(Photo courtesy Baptist Global Response)

International (MNN) — When we say Global Hunger, there’s not really an image of an individual that comes to mind. Instead it’s more like a sea of unknown faces. Baptist Global Response (BGR) encourages you to look closer.

Right now, there are nearly 800 million individuals that are malnourished, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

Each one needs help. This includes refugee families who have fled ISIS or Boko Haram, children who have lost their parents due to disasters like the Nepal earthquake, and forgotten people who live in extreme poverty.

While the issue is easily ignored when you’re not near it, look around. Malnutrition affects nearly half of all countries, according to the 2015 Global Nutrition Report. That could include yours.

While nearly 800 million is already a scary number to begin with, the threat of that growing is even scarier. But what if you could make a dent in that number?

BGR’s Global Hunger Sunday is October 11, a time to take a step forward and start ending malnutrition.

BGR has partnered with Global Hunger Relief to feed people around the world.

A recent video shows some of the workers who brought 100 tons of food to a forgotten village in Nepal. Villagers they served are just a few people they’ve been able to help. And, with your support, they’ll be able to bring tangible encouragement to even more.

In Jesus’ name, they are using food as a bridge to share the hope and peace only God can provide.

“You’re helping to give food to those who need it the most,” says Jeff Palmer of BGR. And, 100% of any donation you make will go toward ending world hunger.

Start making a difference in the life of an individual or a whole family today.

Sultan and his beehives (Photo by Food for the Hungry)

Africa (FH/MNN) — President Barack Obama spoke to 50 African leaders at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in Washington, D.C. last week (Aug. 4-6), to promote Africa’s economic growth in business and foreign investment. President Obama rallied support for Africa’s upcoming generation in creating business opportunities.

This is something Food for the Hungry (FH) has done for the last 30 years to help Africans create sustainable solutions for their families and villages. FH works to equip small business owners in the African countries of Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This work is driven by their desire to present the love of Christ.

In Kenya, FH worked with pastoralists to broaden the sale of livestock across eight markets, which brought in a total of $2.2 million in sales during the country’s 2011 food crisis. Through training and expanding markets, FH staff are equipping Kenyans to run their own agricultural businesses to sustain them through droughts and other challenges.

In Ethiopia, FH staff train unskilled farmers like Sultan Hassen on how to start a small business to earn income, such as harvesting honey. FH staff also helped to expand local markets for selling agricultural products and livestock.

“I had no special skills with any kind of handcrafts,” said Sultan. “Poverty crept into our house, and eating once a day became rare. I could not tolerate the starvation and poverty any longer with a wife and three children. Finally, I asked my wife to divorce me and go to her parents at least to feed herself and the children, but she refused.”

After receiving training in raising bees and harvesting honey from FH, Sultan earned $2,182 in one year, going from 62 cents a day to $6. He has also expanded his farm to include a pair of oxen, seven modern beehives, two milking cows, and three donkeys. He’s expanded his farm to plant crops and now has 6,600 pounds of maize for sale.

These are two examples of the kind of work Food for the Hungry is doing throughout Africa to empower Africans to start and grow small agricultural businesses with partners like you.

The retired math teacher and current Food Process Manager at Global Aid Network spent the days after completing the ride fixing up his yard, sorting through mail, and defining what he was feeling.

Tony Fritz (Photo from Tourdemeals.org, Tony Fritz)

He said he had a sense of relief from the ride itself, but he knew that he really wasn’t finished.

Fritz decided to cycle across the country in June to raise awareness and money for world hunger.

During the ride, Fritz encountered many people, which you might expect. But many of these people were just the right ones for Fritz to meet, at just the right time.

When his chain slipped off somewhere in Missouri, destroying about six spokes and highlighting a gear-shift problem, Fritz and his wife, Jenny, looked for a bike shop.

They chose one that was about 40 minutes away. The shop owner graciously attended the problem immediately, restringing the spokes and even replacing Fritz’ gear shift.

