What Is “Building Resilient Communities”?

ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response are ministries deeply rooted in the identity of the ELCA, and the mission to which God calls this Church. Together, for decades, these ministries have accompanied communities where God is at work through congregations, synods, social ministry organizations, companions and other partners building a just world where all are fed and bringing  hope, healing and renewal to people whose lives have been disrupted by disasters.

This collaboration arises from what we know about both disasters and hunger. Disasters can exacerbate some of the same vulnerabilities and challenges that ELCA World Hunger seeks to address. By accompanying communities through recovery from a disaster, Lutheran Disaster Response helps reduce these vulnerabilities for the long-term health and stability of communities. And some of the surest steps in reducing vulnerability to the effects of disaster are the very things ELCA World Hunger accompanies our neighbors toward – sustainable food systems, sufficient housing, stable income and accessible health care. Whether we look at best practices for meeting human needs or the faith that calls us to walk with our neighbors toward the bright future God promises, the work of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response are closely connected.

So, we are happy to share with you that these two ministries are now joined together on a single team within the Service and Justice home area of the ELCA churchwide organization: the Building Resilient Communities Team!

“Building Resilient Communities” expresses the deepest commitments of both ministries, which will remain distinct and yet related in this new configuration. Both Lutheran Disaster Response and ELCA World Hunger support work that meets the immediate needs of our neighbors while also working and walking with congregations, partners and companions toward long-term, transformative change. We know that the work to which God calls our church is the work of ensuring that we and our neighbors can thrive today and tomorrow.

For ELCA World Hunger, this has meant supporting the work of job creation, health care, stable housing, access to clean, safe water and more, as well as the critical work of food pantries and emergency feeding programs. Lutheran Disaster Response helps meet the immediate and long-term needs of communities and supports proactive measures to ensure that the next time a disaster strikes, our neighbors will be better equipped to respond and less vulnerable to the worst effects. That resilience – founded on addressing the roots of injustice that create vulnerability – is key to the work supported by both ministries, and now it is central to who we are as a team together.

The Building Resilient Communities Team (BRC) includes staff responsible for both the domestic and international work of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response. As one team, BRC brings together both Lutheran Disaster Response and ELCA World Hunger, as well as the domestic and international components of both ministries’ work. And, of course, we continue to work closely with colleagues throughout the churchwide organization, synods, companion churches, congregations and partners.

As we introduce this new structure within the churchwide organization of the ELCA, we are excited to introduce, too, the members of BRC!

Interested in joining the Building Resilient Communities team? The ELCA is hiring! Follow the links to learn more about openings for a domestic grants manager and for a social ministry organization engagement manager.

Rebecca Duerst – Senior Director, BRC

Greetings! My name is Rebecca Duerst, and I am honored to serve as senior director, Building Resilient Communities (BRC) in the Service and Justice Home Area of the churchwide organization of the ELCA. In this role I lead the BRC team, a group of incredible colleagues you will meet here, who together serve as leaders for the programming of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response both domestically and around the world. I’ve been working with the ELCA for about 10 years, most recently as director for Diakonia and, earlier, as program director for global health in the Global Mission unit, and prior to that, in Global Service with one of the Lutheran churches in Namibia. I’m originally from Wisconsin and grew up in a family of six sisters. I have a strong love of learning and am grateful to have had access to a variety of educational opportunities, including majoring in Art, Biology, and Chemistry at St. Olaf College (Um Yah Yah!), and earning a M.A. in Education, a M.P.H. in Global Health, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. I’m excited to be taking on this new role leading the BRC team that brings together the domestic and international work of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response in an integrated way, particularly to explore how we, together with ELCA congregations, synods, social ministry organizations, global companion churches, and Lutheran and ecumenical partners, can more holistically seek to address root causes of oppression and injustice and work toward transformation and liberation.

Katy Ajer – Program Director, World Hunger-International

Hello! My name is Katy Ajer, and I am the Program Director, World Hunger International. I work on stewarding ELCA World Hunger funds to companion churches and organizations outside of the ELCA in their efforts to improve sustainable development, education, health, and peace, justice, and reconciliation around the world. I also work alongside other churchwide organization staff to facilitate learning events for and by other companions. I am honored to be able to work alongside these passionate and skilled local leaders and to help share their contexts and realities with ELCA members.

I am the daughter of an ELCA pastor and deacon, who carries a strong faith but decided earlier on that I was not a person to work in the church J. Before coming to the ELCA I worked in social services as a case manager in homeless shelters, a health coordinator at an Early Head Start, board member for a free clinic, and a researcher at a hospital, eventually earning a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health. Public Health called to me because of its combination of the biological mechanisms that our physical and mental health reflect and the complex social realities (and inequities) that play such a strong role in the biological response. It allows us to see things at a macro level of the policies or structural inequalities that cause different health outcomes between different groups and at the micro level of an individual. This year, I’m looking forward to learning more about the domestic work of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response.

Juliana Glassco – Director, ELCA World Hunger-Domestic

I’m Juliana Glassco, and I am the Director for ELCA World Hunger – Domestic. In this role, I lead the team supporting ELCA World Hunger’s domestic partnerships – a network of individuals, synods, congregations and their partners learning and taking action together toward a just world where all are fed. My passion for building vibrant, healthy communities began with a year of service in Lutheran Volunteer Corps. Since then, I have worked with communities both domestically and internationally to strengthen community identity and engagement through the built and natural environment, interfaith collaboration, and shared ministry toward ending hunger. I started working with ELCA World Hunger in 2018, managing domestic grants. As part of the new Building Resilient Communities team, I’m over the moon about the opportunity to explore relationships and strategies for impact with our international and Lutheran Disaster Response colleagues and partners.

