Faith Challenges: It Ain't All Comfort

During our seminary career, Karen and I joined the student missions group heading up planning for the upcoming Student Missions Conference for college students. We were specifically in charge of planning the main meal for the event. Our planning group decided to make the meal an experience, just as much as the breakout sessions, speakers, and other aspects of the missions conference. Karen had been with me on a trip to Brazil, and we came up with the idea of feeding the students a traditional Brazilian meal of black beans and rice with collard greens and a choice of oranges or apples. We could prepare the food rather inexpensively, and extra monies from the meal would go to a missions offering. We talked about some of our experiences confronting hunger and poverty in Brazil and elsewhere. Two particular stories rose to the top. One was a middle-school boy approaching me as I was sitting down to eat a hamburger I had just ordered, asking me if he could have a bite. As the owne...

Back while I was studying Algebra in middle school, Mom was studying issues pertaining to hunger. The USA for Africa effort at the turn of the 80s had sparked a lot of interest in the US in relation to addressing world hunger, and people started sending money to the SBC’s Foreign Mission Board, designated for World Hunger. There was a problem, as the board did not have any personnel working to resolve issues of hunger. It had been an issue neglected in preference to other priorities. Suddenly, there were millions of US Dollars coming to the board, and no viable plans for using those funds. Timothy Brendle came to Brazil from Richmond to speak with missionary personnel about developing projects to tap into those funds that would be appropriate for addressing hunger issues around us. Mom was one of those missionaries with whom Tim met. He tutored me in Algebra while discussing hunger relief efforts, what the funds could and could not be used for, and what might be done with the ...