PEOPLE are starving in the sub- Sahara region of Africa. In other parts of the world hurricanes and earthquakes are leaving thousands homeless and hungry, only to face the threat of epidemics.
Ten dollars given for the Disaster and Famine Relief Offering on May 10 can be stretched by the Seventh-day Adventist World Service (SAWS) into $70 worth of disaster relief.
When an earthquake struck Pakistan late in December, 1974, more than 5,000 were killed, 15,000 injured, and 70,000 affected in a hundred square mile area. The Seventh-day Adventist Church gave $13,500, plus 20 tons of beans.
In October, 1974, Hurricane Fifi devastated Honduras with the worst storm of the century along the Caribbean coast. Eighty thousand were driven from their homes. Their farmlands lay ruined under ten to twelve feet of mud. Starvation and disease threatened. SAWS swung into action with $30,- 000 for tents, blankets, ponchos, food, water-purification equipment, and medicines. Newspapers in Honduras praised the Seventh-day Adventist relief effort as the only one operating in an organized and efficient way.
But SAWS is looking ahead. Not only are they preparing for the ever-increasing volume and magnitude of disasters in these last days but they are turning their attention to the lingering disasters such as the famine in Africa. There, years of drought and crop failures have rendered a whole generation of children deficient in essential body-building proteins.
SAWS is quietly training volunteers in agricultural development who, in cooperation with international relief organizations, will enter these countries to teach the people how to make the most of their soils and rainfall, how to rotate and diversify food crops in short, how to survive. This is dis aster prevention!
As you appeal for the offering on May 10, remind your congregation that though their stomachs are full and their bodies warm, thousands of God's children their brothers and sisters huddle in the dark and cold, not knowing where to find a warm blanket or a cup of milk. SAWS knows where these people are and how to help them. SAWS needs your help in answering the question "Am I my brother's keeper?"
