Ethiopia - The Endless Famine

[Aussie3rddayfan]

The nation of Ethiopia is currently in a desperate situation. At present, one tenth of the countries 82.5 million people are at risk of starvation and little children are at risk of death by hunger for the first time in nearly two decades. The church - and in fact the world - needs to stand up like it did for the Live Aid concert two decades ago. Please watch the video and then read the statistics below. And then do something. Please.

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/broadband.htm

I would like to encourage everyone who reads this to sponser a child if you can. It doesn't have to from Ethiopia but from any nation where help is so desperately needed. My Bible study group sponsers a young African boy and it has been fantastic. It's not expensive and literally changes lives. I sponser through an organisation called Compassion. I believe that they offer alot to these children. Not only are the child's physical needs taken care of but they are cared for spiritually as well. Their website can be found here:

http://www.compassion.com/default.htm

I would love for you consider this prayerfully. Don't put it off. If you can, please, please do something.

I want to leave you with a couple of statistics about the current world that we live in.


An estimated 128 million children are involved in child labour throughout the world
15 million children have lost parents to HIV/AIDS
Every minute 4 young people become infected with HIV. That's 6000 each day.
Half a billion (so 500 million) of the world's children live on less than $2 per day
One in five children will never have the opportunity to attend school
Every 3 seconds, a child under the age of 5 dies from preventable causes. That's roughly 29 000 every day.
UNICEF estimates close to 120 000 children have less than one month to live, and given the current trends of the world food crisis, four to six million children will die from malnutrition in 2009.


"If the government cannot lower the cost of living it simply has to leave. If the police and UN troops want to shoot at us, that's OK, because in the end, if we are not killed by bullets, we'll die of hunger." - A demonstrater in Port-au-Prince, Haiti -

[Pouye]

My Bible study group sponsers a young African boy and it has been fantastic. It's not expensive and literally changes lives. I sponser through an organisation called Compassion. I believe that they offer alot to these children. Not only are the child's physical needs taken care of but they are cared for spiritually as well.


I agree that we all should be involved in doing this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27-

I have sponsored children through several organisations.

I do have one beef with your paragraph above. You said your Bible study group sponsors a child. Although this is fine, to sponsor a child usually only costs about 1 dollar per day ($30 dollars a month). A bible study group made up of 10 people should be able to unsacrificially sponsor 10 children (or more). That's only $1 dollars per person per day. If each person makes around $100 dollars per day, that is only 1% of each person's income. That is a really unsacrifical giving (see the story of the Pharisee and the Widow for comparison). If a bible study group of 10 sponsors 1 child, they are only giving 1 tenth of 1% of their income. That is incredibly unsacrificial, even though it is better than giving nothing at all, I suppose.

If a committed bible study group of 10 decided to give semi-sacrificially, each person could give, say, $5 dollars a day. If each person made $100 dollars a day, that would be 5% of their income. This would total about $300 dollars a month. Times that by 10, it would be $3000 a month. That would be enough to support 100 children. That would be what I call semi-sacrificial giving because it would truly cost each person something.

Rock

[Aussie3rddayfan]

I agree that we all should be involved in doing this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27-

I have sponsored children through several organisations.

I do have one beef with your paragraph above. You said your Bible study group sponsors a child. Although this is fine, to sponsor a child usually only costs about 1 dollar per day ($30 dollars a month). A bible study group made up of 10 people should be able to unsacrificially sponsor 10 children (or more). That's only $1 dollars per person per day. If each person makes around $100 dollars per day, that is only 1% of each person's income. That is a really unsacrifical giving (see the story of the Pharisee and the Widow for comparison). If a bible study group of 10 sponsors 1 child, they are only giving 1 tenth of 1% of their income. That is incredibly unsacrificial, even though it is better than giving nothing at all, I suppose.

If a committed bible study group of 10 decided to give semi-sacrificially, each person could give, say, $5 dollars a day. If each person made $100 dollars a day, that would be 5% of their income. This would total about $300 dollars a month. Times that by 10, it would be $3000 a month. That would be enough to support 100 children. That would be what I call semi-sacrificial giving because it would truly cost each person something.

Rock

Yes, you have indeed hit the nail right on the head. As the leader of the Bible study I am in a position of responsibility and should be calling for my brothers in Christ to give more. I have in fact been doing that already. I raised the possibility of sponsering another child but I didn't get alot of support. I obviously found this dissapointing :(. I have 5 men in the group (other than myself), three of whom work full-time. So they don't have any excuses. I have also plugged the idea several times at my church's 'growth group' leaders meetings. I am not sure if anyone listens but I get the feeling other leaders forget all too easily. It's such a pity. The Christian church could easily unite and make huge inroads into world poverty but we doing far too little. We should be setting the example and leading the way for the unbelievers, but just like them, we are far too selfish to part with our riches.

