IMPORTANT: Fasting from food should be avoided by those with health-related conditions, such as diabetes, heart problems and pregnancy. Anyone with questions about their health condition should consult with their doctor before beginning. Those fasting should read the guidelines in “Fasting 101.”
Fasting options
The typical fast would begin after a simple meal Friday evening, refrain from food Saturday and break the fast with Communion or a communal meal on Sunday.
Those who are not fasting from food can choose to eat simple meals, skip a meal or design a fast that fits their circumstances.
Friday evening
Preparing and Focusing
Fasting In Solidarity with Hungry People
Reflections by the Rev. Noelle Damico, Coordinator, PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food
Can fasting be a way for us to be in solidarity with the 3 billion people who live on less than $2 a day, those who are being hit hardest by the food price crisis?
Fasting is a spiritual practice that transforms both persons and society. Our decision to fast is, simply put, a decision.
People who are starving because of the current food crisis are not choosing to go without food. Starvation is not a decision but a horrific, unnecessary manifestation of the injustice of our current food system and the economic and political policies which support it.
If part of our decision to fast is to be in solidarity with hungry people, this is not “playing at hunger” or attempting some facile, voyeuristic connection to the suffering of others.
It means that we are endeavoring to bring the stories, the analyses, the priorities and prayers of poor and hungry people, to the forefront of our awareness, our reflection and our action.
Together we will read accounts of the food crisis that were prepared by our partners who work with people who are starving or who are themselves starving. We will hear how current policies have devastated lives and livelihoods. We will hear how faith, like a mustard seed, continues to disrupt and persist even in the most horrifying circumstances.
The food crisis has not caused our own families to starve. But it has aroused a mighty fury within our souls; anger at what seems the calculated expendability of some of God’s children, helplessness at the magnitude and severity of the crisis, longing to be of real, material and lasting help.
Our fast is a cry “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus, come!” It is an acknowledgment first and foremost of the sovereignty of God and our responsibility as stewards of creation.
During our fast we will seek God’s guidance and listen intently for God’s word through Scripture, through prayer, through the words of poor and hungry people around the world. We will confess and repent of our knowing and unknowing complicity in the current food crisis. And we will strive to discern God’s leading.
Fasting as a Christian Tradition and According to Calvin
This year Haitians have led the world in protesting the soaring cost of food. The prices of rice, beans and fruit have increased by 50 percent in the last year. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a report saying that the food crisis threatened the Caribbean nation's fragile security. (Source: BBC News, April 5, 2008)
Research shows that international aid programs create dependence on food imports and interfere with the production of local food crops and sustainable agriculture. Industrial farming and food aid can have disastrous effects on developing countries. While food aid and imported food purport to address the problem of hunger, they often exacerbate it by crippling local agriculture's ability to compete and be profitable. Sustainable agriculture, on the other hand, provides a long-term solution that addresses both hunger and its root cause, poverty.
Photo courtesy of Lambi Fund of Haiti
When I was in Haiti visiting a peasant organization earlier this year, I met a young boy named Stanley. Friendly and outgoing, he soon began tagging along after me. I talked with his father, who had been learning English. He proudly told me about the crops his community organization was raising and the tree nursery they had built as they were reforesting the denuded hills around their remote mountain village. While they were poor by American standards, here was a community that was well-educated, self-sufficient and lived in peace in beautiful surroundings.
Then catastrophe struck. The economic situation of the peasantry was already difficult when the recent hurricanes hit the Caribbean. The degradation of the environment contributed to the damage. Waters gushing from the severely deforested mountains carried mud and debris and flooded the valleys and towns of Haiti. Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest city, was under two meters of water for two weeks. Reports are still coming in and the assessment of damage incurred has reached catastrophic proportions.
The flooding from the hurricanes caused hundreds of deaths, loss of crops, homes, micro-enterprises and animals. The devastation and losses have left the Haitian government absolutely overwhelmed. They are now faced with the task of rebuilding an infrastructure of roads, bridges, and canals destroyed by natural disasters, but undermined by years of neglect, divestment and corruption.
Meanwhile, people continue to struggle. Families in remote areas are seeking shelter in schools and churches, their villages cut off by washed out bridges and roads. At least 1,000 deaths have been reported, with more expected as the waters recede. A million people remain homeless. Crops and livestock have been wiped out, making an already chronically dire hunger situation worse.
Photo courtesy of Lambi Fund of Haiti
Food aid has its place to help with immediate survival after a natural disaster. But long after the food aid trucks have gone, the Lambi Fund of Haiti, a partner organization with Presbyterian Hunger Program, will still be working side by side with Haitian peasant groups helping to rebuild sustainable communities.
