Ways To Help
The best way for us to help our brothers and sisters in Africa and around the world is to do three things:
Learn, Pray, and Give
LEARN
We can learn about the world and determine what is good and bad by reading the words of Jesus and keeping up with news, missionaries and from the Church.
Start by reading this verse: Matthew 25: 37-40
PRAY We pray for strength for all God's people. We pray that everyone may have enough to eat and can sleep well at night.
Try reading the Open a World of Possibility Prayer.
GIVE We know there are many ways to give. We can give our time, our prayers and what we have. Our money is one way to give to someone far away. The money will go to make sure everyone can eat enough and be able to go to school.
There are many ways to encourage giving. We can have fundraisers in Sunday school or our youth group. We can start collections from our church and community. We can even start saving our extra change that can amount to quite a bit after a while.
So let's get started learning, praying, and giving so that we can stand with our friends in Christ!
If you're reading this, you're probably a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The ELCA is a big church. It has almost 11,000 congregations with over
4 MILLION people praising God and learning about the world God made!
That's a lot of people. Think of how much good 4 million people could do if they worked together.
Well, that's what all 4 million can do through the ELCA's World Hunger Appeal.
We help children who go to bed hungry at night. We help their parents, who don't have enough money to buy medicine or clothes.
When 5 million people give to the World Hunger Appeal, the money adds up. Our church is helping thousands and thousands of people.
So, where does our money go?
Gifts from Alabama, Puerto Rico, Washington, Minnesota and from all across the United States help hungry people in places from Tanzania to Argentina -- and here in the United States as well. When you give, you're helping in just about every corner of the world (except Antarctica!)
What do we do?
We give people food and emergency help in times of disaster, like famine (when there is no food), floods or war. This is called "relief." When people are forced to leave their homes in times of trouble, we help them.
Next time you see a news story about people who lost everything, remember that your church is already helping! We give these people what they need to stay alive.
There are lots of people who are hungry--but they aren't on TV or in the newspaper. More than 800 million people around the world don't get enough to eat each day, mostly because they are poor. So our church's World Hunger Appeal works with them to prevent hunger. This is called "development." Together we find new ways that they can grow more food, like building channels to bring water to dry land. We also find ways parents can earn enough to take care of their families--and get health care and education.
The World Hunger Appeal helps people like you learn more about hunger in God's world--and how you can make a difference. We also work with our government to find ways to help people who are hungry.
The World Hunger Appeal has also joined The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod World Relief and Lutheran World Relief, to start a campaign of hope for Africa, called Stand With Africa. They chose Africa because the continent has urgent needs, such as hunger, poverty and AIDS. About 1.825 million people die in Africa every year, and there are more than 12.5 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone.
God made enough for everyone. All human beings are loved by God and should have what they need to live. This includes food, housing, medicine, education and a way to earn enough money to keep their family healthy, safe and fed.
Jesus is clear. He expects each of us to share when we have enough and others don't.
We have some great friends who help us figure out the best way to help. For example, we're part of a really big Lutheran family, the Lutheran World Federation. There are almost 60 million Lutherans in 70 countries around the world. If there is a famine in Tanzania or Ethiopia, we work with the Lutheran church in those places and with other Lutherans from around the world to help.
If there was a really big problem or disaster in your town, and Lutherans from Sweden or Japan wanted to help, don't you think it would be smart for them to ask your church or people from your town how to help? That's why we always work closely with people in each country, including people who are poor. They're the ones who can help us figure out the best way to help!
Lutheran World Relief (LWR) helps us work with local groups throughout the world and with the U.S. government. LWR helps us send special "things" to help people in other countries. Have you or someone else in your church ever made an LWR quilt, health kit, or school kit to send to refugees or other people who need help?
We have many more partners. In other countries, missionaries help. Here are Dr. Mark and Linda Jacobson, who work in Tanzania. In our country, we work with Lutheran social-service agencies and congregations.
We also work with other Christian churches and people in government, business and various organizations who also care. For example, we often work as partners with the United Nations, the Red Cross and other groups.
Learn about God's world and about people in places like Tanzania. Find out what we can do together to help everyone to have enough to eat. Speak out for others in need. Check out our home Web site to find out more: www.elca.org/hunger
You can also give to the WORLD HUNGER APPEAL. Think about sharing part of your allowance or what you earn doing chores. Click here to see how you can give: www.elca.org/hunger/howtogive.html
You can also pray for people throughout the world--and for an end to hunger in God's world!
With your help, we can end hunger in our lifetime!