Hello! My name is Scott Van Daalen. I am originally from Waverly, Iowa, and a member of Redeemer Lutheran Church. This summer, I have a great opportunity to intern with the ELCA World Hunger Education and Engagement team. ELCA World Hunger has been one of my interests for the past couple of years so I am looking forward to learning more this summer. In high school, I had the opportunity to work on a project that focused on raising awareness and funds for both the ELCA Malaria Campaign and the United Methodist “Imagine No Malaria” Campaign. (Read more about Scott’s project here – https://www.livinglutheran.org/2013/10/running-malaria/)

Another interest of mine is the connection between media and the church. This fall, I will be entering my senior year at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I am studying Media Ministry, a program that combines film production, graphic design, and ministry.

I am very excited to be here, and I am very thankful for the opportunity!

Hello everyone, my name is Micah Kassahun, and I am the ELCA World Hunger Fundraising intern.  I am a rising senior at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, studying Public Health and Biology.  Due to the nature of my studies, I am very interested in hospital administration, social justice, poverty (both national and international) and issues regarding medical access.

At Purdue, I enjoy serving with Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship on campus as a worship leader and bible study leader.  Through my experiences with this ministry, I have learned to make my faith my own and to be unashamed of the Gospel wherever I go.

In the future I hope to obtain a Masters in Public Health (MPH) and possibly move into the corporate world while serving in a capacity related to providing medical access for those in need and aiding my surrounding community.

For fun, I really enjoy competitive sports, playing music and spending time with friends.

I am really excited and blessed to be a part of the ELCA World Hunger team and to see how the Lord uses this Church to spread God’s Word in different ways!

I am Shubira Bocko, and I am the ELCA World Hunger Education Intern this summer! My passion for serving others dates back to my time on the south side of Chicago because there were so many opportunities to make a difference. Through Reformation Lutheran Church, I served meals to homeless people during Thanksgiving, visited nursing homes during Christmas and mentored my peers. I attained my B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Community Sociology at Wartburg College. In college, courses like Community Sociology and Intercultural Studies made me start thinking about a career in international development. These courses opened my eyes to poverty-related issues going on in other parts of the world, and I wanted to make a difference.

One year after college, I was accepted into Peace Corps program in the Philippines. My work there involved providing health education to families and teaching children and youth life skills. Five months into my service, Typhoon Haiyan hit the island where I was living. Shortly after the typhoon, I was evacuated, and I returned to the U.S. However, I was transferred to Peace Corps Tanzania, where I was born, and being given a chance to go serve home was a blessing.

In Tanzania, I had the pleasure of serving as a health teacher at the health clinic in Dodoma. The highlight of my service was working with women and teaching them about nutrition, contraceptive options and HIV prevention. Having served in Peace Corps for two years and learning about the problems that women and children go through – hunger being on top of the list – I wanted an opportunity to learn more about hunger and see ways I can help. I am glad that I will be serving as a World Hunger Education Intern through the ELCA, and I am looking forward to this enriching experience!

Synod assembly season is in full-swing in the ELCA, and many readers of this blog will be helping raise awareness about hunger and poverty among their fellow Lutherans in the coming weeks.  Outside of assemblies and events, we often are asked for statistics and facts about hunger and poverty for congregations and groups.  So, ELCA World Hunger’s education team has put together a presentation with stats on global and domestic hunger and poverty that you can share.

The stats in the slides are from the most up-to-date sources we have.  This will differ for each of the four areas: US hunger, US poverty, global hunger, and global poverty.  Each of the sources we used are listed in the second slide, so you can read more about the measurements.  Follow the link at the end to download the whole presentation.

Thank you for all you do to help your community learn more about hunger and poverty and how together we can work for a just world in which all are fed!

How many people in the US were living in poverty in 2014?

Food insecurity means lacking access to sufficient amounts of affordable, healthy foods to live an active life.  In the US, food insecurity tends to be “episodic,” which means that there may be times when people can’t access the food they need.  This may be because of seasonal work or insufficient benefits that run out before the end of the month.

What percentage of people in different age groups experience poverty in the United States?

Global hunger tends to be chronic, rather than episodic, which means that hunger is often a daily reality, leading to problems like malnutrition and stunting. The good news is, the number has fallen in the last 30 years.  The bad news is, it is still too high.

How prevalent is undernourishment in different regions of the world?