John Pyron – Program Director, Lutheran Disaster Response-US

Hello! My name is John Pyron, and I serve as the Program Director for Lutheran Disaster Response-US (LDR-US). LDR-US is a national, interconnected network of Lutheran synods, social service organizations, congregations, and external partners that is responsive to the needs of people and communities impacted by disasters and is proactive in addressing community and household disaster risk and vulnerability. LDR-US recognizes that all disasters are local and builds capacity by accompanying local partners in disaster relief, recovery and resilience efforts. LDR-US engages by convening partners for mutual learning, mentorship and support; educates through online, in-person and experiential learning opportunities; equips with relief, recovery and resilience grants; and empowers by utilizing a model of active accompaniment, providing opportunities for people to live out their faith in meaningful ways.

I began my journey in disaster work as a volunteer chainsaw and debris removal team leader in Mobile, Alabama after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Since then, I have served in various roles including construction and volunteer coordination, disaster case management, and long-term recovery group coordination, supporting numerous relief and recovery efforts across the country. Prior to joining the ELCA staff in June 2020, I served with two Lutheran Social Service agencies: Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri and Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio. I am an avid guitar player, runner, cyclist and a lover of all things outdoor. My partner, Katie, and I live in Louisville, Kentucky, with our two sons, Henry and William.

Marie Ann Sliwinski – Program Director, Lutheran Disaster Response-International

My name is Marie Anne Sliwinski, and I am the Program Director for Lutheran Disaster Response-International at the ELCA. I have been working in the non-profit sector for close to 20 years, 14 of which are dedicated in international humanitarian and development programs. I currently oversee the Lutheran Disaster Response International portfolio, which supports immediate relief and recovery needs of families affected by disasters. I hold a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago. I currently reside in the Chicago suburbs with my husband and two children. This year, I look forward to getting to know the new team and to learn how we can further integrate the work of LDR US and International because as all disasters may be local, the impact is global.

Joseph Chu – Program Manager, Lutheran Disaster Response

I am Joseph Chu, Program Manager of Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR). It is a privilege to serve both LDR International and LDR US under the leadership of Marie Anne and John. In some ways, this new position will help me integrate learnings from my work in both Global Mission and Domestic Mission, two former units within the churchwide organization. Between 2004 and the end of 2009, I was a member of the Asia Pacific Team in Global Mission. And from September 2012 to January 31, 2021, I served on the Lutheran Disaster Response – U.S. team in Domestic Mission.

Meeting with and listening to disaster survivors, participants of community development projects, professional colleagues and volunteers who have given their all for the sake of building a new home, a new community and a more just and equitable community around the world are among the most gratifying experiences I have ever had. In my new role, I will be following up with projects after their respective grant cycle has started. My responsibilities will include monitoring the project, particularly reviewing project reports in collaboration with other team members and my supervisors. I know there are many experts in these areas among our churchwide colleagues, and I look forward to learning from them. In addition to this work, I am an ordained clergy who have served congregations in California and Illinois. I have also worked in the field of non-profit fund development, social work and teaching. My wife and I have a daughter and a son in their early 20s.

Ryan P. Cumming – Program Director, Hunger Education

Greetings! I am the program director for hunger education with ELCA World Hunger. In this role, I direct the development of ELCA World Hunger’s educational resources, research trends in hunger and poverty, and help with communications with partners and congregations. In addition to this work with the ELCA, I have served as a consultant and presenter on pedagogy, active learning, and instructional design, and I continue to teach undergraduate courses at both Loyola University Chicago and Central Michigan University. I graduated from Capital University in Ohio before heading over to the Jesuit side of higher ed, earning my MA and Ph.D. in Theology, with a focus on Christian Ethics. When wearing my academic hat, I have presented research on ethics, religion, and neuropsychology at conferences in the United States and abroad and have been fortunate enough to even get published a few times. I am the author of The African American Challenge to Just War Theory (Palgrave, 2013), and contributor to and an editor of the three-volume Forgotten Luther series available from Fortress Press. Before working with ELCA World Hunger, I was interim editor of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics and a member of the ELCA’s task force on criminal justice. Before that, I was a bartender, fishmonger, truck driver, bricklayer and factory worker. Before that… Well, needless to say, I am looking forward to what comes next on the horizon with this great group of colleagues on the Building Resilient Communities team.

Brooke De Jong – Program Assistant, Hunger Education

I am Brooke De Jong, and I serve ELCA World Hunger as the Program Assistant for Hunger Education. I have a passion for faith formation that is culturally sensitive, socially responsive and aimed at creating lifelong, engaged faith leaders. I work with the ELCA World Hunger team to create resources that foster faith that is active in love and seeks justice. I am looking forward to deeper collaboration with my colleagues to see what new and innovative resources we can create for the network.

Previous to my work with ELCA World Hunger, I worked on the observance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation for the ELCA, served as a youth director and served as a HUD grants administrator. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and German with a minor in Ancient Languages from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D. I am currently working on my Master of Divinity and in the process of becoming a deacon in the ELCA. When I am not in the office, I can often be found powerlifting, hiking, backpacking or biking. My last hiking trip was to the Superstition Wilderness in Arizona. My last backpacking trip was an 80-mile loop in the Sawtooth Mountains (see photo).

Angela Galbraith – Grants and Reporting Coordinator

My name is Angela Galbraith, and I am the Grants and Reporting Coordinator for Building Resilient Communities. I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but I’m excited to call Chicago home soon. I have a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with minors in Music, German, and Justice, Law & Public Policy from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. I have over five years of experience in nonprofit leadership focused on food insecurity and chronic malnutrition. Most recently, I served in the Peace Corps as an HIV/AIDS and Adolescent Health Educator in Lesotho. As Coordinator, I will continue supporting our partners in ministry through the granting process and assist the team in data management and comprehensive impact reporting. I am looking forward to growing both personally and professionally as I learn more about Lutheran Disaster Response and World Hunger-International.

