Hunger @ MindSay 
food
We had a prayer meeting at our place Wednesday night.
It was wonderful.
For quite a while, we just prayed quietly in the Spirit. In fact, for most of the time we prayed this way. We sought Him together. I didn’t know what was going on in the hearts of the other folks, but when I began to pray “in the understanding,” as the apostle Paul describes it, I asked God to give us an insatiable desire for Him, a hunger for Him. I asked for forgiveness for not seeking Him as we should.
We prayed for about an hour.
I don’t pray so I can have a feeling. But when we were finished, after being in with His Spirit for this length of time, I felt so joyful, so full, so satisfied, so much in love. I hugged everybody in the room—although there weren’t that many to hug!
Thank You, Lord. Please continue to give us a hunger and thirst for You, a love for You that is greater than our love for this world and our own lives.
Oh also haven't showered in a bout a week. Since I haven't had anywhere to go or people to see I've just been loafing around. I really hate myself for this. On good days I like to wear cologne and feel fresh and clean, but that hasn't happened in about a month. I tend to go through phases of absolute grunge to fresh and clean. I haven't shave for a month now and I've got a gross mustache and neck beard. My hair is getting long too and that's not helping my appearance. I'm pretty sure that someday this week I'll have my cleaning up ceremony where I actually take a shower, clean my face, shave, wear clean clothes, and not look like a tramp.
Maybe this is all because I've been abnormally depressed lately. More so than I've ever been before. I just don't care about things anymore. I know I'm depressed, but I'm just riding it out.
This is a bit disturbing. If you have the resources, please consider being generous in your giving to those who are hungry, if the need arises in the coming days.
On another note: Have we been thankful to God for such an extraordinary time of good weather?
From analyst John Mauldin:
A Black Swan in Food
“Donald Coxe, chief strategist of Harris Investment Management and one of my favorite analysts, spoke at my recent Strategic Investment Conference. He shared a statistic that has given me pause for concern as I watch food prices shoot up all over the world.
North America has experienced great weather for the last 18 consecutive years, which, combined with other improvements in agriculture, has resulted in abundant crops. According to Don, you have to go back 800 years to find a period of such favorable weather for so long a time.
Yet food stocks in corn, wheat, rice, etc. are dangerously low. We are just one bad weather season from a potential worldwide food disaster. And Dennis Gartman has been pointing out almost daily how far behind US farmers are in getting their corn crops planted, due to bad weather:
‘… the corn crop really is behind schedule. Corn is not like wheat. Wheat can survive drought; it can survive cold; wheat, as we were taught by our mentor, Mr. Melvin Ford, many years ago, is a weed. It is an amazing, resilient plant. But corn is temperamental; it needs rain when it needs rain; it needs dry conditions when it needs dry conditions. It needs to not be hit by early season frost, or it will suffer, and it needs a rather archly set number of days to grow. Each day lost at the front end of the planting/growing season puts pressure upon the corn plant to finish its job before the autumn frosts, and puts increased soybean acreage and decreased corn acreage before us.
‘The maps of the Midwest this morning have it raining once again, with more rain likely over the weekend. There will be some field work done in some areas, of course, but the several straight days of corn planting that everyone had hoped for simply are not going to take place. The ethanol mandates may be in jeopardy in the long run, but in the short run, this year's corn crop is swiftly becoming problematic ... and short.’
I had a note from a reader relating the experience of a member of his family. The gentleman runs a rather large feed lot in West Texas. He is running half the cattle he normally does, as he is losing money on every head he sells. Ranchers are reducing their herds, as they cannot afford to feed them due to high grain prices.
The same thing is happening with chickens. Producers are losing money on every chicken they sell, and they have to reduce inventories; thus meat of all types has not risen as much as the cost of producing it.
This means sometime this fall supplies of meat of all types are going to be reduced, but demand will not. And that means that meat prices have the potential to rise substantially during an election season. Maybe someone will point out that using corn to produce ethanol has the unwanted and unintended consequence of driving up food prices all over the world. It is not the sole source, but it is significant.
And when we finally experience a year of bad weather (whether too much rain or too little, too cold or too hot, it will be blamed on global warming), food supplies and prices are going to skyrocket. And a developing world will not look kindly on the US and Europe's use of food for fuel when so many are starving. Don says that this is not a matter of if, but when.”
Did you give in to America's craziness called Black Friday and go out shopping? You can tell I didn't. Giffts are banished this holiday season and we ate a modest meal thursday and gave the lavish money to the local food bank. So instead I started some charity knitting. If you don't know what charity knitting is you can simply google it and find that babies in hospitals need cotton blankets, AIDS patients need soft clothing that won't irritate their skin, and cancer patients can really use handsome hats and headcovering if they don't like the bald look. Most counties, sewing guilds or hospitals have programs and they simply give you the requirements for fibers ( washable etc) and a place for you to bring your items. I have made blankets, walker bags to hold someone's gear while using their walker, and caps for oncology patients. There are even programs to make a pretty dress for a little girl who would never be able to afford one.
And then there have been two food projects I was itimately involved with- this in addition to the donating food at Yom Kippur which is typical in most american synagogues. The first was a group of us who took over the kitchen in a shelter twice a month- letting the staff have a night off. We would cook and serve and then assist diners in the dining room by carrying a tray, helping with little ones and then cleaning up after a diner was done so someone else could sit at the space. It took no preparation, all you did was show up at the shelter the night you were assigned and do whatever needed to be done. My preference was allways to "work the floor." It took me right into the crowd and let me interact with the people who had come to eat, Some grateful and polite, some proud and dismissal, some so apathetic that they were like the dreamwalkers. But all hungry and all worth treating with dignity.
