Today probably seems like a normal mid-week day. A lot like the other workdays, school days . . . everything happening too quickly kind of days. But today is also World Food Day as recognized by UNICEF. And today more than 300 million children will go to bed hungry.

Under the burden of the global food crisis, the hungry are more hungry, poverty is more overwhelming. The need for food is more desperate, and the word falling from every hungry mouth, I imagine, is, “Please.”

This is no small please; this is a worldwide please for over $16 million, submitted by our country offices asking for support to feed the children.

Are you overwhelmed? Can you feel defeat slipping in ready to steal your passion to do something? It’s okay, I do too. I feel it too, so much so that I have labored over this issue for quite sometime now, thinking “I am 24 years old, paying my own bills, trying to figure out what this adult stuff is all about. Let me see, *calculating*. . . What? This is what I have leftover to give? That simply will not do. Not in the light of $16 million dollars.”

But I’m not alone. We’re not alone. I can hear a mighty army commanded by the Lord and appointed to bring forth justice, passionate about feeding the hungry, comforting the oppressed. And so there is Please. Compassion’s site dedicated solely to the Global Food Initiative. Members of the army include Rebecca St. James, Bebo Norman, KJ-52….me, you.

Can you hear it now? The marching of the faithful being driven by the heartbeat of the Lord.

Remember when we gathered in prayer and fasting concerning the global food crisis? I remember. I was still pretty new to Compassion, not yet a fulltime employee and I recall feeling so empowered by this organization to do something. Even if I didn’t have money, I had prayer. I have a voice that surpasses all this world claims as important and goes directly into the high courts of the all-powerful God.

Well here is another opportunity:

1. Watch the videos on our site.
2. Get your markers, the watercolors, the crayons, even the finger-paint.
3. Write the word “please” on your hand.
4. Take a picture
5. Upload it to our Flickr site

Also, in case you were wondering, I am a social network fanatic! Facebook, Myspace, Blogspot, Flickr . . . love it! (But don’t judge me). And I love that I can use these channels to let my friends know what I care about. Grab a widget from our site concerning the global food initiative and add it to your social network. Let your friends and family see what you are passionate about.

Let’s join together and watch what the Lord has in store. Let’s become part of an army that can’t lose.

We won’t quit. We’re committed. Strengthened by the love of the Lord and motivated by something hunger and the lies of poverty can’t surpass. And maybe, just maybe, we will start to hear a lot less “pleases.” Maybe we will begin to hear a choir compiled of His little ones exclaiming “Thank you.”

That’s what I want to hear.

Hello friends! Glad you’re here.

I haven’t met all of ya yet, but I do knows a lot of ya. If you’re new to our blog, please leave a comment, I’d consider it a privilege to make your acquaintance.

So that you feel welcome, let me introduce you to a few of the folks who are here regularly.

That character over there. That’s Compassion Dave. The lady cleaning up after the sheep is Compassion Juli. They’re not related…except in their love for Christ.

A couple other cool people here are My Friend Amy, our “blog friend”, and Abbie H.

Abbie writes all in his design, and she makes handcrafted dolls she calls “Compassion Friends.”

The cool thing about what Abbie is doing is that she’s donating all of the money from the sale of each doll (minus materials) to the Global Food Crisis Fund. Each doll costs $36. You should consider buying one.

But if you prefer to win a doll, rather than purchase one, take a look at what My Friend Amy is doing.

Hope you don’t mind the plug for Abbie. It’s just something that friends do for one another. She likes us. We like her. It’s all good.

If you want to buy a doll, send Abbie an email at ahamblin@kc.rr.com.

Remember when I told you about my new job? I’ve been doing it for several months now and so I feel like I’ve gotten a pretty good grip on things. Well … as good a grip as one can have on a job that depends entirely on world events. And oh my word, the world has been eventful lately, hasn’t it?

One of the first things I do each day when I get to work is open up six world news websites. I browse each site for headlines about our 24 field countries to get an idea of what kind of crises I might be reporting that week.

When I’m reading through the headlines, I sometimes get the surreal feeling that I’m getting a tiny glimpse into God’s view of this world. For a few moments, my perspective shifts from my self-centered, ego-centric worldview to one where we are simply a severely broken and hurting creation in desperate need of redemption.

Right now in the United States, we are practically smothered with political ads and news reports about the faltering economy, but really these “issues” pale in comparison to what’s going on in the rest of the world.

