I’ve never fully bought into the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Sometimes I think things just come close to killing you. But it occurs to me that the current economic conditions in the U.S. may be a case where the phrase rings true.

The percentage of the world’s natural resources the U.S. consumes is well documented. For example, from WorldWatch Institute: “The United States, with less than 5 % of the global population, uses about a quarter of the world’s fossil fuel resources—burning up nearly 25 % of the coal, 26 % of the oil, and 27 % of the world’s natural gas.” Simply stated, we consume more than others because we can; we have more money and more access.

Concerns about the effects of consumption – both globally and particularly in the US – are also well documented. Using all this oil, coal, and electricity has its impacts. The majority of scientists now agree that the current trends in climate change are not due solely to natural fluctuations but are in fact being caused by human activity. The descriptions of weather in a warmer world are frightening, and those living in poverty will suffer the most from it. Weather aside, worries about long-term sustainability are also widespread. What happens after we’ve plowed down the world’s forests? Jared Diamond had a statement about in his book “Collapse” that has stuck with me. It was something to the effect that one has to wonder what the inhabitants of Easter Island thought as they cut down the last tree. Ultimately, they consumed all of the resources they relied on and their society failed. That was many years ago – well before global warming – and we know all about it. We could learn from history, and yet…

Despite the fact that we should be paying attention to our consumption as we go about our lives in the United States, for the most part we don’t. We know greenhouse gases are choking our planet, but we keep on driving our huge cars – until gasoline gets too expensive and our ability to consume is curtailed. We buy new things not because the old ones are worn out, but because we like the new ones better – and in the process unnecessarily consume more resources. In my case, I know I should turn off the computer when I’m not using it, but it’s just so much more convenient to leave it on, so that I don’t have to wait when I want it. I know better, but I do it anyway. Why? Because I have access to electricity and the money to pay the bill. I do it because I can. And I do it because this one seemingly little thing done by one seemingly little person doesn’t seem so egregious. In the rush of days, it’s hard to believe it really matters. Grasping the impact of our consumption is difficult and unwelcome – if we think about it at all.

Which is perhaps the silver lining in the current economic situation. We’re not so good at voluntarily limiting our consumption and thus our use of natural resources. But if we have less money and therefore less ability to consume, perhaps we’ll do our planet a favor and slow down the pace at which we’re using it. Longer term, restraint might come out of memories of want, like those who survived the Great Depression. Ideally, it won’t be that bad, we’ll get used to living with less so that if feels normal, and we’ll recognize the need to save more and spend less in the future. But even if that doesn’t happen, a recession that slows consumption might buy us time to finder cleaner, more sustainable paths into the future – something that would benefit everyone. Lots of smart people are working on it. More all the time. So while the current economic envirnoment is incredibly difficult, at least it might ultimately be useful. If it doesn’t kill us, it just might make us stronger.

-Nancy Michaelis

In October Kassahun traveled to Zimbabwe. He described the situation there as “a human disaster.” Among those who suffer most are “children, especially those under five, and pregnant women, who do not know if they will be able to give birth just because they are hungry,” he said.

Kassahun’s trip included visits to the ELCZ hospitals–Manama, Masase, Mnene and Musome. The hospitals can no longer attract and retain qualified medical staff, afford to purchase food and pharmaceuticals to feed and treat patients, and provide ambulatory services. Funds sent by the ELCA to the ELCZ will be used to restore medical services at the hospitals, such as the purchase and storage of drugs, medical supplies and nutritious food; improve shelter conditions for pregnant women; secure telephone and fax machine capabilities; and provide transportation for patients needing specialized care at other medical facilities.

“Nurses at the hospitals are collapsing because they are also hungry,” and “doctors are dismissing patients because thereis no food to feed them,” said Kassahun.

“I’ve never seen this kind of disaster and death,” said Kassahun. “Churches are also in crisis, and pastors are having difficulty surviving. They are also tired of burying the dead and consoling the living. One bishop looked at me and said,’My monthly salary does not buy two liters of cooking oil.'”

Between 80 and 85 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed, said Kassahun. “A lot of men have left the country to look for jobs in neighboring countries. In a matter of one month, from June to July, the inflation rate jumped from 11.2 million percent to 231 million percent. That means the local money is worthless,” he said.

“It’s hard to understand the inflation rate figure,” said the Rev. Rafael Malpica-Padilla, executive director, ELCA Global Mission. “To help make sense of that, consider the salary of a pastor which is 300,000 Zimbabwean dollars per month. That salary only buys one loaf of bread. But, even if you have money, there is no food to buy,” he said.

