Kids Against Hunger

If you previously read this post, than you know a little bit about Kids Against Hunger. Otherwise, I will be glad to tell you. KAH is a non-profit organization that uses volunteer labor in the US to package this rice casserole type stuff which is then sent all over the world. Their commitment is to stop death by starvation around the world.

The Beginning
Richard Proudfit went on a trip to Honduras in 1974 after a hurricane destroyed much of the country. He saw the effects of starvation and decided to do something about it. He enlisted the help of food scientists from several big name companies to develop a food that would provide all the nutrition that a starving child needs in one meal per day. KAH started out of Minnesota in 1999. We met Richard at the missionary convention and he is a neat man with many incredible stories. This was the beginning for us. Dan was also at the convention, and he heads up the Indiana satellite which is out of the Red Cross in Noblesville. This is where we have been volunteering once a month.

The Food

"The meal ingredients are formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins needed by an undernourished child’s body and mind. The food is also acceptable to the broad diversity of ethnic tastes and religious differences around the world. The food offers all 9 of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition, something that can’t be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or beans alone. It is also very simple to prepare, requiring only 6 cups of boiling water to make a complete meal."

The soy, rice, vegetables and vitamins are all dehydrated and just need boiling water to make. Richard said they had to experiment with the right amount of vitamins, because starving children could actually get sick from too much vitamin.

The Process
Volunteers form an assembly line where there are stations for each of the ingredients, as well as a weighing station, sealing station, and boxing station. The food goes in the bag in a certain order and then is weighed to make sure that it is between 390g and 400g and then it is sealed and packed. 6 meals per bag, 36 bags per box, so 216 meals in one box. At the end, each meal costs about 23 cents!

Volunteer
There are currently satellites in 18 states and 1 in Canada. This includes the one in Noblesville, one in Louisville that just started, and some others that I don't know whether they are close to anyone that reads this. You can also start your own satellite. Over 50 million meals have gone out to 40 different countries since it started.

Here are some pictures of our last few times:

the food


young volunteers lured away by Veggie Tales


the lines


the stations


Its fun, it allows us to meet new people, and it is loving "the least of these".

The Kite Runner

We just saw The Kite Runner. It was really good. It was powerful and troubling and touching. I am still processing what I saw, so I don't really have a big statement about it. I did notice that a poem that the young boy was reciting as well as a letter written by someone mentioned God's love, grace, etc. God being Allah in Islam. I have heard from a pretty reliable source (i.e. one who can read Arabic) that the word "love", and its meaning like we could compare to God's love in the Bible, does not appear in the text. If there is the concept of Godly love in the Quran, it seems to only apply to Muslim believers, and excludes all others, in fact going so far as to say that they (non-Muslims) must be killed. You can reach all sorts of conclusions about a religion based on the people that claim it as their faith (Christians doing terrible things just like non-Christians) but you have to go to its scripture to get the real picture, and the real picture from the Quran is not good. I have some notes from a class I attended at the missionary convention from a guy who has been a missionary in Indonesia (largest Muslim population in the world) for many years. He revealed some scary things from the Quran. Maybe I will post about it later.

In other news, check out the trailer for this Ben Stein documentary, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. Looks interesting. Its premise is that any mention of creationism in science and schools has become taboo and that people lose their jobs and reputation over suggesting that it is true. Pretty sad when we have free speech everywhere else.

Back to High School

Beth has been volunteering as a group leader in the high school service at E91 (East 91st Street Christian Church). The church is big enough to have a separate church service for the high schoolers while the main contemporary service is going on in another sanctuary. There are probably 150-200 on a regular basis. She had been working with the sophomore girls but recently was moved to freshman girls.

I helped out once with the sophomore boys and decided that it was not for me. I was having a hard time not thinking about how obnoxious and immature high schoolers are. I went back a few weeks ago because our friend Rachel was speaking to the students about her recent trip to Uganda. I helped out with the sophomore boys again that time and it was a lot better. I was able to laugh off most of their antics and I actually talked to a few of them. I decided to tell the high school pastor that I was willing to continue helping, since he has definitely needed help with all of the age groups. Also I have felt like the bible fellowship that I usually go to while Beth is helping with the teens is not really taking me anywhere. And although it is not advertised in the publications as a singles group, I am the only married person, and it feels awkward at times.

So God totally changed my mind on that one. I think I could enjoy it, and I think God has been preparing me to be in this position of positive influence for a bunch of sexually charged, obnoxious boys. My job entails worshiping with the whole group and the rest of the adult helpers, and then taking attendance when we split into small groups. I also have to lead the group in a discussion about the day's question. Last week it was "If you could switch places with anyone, who would it be and why?" This provoked many very creative answers and nothing that could be turned into a biblical lesson. The break-out groups last about 15 minutes, which is long enough for me to finish attendance (I don't know any of their names yet) , ask the question, and force an answer out of a few of them. Then it is time for them to go back to the main group, like a school bell at the end of the day, and they all cut the conversation off with a knife.

