When Hunger is the Answer

Some dear friends and I took our daughters to The Revolve Tour in California this weekend. One of the speakers at the conference was a young boy who has changed the world ... one basket at a time. Before I tell you more about him though I wanted to tell you that HUNGER is the answer to the global problem of poverty and hunger. It is both the problem and the solution. You see, we need to get hungry! I am not talking about sympathy fasting so that we can try to even begin to understand a small portion of what people around this world are feeling when it comes to hunger. Instead, we need to actively seek, pray, and yearn for a heart that is hungry to be a part of the solution ... a soul that aches with hunger for change! The child ... yes child ... that we heard speak has started an organization called Hoops of Hope. A summary of his story is listed below:

Hoops of Hope is the biggest basketball shoot-a-thon in the world, much like a walk-a-thon, but more fun! You can join thousands of participants and teams from around the world that shoot free throws for children in need. Every dollar raised will go directly to the project you select to help these children. Every free throw will literally help keep children from becoming orphans.

The United Nations estimates that every 14 seconds, somewhere in the world, another child is orphaned by HIV/AIDS. This means that each day over 6,000 children join the 15 million children worldwide who have already lost one or both parents to this disease.

In the spring of 2004, Austin Gutwein watched a video that showed children who had lost their parents to AIDS. After watching the video, he realized these kids weren’t any different from him except they were suffering. Austin felt God calling him to do something to help them. He decided to shoot free throws and on World AIDS Day, 2004, he shot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 kids who would be orphaned during his day at school. Friends and family sponsored Austin and he was able to raise almost $3,000. That year, the money was used by World Vision to provide hope to 8 orphan children.

From that year forward, thousands of people have joined Austin in a basketball shoot-a-thon called Hoops of Hope. By doing something as simple as shooting free throws, Hoops of Hope participants have raised over $1 million. The children left behind by AIDS now have access to food, clothing, shelter, a new school and finally, a medical testing facility which he was told would save an entire generation. A second clinic is now under construction.

All of this is the result of one child's hunger to make a difference. God used what this child loved and his willingness to follow a vision to help change the world.

There are a lot of people in the world that are dying from hunger. Let's get hungry! Let's do something. Let's take a good look at what our passions are and ask God to give us a vision of how they can be used to help others. We were made for this.