Christian Living

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Feed My Lambs
© 2007

by

Stephen A. Peterson


It was a television advertisement—the kind that makes one quickly cover their eyes. The advertisement pictured a little starving Filipino girl picking through a mountain of smoking garbage.

Agnes, 17, gasped as she put her hands over her mouth when she looked at this little girl—the bloated abdomen; the skin over arm and leg bones; the sunken, hopeless eyes seemingly staring at her through the television. To wipe the scene from her mind Agnes picked up the remote then hurriedly changed the channel over to a program telling about renovations for one’s house—much better programming. Agnes settled back in her easy chair as the commentator discussed techniques for erecting a patio.

Agnes watched the program through to its conclusion. Feeling hungry, she got up from her easy chair then headed straight to the refrigerator where she found yesterday’s pepperoni pizza in a plastic container. She removed three slices, placed them on a plate then in the microwave for 60 seconds. The alarm signaled the food was warm and ready to eat. Agnes went back to the refrigerator to get a fruit drink. As she returned to her easy chair, she sat on the “previous channel” button that returned her back to the program concerning hunger. Through a strange coincident, Agnes was brought back to the topic of hunger. And this time she was about to eat a snack. Feeding herself while trying to dismiss the plight of that starving child she had seen some thirty minutes earlier. Suddenly Agnes felt ashamed.

Now a converted potato chip canister sits on Agnes’ family kitchen table. It has a slit in the plastic lid for coins and bills. Now every time Agnes sits down to eat anywhere in the house she puts something into it. When she told her family what the canister was for, other family members also began dropping something into the makeshift bank. Within eleven weeks after she started her project, the bank was full. The amount was $38.15 that was immediately sent out to a Christian Relief Organization. Agnes realized that what she and her family had accomplished was nothing spectacular. It was just nickels, dimes, quarters and a few bills. But perhaps, she told herself, it will help one maybe two children from going to bed hungry somewhere in the world. She also thought maybe others might consider her gesture for themselves and/or their family and reach out to those areas of the world where hungry is all too common among the world’s children and their families.

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