wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Upcoming fast focuses on war, hunger and recovery in Sudan

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www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09105<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09105

Upcoming fast focuses on war, hunger and recovery in Sudan

Presbyterian Hunger Program encourages Presbyterians to
participate in monthly 40-hour fast

>by Bethany Furkin
>Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE - Most Presbyterians in the United States don't
know what it means to be hungry. But for one weekend a
month, they can get an idea of how more than 850 million
people around the world feel every day.

Since October, the Presbyterian Hunger Program
[www.pcusa.org/hunger] has coordinated a 40-hour fast once
a month, beginning on a Friday evening and ending with
Communion or a communal meal on Sunday.

Each month features a different theme and country along
with corresponding study materials and suggested prayers.
The themes reflect factors contributing to the global food
crisis.

The next fasting period is Feb. 27-March 1 and will focus
on war, hunger and recovery in Sudan. March 1 is the first
Sunday of Lent.

Previous fasts have focused on food aid issues in Haiti,
the impact of biofuel production on food supplies in
Guatemala and the United States, the role rapid population
growth makes on hunger is India and how violence affects
hunger issues in Congo.

The year of monthly fasting will end in October 2009,
culminating with World Food Day [www.worldfooddayusa.org].

"The hope is that through fasting, people are going to come
up with creative ideas of what to do and they'll understand
the global food crisis a little better," said Ruth Farrell,
coordinator of the hunger program.

About 230 people in the United States and around the world
have formally registered as participants in the fasts, but
there are countless others who are fasting but haven't
signed up, said Andrew Kang-Bartlett, associate for
National Hunger Concerns. The hunger program encourages
people to fast with another person for support; groups in
some congregations are even fasting as a whole.

"It makes a big difference when you know others are fasting
with you," Kang-Bartlett said.

Although Nancy Lister-Settle has been participating in the
fasts since October, she has been unable to find a group to
fast with. Lister-Settle, the hunger action enabler for the
Presbytery of Des Moines [www.presbyteryofdesmoines.org],
said she hopes the upcoming fast's focus on Sudan will
inspire more participants. The presbytery includes a large
population of Sudanese, so the topic will hit home for many
congregants.

Part of the idea behind the fasts is to allow participants
a chance to step back from the overwhelming enormity of the
food crisis and look at it piece by piece, Farrell said,
adding that finding solutions will take time.

The food crisis is a result of the interaction of several
factors, including higher fuel costs, corruption,
environmental disasters and use of agricultural land for
biofuel crops.

Fasting and learning more about the food crisis through the
provided materials has helped Lister-Settle with her work.
Many of the congregations in the presbytery are made up of
rural farmers, and she has been using her experiences to
educate them about the global effects of their work.

"This has given me a new way to engage people in a way that
they can understand the consequences of the decisions they
make," she said.

The causes of the crisis lie in problems that need to be
fixed in the short term, experts say, as well as larger
structural problems that will take longer to solve.

"Nobody has the answers," Farrell said. "This has been
brewing for so long, it's created a real storm."

Fasting also helps increase understanding and builds
appreciation and community. Fasting is a reminder of how we
are all connected to God and depend on him for nourishment,
Kang-Bartlett said, adding that serving Communion after a
fast is a powerful display of God's abundance.

The year of fasting has no predetermined outcome -
coordinators have left it up to God, Farrell said. It's
possible that solutions will be generated through the
network of participants or will come up during the practice
of fasting.

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