Sunday and Church and Just Us Again

I had a terrible night's sleep! I had bought Marilyn's clock radio and set it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to take it off "alarm" and at midnight the thing went off and woke me up. I almost never got back to sleep. For one thing, I had slept so hard and on only one side and my back was killing me!  I finally got up and took an Aleve and an allergy pill too.  My sinus' were draining and I couldn't sleep.  Finally, quite late, I got back to sleep. It's been nice having such springlike weather but my allergies have been awful!  The wind has been fierce and that makes it even worse.

Missy is patiently waiting for her breakfast so I will get back to this later...

I have fed Missy and myself and read the newspaper and done the crossword puzzle.  Now I will go out and sweep the leaves off the carport.  There's always a mess there by my door.  I know the trees are nice to have but the mess they make drive both Marilyn and me nuts trying to keep the carport cleaned off.

I was reading the back of this week's bulletin and there was some very encouraging information on it.

For example...The member nations of the United Nations made 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 1990. The Millennium Development Goals focused on poverty and hunger and achieved the following:

The target of reducing poverty rates by half was met five years ahead of the 2015 deadline.
More than a billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990.

In 1990, nearly half the population in the developing regions lived on less than $1.25 a day. This rate dropped by 14 percent by 2015.

The newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals have a primary focus on poverty and hunger:

Goal 1 - eradicate poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Goal 2 - end hunger and ensure access by all people (in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants)  to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

Much is yet to be accomplished to eradicate extreme poverty and it's fruit, hunger. More than  800 million still live in extreme poverty. More than 90 million children are estimated to be undernourished.  Our continuing support of the Abolish Poverty, End Suffering Mission Initiative  enables our church to be engaged in this sacred task. 

Examples of ministries supported by our church's World Hunger funds.:

Goat farming and grain banks in India.

Land security and food production programs in Zambia, Malawi, Philippines, Honduras, Nepal, Guatemala, India, and El Salvador.

Health and nutrition education for families in Guatemala

Drilling water holes in Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Zambia. Liberia.

School lunch programs in Haiti and India

Grain mills in Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia

Even as we ponder the global implications, we are also challenged to think of those who suffer poverty and hunger in our own communities....often through no fault of their own.

Think globally - act locally.

I am pleased that our small church participates with others to do what we can to alleviate poverty and hunger.  That is the sort of work Jesus taught.  We contribute funds to both the Genesis program in Coffeyville and the Community Access Program in Independence. We also help support a homeless shelter in Independence.  We also keep a food basket full in our foyer at church. On a good day, there are only about 20 of us in our congregation so we do everything we possible can to help. We buy school supplies and backpacks for those who live in poverty, we always contribute at least 50 filled shoe boxes for the shoe box ministry for third world countries and provide Christmas gifts for the children and dinner for a family every Christmas time. We are always open for another project to help those in need. We are not all about our own personal salvation.....more about salvation for this life for those truly in need.

More later...

Church was fine and dinner afterward at "Just Us" just as good as ever.

I got the newsletters finished after I got home...swept off the carport for the nth time and lay down with Missy and took a nap.

Bob came over at 5:00 or so and stayed to watch 60 Minutes after the NBC news.  CBS had a basketball game going until 6:00.

After Bob left, I took my bath and lay with Missy on the sofa and watched Dateline until 8:00...when we both went to bed. After such a bad night's sleep last night. I went right to sleep..