In addition to the $600,000 the ELCA is providing to stabilize and restore the services of the four ELCZ medical institutions, Malpica-Padilla said another critical part of the ELCA’s response in Zimbabwe is to purchase food, seeds and fertilizer for distribution to about 15,000 families in an effort to provide “food for today and seed for tomorrow.” He said the planting season is now. “If seeds are not planted within thenext four to five weeks, it will be too late. The plan is for the seed and fertilizer to be purchased now through local partners in South Africa and transported by truck into Zimbabwe.”

“Our hope is that these efforts will leverage the support of the United Nations World Food Programme to assist in providing food for the entire community. This effort is a collaborative one led by the Lutheran World Federation’s regional expression in southern Africa,” said Malpica-Padilla. He added that all funds from the ELCA will be “carefully transferred and will not bewired in one lump sum.” Funds allocated by ELCA Global Mission came from the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.

“God is calling us to share, to walk with the hungry and, to the best of our knowledge, speak on behalf of the voiceless. Zimbabwe is only one corner of the world, yet the kind of disaster happening there is happening all over the world,” said Kassahun. “We are called to share from what we have, share from what is at our table. That is what the gospel is to me, what I have come to realize. To feed the hungry is where I find hope and where God wants us all to be.”

• I wrote an article about my 30-year journey to get Christmas gift-giving “right” for the December issue of Lutheran Woman Today magazine (visit www.tinyurl.com/SusieSays). This article won’t be featured on the LWT Web site until December, but you can get a sneak peak. The online version doesn’t include the picture, so I’m sharing it here. My dad took this picture of me with my mom, my first book of prayers, and my beloved stuffed cat [un]creatively named “Kitty.”
• There are many resources to help “keep the reason for the season” during Advent and Christmas, notably Whose birthday is it, anyway? by our friends at Alternatives for Simple Living.
• Don’t forget the Pentecost (see pages 2, 3, 10) and the Advent–Easter (see pages 3, 4, 5) editions of ELCA World Hunger’s Congregation Connections
• The current issue of ELCA World Hunger’s Top 40 Resources catalog highlights our Christmas card, resources connected to ELCA Good Gifts and God’s Global Barnyard, and other gifts-and-giving helps.

Thankful blessings,
Sue Edison-Swift

“So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). “Wake up!” says the Psalmist, “For you own good get smart and change now…life is short!”

Only 27 shopping days until Christmas! What irony! Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve we are regularly reminded to number our days…our shopping days.

Maybe our current economic realities can serve as a wake up call to get smart and change shopping-as-usual, for our own good and the good of the world. To that end, I resolve to:

1) Buy nothing the day after Thanksgiving (November 28). Search online for “Buy Nothing Day” to learn more about this unofficial, loosely organized, counter-cultural movement.

2) Give up malls and mega stores for Advent. I do this because I’m an impulse buyer, easily sucked in by twinkly lights and colorful displays.

3) Step up my charitable giving. Our economic times are tough, to be sure, and tough economic times are surely hardest on people who already vulnerable. These are the perfect times, then, to step up and give an extra donation to your congregation; to churchwide ministries like the ELCA World Hunger Appeal and ELCA Vision for Mission; and to the other ministries, agencies, and organizations that count on your support. Through ELCA Good Gifts (www.elca.org/giving) charitable donations are transformed into really good Christmas presents.

4) Give value-full gifts. I will expect a lot from the gifts I give. They will be some combination of the following:
* A gift donation, like ELCA Good Gifts
* locally grown, raised, produced, or sold
* needed and wanted
* eco-friendly
* consumable
* hand made
* recycled, reused, repurposed
* Fair Trade

Are you resolved? What have you promised yourself as we count the days until Christmas?
––Sue Edison-Swift

From time to time I like to peek ahead at the coming Sunday’s Gospel to gauge how stressful the week’s sermon prep will be for the preacher (I know, I get pleasure out of the most twisted pastimes). This week’s passage, Matt 25:31-46, is a doozy. It’s not that the thrust of the passage is hard to understand, but the message sure is difficult. In the passage, Jesus describes the end of time, when God will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep join God in eternal bliss, the goats are banished to the eternal fire. The fate of one’s soul is determined by fairly objective criteria–feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting those in prison.

The question of the afterlife aside (I’m really quite uncomfortable with the concept of hell), what I find most fascinating (and difficult) about this text is that the people of God are defined not by creed or association, but by concrete action on behalf of poor and oppressed persons. For whatever reasons, many Christians today choose instead to debate the authority of scripture or decry the morality of one’s sexual orientation or anathematize whoever supports a pro-choice candidate, while 900 million plus live in hunger. Now these are all thorny issues, but according to Matthew 25, any ideological or theological debates pale in comparison to actually serving those in need. I suggest we spend less time putting our theological ducks in a row and more time acting like the Church.

