Greetings!

by Ruth Farrell

Bolivia Cameroon Egypt India Lesotho Palestine Peru South Africa Sri Lanka

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Coordinator, Presbyterian Hunger Program

Dear Friends,

When I think of Sunday school stories of Old Testament Joseph, I think of the coat of many colors, dream interpretations and a competent manager who saved Egyptians, Israelites and other peoples during the 7 years of famine. But, I must not have been reading very closely. Genesis 47:13-21 chronicles how the Egyptian people began the 7 years of scarcity as people with lands and livestock and ended the 7 years as slaves – they sold their livestock, their lands and homes, and then their very selves to Pharoah.

Dreams turned into nightmares

Fascinating… Pharoah set Joseph up as manager during the 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine to save the people and the land – not for greed or power. So how did this dream (the blueprint for salvation) become a nightmare to those being saved? My guess is each month a new policy made “sense”. Maybe Joseph was concerned that if food was given out freely, people would take too much - “if they pay for it, they will only take what they need”. Maybe as Pharoah became wealthier, he wanted more wealth. We don’t know how good intentions produced such poverty, but we see that they did.

I see this story repeated in international economic development and green revolution strategies to alleviate poverty and suffering worldwide. The strategy -- the development of a country’s natural advantage (i.e. its resources) and wealth will result in the alleviation of its poverty and suffering – may sound great, but it hasn’t happened. Green revolution strategy – modern agriculture (mono-cropping, equipment, GMOs and chemical fertilizer) will produce more food, less hunger – may sound great, but we cannot simply equate more food production with less hunger. Who produces, what is produced, who profits from the production, and how production and distribution impact the earth are significant factors that contribute to nearly 1 billion people being hungry.

Alternatives through Joining Hands

Joining Hands is a community of sisters and brothers who are creating sustainable solutions. You all are making connections that shows that these systems that are supposed to alleviate poverty and suffering are in fact creating deeper and wider poverty (similarly to the story in Genesis). You will bring about peaceful social change through organizing globally, designing issue-specific local campaigns, holding one another accountable, and broadening methods to get the word out (taken from the Orange Resolution, July 2008).

One Great Hour of Sharing

The Presbyterian Hunger Program funds the Joining Hands core and campaign grants from the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering. Please watch the attached video and visit www.pcusa.org/oghs to learn more. Showing this video to Sunday schools or for a Minute for Mission and sharing your own experience with Joining Hands may help your congregation make the connection between our program and the Offering. The Offering will be collected on Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday in congregations throughout the U.S. People can also give online.

May JH campaign work this year result in less hunger and poverty in our communities and more social change for all of us.

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