I shall try again.

[Pouye]

Yes, you have indeed hit the nail right on the head. As the leader of the Bible study I am in a position of responsibility and should be calling for my brothers in Christ to give more. I have in fact been doing that already. I raised the possibility of sponsering another child but I didn't get alot of support. I obviously found this dissapointing :(. I have 5 men in the group (other than myself), three of whom work full-time. So they don't have any excuses. I have also plugged the idea several times at my church's 'growth group' leaders meetings. I am not sure if anyone listens but I get the feeling other leaders forget all too easily. It's such a pity. The Christian church could easily unite and make huge inroads into world poverty but we doing far too little. We should be setting the example and leading the way for the unbelievers, but just like them, we are far too selfish to part with our riches.

I shall try again.

Your doing a great job, I'm sure. I'm not saying this is something that Christians must do. God loves a cheerful giver, and anyone who gives under compulsion is not doing what God wants anyway. It is just that sometimes I see Christians getting involved in some small way (like they start really tithing, support a missionary or sponsor a child) and then they feel somehow like they are justified -- like someone who threw their 2 dollars in the plate that was passed around. Then, (just like human nature) they start telling others how they need to "step up to the plate" and start sacrificing like they are. The funny thing is, many of those same people wouldn't know what sacrificial giving was if it hit them between the eyes.

The Bible says this:

"if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously..."
Romans 12:8-

It has to be from the heart,

Rock

[Aussie3rddayfan]

I'm not saying this is something that Christians must do. God loves a cheerful giver, and anyone who gives under compulsion is not doing what God wants anyway. It is just that sometimes I see Christians getting involved in some small way (like they start really tithing, support a missionary or sponsor a child) and then they feel somehow like they are justified -- like someone who through their 2 dollars in the plate that was passed around. Then, (just like human nature) they start telling others how they need to "step up to the plate" and start sacrificing like they are. The funny thing is, many of those same people wouldn't know what sacrificial giving was if it hit them between the eyes.

The Bible says this:

"if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously..."
Romans 12:8-

It has to be from the heart,

Rock

Sacrificial giving is a challenge rarley taken up by people within the Christian church. All too often people use the 10% rule. I was challenged last year about this. My minister preached for two weeks on giving and explained how he felt the whole 10% set aside argument is way out of date. Instead, we should be giving sacrificially and not under compulsion. An example would be of the woman who gave to the temple treasury with all she had (with two small coins I think). I am still challenged by this and have have only partly (so in reality not at all) changed my giving habits.

Thanks again, Rock. :cool:

Your doing a great job, I'm sure.

What frustrates me the most is the attitude of the Christian church toward poverty. Excuses relating to the size of the problem, money concerns, and outright laziness are continuing to plague God's people and meaning thousands of people are dying who could have otherwise been saved. It should not be up to individual believers to take the intiative; no, the church, and I mean the whole church, to make a stand for the poor, the orphans and the widows and actually listen to what the God we claim to serve and love called us to do. We are missing a wonderful chance for witnessing and evangelism in the process... and that makes me mad. :mad:

[Sam!]

I'm going to disagree with the premise that if you can't give cheerfully, you shouldn't give. Give, even if "under compulsion," until you can learn to be cheerful about your giving.

[Pouye]

I'm going to disagree with the premise that if you can't give cheerfully, you shouldn't give. Give, even if "under compulsion," until you can learn to be cheerful about your giving.

Like many things, I'm sure this isn't "black or white". But you have a point. Some people feel they need "confirmation" to obey what God has already commanded them to do in His Word.

The Scriptures say this:

"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
2 Corinthians 9:6-

The above applies to time, energy, and resources.

Rock

[Genna14]

Sometimes I'm upset about not having money to buy my contacts or fix my tire right away and then I realize that there are people right here in this country that can't even buy food! My parents sponsor three children through Compassion and they sacrifice of themselves daily just to put me through school. We don't have a lot of extras. Dad saved up his tips all year to bless us with Christmas presents that were worth about $30. And you know what? That was enough for me. Heck I thought I wasn't getting anything at all. Americans take way too much for granted. I don't think I know anyone who is an exception to that. What would we do without clean running water, television, iPods, cell phones, computers, McDonald's? And yes, I'm no exception either. I, too am guilty of taking it all for granted....moving on....

I have seen a few comments here that just really...well they ticked me off. Sometimes it's really hard to give. I don't have a job, the economy is rough right now and the job market is small. But I give what and where I can. The idea that people should give beyond their means is ridiculous. To me what's what I translate as "giving sacrificially".

