Circuit Writer

Pastor’s column from The Tahlequah Christian for the weeks of June 6 -  June 19.

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This past Sunday I raised the question as to why hunger in the world is so rampant when our own food supplies here at home seem so abundant. It occurred to me that it might be a good time to follow up on that sermon with some information, so I turned to the United Nations World Food Program and found some pretty striking information. Did you know …

• · that roughly 1 in 6 people doesn’t receive enough food? (1.02 billion)
• · that this number rose by 75 million in 2007 & another 40 million in 2008 due to the rising cost of food?
• · that 65% of the world’s hungry live in 7 countries? (India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, & Ethiopia)
• · that Vitamin A deficiency due to malnutrition kills a million infants a year?
• · that the World Food Program dewormed 10 million children in 2007? (Yes, that’s the same type of deworming we do for our pets.)

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The following is an article that will appear in this week’s electronic edition of The Tahlequah Christian.  It’s yet another reminder that each and every one of us with a computer and an internet connection can make a difference in small ways in the world around us.

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If you’re one of the folks who have stepped far enough into the digital age to turn on your computer to play solitaire, then you have an opportunity to play a game that will do some good.  FreeRice.com offers a collection of games that will both sharpen your mind and help feed the hungry.  Originally launched as a vocabulary game where you matched a word with its meaning, FreeRice.com now offers games where you can identify famous paintings, test out your math skills, see how good you are at a foreign language, try your hand at world geography, or even beef of your knowledge of the periodic table of elements!  And the best part is that for every correct answer you donate another ten grains of rice to the UN World Food Program.  So consider turning what might be a bad habit into a good one by exercising your mind and helping feed those who hunger – and carry this habit with even after Lent has come to a close.