Haiti’s neighbors and the international community must not only find the compassion to help the country’s desperate survive at this time, but they need to ensure a steady stream of support in the future. Haiti’s problems will not recede with the flood waters. For its part, the Haitian government, which had begun to invest in agriculture in the devastated regions, needs to continue to pursue long-term solutions, including large-scale reforestation and alternative fuels to replace the charcoal production that has left Haiti with less than two percent tree cover.
Photo courtesy of Lambi Fund of Haiti
Given the crucial role of agriculture for the survival of large segments of the population, an obvious option is to place emphasis on staple food production, especially at the small farm level, as a means for reducing poverty, reducing reliance on costly imports and improving the nutritional status of the rural poor. Sustainable organic farming is ideal for these poor areas. It is environmentally sound, requires little money and is labor intensive. Done right, organic farming can bring high yields and provide people with healthy nutritious food. Organic farming improves soil fertility and provides a more sustainable method for peasants to continue farming. The use of traditional methods, hand tools, composting, organic fertilizers and pesticides help conserve the soil. The practice of planting cover crops, crop rotation, agroforestry, reforestation and intercropping help improve soil too. Maintaining a seasonal calendar suited to the local environment is another way to ensure success.
With goals to increase crop yields, plant more trees and improve soil fertility, local peasants must continue to develop plans to achieve their goals with self-sustaining outcomes. This is how they will be able to replenish the land, feed their families and earn a livelihood with dignity and respect. Stanley and his community desperately need your help. Join hands with Haiti to make that happen.
Friday evening prayer
Dear God, we pray for the children of Haiti.
We hope the children feel better.
Give the children regular food instead of mud pies.
Get grass to feed the cows so they have meat and milk.
Help them get the mud out of the houses.
Help them find more food.
Help them to get better. Amen.
God of grace and God of abundance
as I enter this day
may I be mindful
that I live not by bread alone
but by my relationship with you
and in my relationships with your children.
May I be open to your presence
at work in your world
at work in your children whom I encounter this day
and at work within me.
May I be aware of
how you sustain me
how my life intertwines with your children
and how your grace might flow through me.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Question: How might I be an instrument of God's peace and grace this day?
— The Rev. Mark Koenig, coordinator of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program
Breakfast-time prayer
All things take time to grow
Listen to the ocean roar as waves hurtle upon the shore. The saline spray evaporates into the air where clouds form, and the simplest of seasonings remains in their wake. All part of God's design.
Clouds, laden with rainwater, break open across the fields. The farmer rests from a hard day of planting and smiles at the gentle rain. Her heart is warmed by the miracle of life which will soon break through the soil. All part of God's design.
Morning breaks across the horizon and the hive is abuzz with activity. Just enough hours in the day to collect the nectar, pollinate flowers and feed the larvae. With diligence the honeybees fan the nectar until it reduces to honey. Their labor sustains the colony and provides energy to others in creation. All part of God's design.
Lunch-time prayer — continued
The winds come and go and the field ripples like the waves on the ocean. Born on these gusts are pollen, dust, sand, seeds and living organisms too small to be seen. Yeast float whimsically until they find a place to land and ferment. Their lifecycle creates the air that makes bread rise and ferments grapes into wine. All part of God's design.
As the season fades, wheat which sprang up green in the spring matures into gold. Cut and thrash, wheat separates from chaff. Grain leaves the field for the mill. The miller grinds the seed into flour, semolina, bran and germ — each an ingredient of culinary ingenuity. All part of God's design.
From the miller, the flours are loaded by a shipper and delivered to a baker. He artfully kneads the flour with yeast from the air, honey from bees, water from the sky and salt from the sea. Together with time and care, these once disparate components assemble to create a loaf of bread. Life created and sustained, touched by many hands, arising from ocean, field, wind and stream. The plain bread before us is a miracle, seasoned throughout with grace. All food takes time to grow. All life requires care. All part of God's design.
Supper-time prayer — continued
Spirit of mercy, trump the hunger of my stomach.
Where I hunger for food, teach me hunger for justice.
Spirit of compassion, satisfy my longing to consume.
Where I seek to horde, teach me to share.
Spirit of wisdom, feed me the bread of life.
Where I feast on the folly of scarcity, teach me to spread a table of abundance.
Evening prayer time — continued
Think about food you commonly eating.
Where does it come from?
What life miracles were required to make the ingredients?
What creatures assisted in bringing this food to you?
Whose hands helped prepare it?
Where do you see God in each meal?