The hardest part about it, is I feel like I am back in high school. Either laughing or rolling my eyes at someone's joke. Generally I feel like one of the shy kids that no one talks to. They don't know me, so usually when I ask a question they stop just long enough to look at me, and then turn back to the person next to them to talk about anything but God.

It is going to be a challenging period of growth for me.

I had a revelation while trying to think about what would make me cool. And it dawned on me that a lot of them have to like Ultimate Frisbee. So when it gets warmer, that is going to be my ministry. I will let you know how it goes.

The Solution

Caveat: I am going to talk about poverty and AIDS. They are becoming increasingly present in my thoughts, because, well Africa will do that to you.

Assumptions:
1. I admit, throwing money at a problem does not necessarily fix it.
2. Rich people are really rich.
3. The problem has a pretty simple solution.

The catalyst is this: Business Week - 50 Most Generous Philanthropists, which is quite interesting and sad at the same time. Look through it, but I did some analysis for us. These are some of the main topics and the number of people who had it listed under their main causes. The list is not exhaustive.

Education 30
Art 14
Health 11
Children/Youth 8
Medical research 7
Social causes 6
Science 6
Environment 5
Humanitarian 3
Cancer 2
Libraries 2
Conservation 2
Poverty 1 *In Oklahoma
Animals 1
Civil rights 1
Eradication of obesity and diabetes 1
Science about life's big questions 1
Unleashing human potential 1 *microloans

The one and two word descriptions don't do justice to some of the causes, and some can be grouped together, but I wanted you to get any idea of these causes.

At first I wanted to complain about how these people chose to give away their money. Clearly I have no right to do that and it wouldn't do any good. What I would like to do, though is to highlight the potential for giving and how it can really impact the GLOBE and not just certain interests.

Some of the biggest issues today are poverty and AIDS. Here are some statistics:

Poverty.Com: "About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds."

World Health Organization: "In 2007 33.2 million [30.6 – 36.1 million] people were estimated to be living with HIV, 2.5 million [1.8 – 4.1 million] people became newly infected and 2.1 million [1.9 – 2.4 million] people died of AIDS."
"...68% of the global total, are in sub-Saharan Africa. Eight countries in this region now account for almost one-third of all new HIV infections and AIDS deaths globally."

So, when I looked at the causes that these top 50 people donated to, I wondered, how could you choose a library over a country with starving people (including the streets of USA)? How could you choose an Ivy League University over the 1 billion people who do not have access to safe drinking water? New Life International

But, look at the slideshow on the top givers and their causes, there are some neat things being done there, and I respect that too. Here are some comments that stuck out to me:

Ira Fulton, #42: "I have fun making money," says Ira, "but I have more fun giving it away."

T. Denny Sanford, #17: He gathers feedback from children to inform his giving and has funded a children's hospital, modeled after a medieval castle to entertain children while they heal.

George Kaiser, #3: Kaiser has said he plans to increase his gifts "until I die with $1 left, assuming I can get the timing just right."

Bill and Melinda Gates, #2: To help measure effect and constantly innovate its giving model, the Gates Foundation created an Impact Office in 2006 to improve its programs, track progress, and build effective giving models in the future.

So, what's the point? Well if even one of these givers focused on a developing country, they could feed literally every person in that country enough to survive on a daily basis. (23 cents per meal that has all the nutrients a person needs to survive on one meal a day, Kids Against Hunger) They could provide safe drinking water to everyone.

Lets make this practical, take the 1 billion people without access to safe drinking water worldwide. "Access" means that they get their water from a contaminated source. New Life International, see the link above, developed a water purifier that costs $1,000. They state that the operational costs of the purifier are about $1 per person, per year. They are quite simple, and the locals can be trained to operate it very easily. One purifier can service an entire village, which for the sake of calculation we will say is 1,000 people. There are 1,000,000 "villages" of people around the world without safe water. So $1 billion could purchase purifiers for all of these people. You would need another $1 billion of operational costs per year. So it would cost $2 billion to provide safe drinking water to all of the people around the world who need it.

On the list of 50 people, the total amount given in the last 4 years was... 71 billion dollars.

If that action were taken, 3,800 children a DAY would not have to die. World Vision

So, can't we do more?

A Children's Story

I wrote a story for children. It is intended to be read to children to explain evolution to them. It is written in the first person so it might be difficult for them to understand. Follow along.

MPAA: Rated PG for innuendo and some peril.

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Evolution?
A true story by Adam Hunt

Long, long ago, billions of years ago... there was a slime pit. The slime pit was composed of various forms of matter that had randomly evolved from smaller components of matter that randomly evolved from matter that was created in matter-less, oxygen-less space. In that slime pit, there randomly evolved a prokaryote named... Tim. Now Tim was a prokaryote with a big bacterial flagellum and even bigger dreams...

