Looking For, and Finding, Jesus

Sometimes, it’s hard to find Jesus.  When all the news seems to talk about are the terrible things going on in the world it really begins to seem like maybe Jesus isn’t doing much here.  Jesus doesn’t tend to seek the spotlight, He never really did.  This can make Him very difficult to find.  The voice God uses is still and small; His hands and feet are often the hands and feet of the humble and meek.

Just because He is hard to find doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t here working, it just means we’re not looking in the right places.

(Quick preface: World Vision has a Caregiver program that trains local individuals in typically rural communities to care for their neighbors with HIV/AIDS.  You can help equip these Caregivers by signing up your church or group to volunteer to assemble the kits they use to do their work.)

This is a story about Shortie, but you don’t have to look hard to see Jesus.

Plumpy’nut, Changing the Way the World Fights Famine

Plumpy’nut is a peanut-based paste in a plastic wrapper for treatment of severe acute malnutrition. It is made of peanut paste, vegetable oil, powdered milk, powdered sugar, vitamins, and minerals. This simple concoction manufactured by Nutriset, a French company, is changing the way malnutrition is dealt with in children, and by extension, changing the way the world deals with food shortages and famine.

Before the development of Plumpy’nut and supplements like it children needed to be hospitalized for extended periods of time to receive intravenous fluids. There are often hundreds and sometimes thousands of children suffering from malnutrition when food shortages occur. All of these children used to have to be crammed together with their families in hospitals and make-shift health centers. They all needed to be tended to by doctors. With the arrival of innovative solutions like Plumpy’nut only the most extreme cases of malnutrition require hospitalization. That means less doctors, less nurses, less beds, less tents, less medical equipment to transport and maintain. Overall, it means fighting famine just got a whole lot cheaper.

Take for example the current crisis in the Sahel belt of western Africa. A number of unfortunate factors have come together to create a devastating food shortage. It has not yet crossed into the realm of famine but is skirting that very thin line. Labels aside, this shortage is leaving thousands of young children suffering from acute malnutrition. With Plumpy’nut in hand aid workers can not only treat children at hospitals and aid centers but, since Plumpy’nut doesn’t require refrigeration and comes wrapped in foil parents are able to feed it to their children on their own. Because of this it’s possible that with enough support the various groups, governments, and NGOs may yet be able to head of another terrible famine in Africa.

If you are interested in joining the fight against famine you can give to World Vision’s hunger fund and your donation will provide 5 times its value in life-saving emergency foods like Plumpy’nut, along with seeds, livestock, and other items that combat food shortages and hunger.

My Favorite Organization Today: Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is a completely independent non-profit group.  They are a group of human rights advocates and defenders from all over the world that are completely unaffiliated with any government, religion, or party. They are one of the world’s leading human rights organizations, and have a great track record for making sure oppressors are being held accountable for their crimes.  They give a voice to the voiceless and go to battle for those who can’t fight for themselves.

HRW is also an amazing resource for news of violations that may not make it to major news sources.  Their twitter account is especially useful for updates throughout the day.

Because they are not affiliated with any government, group, or party, the majority of their donations come from people that are inspired by their work.  They receive no government funding whatsoever, and the costs of human rights investigations and advocacy can be high.  So please, if you’re inspired by their work, or even use them as a resource, please help to support them.

American Priorities

It would seem that the main moral/political concern of conservative Christian Americans is abortion.  While I agree that championing the unborn, the most vulnerable of children, is an incredibly worthy cause, it is a deep and complicated issue that will take a great deal of work over a long period of time.  Meanwhile, it feels like God’s people, to whom Jesus said,

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me…’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me'”. (Matt 25:35-36, 40)

have completely forgotten the already-born and suffering children around the world who are perishing at numbers of 24,000 a day (compared to the number of American children lost to abortion everyday: 3315). 24,000 children die every day across the globe of completely preventable causes.  This single-issue political mindset is not only counter-productive, it’s deadly.  If Christians would devote a fraction of the resources and energy that they give to abortion to issues like poverty and hunger, they could do unimaginable good.

Mother Theresa often spoke of what a blessing it was for her to work so closely with the poor because she got to see her Lord’s face in the face of each person she helped.  She even developed her “5 finger gospel”, which went, “You Did It To Me”, and she took it literally as I believe our Lord meant it to be taken.  If He was anything, He was at the very least a lover of children and champion for the poor and outcast.

As we enter the Christmas season, and Christians once again get up in arms about which stores use “Christmas” and which ones use “holiday” or “season” , let’s try and remember what the season is really all about, and it has nothing to do with shopping or how stores advertise.  The Lord of the universe came into the world as a helpless, fragile infant completely dependent on His parents and vulnerable to world.  So many babies everyday are lost because their parents don’t have the food to feed them, or mothers are so hungry that their bodies can’t produce milk for their infants and are forced to watch their babies starve before their eyes.  Children drink the only water they have available and die from the bacteria they consume, or are crippled or killed by diseases long since eradicated in our country by the wonder of inoculation.  As we celebrate the miracle of the baby Jesus, remember some of what He taught as an adult and help some of the many worthy organizations give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and medicine to the sick and dying.

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'”

Due to the current food crisis in Somalia it is estimated that one child dies every 6 minutes.