Poor Kids Don’t Eat Real Food

Since many of us are in the process of purging our 2012 pantries of all those terrible, no-good, very bad substances like hydrogenation and high-fructose corn syrup, I’ve heard one question repeated on Facebook and the blogosphere.

“What do I do with all this unhealthy stuff I’m getting rid of? Should I just go ahead and feed it to my kids even though it’s bad for them? Maybe I should just give it to a food bank or homeless shelter? Should I throw it away? I hate to waste it after I spent 10 hours couponing for it and got it for free.”

It’s a fair question, and one that I’ve considered myself, so I’ll tell you what I’d do.

Give it to a food bank with lots of poor kids. They’ll eat anything.

Because even though you’ve decided it’s not good enough for you . . .

or your kids . . .

you can feel good about giving it to poor kids who don’t know any better.

As we all know, poor kids don’t eat real food.

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Are you bristling? Did I scratch?  Are you offended that I, the Poorganic, would mock charitably donating food to poor kids?

Or, do you know me well enough to know that this is my proclivity for cheeky satire rearing its snarky little head.

Truth be told, I don’t really care what you do with your old unhealthy food.  If you want to give it to poor children, that is totally fine with me.

Here’s a little secret. This post isn’t about food at all. And it isn’t about poor kids.  Well, yes it is.
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Here’s something you can watch in the next 45 seconds that is a BIG DEAL. (Click over to the site to watch if you’re viewing this post in e-mail.)

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My dad is a handy man by trade, but in his spare time, and with his spare money, he has taken 6 trips to Tanzania to teach the Bible.  (And you wonder how I became this way . . . . .)

When he first started going he was astonished that many Christian men beat their wives and children. Really BEAT THEM.  As in, for disobedience, disrespect, a mess, to get sex, whatever they wanted.  Beating wives was the cultural norm.

See, even though they call themselves Christians, MANY of them don’t actually own Bibles at all. Many of them really don’t know what God or the Bible says.  So, when my dad taught (through a translator), they were really astonished by Ephesians 6 and all that hooplah about loving and honoring their wives.  AND, as many of us who have experienced the RICHES of God’s word know, IT TOTALLY ROCKED THEIR WORLD.

Here’s the testimony of one pastor, who despite his vocation, was ignorant of many of the truths in God’s word. He shares how my Dad’s teachings from God’s word transformed his home. (He numbered it, which I totally love.)

1.  My wife’s attitude has changed, she is no longer aggressive to our children.

2.  My attitude has also changed, I’m no longer aggressive to my wife. I do share ideas with her. 

3.  I have learned that my wife’s needs are supposed to be given the first priority. 

4.  Nowadays I share the same (dining table) plate with my children during meals. This has enabled me to be more close to them. Nevertheless my demeanor is undull due to the new level of spiritual experience and power I’m living under a new management and power from God. 

5.  The degree of love between I and my wife has increased, we depend on each other.

I love it! I love to hear about the amazing transforming POWER of God’s Word.  God’s Word really and truly changes everything. It changes my kids. It changes me. The more I hear of it, read of it, learn of it, the more I change.

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You know, at the end of the day, when you read one of the poorganic real food posts, you might say, “Well that’s fine for them, but I’m just not into real foods.” And truthfully, that’s fine because the real reason that I blog is because, I agree with Jesus about REAL, real food.   Hang with me, folks. You gotta give me some time to explain this.

Here’s what he said to the disciples after he fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. (Emphases added. Jesus in red. My unavoidable two cents in blue.)

²⁶ Jesus said to them, “For sure, I tell you, you are not looking for Me because of the powerful works. (GIGANTIC miracle of feeding thousands.)

You are looking for Me because you ate bread and were filled. (So so glad I’m not like these disciples, missing the miracle while I think about my tummy. Ahem. ;))

²⁷ Do not work for food that does not last. Work for food that lasts forever. The Son of Man will give you that kind of food. God the Father has shown He will do this.”

