Sheltered or Sharing?

Every year statistics by World Health Organization says that over 4 million people die of starvation each year. One third are overfed, one third are underfed, and the other is starving. grossly undernourished. Since you have been on this site 200 people have died of starvation and every 3 second someone dies of hunger..the problem is enormous/  3 billion people in the world struggle to get by on $2 a day, while 1.3 billion or more live on less than a dollar a day. It would cost the US only 13 billion to feed the worlds hunger, while the United Kingdom and us spend  more on that for perfume. Why do I mention these facts, after all almost  everybody knows that our trash is the rest of the world's treasure. we throw out more stuff than the world knows what to do with.

Do we realize what we have? A trip to a number of Third World countries will hit us full in the face with the abysmal prospects that people in these countries face. Today I worked a Open House event with Grainger my employer and enjoyed the sunny skies and the people that I work with. In talking with them, i get to discover their stories, and realize just how fortunate i am. I met Virgil Ellison some weeks ago, in talking with him I quickly realized that this is no high school dropout.. (he worked with the janitorial contractor on sight)  Virgil had graduated from University of Kansas with a Masters degree in Public Administration and was working on another degree. At this point in his life he had been laid off his previous work and was having trouble finding work in his area. Skilled and articulate I begin to ask myself some questions. This man had more education and skill with computers than I have, yet found himself having to take work "beneath him"

many of us would be mad and bitter at the prospect of having to work a similar low paying job if life dealt us that hand. How would I react? would i be gracious enough to handle it well? Could I endure the occassional taunts, and superiority of others in management? There are a lot of people who not only have fallen fast, losing their nice homes to foreclosure; but have had to swallow their pride and take jobs with much less pay.  We lead protected by sheltered and protected lives, try living in Jakarta, Indonesia a city of 12 million, with only a cardboard shack by a filth river, scraping by on scraps and a skimpy meal day! or how about those sweat shops with companies such as Nike and Tommy Hilfiger?  Many very hard working people eke out an existence on about 2-3 dollars a day, while many of us take home 4 to 5 figures a month.

Recently I have been convicted of not putting my money where my mouth is, and will start pledging my money to world relief org like Compassional International and VOM. These organizations not only make a physical investment in  lives but plant a spiritual seed to help those helped, turn their lives around. While you read this, a few more thousand died, will you take action? or will you be another mildly interested cooly aloof that says, "keep me out of this."