World Hunger Sunday

Our church denomination participates in what is called World Hunger Sunday. This special day is Sunday November 2 this year. In preparation for this day, we receive a two week devotional in our church mailbox. We look forward to this devotional each year.

Along with the devotional, we can pick up a Peter Fish money bank. This fish (the tasty whitefish we call Tilapia) is actually found in Africa, and in the Nile River basin in Egypt and derives its nickname from the story of Peter and the fish that had the gold coin in its mouth that was used to pay the temple tax. It is found in the New Testament in Matthew 17:24-28.

The devotional tells real stories of how the monies raised through the CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Committe) affects the lives of those living in third world countries. Some of the stories are fun and some are quite surprising. The best part is the challenge at the end where as a family, you are asked to do a certain task and then donate to the Peter fish. Last year one of these called for a task that caused quite a moment of hilarity in our family. This year they told a different story, but the task was the same -- with an added twist. Did you know that people in Mali receive a library in a box from the CRWRC? This library contains books that help the people learn about farming, childcare, health, etc. All the books are used to help them better their lives and to learn.

As soon as we heard the opening paragraph of this story, we knew where it was leading. Sure enough, the challenge asked if we had a bookshelf in our home. We all started chuckling. Do we have a bookshelf?!? Try eight bookshelves! Not all of them are full, but close enough. We are now supposed to count up all our books and donate a penny for each book. I think we're in trouble :-). To top it all off, we are supposed to donate five cents for each library book in our home. Oh dear, we're in big trouble :-).

Just two of the eight bookshelves.

None of us have even tried to start counting, we just know that our poor Peter fish is going to be bulging with change. It's another great way for our children to learn that not everyone lives like we do!