That’s right! Life will never be the same. My wife and I are expecting our first child at the end of October, and already I am plagued with a consistent anxiety about how best to prepare for fatherhood.

Inevitably, I have spent the last couple of months thinking about the fathers in my life. While my own father passed away when I was quite young, I have a wealth of wonderful memories and experiences to draw from his example.

Questions about fatherhood

But I’m also thinking through other fathers who I interact with, like mentors I’ve had through the years or close relatives. Now, several of my friends are young fathers and trying to figure out what it means to be a daddy in the modern era. Together, we are asking questions such as: How do I provide a life of hope for my child? What choices and decisions do I need to make in order to give my child a life of opportunity?

As I begin to explore the meaning of fatherhood, I’ve also started to think about the fathers I have interacted with in the Global South. Working at Food for the Hungry, I have the opportunity to meet wonderful people from around the world. But it also forces one to ask really tough questions.

What would it mean to be an expecting father in Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, or Haiti?

What type of life would I hope for my child in those countries?

What choices and liberties would I be afforded so that I could do all that is in my power to provide my child with opportunities?

Do you see the similarity between these sets of questions? For me, this drives home a feeling of solidarity with fathers everywhere.

In one way, I feel as if I am being ushered into a global club of fatherhood. A proud soon-to-be papa! But in another, more solemn way… I feel a sense of responsibility to help father’s around the world have the opportunity to dream and provide for their children, just as I am today.

FH supports fathers

Food for the Hungry walks with fathers around the world by helping them meet the physical and spiritual needs of their own families. Agricultural training allows fathers to provide nutritious food, while also providing them income-generating opportunities. Child sponsorship gives a family the opportunity to send their child to school without added financial burden on the family. Church strengthening programs seek to make spiritual leaders out of fathers and promote biblical worldview within their homes.

As I’ve contemplated my new-found solidarity with fathers everywhere and prepared for my world to be rocked by a small person – I’ve come to an understanding that fatherhood is something to be supported, not owed. It is not my right to be a dad. It is my responsibility. And just as I have a responsibility to be a father to my yet-to-be born baby, I believe we are called to support fathers everywhere in their heart-felt attempts of being to best dads they can be.

Thinking differently about Father’s Day

This Father’s Day… my first (almost) Father’s Day… I am thinking about those fathers around the world that struggle to provide for their children. More than just making his breakfast or buying him some clothes, Father’s Day needs to be about supporting fathers everywhere to be super dads! And that means providing them with opportunities, skills and resources.

I am both excited and (obviously) extremely nervous for this next chapter in my life. But I know I have the support of friends and family as I quest to be a good dad. Let’s make sure that dads with fewer opportunities know that we support them as well.

The post My first (almost) Father’s Day appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

Guyo, a boy in Food for the Hungry‘s child sponsorship program, understands it as the latter. And he takes this calling to heart.

Guyo at the church compound with FH staff member Mary.

Guyo and other children in his Kenyan community participate in weekly Bible studies and club activities facilitated by FH staff. Through these studies and activities, the children have been taught that God’s people are responsible for taking care of His creation, and working to improve the environment around them.

The environmental club that Guyo participates in began to wonder what part they could play in nurturing the land where they lived. The children in this club decided to cultivate a vegetable garden together on their school’s campus. The first year, their plants were killed by drought. But this past year, their diligence paid off as they harvested their crops and were able to share with the entire school!

But Guyo still wondered if he could contribute more.

I looked around for something I could give. I saw that my church compound is very bare and I decided to plant flowers to make the compound beautiful.

All on his own, Guyo sought permission from the church leaders, obtained flower seedlings, and planted them in the church compound. He has confidently committed to tending the flowers every day, and has enlisted the help of several friends to ensure that this garden flourishes.

Through the child sponsorship program, Guyo and a multitude of other children are learning to take ownership of their community and land. They are learning about their God-given potential and the value of all His creation. They are learning how to make the most of their resources and improve their surroundings for everyone. By sponsoring a child, you are helping them to discover their own unique gifts and how to honor God with them. Empower a child and their community — sponsor a child.

