Hunger...Waste Not...Want Not

I was in church this morning and today's sermon was delivered by Bro Leong. Now this is a man who delivers God's word using power point like presentation...very organized and always full of facts... a very learned servant of God.

He did not however start his sermon the usual way. He caught everyone by surprise when he shared with the congregation about 4 photos taken in Africa...Ethiopia if I am not mistaken. They were images taken by professional photographers and the one particular photo that he made us ponder is one which won a Pulitzer Prize.

In this picture, there is this African boy making his way to a UN food relief centre about 1km away. In this picture was a bird waiting nearby. Can you imagine the picture in your mind? Not yet? How about this then....Picture the boy, a very young and fragile boy...unclothed, hunger strickened to the point where his skeletal frame was the only thing holding up his sun parched skin and he wasn't on his feet. He was dragging himself along that 1 km journey under the open scorching sun on his belly.

Now, the bird, I am sure you would have realized by now, isn't any ordinary bird... it was an adult vulture, waiting patiently a few feet away from this boy, waiting for him to die, probably waiting for its turn to have its long awaited meal.

I felt sick inside. It was so heart wrenching to capture that scene in my mind. We only see this momentarily but for the poor child and many others like him, its pure hell everyday. They did not ask to live like this. No one did. So, why did it happend anyway? One religion would say its karma while others would say its God's will. So which is which then? I don't have an answer to that question.

Neither could the photographer who snapped the photos for he took his own life 3 months later. How tragic!

Many of us the world over are so very fortunate that we have food to eat, water to drink, clothes to wear and house to live in. But for these African people, they have virtually nothing...not even hope! It is tragic, so very sad indeed. As I penned this down, I am filled with guilt.

Guilty that I have more than enough to eat, to drink, to wear and a very comfortable house to live in and yet sometimes I grumbled as to why I don't get to dine in some pricey joint, why I can't afford to wear designer labels

and when will I get to live in a mansion. These thoughts have crossed my mind one time or another.

I grumble no more. I wish I could bring this message to the rest of our people, not to waste their food, just because they have paid for it, not to waste water, just because it is cheap or they have paid for it as well. The amount of food we leave behind at our tables after each meal.

Granted, each community has its cultures and traditions entrenched in their way of life. Some of them includes annual food fights like the tomato fights observed in Spain. Can we still afford to throw away food so carelessly when there are others out there without any food to eat at all. Sinful aren't we all?

More and more of our wasted food end up in landfills when they could have been fed to thousands or even millions of hunger stricken people around this planet.

The very morsel of food or drop of water that we throw away is probably what separates life from death for our African friends. There are many many more suffering in this world, only we do not realize it because we don't see it.

Can't we help or won't we help? When will we ever wake up to this reality? When?

I have decided to make a stand. I have decided to adopt a child. We can all do that by going through world organizations such as World Aid or similar organizations. If we cannot afford to spare our time then we should give from our pockets. We do not need to give a lot but only what we can afford. If every abled and fortunate man were to give a little a person, there would be more than enough in this world to go around.

Maybe someday, someday I might just see myself being part of the world movement and not just side, sponsoring financially.