The other program was begun by Congregation Emanuel in Denver. On a weekday we went to various grocery stores and food venders and took what they were going to throw away at the end of the day. we took the very suitable and nutrious food back to the temple kitchen and cooked soups and stews and borrowed a congregant's van to drive to the areas of the city where we knew homeless people to gather at night. We set up a feeding station with the van and gave out hot food to anyone who approached us, plus soap, towels, toothbrushes- all those things garnered from congregants who stayed on hotels and took the small samples home from vacation and gave them to the temple. This was a weekly event and a little nerve racking at first as I had- at that time- had little to do directly with the homeless.... but surprisingly it was less eventful than a day at the mall where one encounters far more suspicious looking people. And everyone we served was glad to get the soap or a washcloth and certainly a hot cup of stew made with fresh ingredients.
I am thinking of these things partly because we are heading into holiday seasons of consumption and excess and also because I am reading the House of Mirth, where 1905 NYC excess abounds. And for the first time in my life I am going to follow a budget so that our retirement can be independent and happy. And while I have a fair amount of money with which to budget it's got me thinking about the rest of the world and how well off so many of us are and how we are obligated by our membership in humanity to be helpful to those who need it.
Whether it's a formal religion that compels you or just plain logic- a people's nobility is judged by it's weakest link and America has just got to do better. Do your part. I am.
When I was 19 I lived in NYC in a small residential hotel because I never had enough money at once to put a deposit down on an apartment. My monthly income would have allowed a small apartment and then I could have bought basic food and cooked meals. But I was paid weekly and by the time I paid for transportation, meals eaten out due to the lack of a kitchen, and basic necessities such as soap, toothpaste and a modest work wardrobe, I had nothing left over to save up for a deposit and one month’s rent.
And so I was often hungry. I managed to eat breakfast from those NYC carts- a coffee and a bagel. Lunch was potato chips and some fruit, and dinner often consisted of a fruit flavored multivitamin- the Flintstones - I think. For me this was not a permanent or long lasting state. Within a year I had a boyfriend who helped feed me and when we moved in together we shared expenses and finally had a kitchen. But for about a year I was among the hidden hungry in America.
It’s almost 2008 and they still exist. Not just living under aqueducts or showing up at soup kitchens in winter, but in suburban houses and nice city apartments.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 38 million people in our nation – 13.9 million of them children – live in households that suffer from hunger or live on the edge of hunger. This hunger and “food insecurity” are far too widespread in our wealthy society.
Hunger reduces a child's ability to learn, decreases a worker's productive energy, and weakens an elderly person's resistance to disease. It weakens families, and prevents our nation from reaching its full potential.
What do hunger and food insecurity mean ?
Very simply, hunger is defined as the uneasy or painful sensation caused by lack of food. When we talk about hunger we refer to the ability of people to obtain sufficient food for their household. Some people may find themselves skipping meals or cutting back on the quality or quantity of food they purchase at the stores. This recurring and involuntary lack of access to food can lead to malnutrition over time
In some developing nations where famine is widespread, It manifests itself as severe and very visible clinical malnutrition. In the United States hunger manifests itself, generally, in a less severe form. This is in part because established programs – like the federal nutrition programs – help to provide a safety net for many low-income families. While starvation seldom occurs in this country, children and adults do go hungry and chronic mild undernutrition does occur when financial resources are low. The mental and physical changes that accompany inadequate food intakes can have harmful effects on learning, development, productivity, physical and psychological health, and family Hunger in the United States is a problem that can be cured. Iraq is costing billions of dollars every year. In case you are immune to the impact of how large a billion is: the average income of a middle class family of four in America is $72,000- the median income for a family of four is $43,000. The poverty level hovers around $19,000.
One billion dollars in one year can serve poverty level income for 50,000 families per year. FIFTY THOUSAND FAMILIES PER YEAR. That’s a large town where I live.
And have you ever tried to feed and clothe and medically serve a family of four with even $43,000 a year? It’s a touch and go existence at best. $19,000 is unimaginable.
So what’s my point? Thursday when you sit down and over eat on turkey and potatoes and cranberries and maybe several home cooked pies and then have to loosen your belt before leaning back to watch the big game… try to think of someone you know who might be hungry. A widow who lives down the block who is on a very limited fixed income and only gets one good meal from meals on wheels? A family whose dad works two shifts just to make ends meet? A Single mom who isn’t working because she has three kids under the age of five and the guy who helped make those babies has moved on to a new babe and a new girl? Or maybe...
Maybe you don’t want to think about them because it’s uncomfortable. But I am asking you to tolerate your discomfort and compare it to the gnawing in the stomach when one is REALLY hungry, or the bleeding gums because you don’t get fruit, or the lethargy and depression that comes with poor nutrition. And take that discomfort and use it to send money to a food pantry – or write a check to a soup kitchen- or adopt a family for the holidays and let them eat the way you are going to eat for just one week. DO something. Volunteer to serve food, donate canned good. Do something. Hunger in American can be cured. Not just by the big corporations and bigger government but by every one of us doing one small thing to feed someone who might be hungry . Do it. Please.
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