The post How a child used gardening to serve his community appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

The FH Global IT Team works to make the world a smaller place for reaching the poor and vulnerable.

As of May 1, there are 1.11 billion users registered to the social media giant Facebook. That is roughly one out of every seven people living on this earth!

America is a society living on the Internet. As a result, we deal with serious “first world problems” from our reliance on always being connected. These include resisting the temptation to text while driving, oversharing on social media and disconnecting from our smart phones long enough to reconnect with our families.

Yet, with all the data, tweets, instagrams and instant messages, we still lack the most recent update from the most vulnerable. The voice of poverty is a faint cry in a crashing ocean of information.

Satellite dish in Africa

As an organization that walks with the poor and most vulnerable, dealing with staying connected in the far reaches of the world is always a challenge. The communities that need our support lack basic infrastructure that provides clean water, roads and power. Internet connectivity is truly a luxury.

I’m part of the Food for the Hungry (FH) global information technology (IT) team. Our primary focus is getting the information and stories of people from the world’s most remote and vulnerable areas, and spreading that information so that all of God’s children can be heard.

Wires that keep people connected in Asia

Over the past few weeks, our Global IT staff came together to address the challenges we face in making the world a smaller place. I have been amazed at how God has brought together a team of amazing individuals from countries around the world to work together in the fight against poverty. The encouragement we gave each other as we prayed and worked together affirmed in us that there is no reach too far and no challenge we cannot overcome while working for His purpose.

Before joining FH, I often thought about a career change. I longed to find a job where I could impact the lives of people. I wanted to go to work everyday knowing that I somehow made a difference. I didn’t see a connection between IT ending poverty. Now I do. I am blessed to be part of a team of incredible individuals that make technology work to connect the world to the voice of poverty.

The post Making the world a smaller place appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

“. . . it will be ready as a generous gift,
not as one grudgingly given.” – 2 Corinthians 9:5, NIV

Dad to daughter -

“. . . and when you do that, it’s obvious that, at that moment, you don’t care about your sister. It says, loud and clear –‘I don’t care what you think! I don’t care how it makes you feel! I’m in charge and we’re going to do it my way!’ –  You don’t actually say that, but that’s what your sister hears.”   (long pause, no response)

So what do you think about that?

“Ok.” (long pause)

“What’s Ok?”

“What you said.”

“What I said sounded nice? You’re glad I think so? What do you think about what I just explained?” . . .

Any parent can finish the next 5 minutes of dialogue. Getting a child to admit she’s in the wrong is often harder than conducting a tooth extraction. You want your child to readily own up to things. “Just admit it, we’ll give you grace and all will be well again” is our parental yearning. We know that if we pressure a forced confession, it’s basically meaningless, so we dance around trying every way we can think of to peel back the selfish nature and get to a true conviction.

How do you parent exuberant giving?

When it comes to the matter of giving and my kids, I face a similar challenge. How can I nurture an exuberant desire to give. I want to lead the horse to water but not make him drink. I want my kids to discover the true joy of non-compulsory, heart-induced giving.

In our parenting, my wife and I find that the breakthrough moments spontaneously generate more often than they result from our planned interaction. We had one of those sweet moments just this week. A month ago our girls went with their aunt to visit the crisis pregnancy ministry where their aunt volunteers. They learned about as much as 9 and 11 year olds could about the traumatic issues surrounding surprise pregnancy, moms in crisis and abortion.

The baby bottle drive

Then, last week, our church announced a drive to fill baby bottles with coins for mother’s day in support of the moms being served at the crisis pregnancy ministry. Afterwards the girls had questions and my wife spent a good deal of time talking through it with them.

Dad found out about it when they went around scrounging up any money they could find. That bottle was going to be filled! They interrupted my work to ask if I had coins in my pockets. They went to their piggy banks. Searched the house high and low for change. They found some stash of their money we didn’t even know about from allowances long, long ago. They were on a mission! The amazing part was how they were actually running, skipping and singing made-up songs about their mission as they scurried through the house. The quality of their giving was extravagant; their mood – exuberant!