The World Bank has begun using a new standard for global extreme poverty – $1.90 per day. This line better reflects real costs of food, clothing, and shelter around the world.  Again, the number is falling, with the World Bank projecting that about 700 million people will be living in extreme poverty in 2015.  Hopeful, but there is more work to be done.

To download the presentation, click here.

At this time of year we see seasons changing with the last bit of winter frost fading to the warm air of spring. The seasons of the church change as well from the somber time of Lent into the celebration of Easter. During the season of Lent Messiah Lutheran Church in Vancouver, Washington, decided to spend their weeks not only in worship, but educating their congregation about water.

“Stay Thirsty” was the name of the Wednesday evening sermon series for the season of Lent and each Sunday there was a children’s message about water. In the midst of abundance, Messiah Lutheran Church decided to talk about scarcity of a resource that we all depend on: clean water.

The first “Stay Thirsty” evening, the congregation put on their own Walk for Water. They set up three tracks going throughout the church with stops along the way to learn about waterborne diseases and the reality of water all around the world.

Each track lets you walk in the shoes of a real story, and simulate the difficulties of not having accessible water.

At Messiah there were a large number of people who wanted to participate, so the congregation provided various sizes of water containers to accommodate the inter-generational walk with participants as young as three.     

This first event provided a way for the whole congregation to get acquainted with the theme of “Water for the World”, and learn more about what the ELCA is doing around the world.

As a retired teacher, Hope Quinn took on the responsibility for writing and delivering the children’s messages each Sunday. Each week provided a different lesson on water, and a box for collecting coins to contribute to ELCA World Hunger’s water programs. “Water for the World” was the theme that was adopted and a wishing well was placed in the narthex to collect prayers of the congregation on a clothesline with a thermometer to gauge how much money they raised.

The first Sunday the theme was introduced with a simple question to the children, “When you want a drink of water at home, what do you do?”. The answer would be the same for many of us, that we simply go to our sinks and turn on the faucet. There might be a water filter involved, but nothing strenuous. Answers from the children prompted a conversation on how many people in the world do not have this same luxury, with an illustration from the Walk for Water video. The children were given coin boxes to collect money during the week and told about how their coins can help give people safe water to drink.

Wells were the next topic, and understanding what kind of well water is actually safe to drink. Quinn pointed out that well water can contain debris and other materials to make the water unsafe to drink. Porterville, California, is an area that relies on wells to provide water but due to drought their wells are running dry. Quinn lifted up that ELCA World Hunger is helping provide materials to aid the people of Porterville, which is only a two-day drive from Vancouver. After this children’s message many adults came up to Quinn saying that they had no idea that ELCA World Hunger worked domestically!

Women are usually the ones faced with the burden of gathering water for their families, and that was illustrated in the third week of Lent. Quinn asked for two girls to volunteer from the group to carry an empty bucket and an empty jug. The volunteers illustrated how difficult it is to carry the bucket instead of the jug and learned that with only two dollars from their Water for the World boxes they could buy one of the jugs! Also with only one dollar from their boxes they could provide 140 water purification tablets! The last Sunday showed what happens when an area gets clean water. Quinn showed a PowerPoint that illustrated the different components to getting clean water and what it meant for a community in India to gain access to clean water with the support of ELCA World Hunger.

Messiah wanted to show through education and giving that we really can make a difference by coming together as sisters and brothers in Christ. This congregation took a season to learn about the ELCA in the world, and at the end of their time they raised nearly $2,500!

Let us take a season, a Sunday, or just a moment to bear witness to what we as a church can do in the world, and how something as simple as clean water can make all the difference.

I recently visited a congregation that has been a very generous supporter of ELCA World Hunger for many years. They also have their own thriving anti-hunger ministries for their community. During an adult forum, I asked them, “Why do you do it? How does your faith motivate you to serve?” They gave a lot of different answers, but in general, there were two themes that came up: “This is work God invites or calls us to,” and “This is work God tells us we have to do.”

Which is it for you? Do you serve because God invites you to be part of this work? Or, do you serve your neighbor in obedience to God’s command? Are you called or commanded?