While he was waiting, Fritz met another cyclist who was there with his infant daughter. They began talking, and Fritz discovered the man cycled for several pro-life rides. The two were able to encourage each other.

One Sunday Friz got lost. He says, “I came to a place where my directions said ‘right’ and I turned ‘left’ because ‘left’ looked a whole lot more inviting.”

After sitting there for a while, trying to figure out where to go, Fritz was approached by another cyclist who asked Fritz if he needed help.

The ten-minute conversation revealed that he was only passing that way because while riding before church, he had a flat tire and was taking a short cut home. No one else was around. The man was a co-founder of one of the major bicycle clubs in the Little Rock Area.

Fritz was very touched by this encounter. God had provided for him at a difficult time.

In addition to these obvious times of need and privision, Fritz was made aware of God’s providence on a daily basis. At his age, Fritz explains, cycling isn’t automatic. He knows there are days where he cannot ride, and should not ride.

“The most difficult part of the trip wasn’t engaging the next day: it was really have enough faith to believe that I would be able to proceed the next day,” he says.

Often Fritz would wake up at 4:00AM, thinking that if he still felt like he did then when he woke up later, he wouldn’t be able to ride his bicycle.

“In every case, I woke up later with full assurance that I was ready to go hop on the bike,” Fritz says.

Fritz’ ride raised enough money to provide 17,051 meals: that’s one solid meal a day for 30 days for 500 children.

Why did he do it?

Reading through his blog, it’s obvious that Fritz is passionate about what he does. God has placed a burden on his heart to fight hunger.

Fritz realizes this is not everyone’s calling. When asked why every Christian should seek to do something, Fritz recalls a message he heard a long time ago.

The speaker essentially said that we are all called to help the poor. Fritz reports him saying,”You can almost evaluate the strength of your relationship with the Lord by how well you respond to the needs of the destitute, the marginalized, the people that are being taken advantage of.”

It’s important to note that this poverty is not always physical, and any work worth doing will address spiritual poverty to some extent. But it’s not necessary for every person to focus their work overseas in third world countries. There are poor and destitute all around us: at work, in our neighborhood, at the gas station.

Fritz encourages us to look up the word “poor” in a Bible concordance and read all the verses mentioned. After that, he recommends noting the ones that are commandments. “If you look at these verses, it’s impossible to get by them and say, ‘Well, you know, that’s really not for me. That verse is for somebody else, not me.’ But we are commanded by Scripture to look after the poor, the widows, the orphans, the marginalized.”

Fritz says none of this should be done out of obligation or “just from a sense of duty,” but “because the light of Christ is within us. That’s part of who we are.”

Part of getting people involved is letting them know the opportunities. “There are lots of individuals who, when you present this idea to them, it’s like their hearts are immediately open.” Fritz met many people who gave him money after simply hearing his story. He hadn’t even asked, and they were moved to help.

“I think there are lots of individuals that will respond to the need when it hits them. Our desire as a ministry is to go one step further and see if we can engage churches that would have the same kind of openness to providing for the needs of those that we serve.”

Fritz asks you to pray for wisdom on how to move forward. GAIN wants to promote their food packing activity within churches around the country.

At the end of his cycling journey, it was obvious to Fritz that his work wasn’t over. But his pathway, for now, was confirmed.

“I thought I would feel exhilarated, but I didn’t. And I was thinking, ‘Well why?’ And then I realized there was a lot of excitement about finishing, but… this isn’t the finish line: this is the start line also. And this is perhaps one step in where we’re going from here. There’s still a mountain ahead of us. There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Tony Fritz (Photo from Tourdemeals.org, Tony Fritz)

USA (MNN) — When Tony Fritz answered his cell phone earlier this week, it was clear he had planned on doing his interview while riding his bike. Talk about multi-tasking! He patiently asked to hear the questions again whenever roaring semis or screeching tires drowned them out.