My prayer as a dad

It’s been a long time since I had that much joy in giving. It gave me cause to pause – how stale my giving can become! Whether the focus of my giving is my church, the poor that Food for the Hungry walks with, or the little old lady across the street, the One who owns what I’m giving is most honored when it’s extravagantly done, with exuberance. That’s how He gives to me.

This incident with my girls also spurred me to stay on the lookout for those moments when I can naturally expose them to a need and provide a channel for giving at their level of capacity. Then I can ask God’s Spirit to lead them to respond and trust that He will.

Help me Lord to keep feeding their fires of exuberant giving!

The post Exuberant daughters appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

Leocaide training mothers about nutrition.

My guest blogger today is Alex Mwaura, communications specialist for Food for the Hungry reporting on FH’s work in Africa. Alex recently visited Burundi and shares his experience during a care group training where mothers’ learned to care for their infants.

The sound of rain on iron roofing sheets drowned out the voice of care group leader Nyinyireko Leocaide, forcing the women in front of her to crane their necks to catch her words. Leocaide now delivered her message in an even higher pitch.

“If you notice your baby is not too well, take them to the hospital, don’t take them to the traditional healers,” she told the group of 10 mothers, many breast feeding babies.

Leocade’s job is to train young mothers on good nutrition and hygiene for their infants and toddlers under age 2.

In rural Burundi, the women often take their babies to the farms with them. They strap babies to their backs or lay them on a blanket in the shade as they get on with their work of planting, weeding or harvesting. With no running water nearby, the mothers are more often forced to handle their babies with soiled hands when the little ones demand a feed. The most common illnesses, many connected to bad hygiene, are: diarrhea, vomiting, worms, malaria and other communicable diseases.

Feeding babies with unclean hands is one of the behaviors that Leocade wants to put a stop to.

An additional behavior is feeding children nutritious foods. To support children from getting sick, Leocade taught mothers about nutrition.  Many times mothers weaned their babies with what food was easiest available – which is often not a balanced diet. Mothers were taught about what foods to combine in meals so children get important nutrients.

Another is visiting a traditional healer, or witchdoctors, when illness strikes. With dilapidated health care systems, avoidable deaths do happen. Those unable to access health care due to the distance to the facility or simply lack of money turn to witchdoctors and traditional healers.

This is changing according to John Rusatire, FH Care Group Supervisor, “They (mothers) have learned what to do when a baby is ill. And that is to do all they can to quickly take the baby to hospital.”

Kaburu Concilie, a 25-year-old with three young children says she’s grateful for FH care groups in her community. “The benefit of this program is good health. My children have good health today. We also were taught about hygiene and are practicing more hygiene than before. We have good toilets and compost. So I am benefiting a lot.”

Her children have good health and a better chance at life. During the government’s deworming week, she also takes her children for treatment and vaccinations.

FH’s efforts, deep in the heart of Burundi, are paying off. Communities are now healthier and a step closer to living as God desired them to.

The post Care groups help save children appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

What does it take to make Mom happy?  I’ve visited nearly 20 countries in the 17 years I’ve worked with Food for the Hungry (FH), and it seems all mothers want the same things. They want their children to be healthy and happy. They yearn for their kids to finish school.

If you probe deeper, many of the mothers express feelings of loneliness and doubt. In urban areas, where people migrate in search of better lives, the women often don’t know anyone well. They’ve come from small towns where you  knew everybody from birth, and they don’t understand how to start a friendship from scratch.

Because of their grueling house and farm work, their backs and joints ache constantly well before they hit what we’d call middle age. I’ve heard many complaints about persistent, debilitating headaches, often due to iron deficiencies in their diets. Moms who work all day in small rooms with smoky stoves suffer from asthma or persistent bronchitis.

