Are you thankful?
Just fixed a sandwich for a group of young people that have been practicing songs and are staying for another practice session of of Jewish worship choir tonight. They are too poor to catch a bus back home and come again so they just spend the time here at the house waiting for next choir practice. After I got them fed, Brother Alvear came in and fixed him some food and was cleaning the kitchen when someone said, Missionary a new convert wants to talk to you. I went to the door invited her in and she began to weep. She told me that her husband beat her about a week ago and left and her and her two small children had nothing to eat tomorrow.
I asked did you have anything to eat today she said my children had a bowl of rice but I have not ate anything. I took her to the kitchen and gave her rice, beans, and a few staples.
She told me she really wants to follow Jesus. I invited to walk on over to watch the young people practice so we walked on to the church together.
I thought how blessed we are. It is so easy to forget the hungry but HUNGER HAS A HUMAN FACE.
Now let us read what our Jesus said about this subject in Matt 25:34-26:1.
34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these; you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (NIV)
About half the total population of the world has less protein in their diet than the average household pet in the developed countries.
Over 1 billion people are chronically undernourished. Up to 20 million people die every year (that’s equivalent to Australia’s entire population being wiped out in one year)
Up to forty thousand people dead every day. More people have died from hunger in the past 2 years than were killed in World War 1 and World War 2 combined.
Apostle James came against some when he said “what’s the use in seeing a brother or sister naked and in need of daily food, but you don’t actually help them! What’s the point of declaring our faith in Christ and telling people of God’s love, praying a blessing on them and then just leaving them as we found them?” (
James 2:14-26).
The number of people who die every 2 days of hunger is equivalent to the number of people who were killed instantly by the Hiroshima bomb in Japan during the 2nd World War. One of every four children in the developing world will die before the age of 5 of diseases related to malnutrition. Lack of vitamin A can cause blindness; in fact 250,000 thousand children become blind every year as a result of this insufficiency. Studies indicate that malnutrition is the primary cause of or the major contributing factor in 60% of deaths of children under the age of 5 years. Half of the earth’s population, approximately 3 billion human beings, lives in absolute poverty, on less than $2 a day. 800 million people, many of these children, suffer chronic malnutrition. Every day 20,000 children age 5 or under die from hunger or hunger-related causes. Every year, about 6 million children under the age of 5 die as a result of hunger and malnutrition, says a recent study by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture.
This is more than just statistics some of these people that these figures talk about are brothers and sisters in the Lord. Just today I gave bread to a host of hungry children. It is true we cannot feed the world but we do have the obligation to feed our hungry brothers and sisters.
After 40 years on the mission field it still pains me to see people hungry.
Thank HIm that you were born in a first world country for over half the world went to bed tonight hungry...