While there are numerous highlights from the Youth Gathering, my interaction with high school students in the ELCA World Hunger interaction space was one of the most memorable events. Over the course of the Gathering, roughly 33,000 youth had the opportunity to engage in ELCA World Hunger’s interaction space, the 100 Wells Challenge .

In connection with the water theme, we had an interactive activity called, “Walk for Water.” During this activity, youth carried a 5-gallon water jug around a track with various obstacles that a woman living in the Global South may encounter on her daily walk to collect water. With women being the primary water collectors for the family, participants were, “walking in her shoes,” to learn how access to water can significantly affect one’s life.

Although a woman in Africa walks on average 3.7 miles to collect water for the family, most participants at the Youth Gathering only completed one lap (one tenth of a mile). As many youth finished the track with tired arms and hands, they were in awe of the fact that they would need to walk 36 more laps to complete the average distance women and children travel every day. The understanding gained by youth and adult leaders is perhaps best summed up by one teenaged boy that walked 3.7 miles with the 40-pound water jug who stated, “You can read about it (such statistics) as much as you want, but until you do it, that’s what makes you realize just how hard that is. Otherwise, it’s just numbers.” Youth quickly realized how difficult water can be to carry, but more importantly how much time it takes to collect this resource in many places in the world. Not only can greater access to water reduce the weight of water women must carry, but it also reduces the amount of time spent collecting water, freeing up women to start a small business, spend time with the family, and engage in the community in other meaningful ways.

Who knew a walk around a short track with a 5-gallon water jug would give people such a deep understanding and appreciation for access to clean and safe water?

Colleen Peterson is an ELCA World Hunger Intern

A few weeks ago I wondered whether the yellow water bucket that we associate with poverty might actually symbolize respect for a limited resource.

Today I’m wondering whether places that lack “conveniences” are actually better off than we are. What begins as convenience ends up as infrastructure, like the one that locks us into using too much water every single day. So many interests are invested in this system that changing it is very, very difficult.

In the yellow bucket world, infrastructure is scarce and innovation is abundant. Greenfield is an emerging term for a place with little infrastructure. Says Wikipedia, “the analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to remodel or demolish an existing structure.”

In mobile technology, the African continent was a greenfield.  With few telephone poles and landlines, African countries quickly adapted cell phone technology, and today lead the world in mobile commerce. In places like Uganda, you can do all kinds of cool things on a phone—transfer cash, check the market price for your fish, text money to your family—without signing up for a pricey two-year contract!

In mobile commerce, African countries have leapfrogged many developed nations.

Leapfrogging is the process through which developing countries can actually develop faster, notes Wikipedia, “by skipping inferior, less efficient, more expensive or more polluting technologies and industries and move directly to more advanced ones… avoid environmentally harmful stages of development and [without needing to] follow the polluting development trajectory of industrialized countries.”

In other words, our “less developed” companions in ministry are poised to leapfrog, from their greenfields, right over us and our well-entrenched, wasteful, polluting ways!

So, who advises whom? Do we go on raising money to “fix problems” in other places, or do we start confessing that we’re stuck in a system that consumes too much of absolutely everything, and open ourselves to learning from—and celebrating—the leapfroggers? I’ve been feeling pretty pleased about the new, high-tech solartube in my roof, designed to brighten a dark hallway with daylight instead of a lightbulb. Looking around for examples for this post, I discovered that a plastic water bottle would have been just as effective, and cheaper. Wow!

Wouldn’t it be nice if, every time we launched a faith-based “development project,” we started by searching for leapfrog technologies to see what we could learn? Instead of raising money for 100 wells in African countries by actually wasting water (dunk tanks, throwing water balloons), could our next campaign give equal time to–or even showcase–the wisdom of companions on how to replace systems and habits that waste water  with something more efficient and respectful?

Yesterday, the New York Times posted a blog post called “What We Can Learn from Third World Healthcare.”  The theme is the same. We spend billions on medical bells and whistles, yet our health metrics are simply terrible. Concludes the blog’s author: “In other words, we have yet to deploy what could prove to be the most powerful weapon in the fight to contain costs and improve the quality of health care: our own humility.”

The world is telling us we’re not so very wise. Instead of being defensive about our way of life, shall we smile and join the leapfrog game?

Anne Basye, Sustaining Simplicity

By Kristyn Zollos

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering with ELCA World Hunger. Despite having grown up in the ELCA, it was the first Youth Gathering I have attended. As the saying goes, better late than never. I was truly amazed by what I saw and was filled with hope for the future of our church. I feel especially blessed to have been working within the 100 Wells Challenge  space, where I witnessed the generosity and compassion of the congregations of the ELCA and their youth in attendance.    