Lutherans have a great way of talking about this difference. We call it “law and gospel.” There are a lot of books and articles on this, but honestly, I think the best example of how Law and Gospel work is found on bus stops in my city during the winter. Chicago, for a Catholic city, is profoundly Lutheran when it comes to shoveling snow:

We Northerners know how frustrating it can be to trudge through knee-high snow. Chicago helpfully reminds us to keep sidewalks clear for pedestrians. But why should we do it? Take a closer look at the poster:

As the poster says, “It’s neighborly.” It’s just what you do to help each other. But if that doesn’t move you to grab a shovel, maybe a ticket will: “and it’s the law.”

Hopefully, most people will clear the sidewalk out of concern for others. But just in case some ruffian leaves the white stuff out front, the city will send a citation with a hefty fine to make sure it gets done.

This is a great example of what Lutherans mean by “Law and Gospel.” With the Gospel, the hope is that we will do what is right because we feel called to do it, out of gratitude for God’s love and out of our love for one another. But, if that doesn’t work, God commands it, too.

When it comes to serving the neighbor, Martin Luther left room for both:

“This demonstrates that we are children of God, caring and working for the well-being of others…”

That’s the gospel side. And appropriately, it comes from Luther’s treatise “Freedom of a Christian,” which is, ironically, all about the freedom we have in Christ. Luther’s main argument is that we serve because we feel called to it in gratitude for God’s grace. We were saved by a free gift, so we serve others freely.

But just in case:

“If your enemy needs you and you do not help him when you can it is the same as if you had stolen what belonged to him, for you owe him your help. St. Ambrose says, ‘Feed the hungry: if you do not feed him, then as far as you are concerned, you have killed him.’ ” – Treatise on Good Works (1520)

And thus the Law side. Just in case gratitude doesn’t move us, perhaps condemnation will.

Does our motivation matter? Think to the snow-shoveling sign. If I clear my sidewalk out of love for my neighbors, how good of a job will I do? When I was a kid, I used to clear the walks for our elderly neighbors, a really nice couple. I made sure their path was as wide as could be. Heck, there was grass showing at the edges. It was a labor of love to help them, a way of showing thanks for their kindness to me over the years.

What will that path look like if the sidewalk is cleared just to avoid a ticket? If you’ve ever walked down a sidewalk shoveled so poorly that your legs knock snow off the mounds at your sides, you might have an idea. Some of the paths in my neighborhood are about ten inches wide and as slick as a skating rink. But, at least they’re shoveled. No tickets today.

Love pushes us to go as far as we can, to encounter our limits and then to find ways to go beyond them. The gospel draws us into a life of faith that is consuming, energizing, and challenging. The Law, on the other hand, sets a minimum standard we have to meet. We look for clear, minimal expectations and do what we must to meet them (or, sometimes, find a loophole.)

Another interesting thing about snow-shoveling in Chicago: elderly and differently-abled people are still required by the law to clear their walks. How they are supposed to this isn’t exactly clear. But if they don’t, they get cited like the rest of us. That’s the way the Law works. The Law doesn’t help us follow it. It merely condemns us when we get it wrong.

The Gospel, on the other hand, invites us into relationships where we support each other. So, the “Lutheran” government of Chicago encourages people to help their neighbors if they know they can’t take care of their sidewalks. It encourages the sort of “gospel” activity where we go out of way to serve one another, not out of fear but out of love and concern. The Gospel lets everyone participate.

What motivates your ministry? Each of us has days when we need the Law to get us out of bed and back to the work of fighting hunger. But each of us also needs the Gospel to help us see God’s reconciling grace at work, creating something new in our midst, something all of us can be part of. How can we be continually reminded of both the Law and the Gospel in our service?

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

The Results Are In!

As the professional football season winds to a close each winter, fans across the country start planning parties large and small, usually with an abundance of pre-game snacks and treats, for the Big Game.  Jersey-clad diehards and fair-weather fans alike break bread, or more likely, wings and nachos, as they cheer on their favorite teams.  Amid piles of chips, dips, and rib tips, it can be easy to forget that so many people around the world and here in the United States often struggle to fill their own plates, let alone the plates of families and friends visiting for the Game.

This year, ELCA Lutherans worked to change that.  Team Carolina and Team Denver took part in ELCA World Hunger’s “Big Game” Synod Challenge to raise awareness and dollars to support ELCA World Hunger’s work in nearly 60 countries, including the United States. And the results are in!

