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SBC Life Articles

Jesus Brought Us Corn and Peanuts


WORLD HUNGER DAY

October 14 is World Hunger Day on the Southern Baptist Convention calendar.

Churches are encouraged to alert their people to the hunger needs around us and around the world, encouraging their members to contribute to this vital cause.

Southern Baptists provide an avenue through which people can give to World Hunger. Called the World Hunger Fund, it is not another special offering the Convention promotes; rather it is a standing fund through which people can contribute on an ongoing basis to help meet hunger needs in the United States and around the world. All money received from the churches by the SBC Executive Committee is divided to overseas hunger needs and domestic hunger needs in an eighty-twenty split—80 percent goes to feed hungry people around the world and 20 percent is distributed to hunger projects across the United States. Because of the Cooperative Program, there are no overhead costs associated with distributing World Hunger contributions. Every penny of every dollar of World Hunger contributions goes directly to providing food and water to hungry people.

The World Hunger Fund is a ministry initiative jointly sponsored by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, IMB, and NAMB, and is assisted by the SBC Executive Committee, LifeWay, and WMU. If you would like to give to or learn more about the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund, please visit: www.worldhungerfund.com.

Jesus Brought Us Corn and Peanuts

by Jeff Palmer

The village was not large. The heat, stifling. The thermometer, if they had one, would have read more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In the shade. The ground is brown, bare, parched, and dry. It has not rained in months.

Two semi-trucks full of corn and peanuts arrived at the center of town for distribution. The food, purchased with gifts provided through the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund, couldn’t have arrived at a better time. The people in the village couldn’t believe that such a gift was being given to them. Many murmured their gratitude, interspersed with comments such as, “We thought everyone had forgotten about us.” Over and over they kept saying, “You just don’t understand, the food came just in time!”

Their cries were as heartfelt and poignant as Hagar’s when she placed Ishmael in the hot shade of the desert and crawled off so she would not have to watch him die. One scene illustrated best the dire situation of the villagers and their hunger need. As the corn (maize) and peanuts (ground nuts) were distributed, a few kernels and seeds fell into the dust. The team watched in hushed amazement as grown men, women, and children carefully picked up each stray seed not wanting to waste even a morsel of food.

“Our last night in the village,” one member of the team wrote, “we were called to the public square for more dancing and drumming. It was a very special night. We got back to our host’s home at about 11:30 p.m., all of us quite tired and ready for bed. Just ten minutes later, though, the traditional singers and drummers had followed us back to our yard and proceeded to dance and sing more for us. Never mind some were in bed! The song they sang though was the sweetest: ‘Who brought us corn? Who brought us peanuts? Jesus did!’”

Thank you, Southern Baptists, for giving to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus to a people hungry both physically and spiritually.

Whatever you did for the least of these . . .

 

    About the Author

  • Jeff Palmer