Besides the global food crisis (which you’ve probably heard about by now) here’s an idea of what our staff and children on the other side of the globe are currently facing:

• Thailand and Bolivia are both dealing with political unrest and violent protests of the current government.
• Haiti and the Dominican Republic are struggling to recover from four successive hurricanes.
• The Philippines has faced violent political conflict.
• India is in the midst of serious and deadly religious conflicts between Hindus and Christians.
• Burkina Faso has recently had heavy rains and flooding throughout the country.
• Bangladesh is dealing with continual flooding.

I’m sure there will be more bullet points to add tomorrow. It’s difficult to read the same kinds of headlines day after day, reporting over and over the non-stop fighting, corruption and scandal happening in every corner of the globe. But more than depressing me, it makes me angry. I know who is ultimately responsible for the evil in this world, and I hate him. But I also know it will end someday, and I know how it will end.

And this is what keeps me going.

Thank you to all of you who submitted questions for Ephraim, my esteemed colleague in Haiti! As you all were curious cats and asked more than 10 questions, I picked 10 that I thought were representative of all the questions.

As I mentioned before, Ephraim has got a lot of perseverance. Check out the Compassion Haiti staff photo from 15 years ago. He’s one of only two staff members still remaining.  

1. What are the great things about Haiti that you want us to know about? Tell us something special about the people of your country, like a particular strength of them. (Lisa Miles) 

Haiti is economically considered one of the poorest countries of this hemisphere. However, this country is also unique in its natural and culturally diverse resources.

The Haitian is born with the ability to make the most beautiful artwork in the world. No matter the social class he is issued, the Haitian is capable to transform the simplest raw materials into the most enjoyable items. The Haitian paintings are of the greatest imagination, along with our sculpture in wood, steel, or stone.

Although most of its natural resources are unexploited, Haiti is one of the countries with the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean.

Besides all of its artistic ability, most of the educated Haitians speak up to four languages: Creole (native language), French (official), English, and Spanish with proficiency. 

2. I would love to hear your favorite story of children in your programs whose lives were really turned around by being part of Compassion. (Amy)

There are so many success stories that I could share but there this one that is unique to me. It is about a boy named Zaccalot. (more…)

Imagine sitting in a conference room at a large table with spreadsheets and proposals spread out before you. Laptops are opened, information is being projected on the screen, everyone around the table is intense. It looks like a normal business meeting, but this one is different than most. Its topic concerns matters of life and death.

Perhaps you are used to making decisions that deal with heart wrenching, life and death issues. I am not. Neither were most of the others sitting around the table that day. As employees at Compassion’s Global Ministry Center, we’re used to setting strategy and making plans for programs that others carry out. Rarely do we sit and decide what country will get help …what child will get food from Compassion this month?

But that is exactly what we’ve had to do in recent months. As the Global Food Crisis has touched the lives of children across the globe and throughout Compassion’s programs, the need has been immediate, it’s been urgent, it’s been huge. Our country offices have submitted proposals for over $16 million to address the current need.

While fund raising efforts catch up to the need, and while dollars slowly come through the door, we sit and make decisions on who is “neediest”. We attempt to make the money stretch and try our hardest to listen to the Lord as we direct portions of what has been raised to various countries.

We’ve gone back and forth with our country offices, asking, “If we can only send you 10% of what you asked for, how would you use it?” The reply is what you’d expect – “we’ll feed only those with the most severe need” or “we’ll provide 10 kg of rice instead of 30 kg to each family”.

We’re left feeling inadequate. It feels like we are trying to play God – deciding who will eat and who won’t. Who’ll be helped and who won’t. We’re uncomfortable doing it because of the implications of the decision, but we’re even more uncomfortable because we do it from afar. We know that our country staff, and even more so, our church partners, will have to be the ones to face the children, to see their hunger.

On the one hand, we are joyful that we have money to disburse. We’ve sent about $3 million so far – to provide emergency food supplies for families. Yet the need is still so great.

Compassion serves over a million children. Just do the math. Add in two or three family members per child served. That’s a lot of people. That’s a lot of need. Suddenly, $3 million doesn’t sound like so much.

Sure, not everyone is desperate or starving. Sure, the families have some means to help feed themselves and provide for their needs. But many, in fact maybe even most, are hurting because of this crisis.

