Blog | Hungry For Life

Blog

Disturbing the comfortable & comforting the disturbed.

Staff thoughts and life lessons about poverty, injustice, leadership, religion and other social issues in the world today.

Less Religious

Thoughts by Dave Blundell – 3 minute read

With every year that passes, it seems that I have an ever increasing distaste for anything religious and it’s being replaced by a simple passion to become more like Jesus. And without a doubt, 2017 brought an embarrassment of what has historically been my religious home base. Take a couple of minutes and watch one of those Youtube compilations of babies sucking lemons. That’s often how I felt when I watched people from my religious tribe interviewed in the news this past year. The intense focus on the role of religion in politics, particularly this past year, has made it even more difficult to bare the label “Christian.”

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Announcement regarding HFL International & HFL USA

Thoughts by Dave Blundell – 2 minute read

After a long period of discussion and discernment, the leadership of both organizations have come to a mutual decision to formally dissolve the partnership between HFL Int’l and HFL USA. Since the expansion of HFL into the US, the partnership was designed to be “one organization in two locations instead of two organizations with the same name.” While we share a passion to end needless suffering, as we would with most relief and development organizations, the leadership of HFL USA has moved in a different direction than the founding message and mandate of HFL.

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The Elephant in the Room

Thoughts by Daniel Mack – 3 minute read

Sin is not a popular subject. Traditional teaching on sin has overemphasized its negative aspects to the extreme. Fear has been used as a tactic that has scared people and scarred people. These results—intended or not—have forced the Church to adjust to a more loving approach. Now, we reach out to people with care—hoping to restore broken relationships. The attitude surrounding the intention is definitely more positive in nature. But, where does sin find a place in the “new" world?

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2017 Mid-Year Update

Thoughts by Dave Blundell – 4 minute read

When Hungry For Life started in 2003, the vision that boldly breathed us into existence was a world without needless suffering. The Biblical idea that a world without extreme suffering is possible, is why we exist. Shortly after our founding, I came across the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Established by world leaders in the year 2000, the MDGs set out an ambitious task to eradicate extreme poverty by the year 2015. The essence of the MDGs, while missing the Biblical motivation, is the same as our vision, a world without extreme poverty. I was totally overwhelmed, and excited, by the thought that if world leaders could plan to eradicate extreme poverty, why couldn't the Church envision and contribute to the same?

From 2000–2015, incredible progress was made. Churches, governments, NGOs and faith-based organizations worked together to carry out the kind of programs and activities that would diminish extreme poverty. However, the job isn't finished. Replacing the MDGs, the Global Goals for Sustainable Development were established to finish the job by 2030.

Why is this important to HFL? Simply put: because the eradication of needless suffering is God's idea. The early church was known for radical generosity that eliminated poverty. The church today should be known for the same. God's people have all of the material and spiritual resources necessary to affect unprecedented global change.

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Observations from Haiti

Thoughts by Daniel Mack – 4 minute read

If you’ve ever done any sort of international relief work, you know that a couple of things happen when you get home:

  1. Some people want to know everything about your trip and, 
  2. the other people just can’t wait for you to shut up about it.

Those expectations, either way, will affect how you are processing your experience. And, I would think, most people are unprepared to give an adequate account—short or long—the moment they step off the plane.

That brings me to my last experience. It’s been about a week since I returned from Haiti and I think I’m ready to share a few observations from my time there. And, like I said, these thoughts are still under development, subject to change, and ultimately unable to describe the totality of what God is doing there, or even just what He is doing through me.

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The More, The Less

Thoughts by Dave Blundell – 2 minute read

  • The more you lead people, the less you will have to manage them.
  • The more you influence people, the less you will have to try and control them.
  • The more you inspire people, the less you will have to motivate them.
  • The more you know what God thinks of you, the less you will care about what others do.
  • The more you focus on relationship, the less you will have to focus on behavior.
  • The more you collaborate with people, the less you will focus on securing agreement.
  • The more you listen to people, the less you will have to talk.
  • The more you can control your emotions, the less you will have to control people’s actions. 