It wasn’t quite the thumping we saw on the field, but Team Denver edged out Team Carolina to win this friendly competition.  Together, the teams and their supporters raised over $70,000, with Team Denver bringing in $35,621 and Team Carolina following closely with $34,672. Together with a few gifts that came in after the competition, over $77,012 were raised for ELCA World Hunger!  These gifts will support food pantries, jobs programs, shelters, health clinics, agricultural programs and much, much more.

How Did They Do It?

The Rocky Mountain, North Carolina and South Carolina Synods shared photos, videos and social media posts to get the word out and gifts in.  (Check out the Team Carolina video here, and the Team Denver video here.)  Here is where donations came from:

Both teams took advantage of Team ELCA, a new online fundraising platform, that congregations, groups and individuals can use to support ELCA World Hunger.  By forming a team, you can invite friends, family and neighbors to join your efforts.  Team ELCA is a great way to draw others together in your event.  From birthdays to youth group overnights to synod-wide events like ELCA World Hunger’s Big Game Challenge, Team ELCA can be an important tool in expanding the reach of your efforts.  Learn more about Team ELCA with a handy tip sheet that can be found here (https://blogs.elca.org/worldhunger/files/2016/03/Team-ELCA-101-1.pdf).

Thank you to Team Denver and Team Carolina, and to everyone who joined in this tremendous effort!  Your support will help our church live out its call to be “church for the sake of the world” in communities facing hunger and poverty around the world.

(This post originally appeared as “Living Earth Reflection: When Water Becomes No Longer Safe” on the ELCA Advocacy blog. It was written by Rev. Jack Eggleston, Director for Evangelical Mission and Assistant to the Bishop for the Southeast Michigan Synod of the ELCA.  Flint, Michigan, is in the Southeast Michigan synod.)

People around me know that I drink a lot of water. Many years ago, Carl, a member of the congregation I served, told me of the health benefits of

drinking water. I drink at least 80 ounces of water a day. When I am tired, a glass of water refreshes my body and renews my energy. Nothing renews like the life-giving water Jesus offers (John 4), but safe water is one of our most basic needs.

Last fall, when refilling my water bottle at Salem Lutheran Church in Flint, Mich., numerous people told me they had concerns about the water and that I should use bottled water. I filled my water bottle from the faucet, but along the road found it discolored and did not taste right. Only later did I learn how dangerous the water is. Flint’s water is unsafe, toxic and a danger to health.

Water pipes are corroded throughout the city, and lead contamination in many homes and at Salem Lutheran Church far exceed safe limits. Lead harms the blood and can damage the brain. After extended exposure, it builds up in organs and bones, remaining years after exposure. All of this contamination could have been prevented. When people complained and physicians reported unsafe levels of lead, the concerns were dismissed. After 18 months, the water is still unsafe for consumption, cooking or even doing the dishes.

Flint is one of the more impoverished cities in America. Local General Motors employment fell from a high of 80,000 in 1978 to under 8,000 in 2010. More than 40 percent of the people of Flint live below the poverty line. The population has declined from a high of 196,000 in 1960 to just under 100,000 today. The city, under an emergency manager, decided to switch water sources and failed to adequately treat the water. The state of Michigan houses nearly one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water. It is hard to comprehend unsafe water with such great water supplies nearby.

The long unheard cries of people in Flint remind me of the Israelites refusing to drink the water at Marah because it was bitter (Exodus 15). They complained to Moses, and he cried out to the Lord. The Lord and Moses made the water sweet. Every day, the water crisis in Flint touches me more deeply and reminds me that there are many water concerns throughout the world. Global warming is drying up lakes. The Aral Sea, once one of the world’s largest inland seas is mostly desert now, having receded by more than 75 percent in recent decades. Lake Chad in Africa has diminished by nearly 80 percent over the last 30 years due to global warming, reduced rain and water extraction.

Sharing God’s gifts and life-giving water with people in Flint

After visiting Salem Lutheran Church in Flint, Bishop Donald P. Kreiss and Robin McCants, assistant to the bishop for advocacy and urban ministry, both of the ELCA Southeast Michigan Synod, shared the expanding depths of the crisis with the synod and the ELCA. With some government support

and generous response from the synod, ELCA World Hunger, and people around the ELCA, Salem is now one of the largest distributors of fresh bottled water in the city. Claimed in baptism, refreshed by life-giving water from Jesus that gushes up to eternal life, members of the ELCA are sharing God’s gifts and life-giving water with people in Flint.

