I heard on the radio that the world is headed for another drought.  Regardless of how you feel about global warming, the FACT is - its going to get pretty hot and dry in quite a few spots in the upcoming year.  "Hot and dry" translates into the lack of food, which translates into severe hunger and starvation in too many places.

The commentator also mentioned that nations and non-profits will be again lining up to try to help feed people.  I'm so pleased to know our denomination (United Methodist Church) will be at the forefront of this effort. Its one reason I came back to the UMC after being elsewhere on my faith journey.

Some might question the value of helping those starving people over there in __________.  Others might be suspicious of motives or methodology.  Many are able to just set the issue aside.  Others may say we have hungry people right here in ________, which is true, and we SHOULD be helping them.  The world has enough food to feed everyone everywhere. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me how people come up with reasons/excuses not to do it.  Thank God for those who step up the plate (pun intended).

Things get done in this world through partnership.  And it is no different when it comes to feeding the hungry. Here in Minnesota, dozens of companies donate money to pay for food staples that are voluntarily packaged and boxed up by thousands of men, women, youth and children through a non-profit named Feed My Starving Children.  These boxes are shipped by hundreds of distributors to many countries. One example is the UMC, which ships containers to a dock in West Africa twice a year, among other places.

After the ships arrive, a non-profit, based in Sierra Leone, trucks the food up to a French-supported hospital and feeding center.  Norwegian-financed vans are used to pick up emaciated children and their mothers in nearby villages.  They stay at the center for a month.  The mothers are trained in nutrition by staff from the United Nations Food Programme.  Because of their condition, the children eat the FMSC food for the first two weeks.  Then the children "graduate" to rice, grown and brought to the hospital by local farmers through a business co-operative initiated by Save the Children.  Mothers and (healthy) children return to their village where a worker supported by Catholic Charities monitors their development.  Every four weeks the pattern repeats itself.    

Businesses, nations, denominations, the U.N. and other non-profits working together to solve a problem and  make this world a better place.  It takes a village to feed a child.

My wife, Judy, and I went "up north" to the cabin last week.  We've been doing this for twenty-one years, shortly after our first son was born.  Our three now grown children learned to ride bike, fish and golf up in the Park Rapids area. It was just the two of us last week, but we still continued several traditions that included blueberries, building fires, ice cream, the Mississippi river ... and reading.

Not being interested in "Fifty Shades" or any of the other current top sellers, I opted for the non-fiction 512-page "The History of Art."  I know that sounds peculiar, but you have to understand that I was the kid in elementary school who loved to read the encyclopedia just for the fun of it.  Not that I became smarter than anyone else. It's just that I was no good at hockey, and video games weren't invented yet.  And I really DO like to learn new things.

Another motivating factor is that my wife was an art and design major for a while in college, and I felt it was time to finally catch up on things like the color wheel, sculpture, Michelangelo, the non-singing Madonna, Pointillism, Impressionism, Expressionism and all of the other "isms."  After combing chapters dedicated to Western and non-Western art from all ages, I found I was most captivated by cave art.  (Insert your own "man-cave" joke here.)

It turns out that 40,000 years ago cave dwellers drew paintings on their walls, mostly in the part of the world we now call France and Spain.  They lived there to escape the possibility of literally being eaten by wild animals at night, whom they also hunted by day.  As far in at 1/2 mile, always beyond their living quarters, they would designate an area that was used only for artistic expression and religious purposes.  The two would always go together.  They mostly drew the very animals they were hunting/freeing/living with.  There was a sacred quality to the drawings as they made a holy connection with them and their Creator. 

I felt an affinity with them as I looked out on the waters of Fish Hook Lake.

I've been traveling a lot this last month.  One of the trips was to Indiana with my daughter, Elizabeth.  When your 19-year-old daughter wants to take a three-day trip with you someplace, you jump at the chance.  One of the things we did together along the way was see the movie "Avengers."  Normally, I would not have gone, but again, I refer you to the previous sentiment.

Iron Man, the Incredible Hunk and their fellow super heroes made for an entertaining story, and the film is well-done.  I would see it again (something I hardly ever do) and recommend it for your viewing pleasure.

I also recommend persons spending a little time reflecting on who their heroes are in real life.  No one I know can "fly faster that a speeding bullet," but there are some pretty incredible people out there.. I think of those who serve our country in various ways.  I think of paramedics and ambulance drivers, police and fire fighters.  Those who serve in the military.  There are myriad greater and lesser individuals making a difference in various ways.

My nomination for one of the greatest, is a man I have had the honor of getting to know from Alexandria, MN: Dr. Lowell Gess.  He has spent 60+ years in Africa developing eye clinics in several countries.  He has performed tens of thousands of surgeries literally giving men, women and children back their sight.  When he gives his Christian testimony and says "I once was blind, but now I see" to his patients, they truly understand what it means in a deeper way.

That is the REAL world, and to me, he is a REAL super hero.  The "Avengers" has made over 1 billion dollars, but I wish more people would want to see and learn about what Dr. Gess has accomplished. Two types of heroes. One is entertaining.  The other is inspirational.  Let's not confuse them.