35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Matthew 9:35-38
Before the next 30 hours are over, 26,000 children just under the age of 5 will die - most from preventable causes like hunger, poverty, and disease. 14,000 will die from causes related to hunger alone. That's one kid every 7 seconds.
Low prices of food in the international market are forcing more farmers in developing countries to levels of extreme poverty. Their children are forced to drop out of schools and families are becoming more dependent on emergency aid.
Entire villages are being devastated by AIDS and HIV, even when medicine to prevent these deaths are available for just a couple of dollars a day. However, the bottom billion of the world's population live on less than an US dollar a day. A coffee farmer in Ethiopia said in a documentary called "Black Gold" said that just getting paid about 5 birr ($0.57) for their coffee could change their lives drastically. But these farmers are getting paid less than that for the high quality coffee they produce.
These are just a few facts about the state of our world today.-Read More-
God tells us to love our neighbors. We must not forget that our neighbors are not just those in our schools, in our churches, in our neighborhoods, but also those in Africa, in countries such as Bangladesh and Paraguay.
I encourage all of you to learn more about the dreadful and devastating problem of poverty. Thousands of people, children and adults alike, will die early and premature deaths today because they were born in the wrong country at the wrong time. I can't tell you why they were born there, but I can tell you why we were born here and why we were given so much even though they were given so little. It is so that we can go to them and help them. Luke 12:48b says:
Low prices of food in the international market are forcing more farmers in developing countries to levels of extreme poverty. Their children are forced to drop out of schools and families are becoming more dependent on emergency aid.
Entire villages are being devastated by AIDS and HIV, even when medicine to prevent these deaths are available for just a couple of dollars a day. However, the bottom billion of the world's population live on less than an US dollar a day. A coffee farmer in Ethiopia said in a documentary called "Black Gold" said that just getting paid about 5 birr ($0.57) for their coffee could change their lives drastically. But these farmers are getting paid less than that for the high quality coffee they produce.
These are just a few facts about the state of our world today.-Read More-
God tells us to love our neighbors. We must not forget that our neighbors are not just those in our schools, in our churches, in our neighborhoods, but also those in Africa, in countries such as Bangladesh and Paraguay.
I encourage all of you to learn more about the dreadful and devastating problem of poverty. Thousands of people, children and adults alike, will die early and premature deaths today because they were born in the wrong country at the wrong time. I can't tell you why they were born there, but I can tell you why we were born here and why we were given so much even though they were given so little. It is so that we can go to them and help them. Luke 12:48b says:
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. And we have been given much and commanded to love our neighbors. Increase your awareness of the world and the people who share this world with us. For I know God's heart goes out to us and to them. God cries with us, laughs with us, and lives with us. And God is over there, crying with them, starving with them. He loves every person on this earth, so we too must love as He loves, care as He cares. Our hearts, too, must go out to the poor, the weak, and the lonely. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says:
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"Don't think you are too young to do anything. Don't think that you have too small a number of people to do anything. Paul says to Timothy (and is the heading for this blog):
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."Margaret Mead said:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."Pray to God to send you out, to use you to do His will. As Ghandi says, be the change you want to see in this world. And as God commands, love thy neighbor as thyself.
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