[You may wish to listen to the song "Ordinary Miracle" by Sarah McLachlan]
All the prayers from breakfast on written by Adam Fischer, former Young Adult intern with Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Enough for Everyone.
By The Rev. Jonas Georges, Pastor of All Nations Presbyterian Church in North Miami Beach, Florida
The widow of Zarephath in the Bible was close to death. Widows in the modern western world may be isolated, but they are cared for relatively well. Inheritance, government and employment pension plans provide more than enough benefits to fill the void left by the death of a husband. In many Western European countries those benefits can exceed her husband’s former wages and benefits. Therefore, there is no hardship added to her emotional pain. She only requires the caring and the pastoral skills of her church community to help provide grief counseling.
While this poor woman’s story is not popular in affluent countries, it is very much so in countries like Haiti where widows share the meager resources of loved ones and neighbors or are left abandoned and alone. There is no safety net to fill the economic void left by a husband’s death. Far from bringing a benefit of any kind, widowhood leaves a poor woman in a state of total defeat.
In the United States, one almost never hears of poor folk scrambling to collect sticks to cook their meal. When this does happen, in the case of homeless persons perhaps, it is indeed the exception to the rule. But not so in our poor widow’s case, whose story is a perfect example of what goes on in the miserable lives of too many of God’s children living in some of the poorest countries of the world. This is the image of abject poverty. This is a representation of what the food price crisis and hunger is doing in the world: people eat the little they can afford and hope and pray that some day, somehow they will be fortunate to have enough to feed their children, who too often are left to fend for themselves.
Where has all the food gone? Should we give in to the notion that an uncontrollable population explosion has contributed to acute hunger on the planet and therefore there is nothing we can do about it?
The story of the widow of Zarephath teaches us that God does not relieve us of our responsibility. The lack of food on even a single family’s table flies in the face of a loving, almighty God who has never failed to come up with the right solution, even when the weakest link of the chain is about to give in. Yes, poverty, with its most obvious consequence hunger, is the weakest link of the huge chain of solidarity that human beings are called on to create around the planet. We all know it that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Are we not all in this together?
A few more questions:
Is hunger God’s way of inflicting punishment on the poor for their lack of entrepreneurship and smarts, or is it the result of the “haves” and the “have mores” of this world not caring enough to quit wasting and start sharing?
What is God saying to us 21st century Christians who are the witnesses to the miracle of this story?
Several years ago, a friend gave me a recording of one of John Littleton’s songs, which was an impossible prayer. His paraphrase of Matthew 25:35-40 goes something like this: "Seigneur, quand j’ai faim, envoie-moi quelqu’un qui a faim afin que je le nourrisse." (Tr : Lord when I am hungry, send on my way someone who is hungry so that I may feed them.) Seems to me that that’s what God is telling us in the story of the widow of Zarephath. How else could we interpret the fact that a poor woman who cries out: “I don’t have any bread … only a handful of flour … and a little oil …” manages to feed a total stranger and have enough for her son and herself? ( v. 12) Think about it.
Thinking it over:
Go over the questions in the lesson and try to answer them.
How do you define poverty? Can you think of a situation where you actually experienced poverty?
Write a short reflection or talk with someone about your personal experience of hunger.
Written by The Dr. Reverend Jonas Georges, Pastor of All Nations Presbyterian Church in North Miami Beach, Florida
Learn More
Hurricanes, Haiti, and a missionary’s passion to hold hunger at bay
September 22, 2008 — This Presbyterian News Service article focuses on the work of PC(USA) mission coworker Mark Hare and his efforts to foster sustainable agriculture in some of the poorest areas of Haiti.
Haitian Brothers: Wilus and Wilner Exil
Photo by Mark Hare, PC(USA) mission coworker in Haiti
by Mark Hare
PC(USA) mission coworker in Haiti
Wilus Exil and his brother Wilner live in the remote community of Leodiyag, in the fourth administrative section of the municipality of Hinche, Center Department (Department Centre). Wilus, the older of the two brothers, has worked in the Road to Life Yard project since April and Wilner since November 2006. Each morning, the two brothers leave their homes between 3:30 and 4 a.m., walking about one hour, crossing the Samanà River and climbing two hills to reach the friend’s house where they keep their bikes. From there, they have about a 30-minute bike ride down the final mountain to reach the center, where we begin work in the Road to Life Yard project at 5:30 a.m. They are almost never late, even when the Samanà River floods, which is nearly every time there is a hard rain — two or three times a month during the six-month rainy season. [Read more]
By Mark Schuller, from the Americas Policy Program, Center for International Policy (CIP); April 25, 2008. The excerpt below illustrates the insidious effects of food aid on Haiti. Read the full article.
