

The ELCA Social Statement on Economic Life reminds us that God calls us to seek sufficiency and sustainability for all. “For all” refers to the whole household of God—all people and creation throughout the world. Therefore, our economic analysis cannot stop with our own well-being, but must assess how economic activities affect “all,” especially people living in poverty. Scripture gives voice to the circumstances that keep people poor, whether social status, oppression or because of the greed and injustice of the powerful. The statement urges this church to “address creatively and courageously the complex causes of poverty.” The Poor People’s Campaign is a vehicle to help us do that in our day.

Too often, advocacy is speaking for others who are perfectly able to speak for themselves. As the ELCA, we prioritize advocacy that supports people with lived experience of poverty or oppression to tell their own stories, using voices that are often the most powerful in creating change. The Poor People’s Campaign offers an opportunity to accompany others in solidarity and urgency, in advocacy as the church for the world.

ELCA Advocacy will be highlighting the reflections and experiences of Lutherans involved in the next 40 days of action. Look for coming blog posts, or send us your experience. How is your faith a catalyst for your participation? What outcomes do you hope for? Who are your partners and what are you learning? Please send to washingtonoffice@elca.org.

From 2011 to 2015, the ELCA Malaria Campaign raised both awareness about malaria and gifts to support companion churches and partners in fourteen countries to combat this disease. These gifts continue to support projects in countries faced with the daunting challenges posed by malaria. This World Malaria Day, we celebrate this important work that continues through the ELCA’s companion churches. As we commemorate World Malaria Day this year, we do so with firm resolve to keep up this important work. According to the World Health Organization, there were 216 million estimated cases of malaria in 2016 (the most recent year data is available.) This is a significant decrease from the 237 million cases WHO estimated for 2010, which enlivens hope that we can reduce vulnerability to this disease. Yet, we also know that progress has slowed. The 2016 estimates represent an increase from 2015, when WHO reported 211 million cases.

 Clearly, there is more to be done. But ELCA World Hunger, our partners, and our companions also celebrate the progress that has been made and the impact this work has had in communities. Below are updates from some of the countries where malaria work continues. For more on the malaria programs in Zimbabwe from ELCA staffmember David Mills, see this post.

Malawi

Income generation and savings is a key part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi’s work, as well. In 2017, their village savings and loan programs reached more than 2,100 members, who collectively saved nearly $167,000 dollars. These savings have helped the participants—88 percent of whom are women—gain increased access to health services, loans, and education while improving the overall food security of their households. The members were also able to make improvements to their homes and purchase assets that will help them generate income. All of these results will help them be more resilient to malaria outbreaks.

Namibia

Community members clear tall grass at Engela Hospital.

To reduce the population of mosquitos that carry the malaria parasite, removing brush and tall grasses that would allow standing water to collect near homes is critical. In Ruacana, 349 people from seven villages came together with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) to implement a major cleaning campaign to reduce the risk of malaria. The Regional Councillors’ office helped by providing transportation for the large group. More than 100 participants joined in two other cleaning campaigns in Okongo and Engela districts, especially targeting the area around the hospitals in those communities.

Education about spraying continues to be a key priority for the ELCIN. When participants in their malaria program in Zambezi reported that many people refused to allow sprayer operators into their homes, the church began an intensive awareness campaign and hosted workshops with community leaders. With the knowledge they gained and the trust that was built in the workshops, the community leaders became active advocates for indoor spraying, assisting the program leads and offering support to sprayer operators. The ELCIN now reports that 89% of the homes in Zambezi have participated in indoor spraying, a key best practice in reducing the risk of malaria.

Zimbabwe

Malaria is a disease of poverty. On the one hand, the disease itself contributes to high rates of poverty because of lost productivity, lost wages due to illness or death, lower school attendance, and increased health care costs. On the other hand, poverty can also make a community more vulnerable to malaria by decreasing the availability of social services, including health care and prevention education.