While I was astounded by what took place within the 100 Wells Challenge space, I was also incredibly moved by what took place in the evenings at the Super Dome.  Worshipping with 35,000 youth from congregations across the country and even some from across the globe was an incredible experience.  I grew up attending a private, Christian school that held chapel services twice a week.  When I think back to those services, I remember looking at my peers, arms crossed, mouths barely moving, thinking it “un-cool” to be too into worship. At the Super Dome, it was not un-cool to care.  It was not uncool to sing passionately or move with the music in worship. And if it was, there was a whole lot of “un-cool” taking place!

At the Super Dome, I heard some fantastic speakers. On the nights that I attended, I loved hearing what Bishop Hanson, Shane Claiborne, and other bishops and pastors had to share. However, it was Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber’s speech that had the greatest personal impact. Before I comment further, take a moment to close your eyes and imagine a Lutheran pastor. What does that pastor look like?  Is it a young female, covered in tattoos, wearing jeans and a tank top?… Probably not.  When Pastor Nadia walked out, that was exactly who stood before us and I could not have been more excited to hear what she had to say. 

Pastor Nadia spoke of her life, her past addictions, her joining an ELCA congregation and her current role as an ELCA pastor. Towards the end of her talk, she noted that many had not wanted her to speak to the youth because of her past, but how even in her present she should not be allowed to speak. She noted, “I am a flawed person. I should not be allowed to be here talking to you. But you know what? That’s the God we’re dealing with.” She went on:

“I want to tell you about this God…This is a God who has always used imperfect people. This is a God who’s loving desire to be known overflowed the heavens and became manifest in the rapidly dividing cells inside the womb of an insignificant peasant girl in first century Palestine.  This is a God who slipped into skin and walked among us full of grace and truth with sand between His toes and who ate with all the wrong people and kissed lepers and touched the unclean and spoke through thirsty women and hungry men and from the cross did not even lift a finger to condemn the enemy but instead said I would rather die than be in the sin accounting business anymore… This God has never made sense and you don’t need to either, because this God will use you. This God will use all of you. Not just your strengths, but your failures, and your failings, and your brokenness. God’s strength is perfected in human weakness.”

God was certainly using Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber and the words that she spoke. She spoke to the hearts of the youth and I got chills watching their reactions to what she had to say. Within the church we often set a norm of who leaders should be and what the faithful should look like. We forget who our God is, the grace and power God has. We often close our mind to what is new or different, not looking at the beautiful possibilities that could take place. We forget that when the Lord took human form, Jesus used all kind of people, in all walks of life. Jesus used the poor and the wealthy, the sick and the healthy, the children and the elders. Jesus walked alongside the most twisted of sinners and used them for His greater purpose. 

 I think this is something we can often forget as a church. We claim to accept those who are different: the poor, the hungry, the sick, the downtrodden, or those who just may look or sound different. However, by accepting them we may mean only to make them our charity, our service project. We look at these relationships as a one-way street. We only see how God is using us in their lives, not opening our eyes to how God may be using them in our own journeys or how they may be used in the lives of many others. We claim to look at all others as our equals, as our brothers and sisters in Christ, but deep down we often think we know better, that we are the norm and others should aim to be more like this norm set. 

We can forget that it is God that makes people new, not other people. We are all deeply flawed and deeply in need of the mercy and grace that the Lord offers us. Our God meets us where we are, with all the sin, failings, and baggage we carry with us. No one has the solution and no one is beyond being used. Let us open our eyes to the ways that God wants to use us and our imperfections, but let us not forget to look for the ways God may be using others and their imperfections within our own lives.  

Click here for Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber’s talk.  For other talks from speakers at the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering check out Gathering TV or the Youth Gathering’s YouTube site.

Kristyn Zollos is an intern with ELCA World Hunger.

We’ve been talking around the office lately (we do talk a lot, don’t we?) about the difference between an attitude of scarcity and an attitude of abundance, and how having a scarcity mentality – no matter how unconsciously – leads us to think that we’re limited in what we can do.

If we believe that there’s not enough whatever to go around, we act accordingly. We believe we have to hang on tight to our little pile of whatever. We don’t take risks, because if we lose our whatever, we’re sure it’s gone for good. And if some people have less whatever than we do, well, that’s a pity, but there’s not a lot we can do about it – after all, there’s only so much whatever to go around. Sound familiar?