Fritz, a retired math teacher and the Food Process Manager for Global Aid Network, is currently riding his bike from the ministry headquarters in Plano, Texas to their distribution center in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. The trip in total will be around 1600 miles.

When we spoke with Fritz, he had just crossed over into Missouri and was headed towards Kennett, then to Cairo, IL where he’ll cross the Mississippi and head towards Indianapolis. Then he will be on the final stretch.

So, why is Fritz riding 4-5 hours a day? He says, “I just thought this would be a great way to use my love of biking and create awareness for a worldwide problem.”

The bike ride is a pledge-per-mile fund-raiser called Tour De Meals, which is simultaneously raising awareness for worldwide hunger.

Fritz, who has done long rides in the past, thought Tour De Meals would be a great way to combine his passions for ministry and biking. Since he was heading to Texas anyway to celebrate his grandchildren’s birthdays, he thought, “Why not?”

In June, GAIN USA had several hundred volunteers daily for a week prepare supplies to go out around the world. They are one of very few organizations that sees the process through from donation to shipping and distribution (read more about that here). This includes packing rice and beans off to refugees in Syria, Northern Iraq, and to Guatemala and several African countries.

When asked what drove him to sacrifice all this time and energy outside of the work he already does, Fritz replied, “You know, if we had one child in America that died of hunger, it would make the national news instantly. And yet, here’s a problem that’s worldwide: it happens thousands of times per day and just becomes a statistic and not very impactful. So anything that I can do to bring awareness to this problem and get people to pitch in, it’s just a real plus.”

Fritz attributes much of his passion for this ministry to how he was raised. He says, “I think it’s kind of part of my DNA–you know, probably the way I was raised, the way I was nurtured in the Church.”

Providing food for people in need is Fritz’ application of helping the less fortunate.

“We’re not looking necessarily just to give a hand out on a long-term basis; that doesn’t do a lot for people’s self-esteem. But in emergency situations, which is where we [operate], it can be very beneficial because there’s a short-term need.”

Fritz explains that while many are dying from lack of nutrition in emergency situations, there isn’t necessarily a lack of the resources themselves. “It’s a matter of distribution. I mean, we have resources that could be shared, SHOULD be shared.”

Emergency relief comes way before the process of sustainable development, Fritz explains. “These people are in dire straits through, in most cases, no fault of their own.”

Followers of Christ are called to live like Christ. Part of that includes helping those in need. But the response looks very different from person to person.

Fritz shares a story of a grateful king who declares everyone should be a firefighter after a fireman saves his burning castle. What kingdom would function if everyone had the same occupation? It is the same idea as far as Christian ministry goes.

“Every person has to decide for himself,” Fritz says. “There are a lot of good causes out there, a lot of things to pour your life into, and this is one of them. I don’t think everybody needs to do this, but everybody needs to have awareness of it.”

Over the winter, Fritz trained at least an hour five days a week, inside. Once spring hit, he began to hit the road outside. A month and a half before he started this trip, Fritz was doing several long bike rides (up to 80 miles) a week. He calls the last bit a “short-term cram session.”

“The long miles don’t seem to be the major problem,” Fritz explains. He says that rest, proper hydration. and nutrition with attention to electrolytes are the keys to success on a ride like this. He believes anyone who can stay on top of those things can go for such a long bike ride.

If you have a passion for helping hungry people, or for people in need, Fritz is making it very simple for you to participate.

Along with raising awareness, Tour De Meals is a pledge-per-mile fundraiser.

“A penny a mile is $15, [which] feeds a child for a month,” Fritz says.

Click here for the pledge page.

He asks for prayer that he would use caution in preparation and in riding. Also, he requests prayer for his wife. Jennifer Fritz has planned the route and does her best to meet her husband every 10-15 miles. Sometimes those rendezvous don’t work due to weather and other complications.

Also, pray for Fritz’ safety and perseverance. He fell recently, and he says, “There are accidents kind of waiting around the corner.”

