By Joe Sorah
Compassion Ministries Specialist, TBMB
As I reflect upon my childhood, I can remember being very concerned with the problem of hunger in our world. I grew up in a pastor’s home. We used to receive appeals for funds to feed hungry children. The letters would come with pictures of children on little cards from far off countries. Those pictures really bothered me. I couldn’t stand the thought of children going hungry.
My mother would collect her change through the year, deposit the money in a rice bowl, and take it to church on World Hunger Sunday. It was a big deal to my family and me. My family could not bear the thought of hungry people while we had food on our table.
Joe Sorah
Now, I am the compassion ministries specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. Every week I hear about hunger needs, only this time those needs aren’t just in some foreign land. Hunger is a problem in Tennessee. We have grandparents raising grandchildren, trying to feed those children while living on fixed incomes.
I hear of the need for food to feed hungry children during the summer months when school is out. The families that depend on the school to feed their children breakfast and lunch are left scrambling to find help feeding their children during the summer.
Giving through the Global Hunger Fund helps to feed hungry people all over the world. As you give, a portion of those funds are allocated to Tennessee. The North American Mission Board recently asked southern state conventions to keep a portion of the funds for use in the state.
The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board will retain 25 percent for hunger in Tennessee and pass the remainder on to the IMB and NAMB. The retained Tennessee funds will give an opportunity to better assist churches and ministries to provide food for families in need, children in the summer months, and the elderly, many of whom choose between food and medicine with their money.
Thank you, Tennessee Baptists, for giving this year through the Global Hunger Fund. Everything given will be used to purchase food for needy people. As we meet the challenge of hunger, doors open through which the gospel can pass.