Flint will need water for a long time to come. Find out how you can help by visiting the Southeast Michigan Synod website at www.semisynod.com.

Congress is currently considering funding for resources to make the water in Flint safe to drink again. Find out more and take action by visiting the ELCA Advocacy Action Center.

This Sunday when I preach at Salem, I will bring cases of water and two of my own large drinking water bottles. When I return home I will refill them from my faucet and remember the people in Flint. I will be more attentive to ELCA blogs and advocacy requests. Jesus, who gives life-giving water, compels me to do this and to act.

Few experiences produce anxiety much like washing your hands in water that you know can poison you.  I’m watching a natural resource come natural hazard spill over my hands from a tap in Salem Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Flint, Michigan.  Like many other buildings and homes, the church has lead in its water — water it has used for drinking, cooking and baptizing infants.  Before my meeting with Pastor Monica Villarreal of Salem, I had stopped by a downtown coffeeshop for an iced tea, something I do far too often in my own city without batting an eye.  But here in Flint, even this simple act carries with it pit-of-the-gut worry.  It’s one thing to trust that your barista has put enough milk in your latte.  It’s quite another to trust her when she tells you the water is safe.

Flint bears all the marks of any number of Midwestern towns abandoned by manufacturing firms in search of cheap labor.  Liquor stores dot barren blocks.  Once-proud homes loom in disrepair from untended lots. Violent crime is a regular experience. And a river runs through it.  A river filled with bacteria and, now, so corrosive it can damage pipes and car parts.

In politics as in war, the first casualty is truth.  Finding reliable information on the water crisis is difficult, even from reputable news sources.  What we do know is this: people in power gambled with the lives of people in poverty and lost.  When residents complained about the water, state officials from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality responded with “aggressive dismissal, belittlement and attempts to discredit these efforts and the individuals involved,” insisting that the water was safe.

The first “strategic goal” of the MDEQ is to “protect public health.” They failed. Miserably.  But no apology  from state officials, no number of resignations will be enough.  Those officials get to go home and drink clean, cheap water from their taps.  The people of Flint are stuck paying for poison in their homes.  The state leadership in Michigan was as corrosive as the Flint River, eroding trust and sowing fear as quickly as the water they provided corroded pipes and spread lead.  This water was given to babies, infants, and children because people in power said it was safe.

My work with ELCA World Hunger has carried me to places of rural poverty in Iowa, drought-stricken neighborhoods in Central California, and the corrugated metal-covered homes of displaced people in Colombia in search of answers to the same two questions: Where is God? and Where is the Church?

As I sit in Pastor Villarreal’s office holding a bottle of murky brown water drawn from the taps at Salem Lutheran, she tells me about the deep pain resonating throughout her neighborhood.  She describes the guilt of parents who gave their children lead-filled water to drink, of the frustratingly slow state response, of the opportunistic lawyers and media now spilling into Flint.

But she also shows me a list of the congregations and individuals that have reached out to her with donations of time, money, water, and filters.  She describes a young girl who was so moved by what she learned about access to water at the ELCA Youth Gathering in 2015 that when she heard about Flint, she felt called to help.  I hear about churches working together to prepare truckloads of water to ship to Flint, plumbers and pipe-fitters offering their services pro bono.

Pastor Villarreal describes interfaith groups and ecumenical groups coming together to support the community, of Muslims, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, and others in conversation and in partnership. Last week, ELCA World Hunger joined that list, by providing $5,000 to the Southeast Michigan Synod for Salem Lutheran Church.  This support will help Salem purchase bottled water to distribute to people in need.  It will also provide support to Salem’s food pantry, so that they can purchase food that meets the nutritional needs of people affected by lead.

And I have my answer.  We may not be eating bread and wine at an altar or singing hymns, but here, in this office, this is Church in its most basic form — a site of relief for those in need, a safe space to share dangerous stories of guilt and pain, and a place to unite to hold our leaders accountable when they fail to protect the well-being of all citizens.

Here, too, we are surrounded by weighty symbols — the brown water and corroded pipes that symbolize injustice, and the donated water from across the state and letters of support from all over the nation that symbolize a community committed to not let that injustice stand. The icons here represent a community of neighbors that transcend boundaries to accompany one another.

