By Staff
EDITOR’S NOTE: On World Hunger Sunday, Oct. 12, Southern Baptist congregations will address the hunger crisis across North America and around the world, many by focusing on the theme Hunger Happens Everywhere. Donations received are channeled through Global Hunger Relief, which uses 100 percent of each gift to meet hunger needs. For more information, visit www.globalhungerrelief.com.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) — With World Hunger Sunday (Oct. 12) approaching, churches and other groups who want to engage the global hunger crisis have a variety of free and inexpensive resources available to them.
Global Hunger Relief, the new cooperative initiative of Southern Baptist hunger ministries, offers a range of resources on its website, www.globalhungerrelief.com. Visitors will find a range of free promotional resources available — from bulletin inserts and coloring pages for children to videos and the long-popular soup can labels. Access to art files useful in creating customized promotional items and a GHR display booth also are available.
The GHR website also prominently promotes a Hunger Happens Everywhere campaign (www.helpghr.org/now) that helps churches engage hunger needs both globally and locally through the North American Mission Board’s LoveLoud backpack missions emphasis (www.namb.net/backpacks) and a focus on Syria (www.gobgr.org/syria), promoted in partnership by the International Mission Board and Baptist Global Response.
Several of the national GHR partners also offer resources on their websites:
— The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (www.erlc.com/hunger) offers two new resources: (1) a video from ERLC President Russell Moore that illustrates the biblical admonition to “love your neighbor as yourself” with an anecdote from the popular TV sitcom Parks and Recreation and (2) a substantive issue analysis by Daniel J. Hurst on biblical principles undergirding the Christian responsibility to care for hungry people.
— The North American Mission Board (www.namb.net/hunger-relief) provides helpful items like fundraising ideas, testimonials about the impact of hunger giving and background material for sermon preparation. Visitors also will find practical resources like Beginning a Hunger Ministry and a one-hour witnessing workshop for hunger ministry workers.
— The International Mission Board website (www.imb.org) houses literally hundreds of resources on world hunger. Visitors can download bulletin inserts and videos, photos and stories from all over the world. One new item is a simple packet that helps churches add a global hunger emphasis to their fall festival or Trunk or Treat” events. IMB’s free world hunger brochure also is available at www.imbresources.org.
— The Baptist Global Response website hosts a dedicated GHR page at www.gobgr.org/hunger. Visitors will find tabs for news updates and prayer points, as well as resources. BGR offers brief video updates about how hunger funds have changed lives, as well as practical program ideas that run the gamut from a progressive hunger meal to a Run for Their Lives”5K race.
— Woman’s Missionary Union (www.wmustore.com) headlines their anti-hunger campaign with the fall issue of Missions Leader, which includes a two-page feature with basic information, ideas and activities to help churches promote a World Hunger Sunday offering. WMU’s World Hunger 101, a two-hour, church-wide event, explains how to consolidate a full understanding of hunger-related issues and offers age-level session plans with promotion and hunger project ideas. Teaching Preschoolers About Hunger is an interactive four-week study that will help preschoolers learn to reach out to hungry people.
The WMU store also offers the popular bread banks — which visually illustrate GHR’s “Bread for life” tag line — and a World Hunger badge children can earn in missions education groups. Both products bear the World Hunger Fund logo and will implement the GHR brand in 2015.
Global Hunger Relief follows the unique “dollar in, dollar out” path blazed by its predecessor, the World Hunger Fund. Southern Baptists are able to direct 100 percent of each donation to hunger causes because church gifts through the Cooperative Program provide the administrative and implementing infrastructure for hunger relief projects.
The national GHR partners are the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, Baptist Global Response, Woman’s Missionary Union, LifeWay Christian Resources and SBC Executive Committee.
Learn more about Global Hunger Relief at globalhungerrelief.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/globalhunger or Facebook at facebook.com/GlobalHungerRelief.