But what if we believe in our hearts that there’s plenty to go around – plenty of time, plenty of resources, plenty of energy, plenty of ideas, plenty of everything – what happens then? How do we act if we really believe that? Do we see our job as helping to see that everyone has plenty of that abundant, never-ending everything?

I ran across an interesting take on that on a blog kept by an Episcopal priest, the Rev. John Ohmer (http://unapologetictheology.blogspot.com/). He writes, in part: . . . We carry a scarcity mindset, an achievement mindset or an abundance mindset. And these mindsets can carry over to our spiritual mindset.

A scarcity spirituality sees not only money, but things like love, grace and forgiveness as in short supply. An achievement spirituality sees . . . things like love, grace and forgiveness . . . as things that come to you to the degree that you earn them, work hard for them.

And an abundance spirituality sees . . . love, grace and forgiveness . . . as things that are in abundant supply because they are all God’s. Carry that view over and you get the view that God’s love is without limit, without border, without exception, without condition.

If we’ve been well catechized, we know that God’s love is just as Father John writes – without limit, without condition. Of course we know that in our heads. But do we believe it in our hearts?

And do we act that way? Does it change the world?

Audrey Riley is a member of the fundraising staff of ELCA World Hunger.

By Colleen Peterson

With the Youth Gathering only one week away, the ELCA World Hunger staff is busy finalizing last minute details to engage thousands of youth in our interactive space. For those of you unfamiliar with the 100 Wells Challenge, we are aiming to raise $250,000 to support ELCA World Hunger water projects that will make clean and safe drinking water a reality for all people. Even though I’ve read numerous accounts about the positive impact of ELCA World Hunger water projects, I continue to be amazed by the incredible accomplishments that can be made when we work with our brothers and sisters around the world. I strongly encourage you to check out the 100 Wells video and resources to see the way water projects can significantly improve one’s life.

In addition to thinking more about people’s access to safe and clean water, I have also been reminded of the call to feed those who are hungry. One Bible verse that has been on my mind lately is Matthew 25:35, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” Having grown up in a small town in Minnesota, I did not encounter people begging for food on the street; however, I encounter this on a daily basis while going to and from work in Chicago. Despite becoming accustomed to this reality of living downtown, I seldom walk past someone who is hungry without a rush of questions filling my mind. What led this person into poverty and hunger? How should I help? Why don’t I sacrifice more to help those who are in need? Is my extra change bringing the necessary change to this systemic problem? What can I do with the resources and life I’ve been given to help those most in need and contribute to sustainable change in the world?

While I do not believe there is a quick fix to eliminate hunger and thirst in the world, there are significant ways we can work together to make access to water and food a reality for all people. One of the actions you can take is to spread awareness about the 100 Wells Challenge and support ELCA World Hunger projects. If you are as compelled by inspirational videos as I am, I also recommend you to watch the ELCA World Hunger video series to see to see the way your gift to ELCA World Hunger is actively at work in the world.

How will you respond to the call to feed the hungry?

Colleen Peterson is an ELCA World Hunger Intern

Watch out, New Orleans and ELCA Youth Gathering—Biking Bishops coming through! Earlier in the spring, a small group of ELCA World Hunger staff members attended an introductory community organizing event here in Illinois. At this event, we had the pleasure of making many great acquaintances, but this post is about Bishop Jeff Barrow.

Bishop Barrow is bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA, but you know what else? Bishop Barrow is a father, a husband, a baseball lover and a dog owner. He’s a real guy doing real work, because he’s called to it. We met Bishop Barrow in passing at the event, and then had the chance to share lunch with him. We wanted to learn more about him, but in the end, he ended up learning a lot about our stories, too. We’ve been Facebook friends ever since!

By Louis Tillman

Let me ask you, when was the last time that you fasted for a long amount of time? Here’s a stronger question, when was the last time that you chose not to eat just to show others around the world that you know their pain and suffering on a daily basis? Have you done this recently?

In the summer of 2010, I was a district campaign leader (CDL) for the ONE Campaign of Southeastern Wisconsin. We had a booth at the Juneteenth celebration in Kenosha, WI where we did a world hunger awareness event to raise funds and awareness to end poverty and world hunger. During the event, we participated in fasting. The only thing that we could drink was water, and most of us drank snow cones without the syrup because it was a cool and refreshing treat to keep us well hydrated in that harsh climate. We had an ultimate goal of raising $3,500 to give to the ONE campaign at the end of the event so that we could show the world that Kenosha, WI cares greatly about what is going on in the world and will do anything that they can to help out. I, along with a strong team of 17 members, ended up raising an astonishing $4,700 while fasting for 15 hours that day in 95 degree weather! At the young age of 19, I felt that my team and I had truly accomplished a great amount of work and made a significant difference in the city of Kenosha and the world that day.