Man, I have to pee. That's better... You know, the human digestive system is quite amazing. How did the randomly assembled, randomly created DNA know to develop this system to expel liquid waste from my body? How did it know to separate the liquid waste from the solid waste and make two points of exit? HOW did it know that it could use the same point of exit for liquid waste and for other things? How did this randomly assembled, randomly created DNA know that the same point of exit used for expelling liquid waste would be used to interface with the exit point of a randomly created female?

Boy, it must have taken a long time for that first male human and first female human to randomly evolve their interfacing parts in order to create the third human. How did they know what to do? That must have been awkward! Did he get slapped? They must have been alive for like, a billion years, or something!

How did two randomly created humans create another human who was very non-randomly the same as them? They must have been very excited, they must have thought that this third human would randomly evolve something very exciting, like a laser arm or something to help them hunt. They just had to wait, like, a billion years.

How did they raise this third human up? Did they feed it like, steak? It seems like they would need something softer and easier to digest, like, milk or something. Where would they get milk? Ah! How convenient. The female randomly evolved glands in her randomly larger chest that produced such a substance. How fortunate!

And thus was life on Earth.

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So what did you think? I haven't heard back from any publishers yet, but I am hoping that one has randomly evolved into liking my work. Isn't incredible how exact and detailed all of these random events had to be to create life? It is almost like, well, no that seems impossible... All right, I will say it, don't laugh, OK? Well I was thinking that maybe it wasn't so random after all. Maybe, something was behind it all. Some Designer, some Author of the story, some thing that cared enough to pay attention to all that detail. It would have to be big, bigger than any one of us. It sometimes feels like that very same Designer is still involved in the events of my random life, like I don't have total control. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try to run and change things, something else still happens. Am I not independent? Am I not in control of my own destiny? Aren't I responsible for all of my needs and desires? If it really is just life for 90 years and then I die, then why aren't I backpacking Australia right now?

Why am I in Indianapolis? Why did I get married? Why do I use all of my vacation time to go to Africa? Why do I send money every month to allow some child to eat and learn, isn't it his responsibility? Why does it crush my heart to see him like that? Its almost like there is something inside of me that compels me to do things. That urges my inner being to move in a certain direction. It is almost as though something is listening to the desires of my heart and doing something about it. Who could do something like that? Why? If I am just going to die and dissolve into earth, then what is the point?

But, what if there is more? What if this isn't my last stop? Where would I go then? Can I take my money? Did this place also evolve from a prokaryote? What if this same thing, this presence, this Creator, cares enough to shine light on the path before me and to guide my steps? What if this Creator were using all of the good things that happen, and the bad to move me along that path? If this Creator created me, such a complicated being, it must be smart, he must be a male. If He created me, he must have some purpose for me. He must know something that I don't. He must know that all of this that I go through will teach me something that will help me get to this next place. I bet that this feeling that crushes my heart will be useful in getting there. I bet it will even help me understand why He did this. Maybe I should use this feeling more often. Maybe others have it? Maybe I should give it to others? This is something... this is revolutionary! I will use this feeling to help people. I will use it to help them see that if they use it, then they will understand the purpose of it all, they will get to this next place. In this next place, there will be no more need for bad feelings, bad emotions. There will be no more need for that stuff because everyone who is there will have understood this feeling, this action, that helped them understand the purpose of it all. They will know this action so well that they will realize that it is everything. It needs a very good word. Let's call it "Love". This Creator is smart, and I bet He has a whole lot of Love. I bet He is frustrated because all He wants us to do is Love Him and Love others and we are worried about reality TV and gourmet coffee.

Of course, we just don't have physical proof, so forget I even said anything.

Cooking Blunder

Ok, I know that this 1 post per month average is not going to work. These blogs take commitment if you want readership, which I don't even know if I have.

Anyway, while in Uganda, my favorite food was called chapatti (various spellings). It is a flat bread that is light and fluffy. You an eat it with sugar, or by wrapping it around a banana, or just wiping up the juices from your meal. There are many recipes for it on the web, all using wheat flour or all purpose flour. However, for some reason I can't get past this memory that our host mother said that she used maize flower, which explains the yellow color that it had. Wheat flower makes it look like Nan (also various spellings) which is an Indian flat bread.

Long story short, I decided to use corn flour this time because I thought that would be like maize flower (Nick is the resident maize expert so maybe he can say if that is the same thing). In my previous attempt I used regular flour and they were pretty good, but not yellow, and fairly dense. Corn flour did not work out by any stretch of the imagination. It was still gritty even though it looked quite fine. It would not press into a flat pancake shape very well without falling apart. I cooked it anyway and it turned out quite awful. It tasted like a bitter cornbread pancake with probably an aftertaste of vegetable oil. We tried eating it with applesauce, sugar/cinnamon mix, and chocolate syrup. Eventually we were just trying to completely mask the taste instead of compliment it. Beth tried hard to make me feel better, but I only felt worse when hers was covered in 1/4 inch of powdered sugar and chocolate syrup lined all over it.

To top things off I burned the vegetable oil onto our calphalon frying pan and I am currently searching for a method to remove it.

In other news, apparently I have to post more often to be worthy of Nick's link list.