It is impossible to miss the sacramental volatility of water, that medium that gives life and takes life. It encapsulates the irony of living in the Great Lake State without clean water to drink. It symbolizes both the life-giving grace of the created world and the death-dealing abuses of power that come when we silence and marginalize our neighbors.  It is the touchpoint that knits together people across the spectrum of faiths and no-faith. It has become a rallying point for a community to come together.

Long after the media has left, Flint will still be dealing with this catastrophe.  The lead will still be in the pipes, and the chemicals and bacteria will still be in the river.  But people of faith and people of goodwill will still be here, too, to accompany one another and to hold government accountable.  ELCA World Hunger will continue to be present, too, and to accompany our brothers and sisters in the area with prayer, conversation and financial support.  As we learn more about the shape that this accompaniment will take, we will provide updates both here on the ELCA World Hunger blog and on social media.

What can you do to support Flint?

Pray – Include the people of Flint in your personal prayers and during worship with your congregation this Lenten season.

Advocate – This is a federal issue, and ELCA Advocacy recently released an advocacy alert related to the crisis.

Give – ELCA World Hunger will continue to support the community of Flint and Salem Lutheran Church through the long-term work that will be needed to find a “new normal” after this catatstrophe.  Prayerfully consider supporting this long-term work by making a gift to ELCA World Hunger.

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

Lent is around the corner, and I am considering how to spend my forty days. There is a tradition of giving up something during Lent and marking the time by abstaining from indulgences, like sweets or meat. Then there is another newer tradition of taking on a new discipline like journaling or an attitude change to mark the six weeks. The questions remains: how do we mark the penitent time of Jesus venturing to the cross? Do I give up my favorite treat? Do I take to heart, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”?

ELCA World Hunger invites congregations to participate in “40 Days of Giving” and spend this penitent season with a focus on generosity. When your congregation registers to participate they can choose to get a daily devotion sent to their email created by thought-leaders throughout the church. There are also six weekly sessions that accompany the devotions that dive deeper into the themes of Lent that are perfect for adult study.

Bethany Lutheran Church in Colorado has taken a familial approach to Lent with an intergenerational devotional. This congregation places hunger relief at the top of their outreach ministry, so when they were asked to participate in the ELCA World Hunger “40 Days of Giving” challenge they answered with a resounding YES! Alongside the resources offered by ELCA World Hunger Bethany created a supplemental household devotion that brings families together to read scripture and discuss reflection questions throughout the six weeks of Lent.

The devotional walks the participants through Lent with reflection questions, Bible verses, prayers, blessings, and service opportunities. There are four aspects to this devotional and each provide a different emphasis: “Faith + Connect” is about connecting the scripture to daily life, “Faith + Serve” provides an opportunity of service, “Faith + Pray” presents a prayer for the week, and “Faith + Bless” offers a blessing for the week. Each aspect of the devotional is grounded in the scripture that guides the congregation through Jesus’ journey to the cross. The “Faith + Connect” section lifts up a couple of the readings from the previous Sunday to focus their attention on a few verses each day. The structure is easy to follow with reflection questions and small activities each week.

In the first week, the household is given a central theme for the six weeks of Lent: generosity. The participants are asked to consider generosity in terms of their relationships with others and with God. “Where did you experience generosity today? How did you offer generosity today? Where did you see God’s generosity?” We do not usually think about generosity during a season of restraint, but it provides the opportunity to consider Lent in a new light. Bethany has embraced the idea behind ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving by asking the question: what does it mean to be generous?

This central idea of generosity is the undercurrent of this devotional, but the foundation is centered on faith. Connecting faith to our reality is the daily reflection and Bible passage, but faith also grounds the weekly service in “Faith + Serve”. Faith is undoubtedly the basis for the weekly blessing and prayer in “Faith + Bless” and “Faith + Pray”. Yet placing the word “faith” before each of these components is a constant reminder that faith encompasses all of these aspects. Each person has a different faith journey and awakens their faith through different practices.

Bethany is providing a way to explore faith intentionally with our households throughout a season that can become very individualistic. We find what we each want to give up and go through Lent relying on God and willpower. Yet many churches like Bethany are finding ways to create community during this somber time alongside ELCA World Hunger.

