While hunger and poverty have decreased slightly in recent years, they are still a reality both across the United States and around the globe. While we endeavor as a church to follow Christ's example in aiding people in need, we have the opportunity to make our voices heard by the decision-makers within our government.
This spring Living Waters will again participating in the Offering of Letters generated by Bread for the World, where we send letters to the men and women representing us in the US House of Representatives and US Senate to encourage them to enact legislation that will combat poverty and hunger. We are unfolding a campaign where you get to choose how you'd like to send your letters. The first option is sending an email online, which is discussed more below. The other aspect of this Offering of Letters will be signing physical letters to send to our government representatives. If sounds preferable to you, we will be doing this after and in-between services on a Sunday in May. Even if you opted for sending an email, sending a physical letter couldn't hurt.
In the online campaign, people can send an email to encourage their congressional representatives to take legislative action towards programs that address the problems of hunger and poverty both within the United States and around the world. Bread for the World makes it easy to do this. They have a form letter on their website that can be sent to your representative in the US Congress as well as our two Senators, all with the click of one button. To make the email resonate more, you can personalize the letter, perhaps with a statement of why you believe they should take action and/or a brief note of a personal experience if you have ever volunteered at a food pantry, Feed My Starving Children, or another location that aids those in need. You can fill in your name and address in the form next to it and the email will be sent to all of the correct representatives. Click or tap here to advocate for programs that work towards ending hunger and poverty in the United States.
A phrase that could be helpful to remember is "There is no 'them', only 'us'." Poverty and hunger affect over 40 million people in the United States (that is 1 out every 8 Americans), and over 750 million people worldwide (1 out of 10 citizens of Earth). Can we, as followers of Jesus, let this happen - to us? Each and every individual letter can and will make a difference. Thank you for your support.
As Bread for the World states, "Have faith, end hunger."