This is why income-generating activities are a key part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe’s (ELCZ) response to malaria. In Hwange and Gokwe districts, community members took time to celebrate the hard work of people involved in the ELCZ’s livelihoods projects. In Gokwe, groups participated in field days at a local level, showcasing a variety of products, including organic honey, organic milled small grains, protein-rich nuts, sun-dried vegetables, and soups. Some of the products were collected and exhibited at a district-wide field day. The exhibit of products won an award for best exhibit in the social services category. More than just celebrating the work of the groups, the exhibits gave them an important opportunity for feedback on product quality and branding.

In Hwange, the ELCZ held a field day where groups could come together and share experiences and best practices. Groups also had the chance to showcase the products they had developed. The group members helped make the field day a successful celebration, mobilizing resources for food and prizes for the presenters.

The ELCZ’s work has made a tremendous impact on individuals and communities. Gogo Lucy Mloyi, a 60-year-old widow in Mfelandawonye, has been a member of a village savings and loan group since 2013. The group has been a blessing for Gogo Mloyi as she works to raise chickens for eggs and meat. Through her hard work and the support she has, Gogo Mloyi was able to build a six-room house, with rooms to rent for added income. She was also able to get electricity in her house to run a deep freezer where she keeps her chickens before they are sold. With the support from the village savings and loan group, Gogo Mloyi is able to meet her needs in her new home.

Gogo Lucy Mloyi

It is easy to think of malaria prevention as simply providing mosquito nets for prevention and medicine to those who have fallen ill. I have to confess, I’ve lived in Africa and had malaria on three different occasions, and frankly, my thinking about how to effectively combat the parasite is still so often stuck in this familiar pattern.

And then I visited Burure, Zimbabwe.

Burure is located in the Gokwe Region of Zimbabwe, bordered by rivers which are notoriously difficult to cross during the rainy season. It is an area that has been plagued by outbreaks of malaria in the past. It is, without question, one of the most remote areas served by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (ELCZ).

Jairos Charedzera

During my visit, I had the opportunity to visit the ELCA World Hunger-supported and ELCZ-operated Burure Primary and Secondary Schools and the Burure Gokwe Clinic – institutions which provide the opportunity for education and health care to a catchment area of approximately 10,000 people. I also had the privilege of meeting with Jairos Charedzera, a Village Health Worker supported by the ELCA Malaria Campaign.  With a contagiously enthusiastic and upbeat demeanor (even in the hottest part of the day), Jairos explained to me how he teaches malaria prevention and control in Burure and the surrounding villages and acts as a “trainer of trainers” for income-generating savings groups in each of these villages. Before introducing me to the savings groups, Jairos began his presentation with this simple yet profound truth:

“Health and income that reduces poverty must never be separated. When a household’s income rises, so does the likelihood of good health.”

Each of the village savings and loan groups greeted us with their own unique song and dance before telling us how their group works and displaying the fruits of their labor. In each of the groups, the members (all women) contribute a certain amount of money each month. That money is pooled together to invest in income-generating activities. The profits of these activities are then used to provide things like goats, hens, pots, pans, mosquito nets or other necessities for each member of the group and their households.

The group in this photo consisted of seven women who pooled their resources together to plant and nurture a nutritional garden, growing squashes, groundnuts, greens, and spices. They also harvested honey from beehives they had built and maintained.

After the group gave their presentation (and, being most persuasive in their sales pitch, successfully sold us nearly all of the produce pictured), I asked the leader of the group about the meaning of the song they had greeted us with. Her answer:

“Our song says that we will put into practice what we learn from one another.”

I learned anew in Burure that there is a more powerful method for undoing the devastating effects of malaria in communities than simply distributing mosquito nets and medicine – that method is giving the power back to the women.

Strong women are directly at the center of Burure’s journey toward a future of hope and possibility, freed from the shackles of preventable diseases like malaria. When women gain access to income, the whole community benefits. The profits go toward household necessities that make the cooking of nutritional food easier and to needs like mosquito nets (which they can purchase with pride and at a fairer price because they negotiate as a group), school fees for their children, and paying for medical care that mitigates the impact of easily treatable diseases like malaria. All are cared for, and no one is left behind.