Politics of the Stomach The food riots in Haiti were also a result of policies and actions of the international community. Haiti has lost its food sovereignty as a result of decades of foreign-imposed neoliberal measures. (See Neoliberalism in Glossary.) This is a concrete example of what longtime Haiti advocate Paul Farmer calls "structural violence" — the long-term underdevelopment and inequalities in the world system. [Read more]
Famine in Haiti, Causes and Consequences. What do I do?
Wisdom and teachings in Haiti are often passed along in an oral tradition. Interpretations of sayings and proverbs are as varied and complex as the people. For today, I want to highlight one: Yon sèl dwèt pa manje kalalou. "You cannot eat okra with one finger." I often think of this when, as PC(USA) Partnership Facilitator for Haiti, I am interacting with our partner, the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, and with others here in the United States or in Haiti.
Food crises are not new to Haiti. When your world is what you see around you — your family and neighbors — and that reality is comprised of a daily struggle to provide even a meager bit of sustenance, crisis is the norm.
Carrying forth the analogy and capability of fingers, I have seen two fingers — the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and the PC(USA) — working together for decades, enabling people to pick up bits and pieces to feed the needs of the people of Haiti. As more fingers were and continue to be added, there began to form a strong hand to enable a "Hand UP" and not just a "Hand-OUT."
Working together in development, education and medical ministries, these "fingers" have enabled changes and improvements in Haiti. Sometimes it is one step forward and then, when natural or man-made disasters occur, it is two steps backward. Prayerfully, we try again to take three steps forward together.
Sometimes changes are only visible in small steps:
A young person learning to read
A person brought to Christ
Access to a clean water source for a community
Birth of a healthy baby by a healthy mother
A new way to garden that is good for the earth and the gardener
Sometimes these steps are larger and more visible:
Nursing students graduating and stepping out to model a new and dynamic level of nursing in the medical community in Haiti
Students graduating from an agricultural school to become leaders in their community
Students graduating from a university to take their place in leadership roles
Teams of community health workers spreading out through their region to teach healthier lifestyles
Mothers gathering to learn how one mother (with the same things available to her as her neighbors) is raising children who are thriving
Gatherings of community leaders who then make policy changes that have a positive impact for all Haitians
Each of these "fingers" has a name, a vision, a mission statement, a desire to change the norm of constant crisis in Haiti to a norm of health and wholeness. A norm that embraces and brings to reality the great prayer asking for "daily bread." Manjé nou bézouin an, ban nou-l jòdi-a.
I invite you therefore, to see where you are or wish to be in this hand with many fingers. Explore where you may wish to participate in changing the present crisis of norm.
A scenario of Hell might be this: a long table groaning with all the delights of eye and palate. However, those assembled around the table are miserable, starving and in agony. Upon closer inspection you see that the arms of those present have locked elbows and cannot reach hand to mouth.
A scenario of Heaven may be this: a long table overflowing with the same delights of eye and palate, and all who are gathered round are joyous and well fed. Again, on closer inspection, you see that all assembled have arms with locked elbows. However, when you watch, you see that they are feeding one another.
Yon sèl dwèt pa manje kalalou. "You cannot eat okra with one finger."
IMPORTANT:It's important to break a fast carefully. Eating too much too soon will overload your digestive system, causing uncomfortable and disruptive reactions.
Early morning prayer time
Spread the Table
What good comes from having a field abounding with food if it cannot be shared?
One cannot serve both God and mammon, nor can one horde while a neighbor goes hungry and proclaim love. O, God in your mercy, open our eyes to see our brothers and sisters around the world and in our communities.
Hope is not lost, for each breath brings us new opportunities to aid others. Temper our arrogance and soften our ears to listen to the cries of those in need. Let us not be bold, but teach us humility that we may listen and respond to the needs of your people throughout the world. Guide us to seek sustainable solutions to the complications we have created in the world. God, in your mercy, help us to love each other as you love us.
Now let join together and set a table where all are welcome and fed. Let abundance be our mantra and love be our guide. Let Wisdom, with her table spread, be our inspiration. Let Christ, with arms of blessed welcome, be our guide. Let the Spirit, with its untamable fire, burn brightly in each of us. O God transform us daily to reflect your will.
Breakfast-time prayer
Haitian Mealtime Blessing
Lord Creator, Sustainer and Comforter of our world, whose power has worked many miracles, be with us and abide within us.
Let us be mindful of our many blessings:
When we plant for pleasure and for beauty rather than necessity.
