Designated Ministry: World Hunger—March 2, 2008

Suggested worship service for this day.
PowerPoint presentation to support the story.

For stories about what’s happening in Apostle Mary Jacks Dynes’ Canada/North Central USA Mission Field, read the March Herald “Sharing in the Field” section or visit www.CofChrist.org/offertory.

A. Disciples’ Generous Response Story: World

Community of Christ—Prepare a Table

Each Sunday we are invited to “share equally” with Mission Tithes for local and world ministries. These stories are provided to keep us in touch with how your contributions to Mission Tithes are spreading the peace of Jesus Christ.

As Community of Christ members, we have grown familiar with sharing in World Hunger Emphasis Sunday in March and September. As this emphasis grew closer for March, memories of a time of hunger in my own life became fresh in my mind. When my parents moved from Toledo, Ohio to a town in Indiana where we did not have a Community of Christ congregation, I chose to remain and found a room to rent just a few blocks from the church. I was about nineteen at the time. My job as an assistant bookkeeper did not pay enough to cover all of my monthly expenses – room rent, bus fare to and from work, plus food costs. There was a bakery that sold day-old-rolls at six for ten cents, and I would buy six on Monday mornings, expecting them to last for the week. Sometimes I was so hungry, I ate them all the same day. My pride wouldn't allow me to tell anyone about my situation, so to distract myself, I would find different things to do during my lunch hour. My favorite place to spend lunch was the library. I was surprised to discover a copy of the Inspired Version of the Scriptures, and when it was time to turn it in, I would immediately check it out again.

When I consider how the Lord took my doubts and misgivings and arranged for me to seek out the library as a diversion for my physical hunger, and of how God satisfied my greater hunger for spiritual food, I am amazed. Who but a loving, gracious, insightful Creator could have the vantage point to position us so accurately for time and place and situation. While my time of hunger, which lasted less than two years, cannot compare to those who suffer hunger daily throughout the world, the experience helped me, as a North American living in a land of abundance, to understand the vision of the church’s World Hunger Fund: a world in which the abundance of food that God has provided is fairly and justly distributed, all are fed, and there is peace in all the earth. I am grateful for the opportunity to help others through contributions to the World Hunger Fund, which feeds children and families in places throughout the world such as Haiti, Nicaragua, Brazil, Bolivia, El Salvador, Iraq, Kenya, Zambia, Russia, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. Thank you for responding faithfully by giving so very generously.—Ardith Lancaster, Lee’s Summit, Missouri

B. Disciples’ Generous Response Story: Local 

What is happening to you or in your congregation as a result of giving to local ministries through Mission Tithes? Share those experiences as part of your congregation’s Disciples’ Generous Response.

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C. Blessing on Our Offering

From Psalm 23:1 – 3 (NRSV), we read: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Sharing our Mission Tithes equally between local and world ministries changes lives locally and around the world. Let us share in the prayer of blessing for our offering.