Fritz is grateful for all of the support he has received. For the first 650 miles, the only bikers Fritz met were Christians. They were very excited about Tour De Meals and offered their support.

“I’m just thankful to have this opportunity. We have a great team. There are a lot of people behind the scenes that you don’t see in this process,” Fritz says. This team consists of people updating his blog, promoting Tour De Meals, creating the Web site, etc. One woman even orchestrated a note-making station during the packing event last month, and now Fritz’ wife parcels out the notes to encourage him daily.

“I am just kind of overwhelmed with the number of people that pitched in and made this thing come together,” Fritz says. “It’s been fantastic, really. There’s no other way to describe it.”

GAIN USA encourages you to support Fritz’ efforts: “Your gift today will change a life. Because you chose to support Global Aid Network, more people will receive tangible confirmation that God loves them and wants to have a relationship with them. Thank you for expressing the love of Jesus Christ in this meaningful way!”

You can keep updated on Fritz’ progress at his blog here.

Tour De Meals route (Photo from Tourdemeals.org, Tony Fritz)

"As you think of the holidays, it's very natural for us to begin to think about children," says Rody Rodeheaver with IN Network.

For kids in the West, Christmas conjures images of presents and reindeer and holiday feasts. But it's a different scenario for kids supported through IN Network's child sponsorship program. Gaining a sponsor is often the child's only hope of leaving an impoverished life.

"It helps break the chains of poverty and gives those children a chance at a better life–a chance to go beyond where they are today," Rodeheaver explains.

He says sponsored children get a warm meal every day at school, usually their only meal for the day. On Christmas Break, they return home to their families and are often the last ones to eat. Many experience severe hunger as a result.

"Our staff thought, 'Wow, what if we could impact that and provide a food basket for all the children in our work; wouldn't that make a difference?'" states Rodeheaver.

He's referring to IN Network's Christmas Family Food Baskets. These baskets contain enough food to sustain a family through December 25 and beyond.

"It will help them get through the whole Christmas period, and there will be a celebration in those homes like they've never had before," says Rodeheaver. "Those children will come back to school really rejoicing because they know that somebody not only cared to send them to school, but cared to provide food for their family.

"At the end of the day, these families have very little. To give them
this kind of a Christmas present is…life-changing, and so important." 

"We can do so much for so little," Rodeheaver adds. "$50 can feed an entire family for the entire Christmas season." 

Rodeheaver says they hope to feed every single child–even kids without a sponsor.

"We can't give a food basket to just the sponsored kids," said Rodeheaver. "All those children in that school need to get a food basket, in all the schools that we serve.

"That's why this is such a great challenge. We need other people's help to make sure that every child in every classroom gets the help they need."

You don't have to be involved in child sponsorship to help out. You just need a caring heart.

"We would encourage those who aren't to do this in support of children all across the International Needs Network," he explains. "There are many more children…than what our current number of sponsors can adequately handle."

Click here to make sure no child wakes up hungry on Christmas Day.

In the midst of poverty and despair, and with the celebration of Christ's birth around the corner, pray that sponsored kids and IN Network Staff will be reminded "through the gifts of others, but also through the continuous sharing of the Gospel, that Jesus does love them and that they too can experience His freedom, and they can discover a whole new world through getting an education."

"We've not been producing as much as we are consuming," said Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Supplies are now very tight across the world, and reserves are at a very low level, leaving no room for unexpected events next year."

What does this mean? Think back to 2008, says Peter Howard with Food for the Hungry.

"We saw food riots all over the world, especially in poorer countries where access to food is literally life and death," said Howard. "In parts of Africa, families have to fight for the food they're trying to access."

Violence is just one possible result of a global food crisis. Howard says it's like a ripple effect.

"[The food crisis] not only affects nutrition, but it can affect education, health, and then the social fabric of families and communities," he explains.

So how did we get here? The global food supply took a dive after severe droughts this summer. According to the FAO, 870 million people are malnourished and the food crisis is growing in the Middle East and Africa. Families in Central Asia and Haiti don't have enough food either.

