One thing that every man, woman and child has in common is that we all get hungry every day. There is, however, a major difference in how people satisfy their hunger. For many of us, a trip to the store or market does the trick, but if you don’t have the resources to purchase, raise or secure your daily bread … you go hungry. Chronic hunger brings on sickness, lethargy, misery and, all too often, death from starvation.
The Bible gives clear mandates to those living prosperous lives: feed the hungry and help the poor. We are warned that turning our backs on the poor is sinful and has negative consequences, both in this life and on judgment day. Besides these written instructions, we are all born with a deep yearning to help those less fortunate. There are many who want to help, but simply don’t know how. I would like to offer some exciting opportunities.
Provide truckloads of food to unemployed Americans; agriculture training in far flung countries for folks willing to work but lacking resources; solar-powered wells with drip irrigation in dry places like parts of Kenya; raised-bed organic farming in Guatemala; a fish farm in Haiti; innovative methods to disinfect contaminated water in places like South Sudan, Honduras and Mexico; or even support for a community garden in Norfolk, Va. These programs and many more are each built with maximum bang for every donor dollar and most are designed with sustainable “teach a man to fish” strategies.
In each issue of Blessings magazine we tell true stories about how people like you are enabling OBI to help the poor in powerful ways. Think of Operation Blessing as a pipeline to the poor—a conduit in which blessings are multiplied and delivered efficiently the world over. Will you join us in increasing the capacity and extending the reach of our pipeline to the poor?
