October 27, 1999
EDITORIAL:
Offering offers handles on hunger
___Imagine the global trauma if 747 jetliners started falling from the sky. What would happen if three 747s crashed every hour of every day for a full year?
___An equivalent carnage snuffs out a similar number of lives every hour, every day, all year. Hunger and preventable diseases kill 24 children a minute, according to research conducted by Seeds Publishers. That amounts to more than 34,000 preventable deaths per day, or more than 12 million needless deaths per year.
___As bad as those numbers are, take no comfort in imagining the problem only exists on foreign shores. The child-poverty rate in this country is twice as high as any other industrialized country, according to the Seeds study. More than 5 million U.S. children regularly go without food, and almost 40,000 infants die before their first birthday every year.
___The needs seem overwhelming. Who can overtake such odds? More than 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 per day, and 20 percent of the planet's population is malnourished. The scope of the calamity produces despair.
___Despair turns to hope when seen through the eyes of God. Each malnourished child was created by God in God's image. God created a world capable of sustaining 6 billion lives, and God does not will that any of them should perish. Although we alone may not be able to see a way to feed the hungry, with God all things are possible.
___Despair turns to hope when the face of hunger is recognized. We cannot comprehend 841 malnourished people. But we can see the face of a hungry child in Amarillo or San Antonio or Corpus Christi. We can imagine the possibilities for a family in Cincinnati or East Tennessee. We even can understand the passion of parents in Bulgaria, India or Mexico. Ask God to help you use your holy imagination to comprehend the difference you might make in just one family. Then pray for the courage and commitment to try to save those people.
___Despair turns to hope when people cooperate to overcome. Thank God, Texas Baptists are cooperators. For more than 100 years, God has used Texas Baptists to conquer some overwhelming odds--reaching millions of people with the Good News of Jesus Christ, starting and strengthening thousands of churches, supporting the work of missions on every continent. And God has empowered Texas Baptists to help reduce the ravages of hunger in Texas, across the United States and on foreign soil.
___Texas Baptists are cooperating to raise $1 million through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. The proceeds will be distributed to at least 40 projects--eight in Texas totaling $197,500, 11 across the United States valued at $200,000 and 21 overseas totaling more than $596,000.
___The offering will be emphasized in churches during the four Sundays leading up to Thanksgiving. Funds raised through the offering will be shared with eight associations affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, as well as the Southern Baptist Convention's International and North American mission boards, the Baptist World Alliance and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. One hundred percent of the offering will be used to help the hungry.
___In addition to contributing funds for hunger relief, the offering emphasis provides Texas Baptists with two types of opportunities to become directly involved in hunger ministries. First, we can provide volunteer service at ministry sites. Second, we can send groups to ministry sites and observe, learn and report their findings to folks back home. Arrangements for volunteer service and learning can be made through the missions organizations that sponsor the 40-plus projects.
___For more information or to send contributions to the offering, contact the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798; phone (214) 828-5190.
___ --Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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