Hunger and the Body of Christ

'World hunger hits one billion'

So says the recent headline of BBC news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8109698.stm

I have been in Tanzania almost a month now and I am still blown away from the abundance I see here. Markets are literally overflowing with food and scarcity seems more like a myth than a reality, thus, the headline today baffles me.

Yet it is true that hunger and malnutrition exist here in Tanzania. The first Millenium Development Goal (the United Nations' targets to defeat poverty by 2015, signed on by 192 member countries) aims to reduce by half those who are malnurished and underfed as well as to reduce by half the number of those living in extreme poverty (under 1$ a day).

Currently more than half (56 %) of Tanzania live under a dollar a day, and roughly one quarter of all children are under nourished.

In the media last year, pleanty of coverage was given to the global rise in food prices since, as the BBC article states, the number of hungry people is directly tied to the rising prices. For those who live under 1$ a day much of their income goes to buying food, so when prices expand their meals get smaller.

For a long time it was said there is little that governments (of North or South) can do. The rising prices has been linked to the inadequate production (suppy) and rising population levels (demand). Economically speaking: rising demand and falling supply is a recipe for disaster.

Here in Tanzania, despite being a food economy where agriculture is the number 1 employer and export, the government often finds themselves having to import certain staple crops (such as rice) because they cannot seem to produce enough themselves.

However, rising prices and world hunger can also be caused by climate change induced drought and famine. A few years ago, East Africa was hit by a large famine due to a shortage of anticipated rainfall causing massive failures in crops, making a dent in the National GDP, and more painfully leaving many hungry.

A few weeks ago, headlines in East Africa reported on the meeting between Tanzanian President Kikwete and US President Obama at the White House. Kikwete's main plea was that the US stop giving Africa food hand outs (which floods the country with free food defeating Tanzanian farmers at the markets) and start investing in the agricultural capacity of the country. As I have seen with my own eyes this week, by empowering the poor in rural areas (as I mentioned in my post HOPE...), where nearly 90% of rural dwellers depend on farming, you can fight hunger and poverty in a very real and tangible way.

Again, as I said, there is so much abundance in Tanzania, but this is not simply from my ignorant observations. It is widely understood here in Tanzania that there is pleanty of perfect land that remains uncultivated. Even talking with individuals here in Tanzania I have learned that attaining a plot of land to farm from the government is not very difficult.

Just now, I read on the TZ government website that "The major constraint facing the agriculture sector is the falling labour..."

But falling labour? Tanzania has a massive unemployment rate and. I have personally heard complaints from many Tanzanians about the lack of jobs. But they are telling the truth as well.

Because people are leaving behind their village life and migrating to the cities (like here in Dar Es Salaam) looking for work allured by the dreams of making it BIG, they are also leaving behind work and land that remains uncultivated. Often, it is young males who are migrating...those who need to learn the valuable skills of raising crops and who have the physcial ability to do it.

This past week I have visited many farms of individuals who are excited to show me around. They guide me along fields that are growing an abundance of rice, potatoes and corn as well as show me their fruit trees, spices, vegetables, pigs, goats, cattle, chickens, mushrooms, and much more. These provide their (often large) families with more than enough to eat and an income to send children to school even university, pay for healthcare, and sometimes buy a nice TV for their home

CRWRC works at linking farmers in similar regions together so that they can learn from eachother new techniques, how to diversify and rotate crops, as well as gain knowledge on how to start co-ops and finance groups from which they can give out loans to assist new farmers with start up costs. This work is truly making a difference in many lives and is the very beginning of disrupting the vicious but not invincible poverty cycle.

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In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul condemns the church in how during communion some members are getting drunk of the wine and bread while others are left hungry (and probably sober). Clearly, Paul condemns this saying that it is sinful and against the God vision for the Church. In the next chapter Paul then describes this vision for the body of Christ as united, just as the human body is one: The capacity of each body part enables the other to function to full capacity.

Perhaps Paul is also speaking to our Church and the body of believers today as well. The body of Christ is not simply constrained to our church buildings, the CRC or the North American continent. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom that transcends borders, peoples, income groups, languages, cultures, and yes, even calorie intakes.

If this is true, than the Church in North America is called to reexamine its place in the global economy, its impacts on climate and the natural environment, in the political world and in the field of missions. We cannot be living lives of 'drunkeness' or overconsumption here in the North while 1/6th of the worlds population is left hungry; Nor can we simply offer our good intentions and donations to the poor without advocating for fair policy (domestically and internationally) and better aid.

For as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13:25-26

The body's (Church's) parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

So let us both suffer together that we may be compelled to work together so that we may also rejoice together.