A Call to Passion

By Stacey Johnson

Community Lutheran Church in Sterling provided funds to buy the animal and to pay the processing costs.

Have you ever been hungry—I mean really hungry? I’m not talking the kind of hunger you get when you are fasting or going on a diet. Have you ever worried about not being able to feed your children? Have you ever watched your child slowly decline because they did not have adequate nutrition to sustain them? My husband and I have never been that hungry or have not been able to feed our children. We are blessed, but we have seen others go through this universal challenge. From living and traveling overseas and seeing overwhelming poverty and hunger outside our U.S. borders, we can understand why hunger persists.

There are people in this country that go to bed night after night hungry, and parents that feel they have failed because they cannot feed their children healthy and substantial meals. As individuals, as friends, as parents, as Americans, as citizens of the world community, and as Christians, we challenge each of you to make a difference. You make an impact on the world around you, and you have to decide what kind of impact you want to make. Our passion is called Hogs for the Hungry.

We have a small farm in Loudoun County and, wanting to use whatever the Lord has given us, we are donating pigs from our herd to the hungry and are calling for others to do the same. Churches and farms may team with us or with each other in this effort.

Local farmers are diligent in supporting the community, but are usually working on a shoestring budget. They cannot bear this burden alone. Church congregations can support farmers by partnering with them in this endeavor.

Community Lutheran Church in Sterling provided funds to buy the animal and to pay the processing costs. We provided the feed, the daily care, the vaccines, the fresh water, and the love in raising the animal. The end result is fresh, organic, restaurant quality meat provided to community shelters that assist in providing food for the hungry. Churches that may not have any farmers in their congregations can team up with churches in a more rural area.

As an individual, you can also support us or other farmers in your area to start your own Hogs for the Hungry project. By “hogs” we mean livestock, which can include pigs, cows, steers, lambs, or anything that the Lord has blessed you with.

For more information on how you can be involved in this local ministry, and/or start one in your own church or community, please contact Mark and Stacey Johnson mark.mrj@gmail.com or 703-431-7644, or Community Lutheran Church (703-430-6006).
 
“What good is it, my brother, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothes and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” - James 2:14-18.

><((((º> .• `•.. ><((((º> .• `•.. ><((((º> .• `•.. ><((((º>.•