Leaving Burure, we travelled hundreds of miles to visit four different hospitals in Zimbabwe. At each one, we left them with a gift of produce we received from the savings and loan group in Burure. The produce that was grown and harvested by these resilient women was used to feed sick people across their country.

When women are given power, the blessings cannot be contained, traversing mountains, valleys, and every barrier. When women are given power, malaria doesn’t stand a chance.

David Mills is the program director for budget and operations for the Diakonia team in ELCA’s Global Mission unit. Diakonia works with the ELCA’s companion churches and international partners with projects supported by ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response.

Last week, ELCA World Hunger and ELCA Global Mission staff visited with companions in Malawi, learning more about the great work local volunteers and leaders are doing with support from ELCA World Hunger. Below, David Mills, the program director for budget and operations on the Diakonia team in the ELCA’s Global Mission unit, shares one of the stories he has heard during the visit. For a previous field report on Malawi from David, click here.

Siteliya Lakisoni knows her name.

Siteliya is a mother of six children, including her daughter, Patilisha, whom she adopted after Patilisha became an orphan. For two years, Siteliya has been attending Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELCM) adult literacy classes offered in Salima, Malawi.

She told me, “Before I started attending class, I could not read or write. I knew nothing.”

Today, she wrote her name on the board, her hand moving with confidence and pride. When I asked her how gaining the ability to read and write had changed her life, she said,

“I used to receive letters and notifications about community services being offered, and I could not read them without help. Now I can read them, I can interpret them for my community.”

Patilisha was standing by her side as Siteliya and I conversed. She was composed and steady, sharpness of mind evident before she even spoke. I asked her what it meant to her that her mother could read and write now, and she told me plainly and confidently,

“When I see my mom read and write, I feel good. I want to learn from my mom. When I grow up, I want to be a teacher.”

When a woman gains knowledge, that knowledge washes like holy water over every layer of community, bringing nourishment and new life to the people and to the land. And a generation of young girls are inspired to follow the trail blazed for them, leaving that path wider and more trodden still for the ones who will come after.

When a woman knows her name, the world is never the same. Thanks be to God, Siteliya knows her name.

Learn more about how you can walk alongside the women like Siteliya who will forge Malawi’s future through ELCA World Hunger’s “40 Days of Giving.”

This week, ELCA World Hunger and ELCA Global Mission staff are visiting with companions in Malawi, learning more about the great work local volunteers and leaders are doing with support from ELCA World Hunger. Below, David Mills, the program director for budget and operations on the Diakonia team in the ELCA’s Global Mission unit, shares one of the stories he has heard during the visit.

Alppha Banda, Kristina Stephano, Dorothy Ngamira, Irene Banda, and Martha Kamphata all have children attending the Chibothel Lutheran Nursery School, operated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi. This school, with an enrollment of 42 students, serves as the base for a feeding center for children supported by ELCA World Hunger.

Every school day, Alppha, Kristina, Dorothy, Irene and Martha show up as volunteers to cook for nearly 70 children aged six months to five years who travel to Chibothel from the surrounding ten villages. Pooling resources, they prepare food that has been donated, cup by cup, from the families of the children.

And because of ELCA World Hunger, food is provided not only when families have enough to contribute, but year-round, even during the months of October to January when food is most scarce in the region.

When we asked Dorothy what inspires the group to devote themselves in service to these children, she said, “Each and every child here is everyone’s child through the bond of love.”

When you support ELCA World Hunger, your support does not stand alone. It buttresses the sacrificial efforts of women like Alppha, Kristina, Dorothy, Irene, and Martha (and their fellow community members) who work relentlessly to ensure that every child in their community has opportunity.

The support we offer together through ELCA World Hunger isn’t about instilling determination, nor compensating for a lack of ingenuity or motivation among our neighbors. Rather, it is a reflection of the ELCA’s commitment to walk alongside communities in Malawi and around the world through our companion church partners, knowing that we will go further together, and that we can only be transformed in relationship with one another.

You can learn more about how to support ELCA World Hunger projects supporting health and wellness in Malawi through ELCA World Hunger’s “40 Days of Giving” by visiting the site here: http://elca.org/40days.