Most people focus on the lesser of these. It is easy to manage, control, motivate, focus on people’s opinions and behavior. But the more you focus on the greater of these, the more you will experience relationships God intended. 

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10 Ways to Dishearten People… and the Reasons It’s Important We Do

Thoughts by Dave Blundell – 2 minute read

  1. Make someone feel worse for something they already feel bad about. Usually people know when they screw up, but in case they don't, make that your job.
  2. Always find the negative in every situation. This will effectively cause people to not want to talk to you about things they are excited about.
  3. Make someone feel small, so you can feel big. When you're insecure, this will help you feel better about yourself.
  4. Always look for the opportunity to be able to say, “I told you so”. This will help you appear smarter than you really are.
  5. Burst people's bubbles with “welcome to the real world”-type comments. This will help you feel better about your own disappointments.
  6. Never encourage people or affirm their strengths. You're doing them a favour by making sure they never become proud.
  7. Don't acknowledge or validate people's disappointment or pain. You're doing them a favour by helping them not wallow in it.
  8. Default to “no” unless you have good reasons to say “yes”. Life is usually too easy for some people, so we're really helping them by making it a bit harder.

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Western Christian Cultural Entitlement

Thoughts by Dave Blundell – 3 minute read

For those who think we should send missionaries to Syria and not have Syrians in Canada or the … isn’t that hypocrisy?

For a couple of decades now, Christians in the West have been decrying the de-Christianizing of our culture. Prayer in school, handing out the Gideon's bible, the change from Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays was just the start. Those issues now seem like child's play. 

Now we deal with issues of gender orientation, immigration, and home-grown terrorism. While we once took pride in the pluralism and tolerance of our nation, there is a constant heap of faith-based posts and shares lamenting how much we have strayed from our Christian roots. 

While it might sound mission-like, is taking our country back to its “Christian roots” really what God wants for us? What if our pluralism and the hostility to all things Christian was exactly what God wants for Christians?

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“What You Do With What You Know” (Lillianna’s Song)

Thoughts by Charlene Stinson – 2 minute read

She was just one face in an endless sea of faces that all speak the same story. I met her quite accidentally. She had just arrived at a small orphan home in Africa; bruised, abused, and damaged, an orphan whose life had been counted as worthless. Afraid, distant and detached—something about the look in her eyes stuck to me. Her picture never left my mind, and Lillianna never left my heart. Her story inspired a bold venture to make a difference for Lillianna and the children of the Mukumu Children’s Home in Kakamega, Kenya. Two teams and more than 30 people raised more than $250,000 and took the trip to Kenya - building, planting, painting, and sharing in the lives of this child and 32 others like her. We witnessed the transforming power of love in action. The truth is, it really doesn’t take much to change someone’s world—just a decision to do something with the knowledge that you have.

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Does the Bible Support Capitalism or Socialism?

Thoughts by Dave Blundell – 3 minute read

In short, yes!

It is unfortunate, but normal, that we look for scripture to validate our previously held convictions. I have read lots of proof texting by proponents of free market capitalism to convincingly support all of the values and behaviors of market-driven economics. But, I always wonder (mostly to myself until now), are capitalists using scripture to justify consumerism and materialism? I have also read lots of proof texting by proponents of socialism to convincingly support the values and behaviors of compassion and social responsibly. And I equally wonder to myself, are socialists using scripture to justify entitlement and avoid personal responsibility?

I’m really tired of the conservative/liberal debate and the camps built around each one. Our current political context constantly pits one against the other. I am even more tired of Christians who say that to be one or the other is more “Biblical.” I googled, “the Bible and Capitalism” as well as “the Bible and Socialism,” and was immediately directed to dozens of passages that seem to support each one. I read many of them and came to the same conclusion I started with. The Bible teaches both—prescriptive and descriptive.

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