DEVOTIONAL World Hunger Campaign 2012 Join us today! www.worldrenew.net Devotions and activities by Sonya VanderVeen-Feddema © 2012 DAY 1 A Heart for the World Psalm 33:11 God has always carried his world close to his God’s heart for the world and to celebrate what heart like a loving shepherd carries his lambs he has allowed you and the Christian Reformed (Isaiah 40:11). He created a good world because World Relief Committee (CRWRC), now known only goodness and light fill his heart. Before as World Renew, to accomplish in the past 50 the darkness of people’s sin marred God’s good years. We hope that as you read these devotionals purposes, pastures were perfectly green, waters and take part in the daily action ideas, activities, were quiet, and food was plentiful. and giving suggestions you’ll also recognize and anticipate what he will continue to do through However, everything changed when people World Renew and you till Jesus comes again. sinned. Today in many parts of the world, once green pastures are parched and brown, water is a source of disease, and poverty overshadows PRAYER countless lives. But, still, God’s plans stand firm Dear God, you command us to imitate your forever, the purposes of his heart through all gen- loving, caring, and sharing heart. Create in us erations (Psalm 33:11). pure hearts. Grant us willing spirits to share with Throughout the biblical story, God has made his and learn from all people. (Psalm 51:10a, 12b) In heart known to us. For example, he commanded Jesus’name, amen. the Israelites to be open-handed to the poor and hungry, instead of being hardhearted and tight- ACTION fisted (Deuteronomy 15:7-8). Later, he told his Read Psalm 23. What actions did the Shepherd people to defend the weak and the fatherless, to Lord take on David’s behalf? Put 25 cents in Peter uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed, Fish for each one. Think about ways God is yours and to rescue the weak and the needy (Psalm and the world’s shepherd. What actions can you 82:3-4). The prophet Isaiah identified God as a take to be a “shepherd” for hungry people? refuge for the poor and the needy in their dis- tress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat (Isaiah 25:4a). And Mary, Jesus’ mother, sang praises to God, saying he is pleased to lift up the humble and to fill the hungry with good things (Luke 1:52b, 53a). God’s love-shaped story continues today in our lives. We are commanded to do for hungry, poor, and oppressed people exactly what God has always called his children to do. He has given us the privilege and responsibility to reflect his heart. We invite you to read the devotionals in this booklet for the next three weeks to discover DAY 2 God’s Father Heart Psalm 68:5 Though God reigns in holiness and majesty, he a true adoption program. Her efforts inspired stoops down to care for orphans. His father heart CAPOK to help Korean Christians advocate suc- can do no less. In fact, God initiated the first cessfully for adoption laws and child welfare “adoption agency” and set it in motion through laws. Because of her work, cultural attitudes to Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. When Jesus adoption changed, allowing children to be placed was with his disciples, he promised that he in loving families within their nation of birth. would not leave them as orphans (John 14:18). Between 1962 and 1975, CAPOK placed more Through his death on the cross, we were adopted than 2,000 homeless children in Korean homes. into God’s family. And through the outpouring of Today, millions of children are still in need. the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we have been given Though World Renew is no longer involved in a constant reminder of our familial relationship Korea, it is actively helping children in poverty with God and each other through Christ. around the world. Some of these children have The First Adopter wants his children to follow his been orphaned by the crisis of AIDS in the devel- lead and care for the orphan among us. In fact, oping world. Others have had to leave school or according to the apostle James, if we care nothing home to find work in order to support themselves for orphans, we can’t claim to be Christ-followers because of extreme poverty. World Renew is —“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure working in numerous communities to help adults and faultless is this: to look after orphans and increase their food production and income. In this widows in their distress” (James 1:27). way, parents can support their children, children can stay in school, and orphans can find a home That’s something that World Renew takes to heart. with extended relatives and community members Elvinah Spoelstra, a social worker and early World instead of being taken away from the home they Renew/CRWRC staff member from the United know. Pray that God will use these World Renew States, became a champion of orphans when she programs to reveal his father heart to the world. joined The Christian Adoption Program of Korea (CAPOK) in 1966. Years earlier, the Korean War (1950-1953) left two million civilians dead, leav- ing behind many orphans. Other orphans were PRAYER “G.I. babies,” children of Korean women and Father of the fatherless, we praise and thank you international soldiers. These children’s vast needs that we are no longer orphans, but that we are were exacerbated by the traditional Korean view members of your family. Fill our hearts with love of family ties, which was inhospitable to children for your children all over the world. Help us to without parents or with bloodlines that weren’t take action to support them. In Jesus’ name, amen. “purely Korean.” These orphans could not be legal ACTION citizens of Korea, and adoption outside of one’s Make a list of 10 blessings we experience by own family was stigmatized. being children of parents in North America. Put Under Spoelstra’s leadership, CAPOK moved 10 cents in Peter Fish for each one. from being a custodial childcare program into DAY 3 Taught How to Walk (Hosea 11:1, 3a, 4) In our Bible passage today we hear a picture Jean-Pierre was particularly struck that World of God taking a toddling Ephraim by the arms Renew/CRWRC didn’t discriminate against and teaching him how to walk. This example poorly educated people. “I recall how CRWRC of God’s love for Israel is reflected in the lives took into its programs people who barely fin- of his children through all times and places. He ished primary school and trained them to become hovers over our every step and teaches us to animateurs,” he said. “These newly trained men walk before him, taking up our calling to love and women became my role models and gave me the world as he loves it. the vision to become what I am today.” How God accomplishes this varies from life to Today, Jean-Pierre is walking before God as he life. Your journey is different from mine, and our oversees an agricultural program that feeds 8,000 journeys are different from that of Christian Jean- school children and orphans, and as he provides Pierre, a 42-year-old Haitian man. leadership and management for 21 fish ponds, a poultry project with close to 2,000 chickens, and a Remarkably, God used World Renew/CRWRC goat program. to teach Jean-Pierre how to “walk.” He was about nine years old in 1975 when World Renew/CRWRC came to his hometown of Pignon to promote community health and agri- PRAYER culture. From a blended family of 18 children Dear Father, thank you for tenderly teaching both whose livelihood depended on agriculture, Jean- rich and poor people to walk before you. Please Pierre and many others in his community expe- use World Renew and us to demonstrate to oth- rienced poverty. He was impressed that World ers how to walk in your paths of justice, mercy, Renew/CRWRC came where no other interna- and righteousness. In Jesus’ name, amen. tional organization had ventured. ACTION World Renew/CRWRC selected agriculture What are some of the ways that we can “walk” leaders from each community, who were called with God this week? Put 25 cents in Peter Fish for ‘animateurs.’ One of them was Jean-Pierre’s each idea you come up with. father. Mary Both, who worked for World Renew/CRWRC with her husband, Dick, in Haiti explained, “The animateurs would come to a central conference at the Missionary Church grounds, where there were also good fields for doing demonstrations. There they would learn new techniques in agriculture and how to teach them to others. Then they would take that knowledge back with them to their communities, where the knowledge was reinforced by working together as a group.” DAY 4 Room for All (Hebrews 13:1-2, 20-21) God knows how strange the world and its people ment effort. Over a period of 10 years, the can seem to us when we are cocooned in our World Renew/CRWRC and the Good Samaritan familiar surroundings and ways of doing things. Center served 25,000 refugees. But he wants our hearts to resemble his heart, The same God who stirred the hearts of Clarence which is loving to all.