In just a couple of days, we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving, and churches and other faith communities will be participating in ONE Sabbath Thanksgiving — a campaign to raise awareness about the ongoing situation in the Horn of Africa. More than 200 people of faith and faith communities from across the world have signed up to do their part to combat the devastating drought and care for our brothers and sisters in Africa. Some of you may be sharing video clips showing the living proof of the effectiveness of agricultural development and investment. Others might be speaking from the pulpit on the responsibility to be thankful for what we have but act on behalf of those who don’t.
If you’re interested, it’s not too late to join in. Head over to one.org/faith to sign up and download the resources; and to request postcards for our advocacy petition drive, email faith@one.org.
In this blog post, Lindsey Nobles of Project 7, an organization that helps create positive change through purchases, describes their partnership with ONE supporter, David Crowder*Band.
This fall, Project 7 teamed up with David Crowder*Band to help raise funds for the 7 Wells Project to ensure that their last tour, the 7 Tour, had a global impact. At every show, concert goers were encouraged to make donations that would go toward building wells in the Lira District of Northern Uganda, where more than one-third of the population do not have access to clean water.
USAID’s Dr. Raj Shah gave us an update on the latest surrounding the famine in the Horn of Africa while ONE’s CEO Michael Elliott briefed our national network of faith leaders on ONE’s comprehensive hunger and agriculture campaigns. More than 13 million of our sisters and brothers in east Africa are vulnerable to hunger and lack of access to clean water at this time –- and there is something we can do about it!
During the fall season, and especially around Thanksgiving, it’s critical that we do all we can to fight the famine and secure a future where there is hunger no more. Get your local faith community involved and sign up for ONE Sabbath.
Nina Pine, a Faiths Act Fellow of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, reflects on her decision to be a more mindful eater during the Thanksgiving season.
As a Buddhist and strict vegetarian who struggles with indulgent-foodie tendencies, I aspire to deepen my practice of mindful eating. Thầy Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches us to reflect on all the factors that have gone into our food’s creation. As I eat an apple, I must recognize the energy of the sun, earth, rain and the human labor that has gone into its creation. Everything that is non-apple is present in this apple. The entire universe is present in this apple.
Thầy Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches, “Many people in the world are hungry. When I hold a bowl of rice or a piece of bread, I know that I am fortunate, and I feel compassion for all those who have no food to eat and are without friends or family. This is a very deep practice. We do not need to go to a temple or a church in order to practice this. We can practice it right at our dinner table. Mindful eating can cultivate seeds of compassion and understanding that will strengthen us to do something to help hungry and lonely people to be nourished.”
Eric Farr, a Faiths Act Fellow of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, reflects on the teachings of the Baha’i faith, Thanksgiving and the famine in Africa.
“My God, my Adored One, my King, my Desire! What tongue can voice my thanks to Thee?” So begins a prayer of Bahá’u'lláh that I regularly turn to in moments of gratitude. It expresses what I think is a fairly common feeling among spiritually-minded folk: the feeling of overwhelming gratitude at the bounties and majesty of God, and the absolute impossibility of offering adequate thanks for those bounties and glimpses of divinity.
I’ve tried on a few occasions to thank my parents in some kind of definitive way for all that they’ve given me during my life. They’ve given me everything. They’ve sacrificed their money, their time, their whole being. They’ve given me and my brother and my sister their lives. No matter how much I mean it, no matter how much I explain it and no matter how much they even believe it, I can’t say “thank you” in such a way that actually expresses the degree of thanks or that feels in any way like a fitting response to their generosity. It’s the same word I use when someone passes the salt, for crying out loud.
Over a cup of coffee with a friend recently, I described myself as a “William Wilberforce Evangelical,” humbly placing myself in the stream of Christian tradition that sought the abolition of slaves. After reading this morning’s newspaper, however, I’m calling my friend later today with an update: I am a “Rich Stearns Evangelical.”
Rich Stearns in Africa. Photo credit: World Vision.
Faith @ ONE member John Alley urges Christians around the country to pray for those living in famine in East Africa during the Thanksgiving season.
In addition to the Great Commission, the Christian mandate to spread the good news of Christ to every tribe, tongue, and nation, Christians are called to serve those in need. Jesus urged his disciples to do three things: heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons. While a plague raged through the Roman Empire in the third century, it was Christians who stayed behind to minister to the sick while others fled for the hills. These actions, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are part and parcel with Jesus’ commandment to love one another.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
