Feeding the Multitudes
Thoughts on helping God's children everywhere have what they need to live life in its fullness

"Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted." John 6:11

David Radcliff

Emergency assistance is needed by millions of people in the U.S. and millions more abroad.

Fish and fishing
There is a saying that makes the rounds among those working at hunger and poverty issues. It goes like this: "Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day; teach a person to fish, and they can feed themselves for a lifetime." There are times when people need to be handed a fish—or rice or wheat or other emergency food supplies. This is the charitable work of reaching out to those affected by drought or war or other calamity. And then there are times when the more pressing need is for development aid—helping people gain the skills they need to earn an income or more effectively grow or raise their own food. This "teaching a person to fish" process is essential for the millions of poor people in the world who may not be in immediate need of emergency assistance, but whose lives and health and future are at risk due to the longer-term effects of poverty.

David Radcliff

BVSers like Todd Bauer in Guatemala walk with people in their journey toward self sufficiency.

So, two important components of our work in the world is to provide charitable relief aid when this is called for, and to work with our neighbors to help them find ways to overcome the grinding poverty that shackles them. The Church of the Brethren works at meeting our neighbors' needs in these areas through the ministries of Brethren Volunteer Service, Emergency Response/Service Ministries (emergency relief and rebuilding and Disaster Child Care) and the Global Food Crisis Fund (food relief, development aid and support of education).

These two—charity and development—are not enough however.

The J word
In addition to learning the skill of fishing, the world's marginalized people also need to be assured of a place by the stream. Even those people who have skills for self-development cannot fully benefit from these skills if they are denied the opportunity to exercise them. In other words, there must be a third movement in our accompaniment of the world's poor—the work of justice.

David Radcliff

Millions of the world's live without access to the things they need to live productive and rewarding lives. The people of war-torn Southern Sudan face a multitude of obstacles in their quest for a better life.

The work of justice is to provide people with equal access to the stream of life: That is, they must have access to adequate land, clean water, sufficient education, and medical care in order to lead healthy and productive lives. They must have access to markets, including navigable roads and means of transportation, as well as an equitable system for receiving a fair price for their goods. Women who have skills that enable them to contribute to the household (and which contribute to their own sense of self-esteem) must not be denied opportunities to develop them due to their gender. Racial and religious and ethnic barriers similarly must not stand in the way of people finding ways to develop to their full God-given potential.

On the larger scale, governments and international agencies must be kept from imposing rules on national and local economies which frustrate or turn back altogether the efforts of families and communities to have a viable livelihood. While not usually thought of as "injustice," war between and within nations is disastrous for individuals and communities in their quest for stable and secure lives.

So, there are times of crisis when charity is in order, just as there are millions of people in our world who would benefit from economic development programs. And there must also be a recognition that without justice, neither charity or development is adequate—in situations where justice is denied, both will be limited in their effect and finally ineffective. The denomination works at bringing justice to our world through the efforts of Brethren Volunteer Service, the Global Women's Project, and the Brethren Witness/Washington Office.

One more thing...
But even these things are not enough in our world today. Along with providing fish, teaching the skill of fishing, and assuring a place by the stream, it is increasing urgent that we pay attention to the environment in which all these things take place. In other words, we have to make sure that even as people have a place by the stream, the steam itself is capable of sustaining a healthy population of fish. So, along with charity, development, and justice, there is the fourth element of eco-sustainability.

Let's play out the stream analogy a bit. Has excessive logging upstream led to erosion of soil to the point that the water has become so siltified that it is uninhabitable? Has this same deforestation so altered regional rainfall patterns that the stream runs perilously low during dryer seasons? Have agricultural or lawn care chemicals changed the quality of the water so that some plants are so abundant that they crowd out all other life forms? Have industries or towns along the way dumped so much sewage or waste into the stream so as to make the fish in it unsafe for consumption? Has airborne mercury from the nearby power plant that has settled into the stream had the same effect? Has acid rain left the stream biologically dead? Have commercial fishing enterprises depleted the stream of all fish large enough to breed, endangering the future existence of all the stream's fish?

David Radcliff

A healthy environment is an essential context for healthy and productive human life on planet Earth. Threats such as that posed by global warming jeopardize the well-being of all living things.

While the paragraph above has drawn on the stream analogy, this is but an example of the importance of paying attention to eco-sustainability in our efforts to improve the quality of life for God's people around the world. And of course wealthier societies are not immune from the impact of environmental degradation on their own health and development. For instance, the wells of rural families in developed nations are often polluted beyond use by chemicals. Changes in weather patterns caused by global warming will affect rich and poor alike. Toxic pollutants in the air and water are even more likely to affect advanced nations than less-advanced ones, as in these countries there is a greater reliance on products whose development creates toxins.

An area not explored in this essay is the preservation of God's creation for its own sake. Beyond preserving the ability of the creation to sustain humankind, humans have the God-given responsibility to "keep" (Genesis 2:15) the creation. It is the work of God's hand and deserves to be protected in its own right.

General Board programs that encourage attention to the environmental context of our lives and ministries include the Brethren Witness/Washington Office; environmentally-related BVS projects; and the ministry of Don Vermilyea, a BVSer who walked across America to spread a message of peace, community and care for creation.

David Radcliff

In a nation where there is little to smile about, these Iraqi children hope for a better future.

The work of Christians seeking to enhance the lives of their neighbors in the world must be multi-faceted, responding to the many dimensions of the challenges facing God's children at this point in human and planetary history. Charity, development, justice, eco-sustainabilty—these are all part of our response to the needs of our global neighbors in what has now become our global neighborhood.

David Radcliff
former Director, Brethren Witness