PLEASE READ.

This is my first blog in a minute, and it has nothing to do with food, or my life or whatever else I usually choose to write about. PLEASE take 5 (okay maybe 10) minutes to read this, and consider what I am saying. I don't care what your faith or religious ideas are, I care that you are a HUMAN and that you should have compassion and conviction about things that are happening on the same planet as you and whatever comfortable life you are living. I am going to say things that may make you angry at me, and if they do it is probably a strong indicator that I am right. See, you already didn't like that.

Ever since I really started learning about Jesus, my heart has continually grown larger than my wallet. Have I always tithed properly? No. Have I always given when I could? No. However I do consider myself to be highly compassionate as well as giving, regardless of circumstance. I rarely pass a homeless person without emptying my pockets of whatever change or small bills I have. I don't smell the alcohol and walk by them righteously thinking to myself, "Ha. If they think I am gonna give them MY money so they can blow it on booze they are sorely mistaken!" What I do is recognize the flawed person in front of me, begging for money to spend on whatever, is not so far removed from who I am- I have just been a whole lot luckier. (Not really lucky, blessed, but I don't want the fact that I believe in Jesus to turn you off from what I am saying). Because lets be real here, there were PLENTY of times that my bad choices could have landed me in a place in which I was dependent on someone for something or everything, and you would be lying to yourself to say otherwise. The money I give isn't about what they do with it, it's about my compassion towards them without any judgement because judging is not my place. BUT this is not about me. This is about YOU.

First lets look at some statistics from the World Food Programme 

842 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. This number has fallen by only 17 percent since 1990.

 

The vast majority of hungry people (827 million) live in developing countries, where 14.3 percent of the population is undernourished.

 

Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five - 3.1 million children each year.

 

One out of six children -- roughly 100 million -- in developing countries is underweight.

One in four of the world's children are stunted. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three.

 80 percent of the world's stunted children live in just 20 countries.

WFP calculates that US$3.2 billion is needed per year to reach all 66 million hungry school-age children.

I WANT YOU TO READ THAT LAST ONE AGAIN. $3.2 billion is a big number isn't it? Does it feel as big when I tell you that DESPITE a decrease in sales, America spent "$57.4 billion during the four days beginning with the Nov. 28 Thanksgiving holiday, according to a survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation." according to bloomburg.com.

I am not even going to do the math there as to how many years worth of food could be provided with the money we spend on wrapping paper and sweaters and toys and whatever else it is we want. Don't get me wrong here, wants are not bad. What is bad is that our sense of entitlement to have what we want comes at a great cost to others.

You cannot UNSEE the truth I just laid in front of you, and you are now therefor responsible for what you do with that truth. Here in America we like to think things like "Well, that isn't my problem, someone should tell those people to stop having babies," and "Those people need to just pull themselves up by the boot straps cause I am a self made man and they should be too!" OR, maybe you are just thinking, "That is so awful and I wish there was something I could do, but I just can't because the little bit I could give just won't do anything....and how do I even know where my money is going anyway??" Both of those ways of thinking are WRONG. (Here is where you get mad at me, maybe.) First off, here in the good ol USA our version of a problem is a huge fall in economy leading to homelessness, which is a HUGE problem, (please do not think I don't recognize that). However (comma), we offer shelters, warm meals, underpasses, sidewalks teeming with people who will usually toss a quarter in the bucket. We have trash cans full of discarded food because we were SO FREAKING FULL from the enormous portion size we were served at lunch we didn't even want to have to carry the LEFTOVERS to our CAR. Being homeless in America does not come close to the poverty people are living in other countries. At our very worst we are STILL DOING BETTER than the faces behind the statistics I just gave you.

I could go on and on and on but really I just gave you MORE than enough reasons to DO SOMETHING. My family and I have supported a child through World Vision for about 5 years. We pay $35 a month (tax deductible if you are so inclined), automatically removed from our account and used in order to give this particular child food and education, which may seem menial to us but is ABSOLUTELY LIFE ALTERING FOR HIM. We get pictures, updates, can send cards, packages as well as buying things for his family like chickens for eggs or goats for milk through the website, at a very small price to us, (or you can do none of that and still support the child). World Vision has been around for a long time and is a legit humanitarian organization, click here to learn more.

Today Presley and I attended a Ugandan Children's Choir performance and had the blatant and obvious opportunity to change a life by sponsoring another child. I thought it would be cool for her to pick out a girl, the same way I encouraged Jesiah to pick a boy his own age 5 years ago. Today we adopted our second sponsor child through Childcare Worldwide, another legitimate organization (site here).

Now, not only have I shared with you the reality of hunger and poverty facing children across the globe, I have also spared you the work of having to dig up some hopefully legitimate organization. Unfortunately that is all I can do. From here YOU have to do the rest. YOU have to choose to let go of your weekly Starbucks or Cosmo subscription or gym membership you don't even use or the $50 dinner check you cover every week even though there is food at home. I am talking to myself here too- I am not judging your Cosmo subscription (well maybe I am judging that one), I am just trying to paint a picture of what ALL of us look like. You cannot tell me you don't have $35 a month, because if you are sitting at computer in your house, bag of Lays next to you right now, stuffed from the pizza you ordered combined with the Coke bubbles fizzing in your stomach while you debate which of your 450 channels to watch before you fall fast asleep in your pillow topped bed, YOU HAVE $35 a month.

So most likely you can't use money as your excuse. You wanna shrug it off as not your problem, as if a child has ANY say in the world they are brought into, and you can live with that, go ahead. But let me remind you whether you call it "reaping and sowing" or "karma" or "what goes around comes around", IT DOES and YOU WILL. You get what you give and if there has EVER been a reason to give here it is. If you want to use the "one person can't change anything" excuse, you can do that too, only I am one person and I am changing the lives of TWO people as we speak which I think is pretty freaking significant. One baby with hope is more than NO babies with hope.

PLEASE CONSIDER WHAT I AM SAYING HERE. IT COSTS YOU SO LITTLE. IT IS NOT A SCAM OR A PLOY IT IS LIVES. You do not even have to write a monthly check you can automate it! If you are my friend or family, I am challenging you right now, ONE KID. Go and pick ONE kid from one of these sites, (web address listed above). Commit to a year and if it is breaking the bank then end it after that but for GODS SAKE TRY TO DO SOMETHING.
Acknowledge this world is bigger than your own backyard and YOU ARE NEEDED.

If you accept this challenge PLEASE contact me because it is a prayer answered and I would love to know. You can email me at abdecker82@yahoo.com- you don't even have to tell me anything other than "I am sponsoring a child!" in the subject line. If this moves you, don't just sponsor a child, encourage your friends and family (link this blog on your FB, tweet it, whatever). Our nation alone is capable of ending world hunger and it CAN start with YOU.

Lastly, and I promise I am done after this, here are some progression photos of our World Vision child, (we lost one or two along the way), as well as a photo of the child we just signed up to help; both are in India.

PS. If the animal cruelty commercials seem to have more of an effect on you than what I have just presented, you may want to begin to ask yourself some serious questions about your priorities. JS.