In light of troublesome signs, Howard says there's good news, too.

"A lot of organizations like Food for the Hungry are working very closely at the community level and helping farmers with more drought-resistant crops that are improving production.

"And that's what we want to continue to do so we don't get back into a situation like we had in 2008 when there were riots."

Click here to see where FH works around the world. Pray that God would lead you to help fight world hunger. Pray for those waging war against physical hunger and spiritual hunger.

"Pray not only that we can help communities have more access to real physical food," Howard asks, "but also that we could walk with churches and communities and help them reach their full, God-given potential."

See how your dollar can go further to help people in need.

BGR's seed program, Project Restore Hope, produces enough food to sustain the widows and orphans and an excess they can sell to pay for basic necessities. Widows are also provided a monthly food supplement until their crops are ready to produce. Watch a video about Project Restore Hope.

"The Grafton war widows are a good example of living with zero margin for any crisis that would lead to a poor harvest," said Mark Hatfield, BGR area director for Sub-Saharan Africa.

"These ladies don't have wage-earning jobs or products to sell to make up for a bad harvest. They have taught me a lot about living in faith," Hatfield added.

Margaret Tucker started War Widows for Christ after losing her husband in the civil war and struggling to provide for her children. Many widows are considered social outcasts and have little or no prospect for remarriage. The widower's family will often take the children and all the family's possessions, leaving the widow penniless.

A Catholic priest donated land for the war widows to grow and harvest peanuts. The priest also asked Tucker and the other widows to care for a large number of orphans living in an abandoned movie theatre. Each war widow took on several orphans to feed and care for; Tucker herself looks after 22 orphans.

"I formed this group so we can engage ourselves in good things, something that was of God, so we can sustain our lives and our children," said Tucker. "When we [first] came together, we used to…think about what happened before: how they killed our husbands, how our children died.

"We forget about that now when we come together and sing and praise God together."

Members are expected to participate in the study of God's Word. Most of the women in Tucker's group are Muslim; some have developed an appreciation for Scripture. Several have surrendered their lives to Jesus.

Pray that war widows would share the Good News with everyone they encounter.

War Widows for Christ began on a three-acre hillside plot near Tucker's home. Their work has now expanded to include a 30-acre rice farm outside Grafton. Seven widows live on the property to care for it, while others make a weekly commute.

BGR said two other communities in Sierra Leone have joined Project Restore Hope.

"If the war widows can transform their community into a caring, productive community, [others] could adapt that model," said Ron Hill, a retired Southern Baptist missionary. Ron and his wife, Sharon, had served in Sierra Leone from 1992 to 1997.

"This could change the mindset of communities from 'we are helpless to do anything about our situation' to 'we can come together and impact the problems in our community.'"

Resources needed to sustain the war widows and Project Restore Hope are provided by the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund. Empower communities and individuals by clicking here.

This means that, if needed, Russia has agreed to use military force to maintain peace in Central Asia–a region bound to grow more volatile with the 2014 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Political unrest isn't the only trouble stirring in Central Asia. In Tajikistan alone, 47% of the population lives in poverty, and at least 8,000 kids live and work in the streets. Eight out of ten people lack food security in this nation. According to one Putin aide, money sent home from the 1.1 million Tajiks working in Russia made up about half of Tajikistan's GDP.

Poverty often limits kids' access to education and adequate food, but Baptist Global Response is providing both to about 40 young boys in Central Asia. These boys don't have a school in their villages and are housed in a hostel by BGR partners. They're also provided a hot meal before they go to school each day. Help them receive a quality education.

Pray that these boys would rise above their circumstances.

Russian analysts have said "destabilization is imminent in Central Asia" when U.S. troops pull out of Afghanistan in 2014. A source from the Russian Academy of Sciences has said that the Taliban hopes to return to power in Afghanistan or at least increase their influence, which would probably create a domino effect in the region. Pray for peace in Central Asia.