Christine Moolo – Manager, ELCA World Hunger

Hi! My name is Christine Moolo, and I serve as the Manager for ELCA World Hunger. In this role, I have the opportunity to engage with the grant processes for both our domestic and international work, support companions and partners in their engagement with our ELCA Grantmaker system, and communicate stories and learnings of ELCA World Hunger-supported ministries to the broader ELCA community. My background is in International Development, and I have served in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, the United States and other locations to promote the work of global and domestic partners in sustainable development and disaster response initiatives. I have been active in racial equity trainings and am an Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Assessor. I am passionate about partners in sustainable development having the resources they need to adequately take on the systemic and social barriers that prevent their communities from thriving. I live in the Chicagoland area, and I am honored to work alongside my talented, extremely hard-working and passionate Service and Justice colleagues.

Petra Rickertsen – Networks Manager, Building Resilient Communities

I serve as Networks Manager with the Building Resilient Communities team, supporting both the Hunger Leader and Lutheran Disaster Response networks. My passion for working toward a just world where all are fed began as a camp counselor and grew as a Hunger Leader on the Southwest California Synod Hunger team. I am elated everyday in this role to learn how leaders across both networks creatively build relationships with our global neighbors in addressing hunger and its root causes and disasters and preparedness and support them in achieving their courageous solutions. Though hesitant to trade the roar of the ocean, desert four-wheeling and rock-climbing adventures for snow, I am enjoying the new adventures that Midwest seasons offer.

Roselle Tenorio – Domestic Grants Manager

Hi everyone, my name is Roselle Tenorio, and I am joining ELCA World Hunger as the Domestic Grants Manager. Previously, I was the Grants and Programs Manager at Texas Women’s Foundation. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies from Grinnell College. I have a long and varied relationship with food justice and its intersections, starting at a young age volunteering with my family and community in Dallas, Texas, to researching food pantry systems while in college. I chose the nonprofit career field after a rewarding experience writing a grant for a new mobile food pantry program in rural Iowa. After graduating college, I joined AmeriCorps VISTA and served in Savannah, Georgia, at a nonprofit working on poverty alleviation. Currently, I serve on the board of Abide Women’s Health Services, a grassroots, Black-led nonprofit organization that improves birth outcomes in communities with the lowest quality of care. I also volunteer on the Board of the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas, Junior Players Young Professionals Committee as a Junior League Dallas Member and as a Community Centric Fundraising (CCF) Texas Organizer. Outside of working and volunteering, in my free time, I can be found wandering the arboretum or an art gallery, hiking and enjoying the outdoors, scoping out delicious local vegan cuisine, or curling up with a new book. I am a seventh generation Tejana, currently living in Dallas with my partner, Devin, who is from Chicago, and our cat, Xochitl. I am honored to be a part of this community and look forward to creating a just world where all are fed.

Educación Popular en Salud, or Popular Education in Health, (EPES) was founded by Karen Anderson, ELCA mission personnel, as a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile in the early 1980s. In 2002, EPES became an independent foundation, continuing and expanding its support of communities in the Latin American country of Chile. This important work is supported in part by gifts to ELCA World Hunger. We are grateful to our partners at EPES for the update and video below, showcasing some of the amazing work that is happening in the El Bosque community in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out!

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EPES Foundation initiated a project with community health promoters and nutrition teams to cultivate home gardens. In five months, the women transformed the patios and balconies of their homes into small vegetable gardens. The enthusiasm for what was learned and harvested during the months of strict quarantine was so great that the women decided to create a community garden at the end of that year. The Auco community center in the Oscar Bonilla neighborhood of El Bosque, where the David Werner health team has met for more than 25 years, was chosen as the place for the community garden.

Since the beginning the project has had the technical advice and collaboration of Valeria Rodriguez from the Santa Isabel community garden.

In this video, the women share their experiences related to creating the garden, highlighting the satisfaction of growing their own food, connecting with nature, promoting community participation in health and food sovereignty, and contributing to the environment by reducing organic waste. In addition, they report how this collective learning process has helped them to better face the pandemic, strengthening ties between women, sowing hope and cultivating solidarity.

Video Production and Editing: Claudia Macchiavello

Original Music: Martín Formento

We are excited to share that the at-home guide for ELCA World Hunger’s “River of Life” Vacation Bible School program for 2021 is now available for download! This at-home guide is a supplemental resource for the full “River of Life VBS leader’s guide and includes modified activities, suggestions for online and at-home VBS, links to new videos and tips for parents, caregivers and other adults leading VBS with children at home!

Learn more in the video below:

https://youtu.be/2GjlJXVi22M

To download “River of Life” VBS, including the full leader’s guide, the at-home guide and the toolkit with images and graphics to use on your website or social media, visit https://elca.org/hunger/resources#VBS.

To watch the story videos or the “Meet Our Neighbor” videos from ELCA World Hunger’s partners and companions, visit the ELCA World Hunger Vacation Bible School collection on the ELCA’s Vimeo page at https://vimeo.com/showcase/7224146.

Share your story! If you use “River of Life” with your congregation or group, let us know! Email Hunger@ELCA.org and share your feedback, stories or pictures!

Looking for more ideas? Join the community-run ELCA World Hunger VBS Facebook group and chat with other leaders from across the ELCA about VBS in 2021!

The following is an excerpt from “‘Big Dreams’ of Ending Homelessness in Virginia,” featured in Living Lutheran.