David Creech

The ELCA News Blog is intended to provide short, quick updates on ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is a supplement to more detailed news releases produced by the ELCA News Service, which can be found here. You can subscribe to the ELCA News Service and have blog postings or ELCA News releases e-mailed to you.

Winter 2008-2009 ELCA World Hunger Resource Packet now available November 14, 2008
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service

To equip the 4.7 million members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to help end hunger in the world, an ELCA World Hunger Resource Packet is now available. The packet contains a variety of resources to help Lutherans learn more about the causes of world hunger and work together to end it.

Available twice a year, the packet illustrates how ELCA World Hunger is a connected, comprehensive and compassionate program that helps individuals and communities rise above poverty into self-sufficiency, said Sue Edison-Swift, communication director, ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal. “The program is connected because because it’s relationship-driven. It’s comprehensive because there are many causes to hunger, so solutions need to be equally diverse, and it’s also compassionate because it focuses on meeting the needs of the most vulnerable,” she said.

New resources in the packet include a congregational bulletin about water; Taking Root — a hunger education curriculum for children and youth; and 1-2-3 Contact! — a sign-up form to receive the resource packet and/or LifeLines by mail. The packet also includes the 2007-2009 ELCA Good Gifts giving catalog; reproducible stories for bulletins and newsletters that show how gifts to the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal make a difference in the lives of people; and “God’s Math 40-day calendar” designed to raise awareness, commitment and funds for the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal and Stand With Africa. It also carries copies of Congregation Connections and ELCA World Hunger Top 40 Resource Catalog, two popular resources updated every year.

A couple of posts back, I brought up Lucian of Samasota’s mocking critique of Christians. The great generosity of Christians, Lucian demonstrated, left them vulnerable to swindlers. Apparently, some Christians were aware of this potential problem. The Didache, also known as “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,” offers a remedy. Writing in the late-1st century, the Didachist instructs Christians, “Let your gift sweat in your hands until you know to whom to give it.” This beautiful word-picture (well, maybe not so beautiful, but vivid nonetheless!) offers helpful advice: before you give, make sure you know that your gift will be well used.

The problem is that too often I just let the gift sweat and sweat. I know where the money would be put to good use (ELCA World Hunger, for one!), but I hesitate. I rationalize. I end up with a fistful of soggy dollars. What about you? In these turbulent financial times, maybe it’s time to air that gift out. There is an ever growing number of people without means, maybe you have in your hand the perfect gift for a person in dire need.

David Creech

Congregation Connections

I’ve been meaning to share this with you for a few weeks. My wife, Jessica, opened her MDG fundraiser with the following comments:

“We could choose to despair over the problems of the world. We could choose to be silent about the injustices we see. We could choose to close eyes to the pain of others and become more isolated and insular as the threats of the economy loom.

“Or we could choose to hope. We could choose to speak. We could choose to see the brokenness—remembering that wounds are also doors for opportunity, for transformation, reconciliation and healing. We could choose to take the chaos that lies before us, and use it to be creative, to reshape a world in which people are more valuable than money.”

Words of wisdom, I think!

On Sunday, November 9, lectors across the Church will read from Amos, chapter 5: But let justice roll down like waters.
Take a moment to review the related pieces in the Pentecost 2008 edition of Congregation Connections (page 9). Maybe there’s still time to include the “Thought Prelude” or the Water Facts in this Sunday’s bulletin or share it with in a Sunday forum or class. Remember to share the new ELCA World Hunger Life-Giving Water bulletin with your congregation, too.

Chris Carpenter and I have recently returned from World Hunger project visits in South Africa and Malawi. Water and justice issues streamed through our visits. I am busy getting photos captioned and posted on imageevent.com/elcahunger (South Africa and Malawi).

Advocacy, or “voicing out” streamed its way throughout the trip, too. The development service arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELDS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Africa (ELCSA-DS) are associate programs of the Lutheran World Federation. ELDS and ELCSA-DS staff shared how they accompany communities through relief, to rehabilitation, to development, and on to the power of advocating for rights. “We build capacity so the community can find its voice. You can’t speak out when you have nothing. We move communities from a focus on needs to a focus on rights.”

It’s not always easy or neat. “Sometimes, when you speak out in Africa, you can be mistaken as an enemy.”

It’s election day in the United States. May our votes be voices for justice.
Sue Edison-Swift