When we pick and choose the best of well-stocked grocery bins and vegetable markets,
When we are impatient with long lines that seem to move so slowly.
Remind us Lord, of those who garden for survival.
Remind us Lord, of those who have neither money nor choice about what they and their children eat — because they are starving.
Remind us of those whose work consists of continual, grueling tasks which require stooping, bending, planting and weeding and then go home, lacking even clean running water to prepare meals over coal fires.
Remind us of those who count it a blessing to be ABLE to WAIT in lines because it is a chance to receive bare staples of rice or flour for their families for one day or maybe a week.
Only through the power of your love do our lives cross.
Though their lives and our experiences are so different — even worlds apart — brothers and sisters are we.
Nourish us then with this food prepared for our bodies
Empower us with your spirit and love so that we can use the gifts and talents you have given us to end the imbalance and hardships that our sisters and brothers face.
Be with those we love, pray for, and cherish.
In the name of our Lord, we ask it.
Amen.
— The Rev. Lula Creed
The Rev. Creed is now deceased. She was an ordained clergy member of the Presbytery of the Peaks who loved and served the Lord with many gifts and talents. She was a dancer, a writer, a poet and singer.
Break the Fast with Holy Communion
A majority of Presbyterian congregations have communion on the first Sunday of each month, but some do not. If your congregation doesn’t celebrate the Eucharist on the first weekend of the month, you could break the fast with a breakfast or a lunch before or after worship. Alternately, another time of the month can be chosen to do the fast.
Worship Materials for the November 2008 Fast
Download the new worship materials adapted from PC(USA)’s "Peacemaking Through Worship," along with a Food and Faith litany.
Break the Fast with a Meal After or Before Worship Service
Bring local foods (as much as possible), perhaps create a prayerful ritual or simple worship liturgy, and share your fasting experience.
You might wish to begin or end your meal with the Communion or liturgical materials from above.
Discussion Time: Ideas for Your Sharing
Hopefully you will have time to reflect with someone or a group of people. You may wish to discuss the questions from the Biblical Reflection on the widow of Zarephath or the questions below about the current situation.
While in-kind food aid is needed in emergencies, shipping it long distances and having it arrive months after the most critical period is illogical and often damaging to local farming. What would be better ways to respond?
When there is less grain to go around and prices are high, food aid drops off because giant grain companies like Cargill and ADM prefer to sell. When grain prices are low and grain is plentiful, there is a lot of food aid available, which is generally when it is less needed. Can you think of any ways to fix this?
Since 1954, food aid has been used by the United States as a way to permanently expand exportation of our agricultural products. What are some of the costs to the countries receiving this aid?
Responses to the global food crisis
These responses are steps towards solutions; they are ways we can engage in our food system and learn ways of working toward the deeper changes needed. Consider choosing one or two to do during the month as part of your faith practice.
Personal responses
Being a faithful Christian includes being an active citizen in our country and world. Educate yourself about the presidential and other political candidates’ platforms and be sure to make your voice heard by voting on November 4. Download the PC(USA) Washington Office's Christian Citizen's Guide
Visit local poultry farms to find that special bird for Thanksgiving dinner. Or create a new Thanksgiving tradition and have a vegetarian meal instead.
Christmas season is just around the corner. Purchase gifts that enhance the livelihoods of farmers and artisans at Partners for Just Trade for an array of clothing, accessories, gift items and dried tropical fruit from Cameroon. Peruse Equal Exchange Interfaith Store for wonderful coffees, teas and chocolates.
Start a conversation about planting a food garden on your church’s property. Talk to session members soon and be sure to get on the session agenda during November or December’s meetings.
Host a party to raise donations for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to support their work as they serve those in the Caribbean affected by the devastating 2008 hurricane season. Serve a simple Haitian meal. Visit PDA's Web site for more information.
Take a group to the Presbyterian United Nations Office for a seminar focused on the food crisis and Haiti. Contact the Presbyterian United Nations Office Seminar Program Coordinator at (212) 697-4568 or by email.
Join Jubilee Congregations around the United States in dedicating part or all of your religious service on December 14 to pray for global economic justice, deepen the community's understanding of the debt issue, and take concrete action for debt cancellation for Haiti and all impoverished countries.
The Haiti Mission Network is among more than 25 networks that connect Presbyterians who share a common mission interest. Most participants are involved in mission partnerships through congregations, presbyteries or synods. Network members come together to coordinate efforts, share best practices and develop strategies.
2008 meeting dates: November 12-13 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. For information contact Maria Arroyo or Pix Mahler.
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