You can give them stuff to take care of the immediate need, but FH does more than that:  We create connections. FH often starts Mother’s Clubs in communities, where moms can learn and have fun together. Our Care Groups teach moms how to improve health and hygiene, even with their limited resources. In some FH countries, the moms learn how to grow nutritious vegetables. They’re also learning how to create household budgets and save money that will help them reach their dreams. They learn that they are daughters of the King of Kings, and hear what the Bible says about being a wife, mother and person of value.

The key is that they learn together. They are successful together and they make mistakes together. And with the support, they create a new type of community that cares for one another and helps children grow in wisdom and stature.  This new type of community also includes husbands and fathers, who learn how to help and encourage moms.

In the late 1990s, I helped recruit a team of college students at the Urbana missions conference, to serve in Bolivia.Toward the end of the team’s time, we decided to provide manicures to the women in the community.  We thought that a gentle hand massage and pretty nails could really lift  their spirits. It was the dead of winter, well below zero every night, and we could see the weather had sucked all the moisture out of hands and faces in the neighborhood.

We were swamped. One of the team members had brought large bottles of fragrant rose-scented hand cream, which we massaged into the mothers’ tired hands just before painting their nails.

I took a break for a moment and leaned against the metal door to the community center where we were gathered. Suddenly I felt a gentle tap-tap-tap on the door. I opened it to find one of the fathers from the community, standing in the doorway, holding a cone made of paper.

He quietly asked if he could have some of the hand cream in the cone, because his wife couldn’t come right now. I obliged and he went off with a spring in his step. A few minutes later, there was more gentle tapping…another husband, another paper cone. We had several men stop by that night, wanting to treat their wives with something special.

I don’t know for sure if these fathers were part of the marriage seminars we that FH was holding in that community. But I’d like to think that perhaps our manicure sessions simply gave them the opportunity to practice what they’d heard about appreciating their spouse. I know there were some happy moms out there for whom a paper cone warmed what was otherwise a frigid winter night.

You can make a mom happy too, right where you are. If you sponsor a child, you’ll give a mom her greatest dream of seeing her child grow up healthy, happy and educated. You can help us purchase mosquito nets that keep kids healthy, or chickens that the mom can use to earn some extra money. And know that along with the tangible stuff that FH provides, we also help moms find friends and supportive community.

The post Making Mom happy appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

While the words are not synonymous, there are some strong connections between the two concepts.  The ministry of Food for the Hungry is committed to providing churches, leaders and families with necessary tools for lifelong discipleship.   Here are three similarities between development and discipleship that will provide you with a better picture of what FH seeks to do in the field:

Walking with:  Pastors know that discipleship requires face time.   Assisting others to grow in Christ requires physical presence, spending hours, weeks and years with them in person, helping them understand the Scriptures and work through suffering. At FH, we are committed to doing our work of serving in the poor in a personal way.  Our staff are in the community daily, spending time getting to know the people and listening to their struggles.  Entering completely into their lives, we want to walk alongside them in breaking the cycle of poverty by introducing a biblical worldview.  This will mean plenty of late nights, tears wiped and joyous moments as we celebrate the faithfulness of our God.

Children in Indonesia

Embracing the basics: Imagine if you showed up to church next week and 50% of the people in the congregation had been involved in a car accident in which they were at fault.  Stories pour in about people running red lights, texting while driving and forgetting to use their safety belts.  The sanctuary looks more like a hospital than a house of worship.  In wanting to stem the tide of horrific accidents and prevent the loss of life, the church leadership quickly organizes a safe-driving class. While this might sound crazy, this is discipleship at a very basic level: helping others live a healthy life that is honoring to God in every way.

Food for the Hungry also addresses the basics of life, only in our sphere of work, this means providing families with advice on cultivating and preparing healthy meals.  It involves showing children the basic skill of washing their hands to prevent the spread of disease.  We revel and thank God for opportunities to have deep conversations about Christ and the forgiveness of sins, and we know that frequently the doors to those conversations begin with the basic elements of life.