As we journey toward Easter, ELCA World Hunger’s “40 Days of Giving” is an important opportunity to remember that we do not journey alone.

In March 2018, the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) brought together leaders from around the world. Established in 1946, the CSW is the principal international intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. The annual session is the largest UN gathering each year. This year, CSW62 focused on rural women and, specifically, two themes:

Priority Theme: Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls; and

Review Theme: Participation in and access of women to the media, and information and communications technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women (agreed conclusions of the forty-seventh session).

Below, guest writer Angela Marie Dejene, president of Dejene Communications, reflects on these themes, her time at CSW62, and the critical importance of narrative – “truth told well.”

Even in the United States in 2018, women still face very different challenges and live very different lives than men.

But the stories the media has told, until very recently, have rarely reflected those female narratives and the daily inequalities with which they struggle.

I am the granddaughter of South Dakota farmers, and I grew up on the prairie in Crookston, Minnesota – a farm town of fewer than 8,000 people in the far-away northwest corner of the state.

You knew you were getting close to reaching the edge of town when you started to smell the odor of rotten eggs from the sugar beet plant.

Health complaints from local mothers were ignored – it was and still is a mostly male world in the sugar beet plant and in the fields … and only the local land-grant university had a greater impact on the local economy.

The local newspaper, the Crookston Times, reflected the male-dominated agricultural industry mostly when I was young – and still does today. The front page story last Wednesday featured a meeting of the Mid-Valley Grain cooperative and showed a group shot of male-farmer members.

My grandmother held up “half the sky” on that remote South Dakota farm where my mother grew up and where I spent wonderful summers as a young girl. But where is that female narrative if I don’t find it … if I don’t tell it?

Without truth-telling narratives, there is rarely progress.

Progress for women in rural northwestern Minnesota remains bleak today:

• According to the US Census Bureau, fewer than 1 in 4 (23%) of residents there, in Crookston, Minnesota, have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Full-time male employees make 1.34 times more than female employees in Crookston.
• According to the Minnesota Department of Health, in isolated rural areas of northern Minnesota (the greater region surrounding Crookston) there is only 1 physician for every 3,191 people.
• Only 4 percent of the state’s physicians are located in the northwest counties of the state, the most rural part of the state.
• About 1 in 5 people still live below the poverty line and the largest demographic living in poverty are females ages 18-24.

But you have to dig deep for that statistic and deeper still for the story behind it. Without narratives, there is no progress.

I was raised by a single mother who worked full-time as a university professor. Still, she had to struggle to make ends meet. I remember going to the local grocery store, HUGOS, on Saturday mornings with my mom and brother, and with my mother’s purse-sized calculator in hand, we would add up the prices of each item we put into the cart. She needed to make sure she had enough in her bank account to get us fed until she got paid the following week.

I always did well in school, and fortunately, those grades and perhaps a compelling narrative in my applications helped me qualify for academic-based scholarships when I started applying for college. With the generous help of those scholarships, I enrolled in Augustana University, an extraordinary liberal arts university affiliated with my Lutheran faith, located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Augustana, I double-majored in journalism and government/international affairs and served as an editor for the school newspaper.

I’ve always had a passion for uncovering and telling true stories. When women are in charge of the narrative, policies change, communities are empowered and the lives of women and girls are transformed. I started my career as an unpaid lobbying intern in Washington, DC, advocating for health care policies that would improve the lives of women and children. I spent most of my time on Capitol Hill finding and sharing the true stories of how the U.S. healthcare system at the time was failing women, families and children.

These were stories that reported on real families, some forced into bankruptcy because a mother, a wife, or a sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and their health insurance policy had a “lifetime limit” on how much of the treatment would be covered.

These were stories of real families who relied on the Children’s Health Insurance Program for their children’s critical visits to the doctor to manage a chronic condition like asthma or Type 1 diabetes.

These were stories of real high school girls who were experiencing teen dating violence but had nowhere to turn because the local legal system had failed them.

The re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act was signed into law on March 7, 2013. The new law made targeted expansions to address the needs of especially vulnerable populations and help prevent violence in future generations.