In the duration of my internship here with ELCA World Hunger, I have seen the ways in which we do similar things to help in ending world hunger and poverty. One of our most recent fundraising challenges and examples of ending hunger would be our 100 Wells Challenge. This is a challenge that ELCA World Hunger is leading, where they are trying to raise $250,000 to financially help them build 100 water wells in countries all over the world that do not have sustainable drinking water. Another great example of ELCA World Hunger trying to help and fight poverty, is by teaching congregations how to conduct a microenterprise lending program and help prospective entrepreneurs in their areas start or grow their small businesses. A detailed article of this can be read in the Spring 2012 issue of Lifelines.  I truly feel that all of these remunerations towards ending hunger all hold a strong and positive weight on our overall goals in ending poverty and world hunger. There are several things that differentiate ELCA World Hunger and ONE.org; but one great thing that they all have in common is the fact that they are doing their best daily to find ways to ultimately stop and permanently prevent poverty and world hunger.

So folks, I leave you with pending questions as you go throughout your days. What will you do to try and prevent poverty and world hunger today? What’s the link between environmental deterioration and poverty? What can you do to ensure that the economies of poor nations be set on a path of sustained economic growth?

Louis Tillman is an intern with ELCA World Hunger.

By Kristyn Zollos    

           I recently finished the book, When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development.  Both contributing authors are professors in the department of economics and community development at Covenant College and are experienced practitioners and researchers, domestically and internationally. The book is organized into four main sections:

1. Foundational concepts for helping without hurting
2. General principles for helping without hurting
3. Practical strategies for helping without hurting
4. Getting started on helping without hurting

Each of these sections is then broken into three focused chapters that begin with “initial thoughts” questions and ending in “reflection questions and exercises”.  I really appreciated these questions and the thoughts they provoked throughout my reading.  It was interesting to return to my thoughts written down during the earlier chapters and see how they differed from my thoughts closer to the end.

This book would be a great read with your church, community group, or friends.  I believe that I would have benefited by reading through the material with another individual just to have someone with whom I could discuss my thoughts and insights.  I personally process information better through discussion and I found myself wanting to talk through many of the ideas with others during the times I was overwhelmed by the content. So much of what was said challenged me and what I had believed to be true.  There are three specific challenges or questions that came to my mind while reading When Helping Hurts that I would like to share.

First, I’ve always thought that supporting or giving money to a non-profit or charity was all the same, no matter which organization I chose.   I was helping those in need and I walked away feeling good about it.  I viewed the work of some organizations as more beneficial than others, but I thought there was no harm in supporting any charity that came my way asking for help….Or was there? From the start, Corbett and Fikkert explained how volunteering, charitable work, or ill-informed giving choices could be unsustainable and actually end up doing more harm than good.  Had all those times I had been intending to aid others been of no help at all?  Or worse, were they negatively affecting the lives of those I was trying to help in the long run?

 Second, When Helping Hurts explains that poverty is a result of broken relationships, whether with self, others, the rest of creation, or with God.  These broken relationships are the base from which the book builds.  To put things in perspective the authors make the statement, “We are all broken, just in different ways” (p. 61).  We all face broken relationships, and therefore we all face poverty, just in different ways, not all relating to materials and finances. 

Third, When Helping Hurts showed me that the needs of the poor are often very complex and we must take the time to understand those needs before deciding upon a solution.  If we do not take this time, we may mistake the problem for something that it is not and as a result offer a solution that only exacerbates the original problem. 

Fourth, poverty and its root causes are complex. Poverty is the outcome of some root problem.   You can’t fix the situation long-term if you do not know what is at its root.  Most poverty in the world cannot be truly fixed by handing out money or material things.  It varies everywhere that it exists, and therefore there is not one common cure.  The book explains what poverty is to those facing it, who the poor are, and the misconceptions often involved.  It also explains the root causes of poverty and what can be done in its alleviation.  Stories used throughout the book give better insight into “wrong” methods of poverty alleviation and successful, sustainable methods.

All this information built up in my mind through my reading and I was plagued by internal questions as I thought back to where my time and money had gone in the past.  However, in the end I decided that as with so many other things in my life, I must give it up to God.  All I can do now is use what I have learned as I move forward and make choices in the future.  I have to tell myself that those past choices were in God’s hands, so while they may not have supported the most effective methods of poverty alleviation, the Lord was still in control. 