Water Project in Indonesia

Working the roots: In seeking to shepherd their members, pastors spend most of their time at the root level.  It is not effective to simply “scare people” away from their bad behavior.  Fear and pride may motivate someone for a season, but it will not be effective for the long haul.

FH uses the same strategy as we help the poor.  It is not effective to tell a community that they should build a school and educate their children.  If we build them a school before they understand the root purpose, the community never utilize it for its intended purpose.  Our job is to help them understand the importance of education from a biblical perspective and then walk with them in creating opportunities for their children.

In many ways, we are just scratching the surface of these two important subjects.  Stay connected with the FH Blog for more posts about community development.

What is your understanding of development?  Can you think of other similarities between your discipleship journey and community development work?

The post 3 ways that development work is discipleship in disguise appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

The Pentecost Festival is a gathering each year in London to celebrate the birthday of the Church, Pentecost Sunday. This Saturday, over 2,000 people will gather first in Parliament Square for a prayer gathering led by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres along with our Board Member, Lord Paul Boateng. This event represents the launch of new efforts by Food for the Hungry in the UK.

At the festival, Food for the Hungry will invite participants to join as child sponsors to impact the lives of the most vulnerable children through our work in over 20 different countries.

Tim Smith with FH Sponsored Children in Guatemala

As we prepare for this event, I am reminded of the beginnings of great efforts through the engagement of donors to our work around the world. It is a combined effort through partners like the Pentecost Festival, our field work around the world and our marketing team. We have the chance to end poverty in our lifetime through these types of efforts. It has been my privilege to spend the majority of my life around generous donors.

There is something special about that moment when a person realizes they can make a difference in the life or lives of the poor. I love to be standing there when the light comes on… when the donor picks up that packet… when they see the face of a child whose life they can change… It is a rush to watch it all come together.

This Saturday will be a day like the experience I just described. The Pentecost Festival has set the stage, our marketing team has prepared the opportunity, our field staff have identified the children most in need of sponsorship. Now it just takes the donors to respond generously. I know we will see several hundred children sponsored. I hope I can stand close enough to watch the light come on!

What’s great is you don’t have to wait for an event like this.  You can sponsor a child right here. I hope you will pray for this great festival and for the many children who will benefit as a result of our efforts. With our joint efforts we can end poverty. Let’s do it together.

Watch a video about what excites Lord Paul Boateng about FH.

The post When the light comes on appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

Luisa Llampa shows how hard work has paid off for her family.

With Mother’s Day barreling toward us, I’m reflecting on the topic of motherhood.

We all have our favorite mom stories—tales of how our mothers nurtured us into the people we are today. My own mom taught me I could do whatever I wanted to put the time and energy into learning and achieving. She banished the words, “I can’t,” from our home. She often indulged my voracious curiosity by taking me to see what was on the other side of the next hill. She shepherded my penchant for storytelling.

But today I’m thinking of the resilient women that I meet and read about through my work at Food for the Hungry (FH). These mothers live in remote villages in developing countries where they lack electricity, clean water, medical care and most other amenities that many Americans take for granted.

Like us, they want the best for their children, but circumstances conspire to thwart their efforts every single day.

Luisa Llampa and one of her children

Luisa Llampa in Bolivia is one of those women.

She has four sons and two daughters. In spite of the best efforts of Luisa and her husband, Agustin, Luisa’s heart broke each night when she put her children to bed with empty stomachs. The only crop they could get to grow on their infertile land was potatoes.

When her children were sick, Luisa feared they could die from the simplest of things—even the common cold—because they were so malnourished.

Agustin Llampa with his high-production cow

Then Luisa and Agustin participated in FH water and agriculture projects—part of our efforts to help people create sustainable livelihoods.

Luisa put into practice the same concept that my mother taught me: she overcame challenges by working tirelessly to accomplish the arduous feat of nourishing her children by improving crop yields.

In the process, the family went from barely subsisting to providing enough food to keep the family healthy. In addition to potatoes, their garden and greenhouse provide the family with wheat and a variety of vegetables. They’ve also expanded into dairy farming.