The “40 Days of Giving” challenge provides the opportunity to participate in a community effort to end hunger. We know that 1 in 9 people go to bed hungry, and that it seems as though hunger is an insurmountable evil to overcome, but the resurrection teaches us that nothing, not even death, gets the final word. Lent provides us time to consider Christ’s journey to the cross and meditate upon on our mortality as we begin this season with ashes on our forehead. Yet we continue to see the resurrection and the shining light of resurrection throughout this season, so we know that hunger, despair, and even death, do not have the final word.

If you would like to participate in ELCA World Hunger’s “40 Days of Giving” challenge visit elca.org/40days to sign up. Due to popularity the flip calendar devotional are no longer available, we encourage you to sign up for the daily e-version of the devotional and downloadable version is available upon request by emailing ELCA World Hunger at hunger@elca.org. If you would like the Bethany Lutheran Church’s household devotional, follow this link to download a copy.

Elyssa J. Salinas

 
One wheel with many spokes is how the Community Empowerment Project in Burundi acts – one project that supports many communities or “collines” as community members make their hope for the future a reality in the present. With support from ELCA World Hunger through its implementing partner, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), each colline focuses on a set of key issues related to the well-being of community members.  As the people take part in the activities, they develop the skills they will need to ensure long-term sustainability for themselves, their families and their neighbors.  These collines are “growing and growing” says Adela from the Musha colline the elected leader of the Musha colline’s self-help group. Her participation has helped her develop her own skills as she helps her fellow colline members. “As leader of the group, I have become more self-confident.” As a result of the program, Adela has seen an increase in food security and productivity. People in her town are now able to have meals three times a day instead of one, and they have extra funds for medical expenses and school.

Regina, a grandmother left homeless after the recent civil war in Burundi, is also a witness to the benefits of the project in Musha. With support from LWF, she received help she needed to build a new home and reclaim the swamp for agriculture. “I am able to get enough money to pay the school fees. I grow produce in the swamp – rice, bean and sweet potato,” she says.

Amina is from the Cendajura Commune and was a refugee during the later years of the civil war. In 2000, she left for Tanzania, traveling without food or water with her child until she got to a refugee camp. During the mobilization to return to Burundi, Amina moved from camp to camp, fearful of returning to a war-torn area. Amina is part of the Muslim community, but she thankful for the interreligious aid she is receiving in the form of a new house, “I am a Muslim, but I feel very well that it is Christians who help me.” She is slowly but surely gaining hope for her future as she is in conversation with LWF about a house for her family.

War, homelessness, and food production are not the only issues Burundians face, as community members in Mwiruzi well know. In this region, contaminated water has created a crisis.  As Oscar, a worker at the project site says, “For us, when there is a water shortage, we don’t have life. So we are fighting for life .” As with the activities at other collines, this project is community-initiated, and LWF is providing materials to aid in the building of wells and improved water systems.

Emile Nihende is a LWF facilitator, and is responsible for a colline where there are activities assisted by LWF. He spends only one weekend a month with his family and lives alongside the community he is helping. “I am here because I had the chance to be educated. Because I have been supported, now I want to share the fruits of this education with the community.” This perspective is key to the Community Empowerment Project’s sustainability.  As neighbors build their own skills and meet their needs together, the entire community can look toward long-term sustainable change together.

(A version of this post previously appeared on the Huffington Post Impact blog – http://goo.gl/L3MtiH.)

New reports suggest climate change could push more than 100 million people into poverty in just the next 15 years.  “Climate change hits the poorest the hardest,” says World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, “and our challenge now is to protect tens of millions of people from falling into extreme poverty because of a changing climate.”

The impact is a “two-way street.” Climate change makes it harder for farmers to grow crops, on the one hand, and some farming practices, on the other hand, damage soil, pollute water supplies, and create harmful emissions. But change is happening in small farming communities around the world, especially in communities of faith.  Here are three ways poor communities around the globe are adapting to climate change with the support of ELCA World Hunger.

Cleaner Cooking

Ramoni Rani and her husband, Nor Uttam Hawlader, live in the village of Rajakhali in Bangladesh with their two sons. Like many Bangladeshi farmers, Ramoni and Nor use wood-burning stoves to cook food in their homes. The cost for fuel is steep, and the continued need for it threatens the country’s already-depleted forests. Ramoni, Nor and their children suffered from respiratory illnesses and eye problems because of the carbon emissions and smoke in their homes. In fact, a 2009 profile of Bangladesh from the World Health Organization found that indoor air pollution contributes to nearly 50,000 deaths every year.

