Check out these new resources:
ELCA World Hunger just released a hunger education resource for congregations. The Hunger Education tool kits will help you design, host, and lead a learning experience on hunger or hunger-related topics. It is adaptable to your audience, including participant activity level (low, medium, and high) and your time frame. The resource is practical, easy-to-use, and intergenerational. At present we have two kits: one introducing the work of ELCA World Hunger and another exploring the connections between climate change and hunger. Visit www.elca.org/hunger/toolkits and see how you can use them!
We also just released a new hunger education curriculum, Taking Root. The curriculum is divided into five two to three hour sessions that can be easily broken up into shorter lessons. The curriculum is designed for three different age groups: grades 3–6, grades 7–9 (junior high), and grades 10–12 (senior high). Taking Root helps students explore biblical texts that envision a world without hunger, discover steps that can transform that image into reality, and challenges them to imagine a better world. For more information, visit the Taking Root Web site, www.elca.org/hunger/takingroot. For a free sample of the curriculum, visit the Augsburg Fortress website.
As I noted in a previous post, I am now on Twitter, with the user name hungerbites. I am posting two to three times a day with articles I’m reading or thoughts I’m having on hunger. I do not always have the time to pass along all that I get to read on the blog so Twitter opens up new avenues for information sharing. A little plug to join Twitter: not only can you follow me, you can follow other aid organizations (such as Oxfam) and concerned citizens (like Bono). It is a great tool.
In April, PBS will air a new documentary on the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai. The documentary, entitled Taking Root (not to be confused with our new curriculum!), explores interconnections between climate change, human rights, and democracy. The show premiers on Tuesday, April 14. For more details about the show and its premier, visit http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/takingroot/.
Finally, the American Bible Society has put out a great new resource entitled, Poverty and the Poor in the Bible, available free at http://www.bibles.com/products/ABS_NEW/121715.aspx. The short booklet is a collection of biblical texts that deal with poverty. It also has three appendices–letters that have been written by various Christian groups (one of which that was signed by our own Bishop Hanson) that speak to the injustice and scandal of modern poverty. I am excited to use this resource. I think it highlights well the way in which our foundational document calls us to be on the side of those who are poor and to walk with them in their struggle for justice.
David Creech