Luisa and Agustin now sell milk and produce in the local market, and they’re considering exporting to other communities. They have built a house that boasts electricity, a latrine for sanitation and clean drinking water. They send their children to school and know they have a bright future ahead of them.

That’s what all of us mothers want … healthy children with optimistic futures. I’m proud to be part of an organization that inspires mothers like Luisa to dare to hope for that kind of future for their children, and then walks with them as they journey toward realizing their dream to end poverty in their lives.

What an amazing Mother’s Day gift for people like Luisa. On behalf of mothers everywhere, I’d like to thank the faithful FH partners who help make these stories a reality.

You can help even more mothers by giving a Mother’s Day gift of farming tools through the FH gift catalog and by praying for God’s provision and grace as FH inspires hope, walks with communities, and works toward our vision of ending poverty worldwide.

Please use the comments section below to share your favorite Mother’s Day story.

The post The inspiration of motherhood appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.

Both of these challenges nearly took me down during the swim portion of the event. My time was so poor that I battled against the clock during the bike portion of the race. Fatigue caused me to wonder, during the last let of the run portion of the event, if I could continue.

I started repeating the phrase uttered so many times by none other than Dory the fish in the Pixar movie, Finding Nemo: “Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.” In my case, I told myself to just keep going, just keep putting one foot in front of the other, just stay upright!

Long-term endeavors – whether a race, project, campaign or plan – can be grueling. We need to continually encourage each other to “stay the course.”

Helping children like these in Nicaragua are the reason for FH's Child-Focused Community Transformation model.

Almost two years ago, Food for the Hungry (FH) restructured the way we work with communities around the world. We developed a new model called Child-focused Community Transformation(CFCT), and it is being rolled out at this very moment in FH countries and communities around the world. I believe this is a critical moment in this long-term endeavor to renew our energy so we can see CFCT through to a strong finish. There are three key reasons why I believe we are on the right track and need to remain firm in our resolve.

Dave Evans visits with community leaders in San Bartolo

1. We are seeing some good early fruit in our training of community leaders.

Last month, I visited a new program area in a remote region in northeast Nicaragua. I heard and saw amazing examples of the new CFCT model at work. Community leaders had only been in training for two and a half months.  I heard things from those leaders that I have never heard before in my 22 years with FH.

These leaders were excited, motivated and empowered. They are already putting into action the training they have received.

This new training module for community leaders is producing the kind of local leadership we need to sustainably transform communities with a focus on the well-being of children. These community leaders are counting on us to stay the course with the new model so they can experience the transformation that they so desperately want and need.

2. We are seeing some good early fruit in our conversations with donors.

Donors increasingly want to fund the programs of organizations that demonstrate large-scale, sustainable impact at low cost. In today’s rapidly changing world of philanthropy, donors are no longer content to merely send checks and trust us with the results.

The CFCT model allows FH to scale our activities using cascade groups so that we can greatly multiply our impact at a reduced cost. If we want to grow our budget and our programs, the best way to do this is to stay the course with CFCT programming.

FH is seeing good results from the CFCT model in the areas of health, nutrition and education.

3. We are seeing some early fruit in our ability to measure impact on the well-being of children.

FH has developed indicators that tell us if children are thriving, in the areas of health, nutrition and education. These indicators give us the information we need to direct more of our programmatic focus toward the things that produce the greatest change in children’s lives. We’ve given ourselves goals for how much change we hope to see by the year 2020. Just last month in Nicaragua, community leaders shared with me that after only a few trainings on how to engage the government in their development efforts, they have actively sought – and in some cases already received – increased support for children in their communities.

FH deeply cares about seeing the lives of poor children transformed. We want to inspire them to dream about a brighter future, and then walk with them as they strive toward that future.

When I crossed the finish line in my half ironman race last October, I felt an amazing sense of accomplishment. As we stay the course with CFCT, I am convinced we will see many more examples of change like those I witnessed in Nicaragua, knowing that the effort was worth it as we cross the end line in 2020.

The post Stay the course appeared first on Food for the Hungry Blog.