Last year, 25-year-old Maya (last name withheld), who lives in Virginia, was expecting her first child. Collecting unemployment due to COVID-19, she was staying with her parents when she got into an argument with them; they wanted more money to lodge her. After the altercation turned physical, Maya knew she had to leave the home for her baby’s safety. Two weeks before her due date, she was sleeping in her car.

Maya asked around and soon heard about ForKids, a nonprofit and partner of ELCA World Hunger that serves 14 cities and counties in southeast Virginia to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty for families and children. Soon she connected with a caseworker, Lisa Ellsworth, who shared these words of comfort: “After having the baby, you have a room.” ForKids set Maya up with emergency housing to come home to from the hospital.

This year, ForKids received a Big Dream Grant from ELCA World Hunger. Larger than World Hunger’s typical domestic grants, Big Dream Grants are designed to support ministries with transformative projects that will make a significant difference in their communities.

Photo courtesy of ForKids

To read more about this transformative ministry, check out “Big Dreams of Ending Homelessness in Virginia,” a recent article by Alex Baird in Living Lutheran, your source for news, reflections and stories from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and its local and global companions.

All photos courtesy of ForKids.

St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church’s Lunchtime Ministry offers a warm meal, hospitality and community to neighbors in Hoboken, New Jersey. This important work is supported in part by a Domestic Hunger Grant from ELCA World Hunger. Stanley Enzweiler is the Program Manager of St. Matthew Trinity’s Lunchtime Ministry and has worked with the ministry since 2016. In this post, Stanley reflects on the uncertainty and stress the community faced in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic – and on the hope, hard work and perseverance that has kept Lunchtime Ministry going. You can read a previous post from Stanley here.

March 16th, 2020, I didn’t want to open the door. The guests, I knew, were crowded outside, ready to rush in, grab a seat, and line up for coffee. They were expecting a long, leisurely morning with steaming cups of soup served to their tables by volunteers who knew their names. At Lunchtime Ministry (LTM), a soup kitchen/drop-in center in the heart of Hoboken, New Jersey, everything is free: the coffee, the wifi, the laughter, and the community. Today, all that was about to change.

I unlocked the door. “Hang on, everyone,” I said. “You have to come in one at a time. Wash your hands, and then I will give you a bagged lunch. We’re serving everything to go.”

For years, LTM had been a pillar of stability in people’s lives. We were open every Monday to Thursday, holidays and blizzards be darned. Some of our guests had gone through the same routine every day for years.

But that weekend in March 2020, the country had shut down around us. A new world had arrived. The virus could be anywhere.  Masks were not yet required, and people argued about whether gloves did any good. Instead of saying “Goodbye,” we told each other to “Stay safe.”

LTM was shutting down too. Our priority was keeping each other healthy—but avoiding COVID was just part of the picture. It was cold outside, and our guests had nowhere to go.  Some of them stopped coming to LTM, and I still don’t know where they ended up.  One woman sat down on the floor in front of the coffee machine and refused to leave.

We worked with the Hoboken Shelter and the local welfare office to lodge some of our older and less healthy guests in hotel rooms. As much as this helped space out our homeless population, several of our hotel guests continued to come to LTM every morning. That’s how much our community mattered.

As the summer went by, we borrowed an idea pioneered by some restaurants in Hoboken and opened up our own strEATery: outdoor tables and chairs where guests could sit together and enjoy to-go food. This gave us back a taste of the community we had missed so much. In Autumn, we began reopening for volunteers and asking our community to donate hot dishes, which we served in to-go cups.  And when temperatures dropped, we opened back up inside. We have limited our capacity in accordance with statewide regulations, and we have continued to enforce hand-washing, masks, and social distancing. Of course, it is much more work serving people inside than providing food to go, but having our community back has been worth it.

We have worked closely with other local services, including the Hoboken Shelter, the city’s food pantries, and the county’s clinics. We have provided our guests, volunteers, and community members with onsite flu shots, health screenings, and, this spring, over 150 COVID-19 vaccines. Individuals, schools, restaurants and spas from across the country have overwhelmed us with their support, donating food, hygiene items and money; spreading the word about LTM; and providing moral support. At least once a week, I hear from a former volunteer who wants to say hello and see how they can help.

This has been a year like no other. We are not used to thinking on our feet and changing things up at LTM, especially not when lives hang in the balance. But everyone has had to adapt this year, and through it all, LTM has continued to be there for our guests. We have provided as many services as we can while keeping our population healthy.

Who knows what the next steps will be?  Regardless, we’ll take them.

God’s work through the guests, volunteers and community members at LTM still continues – and continues to thrive! As of April 2021, over 500 vaccines have been distributed through LTM and its partners. With more community members protected, LTM has been able to offer more events at its site, including screenings for HIV, blood pressure, and glucose levels, haircuts for guests, assistance signing up for health insurance and housing, and fundraisers to keep the ministry going.

We know that ending hunger will take more than food. Addressing climate change is a critical step in this work. That’s why ELCA World Hunger is excited to share a new opportunity from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary’s Center for Climate Justice and Faith. The Center’s work focuses on helping leaders learn about sustainability, caring for creation and working for justice so that all can enjoy the abundance of God’s creation.

This Center’s new Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith offers a cohort-based, online trans-continental curriculum which empowers participants to cultivate moral, spiritual, and practical power for leadership in the work of climate justice in communities of faith and in collaboration with others.  Topics covered include theology, ethics, and spirituality; climate change knowledge; and social change practices that connect ecological well-being with racial, economic, and gender justice.

Lay and rostered leaders throughout the Lutheran World Federation communion and from other faith traditions are invited to complete an interest form if you are curious to know more about this inaugural, non-degree learning program scheduled for September 2021 – May 2022.  Long-term collaboration and networking are expected to endure well beyond certificate completion date.

