We recently received a report from our WOW partner in Zambia,ICO (Impact Community Outreach). They  have been engaged in a cholera mitigation project in the Kabwe region in response to the spread of this extremely virulent disease. Thousands of Zambians have been infected with hundreds of deaths.

Poverty, dirty water, and poor sanitation all contribute to Cholera’s spread. These factors are rife in the villages where ICO works. So they made an urgent appeal to WOW for emergency funding in order to purchase soap, chlorine, and disinfectants. We responded and ICO set out to train their volunteers in hand washing and disinfecting methods who then went into the villages to teach our orphans and widows how to combat this wasting affliction.

I read something on the internet recently that astonished me. It was a story about Elmo, the cuddly character on Sesame Street TV, and his question to his social media followers about how they were doing:” Elmo is just checking in. How is everybody doing?” he asked on X. The response was huge. Thousands of people including celebrities (even President Biden!) responded. The general message : “We’re sad. Our world is on fire. We’re having trouble sleeping at night. Where is this world heading?”

Isn’t it sad in itself that the outreach to our suffering world is from a puppet? And even sadder is that people are moved by this fuzzy compassion to open their hearts?

Perhaps this unprecedented relational interaction between real people and a Sesame Street “personality” is evidence of our isolation. We’re connected like never before (due to social media) and marginalized like never before. We are silos desperately in need of someone who truly cares. We are spiritual and emotional orphans. Little wonder there seems to be an epidemic of mental health issues.

We need to rediscover the promise that our Creator cares “He will never leave us nor forsake us…He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”. Indeed, “for God so loved the world…”.

Every New Year the number one resolution by us westerners is to lose weight. We seem to be chronically over-fed and under- exercised. In light of the World Food Program’s reports we might consider being ashamed of ourselves.

The WFP reports that 783 million people in our world live with chronic hunger and 300-350 are food insecure (meaning they don’t know if there will be food tomorrow). The main cause is war. Indeed 70% of hunger is conflict based while the remaining 30% is caused by climate crises and operational underfunding. Apparently international donations to the WFP are down by 50%. The greatest hunger emergencies are reported to be in 14 areas: Afghanistan, Central Sahel, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Myanmar, N.E. Nigeria, Somalia, S. Madagascar, S. Sudan, Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen. There would be few in these regions, if any, resolving to lose weight in 2024.

These are the ones who choose every day of the year to change the world by ministering to “the least of these” one hungry soul at a time. Let’s resolve to be among them.