“Bondhu chula,” a more efficient cookstove, was developed to combat some of these problems.  But many Bangladeshis have been reluctant to use them, mostly because they don’t know how.  Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh has stepped in by working with over 250 women to help them get familiar with the cookstoves and the positive impact they can have.  For Bangladeshis like Ramoni and Nor, efficient cooking in the home means better health and more money for themselves and a path away from deforestation for their rural community.

In this picture, a man holds biomass pellets similar to those that will be used in the project in Padhar.

Cleaner cooking also makes good economic sense for families in Padhar, India.  To address some of the problems older cookstoves create, Padhar Hospital is helping households get access to smokeless stoves that use biomass pellets. The program will not only train the people to use the stoves but will also help them turn their biomass into profit by providing it to a processing plant.  Since no such plant currently exists in Padhar, one will be built.  Thus the program will provide cleaner stoves, help residents earn income, and create jobs for people in Padhar, all while protecting the environment.

“Green-er” Coffee

Farmers in the Rachuonyo District of Homa Bay County in western Kenya know the daily realities of climate change.  They see it in the shortened periods of rainfall, prolonged dry seasons, and increased flooding that washes away valuable crops and seeds.

Most of the farmers in this region focus their attention and limited investment on subsistence farming, trying to grow enough food to feed their families but often not producing crops that they can use for income.  This leaves them with little savings to weather the kind of volatility that comes with climate change.  One bad season can mean a year of hunger for a smallholder farmer.

One group is working to change that.  Members of the smallholder famers’ collective group, APOKO, partnered with Lutheran World Relief (LWR) in 2014 to launch the Kinda Coffee project.  Farmers in the project learn how to maintain the nutrient levels in soil, prevent erosion and increase water retention at model demonstration plots.  This will not only help them increase their resilience to the droughts and flooding but will also help them protect the environment while earning a sustainable income.  Support for this project from ELCA World Hunger will continue into 2016 and will improve the quality of life for hundreds of households.

Smarter Farming

Thanks to the collective efforts of the last decade, over 90 percent of the world now has access to clean water.  Unfortunately, climate change threatens to undermine much of that progress. Longer, more intense droughts for farmers affect everything from what kinds of crops or animals they can raise to the yield they get from their fields.  When families are already teetering on the edge of poverty, these are serious risks.

But communities in Nicaragua and Bangladesh aren’t just waiting around for something to change.  They are adapting to the changes already sweeping their regions and doing what they can to steward their resources sustainably.

In Bangladesh, air pollution and deforestation aren’t the only problems.  The country faces huge disparities in access to safe water, and more work is needed to provide irrigation to the agriculture industry that employs nearly half of the labor force.  RDRS, a locally-run associate program of the Lutheran World Federation, is helping train farmers in Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), a technique that can reduce by up to 30% the amount of water needed to grow rice.  As a result, they are able to preserve groundwater and reduce risk of contaminating their crops with unsafe water.  And some studies indicate that AWD can actually increase the yields from rice fields, so the process is a win-win.

With an abundance of water on the ground and under the ground, Nicaragua seems like a place where there is enough to go around.  But a 2014 drought – the worst in the country in 40 years – reduced crop yields by more than 70%.  In the area of Somotillo, most of the wells ran dry, and the people worry about another drought down the road.  “In this place,” Pastor Gerzan Alvarez of the Lutheran Church of Faith and Hope (ILFE) in Nicaragua says, “we’re only able to survive.”

With support from LWF and ELCA World Hunger, ILFE is taking steps to manage the crisis.  Since the drought, the community has improved wells in the area, led trainings in proper water usage and management, set up irrigation systems, and planted yard gardens.  Pastor Emperatriz Velasques of ILFE says now, “Each day we’re learning about nature’s behavior, and we need to keep on working and teaching so we can grow our crops with the little water we have and keep home gardens with water from our wells.  This way, we can provide food for the households.”

Policy changes that reduce emissions and change the way we relate to the environment are necessary, long-range solutions to a changing climate, and the recent agreements about climate change and hunger give some hope.  But there is also a lot we can learn from those on the margins, in local communities throughout the world.  In Bangladesh, India, Kenya, and Nicaragua, families are doing what they can to protect their environment and make themselves less vulnerable to the changes that are still to come.

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

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