Applications are now open and will be accepted until June 15, 2021. To apply or to learn more, visit https://www.plts.edu/programs/certificates/certificate-in-climate-justice-and-faith.html.

Action

“They are working together, united, to show the country and the world that this is the way to fight for peace.”

Thus far this Lent, we have heard stories of God working through this church, our companions and our neighbors to end hunger. We have heard stories from India, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., and heard of the stories that cannot be shared. We have learned that ending hunger means committing ourselves to a more inclusive vision of community, to honesty, to justice and to one another. Here, in this last week, companions from Colombia will help teach us about the final tool: action.

As much progress as the world has made to end hunger, we still have a long way to go. Nearly 690 million people around the world are undernourished, and more than 35 million people in the United States don’t know where their next meal will come from. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of hunger around the world was on the rise after a decade of decline. With the pandemic, we have seen historic levels of unemployment, and even the most conservative forecasts warn that hunger and poverty could increase with nearly unprecedented rapidity in the coming years as we recover from its effects.

In his response to the plague that reemerged in Wittenberg in 1527, Martin Luther addressed the question of how a Christian is to act in a pandemic. After highlighting the ways God shows concern for good health in Scripture and exhorting his readers to care for their neighbors, Luther writes that prayer, though important, is not enough. Christians, he proclaims, must do more than pray. They must act.

Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others.

Pray. Then act.

These past 40 days of Lent commemorate the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, fasting and facing down temptation. In the first temptation, Satan placed the “famished” Jesus before a pile of stones and demanded that Jesus prove his power by turning the stones to bread that would end his hunger (Matthew 4:1-3). How tempting that must have been! How many parents with not enough food for their children would wish for such a miracle so that their family might be fed? How many of the 690 million undernourished people around the world would welcome the power to turn stones into the bread they need?

Yet the choice Jesus faced was not between stones and bread but between truth and lies. No sudden miracle will end the world’s hunger. Ending hunger is not about wishing or praying for the power to alter reality. Hunger does not end because of a miraculous intervention. It ends because of the persistent work of God with, among and through people striving for change. It is sometimes slow work, accomplished one step at a time. But it will not stop until we realize that vision of a time when we will hunger and thirst no more.

Carolina Camargo, a nurse from Villavicencio, Colombia, knows that this is what it will take. Carolina is part of the work God is doing through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Colombia (IELCO) and the church’s Justicia y vida (Justice and Life) initiative, which is supported by ELCA World Hunger. Together with others, Carolina works toward future reconciliation in Justicia y vida’s “From War to Peace” project, which weaves ties of solidarity between the church and communities in Colombia that have been beset by violence for many years.

Carolina and other volunteers are at work in the area of Urabá, which means “promised land” in the Indigenous Embera Katío language. Since the 1990s, Urabá has witnessed a war involving the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), insurgents, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and paramilitary groups. The conflict led to more than 103 massacres in the region and 32,000 people displaced between 1998 and 2002. Today, social leaders remain at risk from paramilitary units over disputes involving land.

The peace process has been a long road for Colombia, and IELCO has been traveling it for many years. In San José, former combatants and their families are given a chance to start again through the work of the church. In San José de Léon, they are able to build and maintain homes and resume their former lives raising fish, pigs and chickens. It’s a chance to rebuild some of what was lost in the years of conflict.

Addressing conflict and working for peace are central to ending hunger. Conflict is one of the most significant reasons for hunger increasing around the world. When people’s lives are threatened, they do not feel safe going to work or staying home. Many are forced to migrate to protect their families. Land may be stolen or destroyed, and markets are closed or empty. Parents and workers may be injured or killed in the violence. The United Nations estimates that up to 80% of humanitarian needs around the world are caused by conflict.

Building peace is a critical step in ending hunger. But it is a difficult step to take.

Carolina has learned this through her work with IELCO. “There are people who believe that you can close your eyes and yearn for peace without making an effort towards it,” she says. “What God allowed me to know is very different from that idealism, the reality I could observe and live, expressing hope in all the people who are part of this change.” The idealistic belief that peace means simply transforming swords into plowshares ignores “the struggle against negative feelings associated with the traumatic experiences” of the people with whom Carolina works. Yet together they “walk towards the goal of peace and reconciliation.

“They are working together, united, to show the country and the world that this is the way to fight for peace.”

We know that we cannot merely declare or call for “‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). Building peace and ending hunger take action within community and are fostered by the hope and trust that, with each step, God is moving our world closer to that goal.

In this study, we have read stories of people at work around the world. Their situations may differ, their needs may differ, but what unites them is the commitment to an active hope that refuses to stagnate or stay silent. It is the hope of the vulnerable guests seeking care at clinics and shelters, of women and girls in India, of advocates in Milwaukee and of peacemakers in Colombia.

It is the hope of Lent, which propels us on this arduous journey to — and beyond — the cross. This hope empowers us see a number such as 690 million hungry but to refuse to despair. It can be sustained only by our trust that God is with us in each small step, guiding us toward a promised future. In hope, we expand our vision of what it means to be “we.” In hope, we are honest about the challenges we face. In hope, we invest in our shared future. In hope, we speak up for justice.

And in hope, we act, knowing that a just world where all are fed is not just possible but promised — and knowing, too, that we are called to be part of building that future. This is not the idealistic prayer spoken but a realistic prayer lived in solidarity with one another in cities, towns, shelters, clinics, classrooms, gardens, statehouses — all the places where God is at work.

This is the prayer of an Easter people, and this is our prayer — that God will not merely turn stones into bread but build a new world on that rocky soil, a just world where all are fed.