I’ve turned to prayer to settle my heart in this matter. Only God can bring comfort when the food runs out. Only God can turn the Church upside down and rally hearts to open up pocket books so that sharing of resources happens like never before. Only God can give me peace that I’ve been faithful to do what He has asked me to do…and to trust that He’s big enough to carry this burden.

Early in the morning of June 11, after months of heavy precipitation, the Cedar River poured into the streets of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The water quickly swallowed the city.

• 1,300 city blocks disappeared.
• 24,000 people were evacuated.
• 83 of Iowa’s 99 counties were declared disaster areas.
• Nearly every river in Iowa flooded that week.

As I watched the floodwaters rise, my 4-year-old turned to me and said, “Mama, I think we need to get on the ark!” Had there been an ark in the vicinity, I may very well have gotten on it.

In the end, we Iowans are going to be just fine. The prayers of the nation have been with us, and we thank everyone for that. Help has arrived from all corners — from churches to government agencies. So many people have mobilized to get us back on our feet. We know it will be a slow process but, as a community whose roots are in farming, we have learned to be patient — patient with the growth of our crops, patient with the regrowth of our city.

But the impact of the floods on the world community is yet to come.

Iowa is the number one producer of corn and soybeans in the United States. It is estimated that 1.3 million acres of corn and 2 million acres of soybeans — roughly 16 percent of our grain crops were destroyed. (1) And this disaster is just one of many that decimated global crops in 2008.

So how does this impact the global food supply? In a nutshell, it means higher prices and a shrinking supply of food.

For countries in the developing world, this is a cataclysmic combination. In regions where people are already spending 80 percent of their salaries on food, the prices are going to get higher.

If 100 percent of a family’s income goes toward food, how then do they afford clothing, shelter, medical care and an education for their children?

And when the price of food eclipses what a family is able to earn, who in the family goes without? Parents, grandparents, children? How does one make such a decision?

As Thornton Wilder, the author of Our Town, once said: “I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for….”

We must stand together in the fight against poverty and hunger.

If you have a heart for flood victims, consider sponsoring a child in Haiti, Mexico, Bangladesh or India. These are countries that experience regular flooding, often with much loss of life, and an infrastructure that makes it difficult for families to recover.

You may also consider a donation to the Disaster Relief Fund. In the event of a natural disaster, Compassion provides food, blankets, shelter and replacement belongings to children and their families.

Please do what you can.

(1) Iowa State Farm Bureau

Contrary to the title of this post, I am not here to speak on my eating habits but the ever increasing food prices triggered by the global food crisis.

I am sure that I am not the only one who has witnessed the prices of basic commodities going through roof in the past few months.

And what’s amazing to me is that even after all the talk on the reasons and effects of this, nothing seems to be happening. And Kenya is no exception. However, there seems to be a ‘good’ reason — if not an excuse — for this.

For example, at the beginning of this year the price of bread, which was 20 Kenyan Shillings (Kshs) went up by almost 40 percent (Kshs 28), and this was attributed to the post election violence. Later on in March when things had come back to normal, the price still went up and this time the reason was, “there is a food shortage as a result of the post election violence.” In May the price of bread rose to Kshs 30, and this time the reason was, “lack of rain in wheat production areas.”

Come June the price rose to Kshs 32 and this time, “there’s a shortage of fertilizer in the country.” If that was not enough, the price jumped to Kshs 35 later in that same month, and by now everyone was complaining. The reason given was the ever increasing cost of fuel, and this my friends is the song of the moment, with the new price of bread at Kshs 40.

This is in fact a replica of what is happening with the other food commodities, which are referred to as basic commodities, and which I am sad to say are the “common man’s” means of survival.

If that’s not bad enough, a recent survey by an international agency (USAID) is warning of below-average agricultural production in the country. Ouch! And this is due to an estimated 25 percent reduction of cultivation area. The “fun” part is that all this is because of, you guessed it — the post election violence and high cost of farm inputs.

The report goes further to indicate that inadequate and poorly distributed rainfall in East Africa is to blame for the food crisis. Most areas in Kenya received less than 50 percent of expected rain during the March-May rainy season, which is supposed to be the long rain season.

On top of that there has been a scramble for water and pasture in most areas of Kenya, which has led to the deterioration in animals’ physique, earlier-than-normal migrations and reduced prices for the animals.

You can bet that the number of people without enough food will continue to rise, especially among the market-dependant populations in urban areas.

So what can we do? Sincerely, I don’t know, but I leave you all with these words from Luke 3:10-11 (NIV):

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”