hunger:360

In our 360 projects, we bring together what belongs together. Too often, we treat church life and ministry like a pizza: a slice of worship, a slice of education, a slice of service in the community, etc.

At Vine Street, we want to integrate what we do in those areas: the life of faith is not a pizza, but more like a circle where all points are defined by a common center. Our work, our worship, our family life, our study, our hopes, our fellowship – they all share, we all share a common center in the God who meets us in Jesus Christ.

360 is the sum of all angles. 360 is our way of saying, “We want to look at this from as many angles as possible. We want to experience this as completely as possible. We want to bring together what we know belongs together.”

hunger:360 is our second 360 project. Why hunger? That’s the question. Our gardens, fields and farms produce more than enough food for all, and yet there is persistent, deadly hunger on every inhabited continent. In November, the Department of Agriculture reported that here in the United States the number of Americans who lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million. The government began tracking what is now commonly called “food security” 14 years ago, and the number of men, women, and children lacking “food security” has never been higher.

During Lent this year, beginning with Ash Wednesday on February 17, we will bring hunger and faith together to see how and where they touch.

We will study, we will fast, we will prepare and serve meals, we will pray, we will map our pantries, we will walk, we will read, we will trust the God of abundance in the deserts of scarcity.

hunger:360 offers us opportunities to

• talk with Tallu Schuyler, Executive Director of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, about hunger in Nashville, and how we can address it
• hear Kevin McCoy, Coordinator of the Nashville CROP Walk, who is passionate about the work of Church World Service and its fight against hunger
• prepare meals and serve them in unfamiliar places in our city
• walk through a photography exhibit in our sanctuary
• pray with Jesus, the bread of life
• watch a movie about a community garden project in L.A.
• tour Second Harvest Foodbank
• ask ourselves what hunger drives our insatiable consumerism
• talk with Prof. Douglas Heimburger from the Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health about the effects of hunger and malnutrition on the human body
• read Sara Miles, Take This Bread and discuss it in a small group
• participate in the Nashville CROP Walk
• map our pantries and refrigerators and find out where all this food comes from
• worship God with our whole being

Watch for updates on individual events on this website.

The calendar below looks best in Agenda view.

Haiti Earthquake

As the reports continue to come in, the initial shock and the growing fears give way to ever clearer knowledge of what has happened and what actions must accompany our prayers.

Again, we are proud to be part of Week of Compassion and its approach to ministry: we work with local partners, we cooperate with international partners, all of our disaster relief gifts go to disaster relief (and not to overhead). "Earthquakes are acts of nature, extreme vulnerability to earthquakes is manmade," wrote Tracy Kidder in the New York Times (Country Without a Net). Our response will always address the immediate need as well as reduce the systemic, extreme vulnerability to natural disasters.

Our current focus, as part of the coordinated effort of Church World Service, is on transporting basic material supplies like tarps, blankets, hygiene kits and baby supplies to Haiti's capital area. We are grateful for our strong relationship with our historic partner from the Dominican Republic, Servicios Sociales de Iglesias Dominicanas. Their proximity makes our response possible.

The second prong of our response addresses another basic need: clean water. Our response is targeted and effective because we work closely with ecumenical church partners. This is a powerful reminder that church unity is not a mere matter of opinion or doctrine, but of faithfulness in witness and service.

At Vine Street, we want to make sure that our response always includes even our youngest members. They overhear the news reports, they ask questions, they remember the people of Haiti in their prayers, and they want to help. And we want them to always be part of our mission and ministry.

The hygiene kits that are being shipped to Port-au-Prince via the Dominican Republic come from Church World Service warehouses, and the shelves are now empty. On Sunday, before we gather in worship, we will assemble one hundred of these basic kits from hundreds of towels, tooth brushes, bars of soap, etc. we have already purchased. This is one small thing even the youngest member of our community can do. We will dedicate those gifts in worship together with a special offering for Week of Compassion and with our other gifts.

Because we work with our partners on the ground and in countries around the world, we will soon know what else we can do to honor God in our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Update on 2010-01-16 15:13 by Thomas Kleinert

Kim Bentrott has written a powerful and moving account of the earthquake and its aftermath. She and her husband, Patrick, are currently living and working in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

They are employed through our Global Ministries and partnered with the ecumenical Haitian church organization CONASPEH.