Matthew 14:14-21

[16] But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
[16] But Jesus said, "That isn't necessary-you feed them."

The prophet Amos declared that God would send a famine in the last day but not a famine of bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord!

It is difficult for us in America to understand the desperate crisis of hunrer that exists in the world.

No one really knows how many people are malnourished. The statistic most frequently cited is that of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which measures 'undernutrition'. The most recent estimate (2006) of the FAO says that 854 million people worldwide are undernourished. This is 12.6 percent of the estimated world population of 6.6 billion.

Children are the most visible victims of undernutrition. Children who are poorly nourished suffer up to 160 days of illness each year.

The world produces enough food to feed everyone. World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago. The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food.

MYTHS ABOUT HUNGER

Myth 1

Not Enough Food to Go Around

Reality: Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply. Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,500 calories a day.

Myth 2

Nature's to Blame for Famine

Reality: It's too easy to blame nature. Human-made forces are making people increasingly vulnerable to nature's vagaries. Food is always available for those who can afford it-starvation during hard times hits only the poorest. Millions live on the brink of disaster in south Asia, Africa and elsewhere, because they are deprived of land by a powerful few, trapped in the unremitting grip of debt, or miserably paid.

Myth 3

Too Many People

Reality: Birth rates are falling rapidly worldwide as remaining regions of the Third World begin the demographic transition

Myth 4

More U.S. Aid Will Help the Hungry

Reality: Most U.S. aid works directly against the hungry. Foreign aid can only reinforce, not change, the status quo. Where governments answer only to elites, our aid not only fails to reach hungry people, it shores up the very forces working against them.

Food has become a weapon of tool in many areas of the world. When U.S. aid arrives many times it is not given permission to be delivered as was the recent case in Mynamar(Burma) or food and supplies sit in warehouses governed by military thugs and dictators who keep the food and supplies from those who need it.

SPIRITUALLY

The world is starving to death…………………there is a famine of hearing the word of the Lord!

Need for Bibles in Africa is 'obvious and humbling'

September 2005-The Bible League recently hosted a trip to Nigeria
"It's all about what these Christians are up against, and about providing them with Bibles for comfort and strength and encouragement," said Mike Dworak, the Bible League's media specialist and trip host. "The need for Bibles was obvious and humbling to all of us."

Nigeria-Africa's most populous nation-was chosen for Bible League's
every day, about 900 Nigerians die of AIDS.

"One woman we talked to begged for Bibles for a group of young girls she is leading," Dworak said. "She wants to teach them that they are precious in God's eyes so they won't go on to sell their bodies, contract AIDS, and die, as millions of girls do in Africa."

But, he said, the most stunning moment for the group came as they stood inside a church in the farming village of Yelwa, where 78 Christians were slaughtered in February 2004 by a gang of Muslim extremists. The church was burned, as well as other buildings in the village, and all the Bibles were destroyed.

"We heard stories like that over and over again about the graphic nature of persecution," Dworak said. "In Northern Nigeria alone, there are thousands of widows and orphans without Bibles. We prayed 'God please open the windows of heaven because the need is so great.'"

OTHERS

Imagine looking over your shoulder because you are studying a Bible, or worshipping in church. Imagine that if you are caught, you could be jailed, beaten, or even killed. To millions of Christians around the world, this is the stark reality.

Christians are persecuted daily

For instance, in China there is a crack down on unregistered house churches, disrupting worship, and arresting their leaders.

In parts of Central Asia where the state religion is mandated, Christians are considered traitors to their country and their families. Family members are beaten, and then thrown out of their house and onto the streets.

In the Middle East and parts of India and Africa, laws prohibit Christians from evangelizing, and forbid citizens from choosing Christianity over the religion into which they were born. Christians caught sharing God's Word are chased out of town, beaten, or worse.

Christians worldwide are severely punished for breaking religious laws or religious tradition. Yet they don't ask us to pray for their persecution to end. Instead, they ask us to pray that they will have strength to endure-and they ask us to send Bibles, so they may become stronger.

We sent 3 Bibles with our youth to give out in China. Every member of the team had three Bibles.

I got under conviction just researching and preparing for this message!

What can I do………………..What can we do????

Story of hog and hen passing a benefit for the poor sign…….
Hen said I will contribute two dozen eggs if you will "contribute" the bacon.
Hog said, that's fine for you to say. Your eggs would be a contribution.
My bacon would be a total sacrifice.

I'm wondering today if there are any total sacrifices here.
Bread is not the problem……………getting it to the people who need it is the problem.