Monthly Archives: September 2017

Global Hunger Sunday

When Southern Baptists observe Global Hunger Sunday on October 8, they will be called to act on the commands of Scripture.  The Bible tells us that when Jesus saw the hungry and hurting multitude in Matthew 14, “He had compassion on them…”  He healed and fed those who flocked to Him.

Scripture is filled with God’s compassion for the afflicted, broken, and hungry.  Isaiah 58:10 teaches, “And if you offer yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness and your night will be like noonday.”

Compassion is more than a warm, fuzzy thought.  Compassion is a movement and desire in your gut that compels you to act.  The Global Hunger Fund gives us a way to act on the gut-wrenching scenes of need that are painted across the landscape of our world.  The Global Hunger Fund presents us opportunities, as God’s people, to make a difference for the sake of Christ.

The Global Hunger Fund gives us the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus to:

  • a single mother and five children suffering from famine in Lesotho;
  • a Christian family needing a touch of hope in the refugee camps of Northern Iraq;
  • an infant needing clean water in a remote village in Mozambique;
  • a hungry child in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky;
  • and to the multitudes weary and hurting in forsaken corners of our world.

Since its inception in 1974, Southern Baptists have given more than 235 million dollars through the Global Hunger Fund to meet needs both at home and abroad.  Tragically, in recent years, the amount given to the Global Hunger fund has been decreasing.

However, hunger needs have not diminished, nor has God’s love for those who are hungry, sick, and thirsty.  This God-driven fund helps families survive disaster and famine, provides clean water and medical care, improves health and nutrition, and most importantly helps countless people to hear of the hope and Good News of Jesus Christ.

On October 8, will you do your part in helping Southern Baptists respond to a hungry world?

Would you consider giving the cost of a meal out to help provide food for a hungry family in Eastern Kentucky?

Would you consider giving a gift of $25 to provide clean water in a forgotten village?  

Would you give $100 to provide medical supplies to a refugee camp in the Middle East?

Would you consider giving $500 to provide food for widows, orphans, and single mothers in a famine-stricken village?

Would you give a gift of compassion that someone may know the hope of Christ?

Give to the Global Hunger Fund on World Hunger Sunday, October 8!

Hunger is NOT a Game!

There’s been a lot of buzz in recent years about the movie series, “the Hunger Games”. The movie takes places in a post-apocalyptic world in which poverty and starvation force teenagers in the fictitious country of Panem to compete in the hunger games where they fight to the death until only one remains.

In the real world where you and I live, hunger is NOT a game!

  • 795 million people are undernourished globally. (The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015)
  • Poor Nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – globally, 3.1 million children each year. (The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015)
  • 6% of Kentuckians are food insecure – including 222,380 children, making us the 4th hungriest state in the country (US Census Bureau)

Hunger is no respecter of geography or ethnicity.  It can be felt in an apartment in Paducah, a cardboard shack in Central America, a hut in Africa, or a house in Pikeville.

The Kentucky Baptist Convention in partnership with Global Hunger Relief is involved in relieving hunger locally, nationally and internationally in different ways, from providing meals and groceries to hungry families to participating in famine and drought relief, and from addressing chronic hunger to eliminating urban food deserts.

100% of every dollar is used for hunger relief because the Cooperative Program and partnerships with local ministries cover overhead costs.

Physical hunger is not a game and neither is spiritual starvation. The desire of KBC hunger relief ministries is to build relationships and lead people to faith in Jesus Christ. Last year, 21,770 people world-wide, including 129 Kentuckians, professed faith in Christ as a direct result of hunger relief ministries.

Sunday, October 8th is the designated day in Kentucky Baptist Churches for promotion of this offering, but feeding the hungry is a year-round need.  You’ll find a variety of resources on the web at www.kybaptist.org/hunger that will help you to promote this important offering that is meeting a critical need.  The need for hunger relief is increasing while offerings to aid in hunger relief are decreasing.

Will you encourage your church to emphasize this global crisis and give financially to meet the critical need of hunger through the KBC Global Hunger Relief offering?

Individuals or churches can give to hunger relief at:  www.kybaptist.org/hunger

Global Song

He was captive to the thought that the greatness and salvation of God should be extended to the nations.  He was determined that the nations be called to worship the one true God through the gift of His Son, Jesus.  He wrote of praying prayers such as this: “I covenanted with my Father that He would do either of two things- either glorify Himself to the utmost in me, or slay me.  By His grace I shall not have His second best” (Daniel Akin, Five Who Changed the World, 88).

He knew that his desire for God to be glorified in his life would best be lived out by telling the nations of God’s greatness.  Writing a letter to his family, he said, “Remember you are immortal until your work is done.  But don’t let the sands of time get into the eyes of your vision to reach those who still sit in darkness.  They simply must hear” (Five Who Changed, 93).  Not allowing the sands of time to blur his vision, he went to South America and to the country of Ecuador.  He had heard of the Huaorani Indians, also know as the Auca Indians.  They had never heard of Jesus, but he was willing to live his life so that they would hear.  He was willing to give his life so that they would hear.

That was in the mid-1950s.  Many scores of others have never heard of Jesus.  Yet, God has a heart for the nations, as is evidenced in Psalm 96.  The Psalmist insists, “Sing to the Lord a new Song; Sing to the Lord, all the earth. . . . Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples” (Ps 96:1, 3).

The word “peoples” or “nations” is used throughout this psalm.  There is an estimate of 11,629 people groups in the world (www.joshuaproject.net).  People groups (PGs) can be defined in a basic way as those of the same language and common identity.  By identity is meant common history, customs, family and clan identities (www.peoplegroups.org). Of these PGs, over 7,000 have less than 2% of Christian presence among them, which represents over 4.3 billion people.

Let me put it in this light: nearly 60% (4.3 billion people of the world’s 7.5 billion population) of the world’s population has very little to no Christian witness.  Essentially, six out of every ten people in the world have little to no access to the gospel.  We know that Scripture teaches us that the Lord will save people from every tongue, tribe, people and nation (Rev 5:9).  In other words, the Lord will save individuals from every people group.  How will this be brought about?  The answer: When our passion for God burns hot and bright, then our desire to make Him known among the nations/peoples of the world will extend globally.

It will take multiple hearts like that of Jim Elliot in the 1950s to see Psalm 96 lived out today.  The nations are called to worship the one true God, and we are the ones to call them to do so.  So, let’s call the nations to sing.