Why are you going on another Hunger Ride?
In my preparations for another cross-country bicycle trip, this has been a question I've heard quite a few times. I was sitting with my parents the other day and they posed the question, "Why are you really going on another Hunger Ride?"
Please believe me when I say that I’ve spent many long hours searching my own soul
in answering this question. There were a few nights last fall, last October to be exact, that I hardly slept at all.
So why go? What’s the big deal?
My short answer is this: Because the problem has not been solved.
HIV/AIDS in Africa is still the greatest global crisis in the history of mankind. That's a fact.
6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can easily purchase at any Walgreens just down the street.
And I think it’s a serious understatement to say that the American church is doing little about it.
Ethiopia is among the severely affected countries with the third-greatest number of infected individuals in the world. About 2.8 million people have the virus, and about 250,000 of them are children. Another 750,000 children have been orphaned because of AIDS.
Bono, the lead singer of the band U2, and founder of the ONE Campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, had this to say at the National Prayer Breakfast last year:
“There's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn’t accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature”. In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.”
As a follower of Christ, we have a responsibility to help the poor. Some of the first words that Christ spoke in His public ministry here on this earth were about the poor.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he Had anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18)
I hope that the 2007 Hunger Ride is not really about a glory ride down the Pacific Coast Highway, or just another charity ride. This is about Justice and Equality. It's about helping our brothers and sisters in Africa who are in desperate need.