Think about this for a minute. I dedicated 3 months of my life to a failed Repulican campaign. I was often at the GOP headquarters 6-7 days a week, totally volunteer. Like I told everyone, the GOP ate my soul. Now did I consider the other volunteers lesser because they weren't there 7 days a week? Did I think they weren't sacrificing because some of them volunteered once or twice? NO! The point is that they GAVE that is what was important. I had the time and the means to dedicate to something I really believed in but others just didn't have the means or the time. Some gave enormous donations, yes I saw some of the checks made out to Senator Bee's campaign and the GOP. Others, like myself, gave time.

Don't judge someone on what or how much they give. You don't know what could really be going on in their lives.

Give all YOU can, be concerned with only yourself, encourage others to give all they can but when you see they aren't, don't judge.

Suggest other ways that they can help! Prayers, volunteering, helping a church pass out blankets and food to the homeless, donating blood *something that is near and dear to my own heart and I do it often as I am able*, cooking for the elderly. This isn't all about money you know, this is about giving of yourself, giving of your heart and doing it cheerfully and with a right attitude.

[Aussie3rddayfan]

Sometimes I'm upset about not having money to buy my contacts or fix my tire right away and then I realize that there are people right here in this country that can't even buy food! My parents sponsor three children through Compassion and they sacrifice of themselves daily just to put me through school. We don't have a lot of extras. Dad saved up his tips all year to bless us with Christmas presents that were worth about $30. And you know what? That was enough for me. Heck I thought I wasn't getting anything at all. Americans take way too much for granted. I don't think I know anyone who is an exception to that. What would we do without clean running water, television, iPods, cell phones, computers, McDonald's? And yes, I'm no exception either. I, too am guilty of taking it all for granted....moving on....

I have seen a few comments here that just really...well they ticked me off. Sometimes it's really hard to give. I don't have a job, the economy is rough right now and the job market is small. But I give what and where I can. The idea that people should give beyond their means is ridiculous. To me what's what I translate as "giving sacrificially".

Think about this for a minute. I dedicated 3 months of my life to a failed Repulican campaign. I was often at the GOP headquarters 6-7 days a week, totally volunteer. Like I told everyone, the GOP ate my soul. Now did I consider the other volunteers lesser because they weren't there 7 days a week? Did I think they weren't sacrificing because some of them volunteered once or twice? NO! The point is that they GAVE that is what was important. I had the time and the means to dedicate to something I really believed in but others just didn't have the means or the time. Some gave enormous donations, yes I saw some of the checks made out to Senator Bee's campaign and the GOP. Others, like myself, gave time.

Don't judge someone on what or how much they give. You don't know what could really be going on in their lives.

Give all YOU can, be concerned with only yourself, encourage others to give all they can but when you see they aren't, don't judge.

Suggest other ways that they can help! Prayers, volunteering, helping a church pass out blankets and food to the homeless, donating blood *something that is near and dear to my own heart and I do it often as I am able*, cooking for the elderly. This isn't all about money you know, this is about giving of yourself, giving of your heart and doing it cheerfully and with a right attitude.

My criticism is directed towards those who can give and yet aren't. Many, many Christians could easily sponsor children and yet don't. Why? Because they are selfish. For example, school age people really aren't in a position to sponsor anybody. That's fine. But someone who works (especially full-time) really should look closely at how they are spending their money. It can always be shared with others. I work on a casual/part-time basis and can afford it no problem at all (AUS $44 per month). Saying that, I am not judging everyone else by what I have experienced, I am merely suggesting that there is often a solution if you look for it. Many people don't look at the options because they are afraid they might have to give up their riches and apparently get nothing in return. As Christians we could be doing so much to combat poverty, and yet we choose to turn our backs. For shame.

[Genna14]

My criticism is directed towards those who can give and yet aren't. Many, many Christians could easily sponsor children and yet don't. Why? Because they are selfish. For example, school age people really aren't in a position to sponsor anybody. That's fine. But someone who works (especially full-time) really should look closely at how they are spending their money. It can always be shared with others. I work on a casual/part-time basis and can afford it no problem at all (AUS $44 per month). Saying that, I am not judging everyone else by what I have experienced, I am merely suggesting that there is often a solution if you look for it. Many people don't look at the options because they are afraid they might have to give up their riches and apparently get nothing in return. As Christians we could be doing so much to combat poverty, and yet we choose to turn our backs. For shame.
I do uderstand where you're coming from and I agree. I think that as a Church we don't nearly do enough. We should as brothers and sisters in Christ be encouraging each other in these things and I think that accountability is lacking in that.

[Aussie3rddayfan]

I do uderstand where you're coming from and I agree. I think that as a Church we don't nearly do enough. We should as brothers and sisters in Christ be encouraging each other in these things and I think that accountability is lacking in that.

Yep. The church should be showing us the difference we can make on a regular basis. I honestly cannot remember the last time I heard a preacher get up and give a sermon or presentation on a part of the world we never see. Instead, we focus inward. No wonder the church is so ineffective at the Great Commission.

[mysterio]

i agree with pouye:)