Discussion Questions

1. Think, share or journal about a time when you acted and it created a positive change. What did you do? What happened? What did it feel like?
2. Where have you seen God turning prayers into action?
3. Think about the prayers you share during worship. Bring one prayer to mind. How might your community turn this prayer into action? What small or large steps could you take?
4. Where is there a need for action to end hunger in your community? What will it take to move this action forward?

Prayer

God of promise, God of hope, God of fullness, God of peace, guide us, your people, to be your hands and feet, to work together as you build on our rocky soil a new, just world where all are fed.

Learn more and follow ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of giving throughout Lent by visiting ELCA.org/40days.

Investment

“[The vision is] that we get to invest money in our families and in our community.”

The first reading for this fourth week of Lent is from the book of Numbers. The people have been on their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land for years, and the goal is nigh. They have received the law from God through Moses at Sinai and are now on the final leg of their journey. Yet, rather than be hopeful and eager, they are tempted by impatience (Numbers 21:4) and dissatisfied with the leadership of Moses and even their “miserable food” (Numbers 21:5). The exodus they thought would bring them to a new land has instead been a seemingly interminable journey in the wilderness. God’s response is swift and harsh: “poisonous serpents” sent by God “bit the people, so that many Israelites died” (21:6). The people repent, Moses prays andGod grants Moses a staff that will provide healing to all who are bitten.

It’s not the kindest of stories. The psalmist gives it a different sort of spin, omitting any mention of the venomous snakes and lifting up the healing of God, who heard the cries of the people and “saved them from their distress” (Psalm 107:19b).

Despite the psalmist’s sanitized take on the story, this pattern can be found throughout the story of the exodus. God rescues the people, they succumb to temptation, they repent, God shows mercy. Over and over and over.

These biblical narratives are often used to extol the merciful nature of God, who repeatedly forgives the people despite their sin. Truly, God does show mercy. But perhaps mercy is not the only lesson to be learned from the story of the people’s walk with God.

The exodus begins in Egypt, where God’s people are enslaved and oppressed. God seeks out Moses to lead the people, lays low the unjust Pharaoh and accompanies the people across the wilderness for generations, providing food, water and safety along the way, even when the going is tough and the relationship between the people and God is complicated.

Simply put, God is invested in this community. God has a vested interest in its future. The covenant inaugurated between them leaves both parties vulnerable to the other. By leading them from Egypt and entering into a covenant with them, God has tied their futures together. God has a plan and has invested much to ensure that the people are part of it. This people, this nation, is God’s future. The provisions God grants are not mere merciful gifts but further investments toward a shared future for God and the people that will become Israel.

Now, of course, the church is not God; we are spiritual descendants of the wandering Hebrews, dependent still on God’s promise of this future. Yet, perhaps there is something we can learn here about what it means to pursue a promise.

People often view the church’s work to end hunger in light of the virtues of mercy and grace. Food, clothing, shelter and donations might be interpreted as mercies showered on suffering people or as gifts given to neighbors in need. But the reality is that our response to hunger goes beyond a desire to meet immediate needs. Our response to hunger is nothing less than an investment in that shared future articulated in the tagline for ELCA World Hunger: a just world where all are fed.

What difference might it make for the hunger ministries of this church to see the work we do together as an investment in this vision?

In Washington, D.C., the Beloved Community Incubator is based on the idea of investing in the people and in the Logan Circle neighborhood. The project began with a listening campaign by Luther Place Memorial Church, with support from ELCA World Hunger. In this campaign, residents of the community expressed their desire for cooperatives that would allow them to use their skills and talents to build wealth and income that would stay in the community.

The first cooperative incubated by Luther Place was Dulce Hogar, a cooperative of women who provide cleaning services for homes and businesses. Together, the women learned how to run a business, pursue just employment and develop their own skills as leaders. As one participant describes it, “The vision of the cooperative is that all eight of us are well-paid and well-trained, and that we get to invest money in our families and in our community.”

The members of the cooperative were even paid for the times they spent in meetings and trainings. They learned together that their time and labor had value far exceeding the wages they had been offered before. And now, with an investment in them, they will be able to invest in others.

Projects such as the Beloved Community Incubator offer a counter witness to the policies and practices of disinvestment that have created communities with high rates of poverty and food insecurity across the United States. These policies and practices are rooted in the misperception that some communities are worth investing in and others are not. But the residents of Logan Circle know that, despite the challenges they face, their community is worth the investment and a better future is worth pursuing.

We know this, too, by faith. Every community is blessed by God with assets and strengths, even as the people face barriers to using or developing those assets. And we know by faith that the future we pursue together is a shared endeavor. The future God has promised is a future for us and our neighbors. We will get there together, or we will not get there at all.

To end hunger is to recognize that responding to need is a matter not of merciful intervention but of investing in a shared future and trusting that the work of God toward that end will be revealed in those very communities that the profit-driven economy so often leaves behind. If we are going to end hunger, we need to invest in one another by sharing resources, listening to each other and building the relationships that will ensure the justice God has promised.

Discussion Questions

1. Think, share or journal about a time when someone showed you kindness and mercy. What was that like? How did it feel?
2. Think, share or journal about a time when someone used their time, skills and/or talents to invest in your growth. What was that like? How did it feel?
3. Now compare and contrast these two experiences — one of kindness and mercy, and one of investment. How are they different? Which experience made a more lasting impact, and why?
4. Does your community take time to invest in the long-term growth of its neighbors? How so? If not, how might your community begin investing in others? What might that look like?
5. Where is there a need for the kind of investment that can end hunger in your community?

Prayer

Covenant God, since ancient times you have led and fed your people through many wilderness journeys. In this time, give us strength to invest your gifts in our neighbors and communities, that all might be fed. Amen.

Learn more and follow ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of giving throughout Lent by visiting ELCA.org/40days.

