Today’s blogger for the 40 Day Fast is Brian Seay. I got to know Brian while attending a weekly Bible study he taught with his brother-in-law, Shaun Groves, and he has gone on to become the Artists Relations Manager for Compassion International. So today, he wrote about the work Compassion is doing in addressing the global food crisis, and what the high cost of oil means for those in other countries.
“I spent most of my life in a naive state of bliss. I just figured what happened in my world stayed in my world. A trip to Uganda in 1997 changed that for me and I realized how interconnected the entire world really is. You see, our high gas prices are a pain for us but the reality is I still fill my car up and drive off upset but with a full tank of gas and usually a Mountain Dew to go with it. The reality is that the rising cost of oil is crippling the poorest of the poor throughout the world and forcing families to go to bed hungry every night. That truth makes my frustration about the price of unleaded just plain ridiculous.
In Haiti, Jehu’s home, the price of rice went up 78% in less than a month earlier this year. In Ethiopia, the cost of buying the ingredients for their staple food, injeera, doubled in the last few months. In Bangladesh, 90% of the children Compassion serves are being directly affected by rising food prices.”