Few of us reading this post have experienced hunger beyond the occasional pang from a missed breakfast or delayed lunch. Yet half of our brothers and sisters in countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen, endure such hunger pangs very day. And what about their children? Just imagine how you would explain to your own child that you have no food for supper?
Food is such a basic necessity for life that Christ listed it first, saying “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat,” followed by, “I was thirsty, naked, stranger, imprisoned, sick… and you cared for me.”
My closest encounter with hunger was during the Angola Civil War in the 1990s. Battles in this southern Africa nation began in 1961. We at Kalukembe Hospital were not equipped to provide hunger relief. Rather, we were consumed with managing measles, treating tuberculosis, and caring for people losing limbs from land mines. But when the anticipated spring rain did not arrive, people’s crops withered, and hungry people nevertheless gathered outside our doors. So, my Swiss neighbors and I made a vat of soup from corn meal and cabbage. The first day we carried the vat outside, the throng sprang to their feet and rushed forward waving their bowls and cups. In the ensuing chaos, the soup spilled and everyone drifted away, hungry and dejected.
When the hungry crowd returned, my neighbors and I reconsidered our strategy. We applied the Principles for Food Distribution in Conflict used by humanitarians around the world. Among these include:
Humanity – We will open up our limited resources, to the very best of our ability, to feed our hungry neighbors. This meant also taking a hard look at what supplies we needed to feed our own families. No one should go hungry.
Neutrality – We will not question political or military affiliation of people coming for food. Contrary to the sharply divided ethos at that time in Angola, food assistance was for everyone seeking. No questions asked.
Accountability – We recognize that we need to justify our actions to our hungry neighbors, our financial supporters, and ultimately to God Himself. No misbehavior.
The throng was larger now, more hungry, and with greater anticipation of food. As I contemplated how to avoid another chaotic episode, I recalled the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Read it here in Mark 6:30-44. Jesus instructed his hungry crowd to sit down into groups. I suspect I know why: crowd control. So, I appointed leaders, who gathered the people into small groups and then lead them up to the soup one-by-one until everyone was fed. Thankfully, within weeks the rain returned, and hunger was abated. More importantly, Angola achieved a peace accord that ended the military conflict, followed soon by measles vaccination, removal of land mines, and steady advances in agriculture to alleviate the risks of tuberculosis and the pangs of hunger.
Today, as our world faces widespread hunger in multiple nations, we do well to embrace the established principles of humanitarian hunger response: No one should go hungry. No questions asked. No misbehavior. Instead, let us redouble our efforts to follow the example set by Christ, anticipating that one day He will look us each in the eye approvingly and say “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.”