"You can walk into one of the villages when
people have been paid and, even in the morning, everyone is drunk including the
children," says Lars Dunberg of Global Action. "It's just a horrible
situation. People will starve to death this winter."

To help thousands of unemployed and starving
families, Global Action's Moldova Feeding Program presents not only a solid
meal, but the Bread of Life.

"It's a very, very meaningful program; it saves
lives for 78,000 people this coming winter," Dunberg states. "Every
meal time also has singing and people sharing the Gospel in various ways, whether through personal testimony or  sharing Scripture with these
people, telling them why they're doing this."

One story particularly sticks out in Dunberg's mind.
It's the tale of an elderly woman who used to be an "ardent
Communist" until she found love in Jesus Christ.

"Communism never cared for me. These people
care for me. I was never gong talk to them about their Jesus, but when I saw
their love in action to me, I had to accept His love."

Dunberg says many testimonies resemble this one.
Global Action works with partnering organizations to operate seven soup
kitchens throughout Moldova. For those who cannot come to the kitchens, food
packages and the Gospel are hand-delivered.

This report comes in light of a global summit which was held
in Rome last week to address the issue of world hunger. One of every six people
worldwide suffers from chronic hunger, and the UN World Food Program says over
a billion people don't get enough food to be healthy. Critics say the three-day
summit produced no concrete actions to resolve this looming hunger crisis –this
despite a promise made over ten years ago to "halve the number of hungry
people by 2015."    

Dunberg says action is key to helping end world
hunger.

"We are Global Action, we are not global
thinking. We want to go beyond all the levels of bureaucracy that can stop
something like this and just do it."

Global Action
also works with the next generation in Moldova, providing food, materials and
mentoring for young people. 

"We take them and work with them, counsel
them, help them with their schoolwork and try to put them into a meaningful
future without drinking, without drugs, without sex," he states. Dunberg
adds: Global Action is "trying to work with them in an abstinence way so
they can really grow and mature and be able to get the jobs there in a better
way."

Dunberg requests your prayers for this beneficial
feeding program in Moldova. He says funding is desperately needed.

"As you sit down at the Christmas
table, think of those who have nothing; for 75 cents, you can impact
someone's life. Why not ten, why not hundreds, why not thousands?"

Click here to make an impact.

These statistics came from the newly-established Food Security
Risk Index (FSRI) created by London-based Maplecroft, the risk advisory
business. The index "measures the availability, stability and access to basic
food stocks, as well as the impacts on nutrition and health that result from
food insecurity," according to the American Free Press.

AFP also reports Maplecroft ranked each country based on
their performance in 19 key indicators, which include "imports, exports and
production of cereals, food production per capita, rate of undernourishment per
capita, water resources, GDP per capita and global aid shipments."

While June was National Hunger Awareness month, Bright Hope
International had no intention of ending their efforts in Haiti then. Instead,
through their Hope4Haiti program, they have scheduled a food packaging drive
from October 22 -25.

According to Bright Hope's Web site, Hope4Haiti is "a
holistic program spanning over three to five years to completely transform 17
communities."

Throughout the next few years, Bright Hope plans not only
to help children in these communities fill their stomachs, but also to provide them
with an education and the love of Christ.

The food pack in October will provide 2,550 children with
meals. However, Bright Hope needs over 1,000 volunteers for four days to pack
270,000 meals in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

In addition to the food drive, Bright Hope wants to provide
Hope Packs to these children. The packs include school supplies and a Bible in their
native language, which can also impact their friends and family members.
Currently, Bright Hope needs 5,000 Hope Packs at $30 each.

Finally, in an effort to create self-sustaining communities,
Hope4Haiti will provide jobs for these children's families through a microloan
program. By April 2010, Bright Hope needs $50,000 for this program.

To help in any of these three areas, click here.

Also, pray for the children and their families in these 17
communities, that their physical and spiritual hunger will be met.