Exodus From Hunger (22 page)

Joining in the work of Bread for the World is one of the best ways to drive change on hunger and poverty issues. Here’s our contact information:

We need you, especially now. If you become a member, you’ll receive Bread’s newsletter in the mail or on-line. You can also become part of Bread’s online community and social networking activities or listen to Bread’s monthly podcast. We provide brief, balanced information on current hunger issues. We also alert you when a letter or phone call to your particular member of Congress will have the biggest impact, and we keep you informed about new resources for hunger education and advocacy—such as Bread for the World Institute’s annual hunger report.

Writing a letter to Congress is easy to do, and letters to Congress make a real difference. Look back to page 109 for information on how to communicate effectively with your members of Congress.

You can help your church or campus group get engaged in advocacy for hungry people. Bread’s Web site has great resources for awareness building and education in churches. Every year Bread for the World takes up an Offering of Letters in churches across the country. This has proved to be an effective way to mobilize lots of letters to Congress and drive change. It will also add a needed dimension to the life of your church. Bread provides a kit that will give you everything you need to mobilize letter writing in your church.

Bread for the World’s network includes active volunteers in every congressional district in the country. We look to them for leadership—to enlist local congregations, get coverage and support from local media, and meet face-to-face with their members of Congress. We are especially eager to recruit more young people and people of color as Bread for the World leaders. In many communities, a Bread for the World group meets periodically to plan and take action together. I’ve been part of the local group in Northern Virginia, and I’ve seen firsthand how much impact a local leadership group makes.

Bread for the World’s organizers are eager to support you in your advocacy and leadership within your church, campus, or community. Call 1-800-82BREAD and ask to be connected to the organizer nearest you. Our regional organizers are also listed at
www.bread.org.

Money is fuel for Bread’s work for hungry people. We typically win one hundred dollars in government funding for effective programs for hungry and poor people with each dollar people give to Bread. When we work for policy changes rather than funding, the impact is often even more far-reaching.

Bread for the World lobbies Congress for hungry people, so gifts to Bread for the World are not tax-deductible—but they have great impact. You can make a tax-deductible gift to Bread for the World Institute; the Institute does research and education that complements the work of Bread for the World.

This chapter has discussed lots of ways you can help, but I’d encourage you to start by deciding on one new thing that you will do for hungry and poor people. Before you set this book aside, say a prayer and decide on one step you will take, starting now.

We have set up an interactive Web site, called
www.exodusfromhunger.org.
You might want to go to the “My Step” page and explain the step you plan to take. That will help you live up to your commitment and inspire others.

Dick Hoehn, a former director of Bread for the World Institute, conducted in-depth interviews with outstanding Christian leaders of grassroots social justice work to find out how they became such effective advocates for poor people. In each case their stories unfolded through a series of small steps. They took an action, it had an impact, and that encouraged them to take another step.
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They became world-changing Christians step-by-step.

Step-by-step, our lives become part of God’s movement to end hunger and poverty.

F
rankly, this chapter was an afterthought. I was getting ready to send the final manuscript to the publisher. I had checked my facts. I had refined my thinking about strategy. I had worked on making the book readable.

It’s so easy for me to think that my effort, combined with my readers’ response, may be enough to trigger processes that will end mass hunger in the world. Even what I had written about grounding ourselves in God focused mainly on what we can do to strengthen our faith life.

But clearly we need God to bring us into a relationship with God, and we won’t overcome hunger unless this really is a movement of God in the world. We need to pray, on our knees, for God’s loving presence among us, especially among people in great need.

For several decades, the world has been making dramatic progress against poverty. God has already been answering our prayers. Year after year, heroes like Connie Wick, Pat Pelham, Joe Martingale, Gyude Moore, and Tessa Pulaski have won important, often unlikely changes in Congress. In recent years, we have received powerful help from Bono, Bill Gates, and their friends and other new allies. The economic crisis of the last few years has been a great tragedy, but it has helped to create a political environment in which we just may be able to achieve changes that will accelerate progress against hunger and poverty in our own country and around the world.

We need more surprises. Our own efforts will not, by themselves, achieve the wonderful liberation that is possible. Pray for change for hungry people, and thank God for the opportunity to be part of this great liberation.

God offers us much more than progress against hunger and poverty. God offers us divine love and purpose. God comes to people in various ways, but Jesus is my connection to God. So when it occurred to me to add this chapter to the book, I looked again at the gospel stories of Jesus feeding the hungry crowds.

The gospel writers see Jesus as a new Moses and Jesus’ death and resurrection as a new exodus. Just as Moses fed the people of Israel manna in the wilderness, Jesus feeds the hungry crowd in the wilderness. Just as the people of Israel followed Moses out of slavery, now the whole world can find in Jesus our liberation from sin, death, and the forces of evil.

When Jesus miraculously fed thousands of people, the crowd got really excited. They followed Jesus eagerly. They wouldn’t let him out of their sight, and they wanted to make him king. If he could provide food to everybody, this was the kind of government they wanted. But Jesus told them, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life…. I am the bread of life” (John 6:27–35).

The core message of Christianity is that Jesus’ forgiving death also counts for us—that God loves us—and that the risen Jesus will live in us. Whether we go to church regularly or are on the fringes of organized religion, opening our heart toward Jesus will give us a stronger experience of God’s love than we have known before. Allowing the risen Jesus to live in us, more than we have until now, will also make us more hopeful, loving people.

One of the side benefits of Christ-in-us will be energy to change the politics of hunger and poverty.