The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, giving millions of families new-found hope and access to affordable, high-quality health care.

Narratives – truths told well – were the empowering difference.

Stories of horror and struggle.

Stories of compassion and empowerment.

Stories of survival and success.

If we strive to find and to communicate, if we work to broadcast the truth about women from and to even the most remote of places – we fuel and ignite progress everywhere.

Narrative – truth told well – by women and about women – can advance and empower the lives of all who live on this planet.

The ELCA World Hunger team welcomed three new colleagues to the team in the last few months!

Jenny Ackerman, Coordinator for Network Engagement

Hello! My name is Jenny Ackerman, and I am excited to be joining the ELCA World Hunger Team as Coordinator for Network Engagement. I was most recently Volunteer and Outreach Manager at Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley in Elgin, Ill., coordinating a variety of volunteers to participate in construction activities and beyond. My favorite construction activity is anything involving a circular saw!

Though I am a lifelong Lutheran, I also spent a few years at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago working in both the communications and development departments. I have lived in the Chicago area for the majority of my life and studied Organizational Communications at Elmhurst College here in the Chicago Suburbs.

I am looking forward to addressing the issue of hunger with a comprehensive approach. I love working with people who are passionate about making a difference, and I already know I am surrounded by some great thinkers and problem solvers – both on staff and within the network.

When I am not at the office, you might find me reading a book, playing my clarinet in a community band or cheering on the Chicago Cubs. I am always looking for my next travel adventure; there is a lot of the world to see, but Guatemala holds a special place in my heart. I am looking forward to being in partnership with all those working to a world where all are fed.

Juliana Glassco, Manager for Community Engagement and Granting

Hi! I’m Juliana Glassco, and I am thrilled to join the ELCA World Hunger team as Manager for Community Engagement and Granting. I come to the team straight from the ELCA’s Fund for Leaders, which is a scholarship program that supports students attending ELCA seminaries. Fresh off the challenge of transitioning the scholarship application process into a digital format, I’m energized to be involved with some of the exciting initiatives and partnerships that are in the works for ELCA World Hunger’s domestic programming.

My first exposure to the ELCA was as a participant in Lutheran Volunteer Corps, working with the interfaith environmental non-profit Faith in Place here in Chicago. My work there touched on the connections between justice, education and access to healthy food. I then moved back to Washington, DC, (my home turf) to work for the Lutheran Volunteer Corps national office and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, where I participated in the work of building healthier communities on an international scale. Bitten by the international bug, I moved to Canada to complete a graduate program in heritage conservation, which culminated in nine months working with UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre in Paris, France.

Living outside of the U.S. highlighted for me how deeply I care about the people and communities in this country, and the issues that we are facing together. I am grateful to be back in my beloved city of Chicago, working with all of you toward a just world where all are fed.

Mae Helen Jackson, Coordinator for Community Engagement and Granting

Hi! I’m Mae Helen Jackson, and I was born and raised and currently reside on the South Side of Chicago, Ill. I have served with ELCA World Hunger as Coordinator for Community Engagement and Granting on the Domestic Hunger Strategy team since November 2017. I have been active in the ELCA throughout my life. My first known experience was an ELCA Youth Gathering in utero. In 2014, I served as a Young Adult in Global Mission in their Southern Africa program with a placement in the KwaZulu Natal region. Today, in my current role with ELCA World Hunger, I am excited for the opportunity to grow professionally in both new and old ways.

After a lifetime of Sundays, worship can seem so rote, so mechanical. Sermon lessons blend together, and we can float through liturgy on autopilot. But as I was reminded this weekend, once in a while something as simple as a children’s sermon can catch us off-guard, grab us, and force us to pay closer attention.

This Transfiguration Sunday, in preparation for Lent, the congregation I was with watched as the pastor gathered the children in front of the altar. Posted on the railings were hand-written signs proclaiming “Alleluia.” The pastor clutched her guitar while talking with the children about the meaning of the word and asked them about when they had heard it before in worship. Then she explained what would happen this week, when “Alleluia” is excised from our sacred speech as we journey through Lent.

