Good News Food

 Meet Amina. She is now a 12-year old girl. Since she was seven she has lived knowing these things are real: fear and hunger.  Amina lives in Yemen, where fifty per-cent of the children are stunted because of malnutrition (yes, 50% of the children!). Amina explains her life like this:

 

“The war can get you in many ways. It is not only the bombings. People suffer when their homes are taken away. People die of hunger and there is not enough water.” She also added: “The thing that worries me most is that the war will continue on and on into the future. It will be my future.” (https://insight.wfp.org/no-end-to-world-hunger-without-an-end-to-conflict-wfp-warns)

 

Who cares about Amina?  The World Food Programme, for one.  That is why the Word Food Programme was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.” (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2020/press-release/)

 

Today I write about Amina because my mind is in desperate need of something good and positive to focus upon.  The crises in which we live, the political campaigns of which we are the targets, the combination of these factors can cause the greatest optimists to give up hope.

 

So today I celebrate the good news about food. Someone is focused on helping Amina. Someone is trying to prevent food from being used as a weapon to influence political outcomes.

 

Perhaps that news can help me, and maybe you, see some light, offer some hope.  There are people who see the big picture and are doing something about it, seeking peace in tangible ways. Trying to give a 12-year old girl a future that is not lived in fear of bombs and a future in which there is food on her plate.

 

What is the call of God’s people? To pursue peace on earth by bringing the Good News.  And for millions of people, the beginning of the Good News is that there is enough food to feed their children.  Pray for food that produces peace.