ALPHARETTA, Ga. – While ongoing wars grab the headlines, communities and families in several regions of the world fight their own daily battle to put food on their plates.
Conflict in Sudan has displaced millions of people, leading to a massive hunger crisis. People in the Philippines daily make decisions that shape whether they will eat. Along the Andirá River in Brazil, there are remote villages where children are smaller than they should be due to inconsistent access to food.
Even in North America in places like the Pine Ridge Reservation, the nearest grocery stores can be dozens of miles away, and even the food made available through various programs provide quantity of food over quality nutrition.
“From countries in the remote corners of the earth, to neighborhoods nearby, global hunger and food insecurity are pervasive,” said International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood. “Nearly 675 million people face hunger around the world every day, with another 2.3 billion people facing food insecurity.
“These staggering figures – which represent real people – remind us of our Lord’s teaching in Mathew 25 that we serve Him when we feed the hungry. We must choose to respond generously, to bring help and hope to the physically hungry as well as to those who are spiritually hungry.”
Churches can come alongside communities like these through Send Relief’s Global Hunger Relief effort both to help them find physical food but also – and more importantly – to introduce them to the eternal source nourishment for their souls: Jesus Christ.
This week, Send Relief launched a new set of resources for churches to use to raise awareness and collect an offering on August 23, which is Global Hunger Sunday.
“We saw Southern Baptists give more than $3 million to Global Hunger Relief last year,” said North American Mission Board (NAMB) president Kevin Ezell. “Those funds help Send Relief send life-giving care to those in need in North America and throughout the world and open doors for countless opportunities to share the Gospel as we do so.”
Sudan, the Philippines, Brazil and South Dakota are featured locations for this year’s offering. Send Relief has ongoing ministries and partnerships that aim to meet hunger needs and share the Gospel with as many people as possible.
Despite the dangers of Sudan’s ongoing conflict, Send Relief’s ministry partners take sorghum, ground nuts and other foods along with blankets and other resources to help those in need. One delivery can mean food and clean water for two months.
Send Relief’s South Dakota Ministry Center hosts summer camps for children, and each child is fed while they are there. A health clinic at the center also provides take-home meals six days a week for dialysis patients.
Some of Send Relief’s ministry partners in Brazil assist with the deliveries to the remote villages along the Andirá, which helps to open doors to share the gospel with unreached people groups in the region.
Then, in the Philippines, Southern Baptists carry on work they have done for generations, raising up leaders who start churches in remote villages, and providing daily meals creates the opportunities to do so.
Churches throughout North America will collect an offering to support Global Hunger Relief. Promotional as well as educational resources can be found at globalhungerrelief.org.