She presented them with a box and invited them to remove the signs and place them therein. Then, she rose and began strumming an “Alleluia” verse as the children placed the colorful signs in the monochrome chest, burying the “Alleluia” until Easter.

This wasn’t new or novel. Lutheran churches around the world will do the same this week. The children’s sermon and that final ritual was seasonally appropriate, liturgically relevant. Catechetically sound. And it was also one of the saddest sights I have seen on a Sunday morning. Each child carefully laid a handmade sign in the box, and on that Transfiguration Day, the signs became lifeless, the box like a tomb. In that moment, the death toward which we will accompany Jesus this season became real, and with it the many deaths that have come after Jesus’ own.

The simple act of youth during that children’s sermon was a powerful ritual, made all the more poignant by the lilting tune the pastor strummed and sang. It was as if the juxtaposition of the happy tune and the grave act encapsulated all the tension and paradox within Lutheran faith. It was profoundly solemn and somber, even as the pastor held out hope for the opening of the box on Easter. It was a sermon for the disciples in the shadow of the cross, who lose their innocence as their Messiah is tried and convicted. It was a sermon about the deep sorrow of Lent, and the deeper sorrow of God for a fallen world. It was a children’s sermon for people who can no longer be children.

It recalled to me the millions of children who must keep their own “Alleluias” buried all year round:

• In 2016 (the last year for which we have data), children in nearly 300,000 households across the United States didn’t know where their next meal would come from.
• On a single night in January 2017, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s point-in-time count found nearly 110,000 children living with families that were homeless. Another 4,800 children under age 18 were unaccompanied by any adult and homeless.
• The World Health Organization estimates that malnutrition was a factor in 45 percent of the 5.6 million deaths of children under the age of five in 2016.
• UNICEF estimates that 50 million children around the world are “on the move” – fleeing violence, disaster, and poverty as refugees or migrants.

As we bury the “Alleluia” in our congregations this week, as we journey through Lent with its sacrifice, repentance, and critical self-examination, our world longs for the “Alleluia” that will not remain buried. Seeing this ritual play out so vividly at the foot of the altar this Sunday, I was reminded why we do this – why we accompany our neighbors in need, why we strive for a world where all are fed, and why we refuse to believe that this is an impossible goal. We do this because we know we must know we cling in faith to that promise that the “Alleluia” must not, cannot, and shall not stay buried forever. That in life, there is death, and in death there is life. We do this because we know that, outside the rhythm of our liturgical season, the “Alleluia” has been released forever by the resurrection of Christ, so that no shout of joy ought to be stifled by hunger, silenced by injustice, or hidden by pain. We know that God’s intention is for our “Alleluia” to resound – forcefully, loudly, boldly – now, in this world, in this time.

As we reflect on the buried “Alleluia” this Lent, we also remember that grace continues to abound in our world through God’s continued work through our church and our neighbors:

• Through the Lutheran Church in Rwanda’s “Integrated Child Support and Welfare” project, more than 130 vulnerable children received the financial support they needed to continue their education in 2017;
• Last year, 25 beehives provided by the Lutheran Conference and Mission Home produced over 660 pounds of honey, which Roma families in Hungary used to earn stable income and provide for their children;
• In 2016, Boise Rescue Mission Ministries in Idaho served nearly 350,000 meals to people in need and helped 600 individuals transition from homelessness to independent living. This life-changing work will continue in 2018.

All of these ministries – and nearly 600 more – were supported last year by gifts to ELCA World Hunger. And all of them bear prophetic witness against the injustice and exclusion that can bury cries of joy beneath mounting need.

Even as we reflect on sin, death and our dependence on God in Lent – even as we ritually bury the “Alleluia” in our sanctuaries, we know that God’s work in the world continues. The work of ending hunger goes on with faith in a promised future where all will be fed. We share in God’s work with hope, joy and faith. And we do this work because we know by faith that when it comes to the seemingly insurmountable problems of hunger, poverty, and human need, God will have the final word. And that word will be “Alleluia!”

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is the program director of hunger education with ELCA World Hunger. He can be reached at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org.