10 Minute Presentation

Introduction and Thanks (who am I)...

Introduce BFW and OL Concept :    2 leg strategy, join bfw, local newsletter

Introduce this year's issue :    Basic stats, we have the means to end hunger

Why is this work important to me spiritually...

• The Basics: God is the creator, the owner of all, we are all his children.
  • We are stewards of Gods creation, we rent what belongs to God 
  • God created each of us with certain talents and potentials
• Hunger is a wasting and theft of God's gifts.
  • A basic denial of the opportunity, and right, of people to develop to their potentials.
  • It steals the future from children and rob society of their potential.
  • It is a fundamental injustice. Even in a free country, a person who is hungry is one who is not free.
  • Hunger is an insult to the creator (pv14:31), a rejection of God's gifts
• God hears the suffering of his people - we are called to respond.
  • In the old testament, he delivered his people from bondage
  • The prophets were sent to demand repentance, to restore justice and return to God.
  • God identifies with the poor and calls on us to help (Pv31: Speak up for the poor and see that they get justice, Ps72: The king rescues the poor, Pv21: do not hear cry of poor will not be heard)
  • In Mathew 25, he warns that when we neglect the poor we turn our back on him. Told to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the sick
• 2 Great Commandments and the Separation of Church and State
  • 1. Love God foremost. We do this individually and through our churches, not government because we need government to accept all religions (Freedom of religion: a founding principle) (No state religion).
  • 2. Love our neighbor as ourselves (what we do in the world). This we do everywhere: individually, within our churches\groups and through our government advocacy (cannot compartmentalize God)
• God has given each of us abilities, special gifts, and the greatest gift of all: redemption.
  • How do we respond to these unearned gifts we can never repay? We use our talents to care for his creation, our neighbors, faith and action become 2 parts of the same coin.
  • What we do with our talents is our gift back to God and how we will be judged
  • Our actions are imperfect, but inaction in the face of suffering is squandering our gifts before God, burying our talent in the sand. It is turning our backs on Gods call.
  • God acts through us in this world, we have faith that our imperfect actions are in his hands
  •  When we do this, we are his instruments, we are the hands of God.

BFW allows us to combine our 2 greatest gifts: Christian faith and action with citizenship in a free land. One more way to answer Gods call