Justice

“The direct service of providing filter pitchers and the organizing work of bringing demands to our alderpersons, health department and mayor all lead us back to the font, where we stand with people at the holy water that makes us God’s children and sends us out to serve God’s justice.”

If we don’t listen carefully to Jesus’ words, we might think of him as meek and mild-mannered, the patient and perfect willing sacrifice, who admonishes his followers to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. Some might even think we are called to be docile and, at times, subservient. In many forms of American Christianity, believers are encouraged to acquiesce to their circumstances, to accept their lot in life with, if not good cheer, at least indifference. In fact, for some Christians, protest or rage must be reserved only to chastise “sinners” for their “immoral” ways.

If there is a story from the Gospels that challenges this picture of Jesus and Jesus’ followers, it may be the story from this week’s reading of Jesus clearing the temple in Jerusalem. The man who would stand reserved before Pilate here is described by the author of John’s Gospel as angry, wielding a whip and overturning tables. Clearly, even for the normally peaceful Son of God, there are some things that are too much to bear in silence.

The temple was the center of worship for the community in Jesus’ time. Here, the faithful would gather for holy days, as Jesus did in the story, or to offer the required sacrifices. The temple was also a center of commerce, with merchants selling wares to travelers outside the court. Because Roman money bore the likenesses of Roman leaders, it could not be used in the temple and needed to be exchanged to pay the temple tax, a fee assessed on all who entered.

There is some debate about the fairness of the moneychangers. While some writers claim the moneychangers were greedy or predatory, others note that, in general, the moneychangers at the temple dealt fairly with their customers. In any event, they were a necessary fixture at the temple, as were the merchants selling animals for sacrifice. Wealthy Jews would purchase sheep or cattle whereas working-class or poor Jews would opt for cheaper animals, such as doves. To say that the system was necessary is not to say that it was fair. Even if the moneychangers did not engage in outright exploitation, the temple tax was especially felt by people living in poverty, for whom even a half shekel would have been more than they could afford. When added to the cost of sacrificial animals, the financial burden for people in poverty was high.

What drove Jesus to fashion a whip and erupt in anger was not the mere presence of commerce — after all, both the tax and the animals were necessary — but the unequal burden borne by the very people for whom the temple should have been caring. What inspired Jesus’ rage was not the temple or trade but the way these two systems combined to leave people in need at a disadvantage, day in and day out. This injustice is simply too much for anyone to remain docile. Docility in the face of injustice is complicity.

Still today, an unequal burden continues to be fostered by systems and structures that leave many communities bearing the marks of injustice — sometimes in the very bodies of the people.

We’ve known for decades the dangers associated with lead, a metal that for many years was used in plumbing and paint. This hazardous metal can cause severe, long-term effects, including stunted brain development, anemia and kidney damage. As older pipes corrode, lead can seep into drinking water, and particles from paint in older homes can be inhaled. It can become part of the very water we drink and the air that we breathe, making it hard to keep adults and children safe. Over the last decade, lead contamination has been found in water systems in Flint, Michigan, Newark, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago and many other cities, both large and small. It has been found in homes, hospitals and schools and has been recognized as a national problem across the United States.

But that is not to say that the burdens of unsafe water are shouldered equally by all communities. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found, African American children are nearly three times as likely as white children to be exposed to lead. Some studies have found the prevalence of lead poisoning in some Black and Latino neighborhoods to be as high as 90%, which means that as many as nine in 10 children have tested positive. Children living in poverty are also at higher risk, with higher rates of exposure and fewer means to address lead poisoning to prevent long-term consequences. This can create a vicious cycle. Families living in hunger and poverty are more vulnerable to environmental risks that can lead to high health care costs, illnesses that keep adults home from work, and developmental delays that can inhibit children’s education — the very stressors that contribute to long-term, generational hunger down the road.

At Hephatha Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wis., a city with high rates of both poverty and lead exposure, leaders are working hard to keep children safe. The church, with support from ELCA World Hunger, provides lead-free kits with water filters, tape and mops. The tape can cover lead paint that is chipping, and the mops clean up dust from the paint so that children don’t inhale it. The church also helps adults learn about the dangers of lead.

But filters, tape and mops can go only so far. The issue of lead — and the crisis of unsafe water, more generally — is an issue of justice. Environmental policies, housing regulations and health care access are all woven together when it comes to keeping people safe from lead poisoning. That’s why Hephatha also worked with neighbors to start an advocacy group to talk with legislators about keeping the community safe. At a deeper level, access to clean water is not just a matter of what comes out of our taps but what goes into our laws. It’s about the community we live in and not just the water we drink.

Pastor Mary Martha of Hephatha links this work to the calling of the church. Advocacy and education “[lead] us back to the font, where we stand with people at the holy water that makes us God’s children and sends us out to serve God’s justice.”

In the Gospel reading, Jesus recognizes the necessity of institutions such as the temple and commerce. But he also believes these same institutions should be held accountable for how people in need experience them. In Milwaukee, God is at work through a community driven by hope that things can change — and guided by the wisdom that what we need is not just clean water but justice.

As we continue in our Lenten journey, learning about the tools we will need to share in God’s work of ending hunger, the story of God at work in Milwaukee reminds us that the future we seek is a world where “justice will roll down like waters” — clean, safe, lead-free and life-giving waters accessible to all.

Reflection Questions

1. Think, share or journal about a time when you felt that something was unfair or that you were at a disadvantage. How did you react? What did you do to try and change the situation? What powers resisted attempts at change?
2. Jesus’ display of anger in the temple is often categorized as righteous anger or anger over mistreatment, insult or the malice of another. When can anger or even rage be a productive emotion?
3. How can you identify anger that is helpful and not harmful? How can you use anger in a productive way, to help your neighbors in need?
4. Where is there a need for justice in your community? What will a “just world” look like in your neighborhood?

