hungry people

Let me tell you about something my friend told me that just breaks my heart. My friend Amy is a missionary in Burkina Faso, Africa which is one of the three poorest countries in the world. Think about that for a moment. The people there plant crops, and depend on the rains to make the crops grow. They harvest the food and live off of it until they can plant again. Food can be purchased, but it is more expensive than most people can afford. Therefore, their life literally depends on the food they harvest. This year the rains have been late. The old harvest is running out, or is gone already, and the new harvest is not ready. It may even be ruined because of the lack of rain, but it's not certain at this time. Part of the culture there is that if you can afford it (which the missionary families can), you hire help around the house. Night guards, house help, etc. Amy told me that another missionary family there was out of town for a few days and discovered upon their return that their guard had been dutifully feeding their dog for them, while he and his pregnant wife had not eaten in two days. They had no food. Of course they told him that should never happen again- that he should help himself to corn from their pantry. My friends have a difficult balance to find. There are so many hungry people that they can't possibly help them all. Then there are the other problems that come with handing out food to everyone. When they do help people, they are bombarded by requests over and over again which can be stressful. And some would argue that it's not even their place to solve this problem for the people since they have managed before their arrival and will have to manage after they leave. The missionaries are going to help their friends and employees and the church members, and provide more seed if that need arises. They are making wise decisions and doing their best in a tough situation. But, this is such a reminder to me about the wealth I enjoy. So often we lose sight of the amazing amount of resources available to us. Not only do we have homes, plentiful food, transportation, clothing, money for extravagance...but even if we WERE poor, we would have resources here to help meet our needs. There is nothing available to those people in Africa. It either rains, or it doesn't. There's no food pantry to turn to. No welfare or food stamps. No friend or relative that is financially secure. It doesn't register usually, in my mind, that there are really people out there that do not have enough food to eat. How can this be? With all the wealth in this world, it seems like that would be an easy problem to fix. How can humans let other humans starve when there is plenty of extra to give? And yes, I am doing something about it...I won't tell you what, but I am spreading my wealth a little. It won't solve the large problem, but it can help a little. But wouldn't it be wonderful if ALL humans decided together that this was unacceptable and did something on a grand scale to ensure that no one ever went hungry again?