With the help of Southern Baptist World Hunger Funds, we can start by meeting the most basic needs of those around us in an effort to meet their ultimate need for Christ in their hearts.
“They need to eat, they need to be warm,” Thomas says. “But I think with that, if we really minister to the heart and the minds of the people, that’s where we see change.”
Last year, the ministry of Set Free Church took a huge step forward in this endeavor, hosting their largest outreach to serve the hungry on Thanksgiving. With the help of World Hunger Funds and in partnership with local churches and businesses, the ministry saw 1,500 homeless and hungry people fed, while receiving the message of Christ’s love.
“We used to put tables in the middle of the streets and just made like a little dining room. We invited the people on the street to come and have a seat,” says Thomas. “Then we invited various churches and youth groups to serve plates of food and drinks and just had a blessed time.”
Though the population of hungry and homeless is more concentrated in areas like Skid Row, the need to serve them is great throughout the United States. As the country’s economy has taken continued hits over the last few years, nearly 35 percent of American families have found themselves forced to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage.
The result of struggles like this is a growing population of hungry and needy spread throughout the United States. In the land of plenty, some 49 million Americans struggle with hunger; 17 million of these are children.
To help churches like Set Free to combat this growing epidemic, the Southern Baptist Convention set up direct funds to provide assistance to ministries and churches in their efforts to feed the hungry. The World Hunger Fund allocates donations to SBC churches and ministries in both North America and abroad in an effort to come alongside them in their ministry to the homeless and hungry.
Just last year the North American Mission Board’s hunger relief fund fed more than 5 million meals to the hungry in the U.S. with the assistance of World Hunger Funds. And the work doesn’t stop there. Through these hunger ministries, 33,000 professions of faith were declared in the last year.
In an effort to bring to light the growing hunger problem in the world and encourage Southern Baptists to act, churches will be declaring October 9th as World Hunger Sunday. For more than 30 years, Southern Baptist churches have participated in this event to raise awareness of the needs in their own communities and around the world and to encourage church members to respond.
Offerings designated for World Hunger are used not just to feed the physical hunger, but also to introduce the gospel of Christ as the means of fulfilling the spiritual hunger plaguing many of those in need. This is the ultimate goal of church planters like Ron Thomas: to reach and rejuvenate their communities for Christ. With the help of Southern Baptist World Hunger Funds, they can start by meeting the most basic needs of those around them in an effort to meet their ultimate need for Christ in their hearts. OM
Sara Shelton is content development specialist for On Mission.
ACTION ITEM:
Interested in giving to hunger relief? Visit
namb.net/hunger for more information on the issue of hunger and how to give to hunger ministries in North America.
Watch a video about Ron Thomas and Set Free Church’s ministry to the homeless.
38 Fall 2011 •
onmission.com
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