               Reading When Helping Hurts only caused me to grow in appreciation for the work being done by ELCA World Hunger.   A focus is put on development, while also understanding the immediate needs of those around the world, especially in times of disaster.  “Accompaniment” is a word so often used around the office (see Audrey’s previous post ).  ELCA World Hunger is a ministry of our church.  We know the churches and companions we work with and through.  We work alongside groups that look at the long-term, deep-rooted changes within communities.  For a better understanding of this accompaniment model, visit www.elca.org/accompaniment. 

               After reading the book, I also appreciated the fact that through the work of ELCA World Hunger, we do not enter a community thinking we know the solution to people’s needs without taking time to understand the situation and be in relationship with the individuals involved.  Many times teams or organizations go into situations with a “God-complex” thinking that they have the one-size-fits-all solution and that they are saving the people or communities involved, forgetting to give glory to the one who mends the brokenness in all lives, non-poor included.  God alone saves, but may just work through us in some situations.  I think ELCA World Hunger acknowledges that fact.

               Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book.  I think everyone can learn from the knowledge and expertise of Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert on the issue of poverty.  I can honestly say that When Helping Hurts has reshaped my views on poverty, the poor, and methods for poverty alleviation.  So, happy reading with your own congregation or book club.  Let me know how it’s going and your personal thoughts on the book!

When Helping Hurts

Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett

Moody Publishers 2012

ISBN: 0-8024-5705-3

Kristyn Zollos is an ELCA World Hunger intern.

By Louis Tillman

As part of my summer internship with ELCA World Hunger, I was assigned to read a book written by Roger Thurow called The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change. The book is primarily about Thurow’s experiences and journeys as he witnessed four separate farmers and their families during the hunger season in Kenya.

Let me ask you this: what would you do if you had two children to feed and pay their tuition to go to high school to have a better future, but all you had was a small farming business that received little to no income? How would you survive throughout a drought if farming was your career? What would you do first and who would you take care of first?

I recently attended a forum held by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs at the Chicago Club where Roger Thurow was the keynote speaker. He briefly talked about his encounters with these families during his time in Kenya and spoke about challenges that they had to go through to get to where they are now. He made valid points stating that the existence of hungry, small-hold farmers is an oxymoron. Small-hold farmers grow and harvest crops year round, yet they are still the hungriest individuals in Africa. He adds that two-thirds to three-fourths of these farmers are women.

This focus on women reminds me of the 100 Wells Challenge that ELCA World Hunger is promoting for the 2012 ELCA National Youth Gathering. Take a few minutes and watch the 100 Wells Challenge video. It speaks about how the average woman walks 3.7 miles to fetch the water for her daily household needs, — approximately 48 gallons for a family of four in the Global South. Three out of the four farmers that Thurow followed were women, which makes me wonder if women are the main ones raising their households throughout the year…Where are the men? Have they left? Why?

The 2009 Bread for the World hunger report states that women are more likely than men to spend their income on the well-being of their families, including more nutritious foods, school fees for children, and health care. The report also says that women in these deprived areas are taking the lead in providing for their families and researchers estimate that rural women produce half the world’s food and, in developing countries, between 60% and 80% of food crops (page 60). This is an astronomical amount of work and responsibility that is thrown on women’s plates where they become the primary support for their families in order to survive throughout the year. Even more startling, when women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man (Chris Forston, “Women’s Rights Vital for Developing World,” Yale News Daily, 2003).  

I find it fascinating and admirable that single mothers and women in general are doing the bulk of the work to sustain a better life for their families. I still ask, “How can they do this?” What is the motivation and why haven’t they given up? As Americans we go through arduous tasks in our daily lives but it is nothing in comparison to the difficulties that I have read about in Thurow’s book.

After meeting the author Roger Thurow at his forum he asked a vital question that I feel everyone should ponder. He looked me in the eye and asked, “Mr. Tillman, how will you lead the way to the last hunger season?” So, friends, how will we lead the way toward the last hunger season?

–Respectfully submitted by Louis Tillman, ELCA World Hunger intern and Senior at Carthage College pursuing BA in Business Management and Public Relations

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

–Acts 2: 1-4

I feel a bit fiery today…No, it’s not the blazing wildfires out west—though our thoughts and prayers are with you. No, it’s not the 100+ degree temperature here in Chicago. I’m burning up internally over the issue of just participation.

First, something you know about me. I am a student of political science. I studied political science, because I believe that people should be able to understand, access, participate in and change the systems that govern their lives and communities.