²⁸ Then the people said to Him, “What are the works God wants us to do?” (So practical we humans are. “Give us a list Jesus. Break it down.”)

²⁹ Jesus said to them, “This is the work of God, that you put your trust in the One He has sent.” (Sheesh. Trusting? I think a checklist would have been easier, right?)

³⁰ They said to Him, “Can You show us some powerful work? Then we can see it and believe You. What will You do? (Um, guys. Did you miss the whole BREAD MULTIPLIED BY A THOUSAND?!?!)³¹ Our early fathers ate bread that came from heaven in the desert. This happened as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” (Disciples! Dudes. Again with the bread? Really? Even I am beginning to see that this isn’t about REAL bread.)

³² Then Jesus said to the people, “For sure, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven. (Der-her, guys.) My Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. ³³ The Bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the WORLD.”

³⁴They said to Him, “Sir, give us this Bread all the time.”  (Is it actually possible they still think HE is talking about BREAD???) 

³⁵ Jesus said to them, (Bring it, Jesus!) “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry. He who puts his trust in Me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ I said to you that you have seen Me and yet you do not put your trust in Me. ³⁷ All whom My Father has given to Me will come to Me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me. ³⁸ I came down from heaven. I did not come to do what I wanted to do. I came to do what My Father wanted Me to do. He is the One Who sent Me. ³⁹ “The Father sent Me. He did not want Me to lose any of all those He gave Me. He wants Me to raise them to life on the last day. ⁴⁰ He wants everyone who sees the Son to put his trust in Him and have life that lasts forever. I will raise that one up on the last day.”

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Life that lasts forever.  Turns out that to get immortality, you just have to eat some REAL real food.

You may have noticed a little somethin’-somethin’ over there on the right hand side of my blog. (If you’re in e-mail, click over.)  This is my absolute first advertisement after 20 months of blogging.  It was the first things I wanted to show off and publicize.

Because of a post I wrote back in October for One Verse, I won a ticket to a fabulous blogging conference called Relevant.  There, I joined up with a group of other women who believe in the work of One Verse.  As of TODAY, we are launching OneVerse Bloggers, a team of bloggers who are advocating for the Vidunda people in, wait for it, TANZANIA.

The Vidunda group are in Bible Poverty. They are poor kids, Biblically speaking.  They have been eating bits and pieces of truth they’ve heard in a trade language, which doesn’t really make sense to them.  What they’ve had is not nourishing. It isn’t transforming. It’s not REAL FOOD.

I’m not okay with that.

But, the Bread of Life came down from heaven to give life to the WORLD, right?  So maybe it’s time to stop expecting poor kids to settle for fake food while keeping the real food for ourselves.  It’s time to stop being okay with Bible Poverty.

You can join the One Verse Bloggers and see our progress translating God’s Word for the Vidunda. For only $26, you can enable the translation of one verse of Scripture into the Vidunda language. You’ll even get THAT verse mailed to you!  When you become a monthly partner with the Vidunda, you will be sharing REAL FOOD, the Bread of Life, with the Vidunda.  As a wonderful thank you, my friends and fellow OneVerse Bloggers, Lara Williams and Katie Orr, will give you a free copy of their FABULOUS e-book called Savoring Living Water, which is the most amazing resource I’ve seen for helping you to have a dynamic quiet time. Truly, I am so excited about this.

Also, Letter Verses is going to continue by joining OneVerse Bloggers in partnering with the Vidunda.  You can join! Read about Letter Verses, and be ready to join us or catch up when we start with H verse next week!

If you’re as excited as I am about this, please read posts from other OneVerse Bloggers.  This is a truly amazing group of ladies with whom I’m honored to share the blogosphere.  Read about their passion for OneVerse.

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If you are not okay with giving fake food to poor kids, join us. (You can even tweet #oneversebloggers and see what happens!)