Saturday, October 14, 2006

Stop Hunger!




Stop Hunger!

My beloved brother: Zeke’s life could not be extended beyond 71 years, after overcoming lung cancer a year ago. After 5-bypass heart surgery 2 ½ years ago and recent implants of a pacemaker, defibrillator, and stints, all these technological medical services could not save his life. Even though the best medical advances known to man cannot save many lives, one simple act can save the lives of many throughout the developing nations. I hope you will join me to take that action.

On October 21st, the Smithfield Rotary Clubs and Centenary United Methodist Church will join hands to help feed the hungry, the starving of the world. Will you also give a hand for 2 ½ hours and/or give a few dollars to save a life?

50,000 Rice-soy dehydrated meals500 Man-hours -- $10,000
30,000 people died every day from starvation!

While my brother did not live this nation’s full-life expectancy, our commitment to stopping hunger can significantly increase life’s expectancy in developing nations. And who knows it just might be the life that can help save our world. If you are outside Johnston County, NC in other communities and states, I hope you will join up with an organization or initiate a drive to help stop the hunger.

Learn more about Stop Hunger Now:
http://www.stophungernow.org/

Herewith, I share with you my message and plea for life’s help, adapted from Centenary’s Newsletter:

Will You Help Stop Hunger Now?

You awoke this morning to a good meal, I trust, or whatever your taste desired. I had my usual Oaks & More with skim milk. But there are people who arose today with nothing to eat, or very little; they neither will tomorrow nor in the days to come -- not in morning, not at noon, and not in the evening. We don’t see people dying from starvation on the streets of our community or anywhere in America. Yet, thirty thousand (30,000) people will die today and every day from malnourishment, starvation. Hold that thought for a moment – if you can bear.

Occasionally, Jane, my wife, will ask me: Cornell why do you do what you do or why do you want to do that? Oft time, I ask myself that, because I feel at times the things I do may come across to some as an imposition, especially as I keep passing around the Stop Hunger Now signup sheets. Some may even think I’m a little radical at times. For that inner-conscience force that drives me, my answer to Jane is: because I can, I’m able bodied, and it’s the right thing to do.

Is it not the right thing to feed the starving of this world? Surely, it is the radical and loving Jesus who calls us to feed the starving. He said, “I was hunger and you gave me food.” On Saturday Oct. 21st, with your help, we’ll package 50,000 dehydrated rice-soy, vitamin fortified meals. This is for the perishing in developing nations, tsunami or earthquake victims. These meals have a shelf life of 2 to 3 years. We need your help not only to package the food but also to help pay for it.

Beyond our normal giving, we Centenarians can do more for the creation family of God; we can do more for the 1-billion people who live on $1 or less a day, the suffering, the starving, and the dying. Otherwise, we have missed Jesus’ explicit instruction: John 13: 34: "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

This modern world of instant, seamless communication and a Google Earth, whereby on your computer, you can instantly go to, pinpoint, literally eye the remotest place on this earth, bring distant places close to home. The love for our neighbor, one another, is genuine for all of God’s people – when we take actions for it. Will anyone know that we are Jesus’ disciples by our love for those of the least of us, however distant, who are perishing daily?

Fifty thousand meals; 500 person-hours; $10,000 to help Stop Hunger Now! Who among you would not work for 2 ½ hours and/or give a dollar for five meals to save a life; $10 for 50 meals, $50 for 250 meals, or $100 for 500 meals.

We cannot offer “salvation” to a deceased person, but we can join together in the “corporate salvation of humankind.” The world will know us as Jesus’ disciples, that’s not radical, it is the right thing to do.

Cornell

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