Prayer

Gracious and loving God, at the font you wash us in water and the word, and name us all your beloved children. With that love, inspire our prayer, work and generosity, that all people may have an abundance of clean, safe water. Amen.

Learn more and follow ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of giving throughout Lent by visiting ELCA.org/40days.

Honesty

“For [God] did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; [God] did not hide [God’s] face from me, but heard when I cried” (Psalm 22:24).

When Kamini Dhurvey was just a child, her mother died and her father remarried. Her stepmother abused Kamini, and her father did not step in to protect her from his new wife. Unprotected and unsafe, Kamini left home when she was older and eventually found a place to rent and a job in a small shop.

Even out on her own, she did not feel safe. Kamini feared that the landlord who owned her residence would hurt her. The security she tried to find in leaving home eluded her. Through a door-to-door survey, Kamini learned about Naari Shakti, a project of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Madhya Pradesh in India supported in part by ELCA World Hunger. Naari Shakti works for gender equality through advocacy for women’s rights, provides training in tailoring and computer skills, and offers emergency medical support to girls and women in vulnerable situations. The project also provides housing assistance and psychosocial support to those who need it.

At the Naari Shakti project office, Kamini found a safe space to tell her story and people who would welcome her. With counseling and support from the project, she was able to leave the place she was renting and move into a hostel for girls. The project later arranged for Kamini to stay in a women’s rehabilitation center, where she is living and pursuing her studies.

Before Kamini moved to the rehabilitation center, project staff tried to contact her father. But her father told the staff that he no longer wanted anything to do with her and that it was up to her to live her life as she wanted. She was no longer welcome in her father’s home. With nowhere else to go, Kamini has found a home at the center. The Naari Shakti program provides her a safe place to live, books and additional support for her education.

Around the world, 690 million people face hunger, and each of them has a story to tell. Hunger is rarely just a matter of lacking food. Rather, it is often a pernicious and persistent symptom of much deeper pain, of much deeper need. Unfortunately, stories like Kamini’s are not uncommon. For women and girls around the world, abuse, violence and inequality lie behind the higher rates of hunger they face. Globally, women are 13% more likely than men to experience food insecurity and almost 27% more likely to be severely food insecure. They are also more likely to be victimized by violence, more likely to do work with little or no pay, and less likely to have access to credit to start a home or business.

If we are going to end hunger, we have to start by being honest about the stories of pain, exploitation, injustice and violence that lie behind it. We must start with honesty about what hunger is and what it is not.

Hunger is not accidental. It is the result of inequality, marginalization and injustice that inhibit one’s ability to access the resources one needs to live.

Hunger is not merely the physical sensation of going without food. It is an insidious reality that affects the whole person — physically, emotionally, psychologically and socially.

Hunger is not merely a calculation of calories. It is a measure of the extent to which a person is constrained in the pursuit of their own well-being.

Ending hunger means being willing to enter into the sometimes painful stories of neighbors in need. It requires that we accompany one another down difficult roads with honesty about what we may find. Lent commemorates Jesus’ journey to the cross and thus demands of us honesty about the death-dealing pervasiveness of sin that would crucify truth in order to silence it. This makes Lent an appropriate season to consider what it will take to arrive at the vision of a just world where all are fed. Lent, after all, is about honesty. In this season, we are called to be honest about the depths of our sin, including the many ways that we, as the church, have fallen short in meeting the needs of our neighbors. Lent is about being honest with ourselves and with others about the depth of need in our world.

And Lent is also a season to be honest about the God who calls to us. In the psalm for this second week in Lent, the psalmist rejoices that God “did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted … [nor] hide [God’s] face from me, but heard when I cried” (Psalm 22:24). In the Gospel story of Jesus’ transfiguration, we hear the voice of God echo over the mountain: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (Mark 9:7).

The honesty to which we are called compels us to confront the pain of the world with a vision to transform it. Both the pain of the world and the vision to transform it are clear in the stories of Kamini’s life and the Naari Shakti project. It is the difference between the father who rejects her and the God who welcomes her. To know ourselves as claimed, named and welcomed by God is an act of truth-telling about who we really are — and how much that may differ from who the world thinks we can be. Abuse and rejection are part of Kamini’s story, and accompanying her means being honest about that. But they aren’t the whole of her story, and accompanying her means being honest about that too.

The honesty formed by faith compels us to tell the truth about hunger — and the truth about the God who promises its end. God’s promise of a just world where all are fed pulls us into the world to confront sin in all its forms, refusing to hide from affliction and yet refusing to let affliction be the end of the story for ourselves, our neighbors or our world. It is the honesty of an Easter people, who can deny neither the reality of the cross nor the reality of the empty tomb. To end hunger, we will need to be honest with ourselves about both.

Reflection Questions

1. How have you experienced or felt God sustaining your strength in challenging circumstances?
2. What are some things you hunger for other than food (such as companionship, love and acceptance, or justice, clean air and water)? Does your community provide these things? How might you and your community better provide things that feed people in mind, body and spirit?
3. In the Naari Shakti project, Kamini found the resources she needed to develop her strengths and make meaningful choices for herself and her future. How does your church create opportunities for neighbors to develop their strengths and make meaningful choices for themselves and your community?
4. What kind of honesty will it take to end hunger in your community? Where is there a need for truth-telling and truth-seeking when it comes to the challenges you and your neighbors face?

Prayer

Gracious and loving God, through the power of the cross and the glory of the empty tomb, you bring us the truth of your love for us and for all people. Help us to live into that truth and to share it with the world. Amen.

Learn more and follow ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of giving throughout Lent by visiting ELCA.org/40days.