HUNGER hits close to home and around the world
- Nov 1, 2008 - comment
ALEXANDRIA, La. – “Upwards of 25,000 children die from hunger or hunger-related causes every single day, somewhere in the world,” according to materials produced by the Louisiana Baptist Agricultural Missions Fellowship. “People who have adequate food have many problems, but those who have no food have only one problem.”
We have hunger issues right here in Louisiana. Ruby Holder at Delta Storefront Ministries in Ferriday – part of the poverty-stricken Mississippi River Delta – tells of providing upwards of 500 families a month with “gap” groceries that tide families over until their next too-small paycheck. Delta is one of more than 30 community ministries in Louisiana that routinely provide emergency grocery assistance, according to records maintained by John Hebert, Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Church and Community Ministries director.
Routine. Emergency. Groceries. How is it possible those three words could be in the same sentence?
Every Louisianan lives within an hour of a Baptist community center or church that passes out food to the needy. These centers help to address, to some degree, the needs of the people in the Bayou State, but what about the needs all over the world?
It is well-established that poverty causes hunger, and hunger causes poverty, according to a DVD on the issue prepared by the Louisiana Baptist Agricultural Missions Fellowship. More than 8 million people die each year because they are too poor to stay alive. More than 40 percent of the people in Mexico – which borders the United States! – do not have sufficient food.
The best way to resolve the problem, according to the Ag Missions Fellowship? “One person, one family, and one village at a time.”
Louisiana’s Ag Fellowship has chosen to focus on the Zapotec Indians of Southern Mexico.
“These people had a great heritage for more than 1,000 years, before the arrival of Europeans relegated them to living high in the mountains, on the fringes of society, where the majority are now in poverty with little hope for a better future,” explained W. Nelson Philpot, president of the Ag Missions Fellowship. “These are the same people who first domesticated corn and gave it to the rest of the world.”
Kerry Johnson, under appointment by the International Mission Board, works among the Zapotec as an agricultural missionary. He is opening them to the possibility of egg incubation, drip irrigation, rabbit/chicken/quail/goat/heifer production and more, in addition to new life in Christ.
“Agricultural missions has been shown to be a highly effective platform for evangelism,” Philpot said. “Jesus Christ himself often met physical needs – feeding the hungry, restoring sight, healing the crippled, for example – before he met their spiritual needs.
“Once the physical needs of the poor have been met, they are usually more open to the gospel,” Philpot continued. “It’s a matter of people not wanting to know what we know, until they first see evidence that we care.”
Missionary Johnson and the Louisiana Ag Missions Fellowship have developed several relatively low-cost (for Americans; impossibly expensive for the Zapotec) projects that could help change the world for these impoverished people. See examples below.
“Doug and Evelyn Knapp were the first Baptist agricultural missionaries appointed to the mission field,” Philpot said. “They served in Tanzania, where Doug personally baptized more than 20,000 persons, which is more than any other Baptist in history. Their agriculture-based ministry produced nearly 40,000 baptisms and 200 new churches in one nine-year period.
“Christians must remember that an endless supply of emergency supplies from people of goodwill will never be the answer to hunger and poverty,” Philpot continued. “Thus, faith-based organizations such as our Louisiana Agricultural Missions Fellowship must take the lead in helping people help themselves to bring about an end to the cycle of poverty, hunger, death, and despair.
“We focus on a wide range of both plant and animal projects, as well as community water projects, while at the same time taking advantage of every opportunity to share the gospel and the abundant life to be found in Jesus Christ. The result is economic and spiritual development – one person, one family, one community at a time.”
For more information, contact Philpot at wnp@homerla.com or 318.827.2388. Checks can be made payable to Louisiana Agricultural Missions Fellowship and mailed to W. Nelson Philpot, PO Box 120, Homer LA 71040. LBC contact is Gibbie McMillan, Men’s and Volunteer Ministries: gibbie.mcmillan@lbc.org.
This article is reprinted from the October 16, 2008, issue of the Baptist Message, the newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Citizenship, Hunger/Homelessness