What are you doing to stop the famine?

by David Shannon

One of our own is named in an ACLU lawsuit. She has done no wrong. Perhaps �persecuted for righteousness sake� may be the best way to describe it. She works with the school system.
Three school shootings recently have reminded us of how desperately some live and die. There is something about the last one happening in an Amish school that reminds us that life isn't fair on this earth. One�s sin often harms another.
This past Sunday within a few miles of our home a story made national news as one grown man stomped another man�s head. Some will look at this lightly since the violence was under the canopy of sports. Some say sports builds character while others believe it reveals character. There is something else that builds character.
A course using the Bible as a text book for history and literature is being proposed to the Wilson County School Board. Several of our students were at the school board meeting Monday evening. Kaitlin Puckett and Matt Collins presented wonderful thoughts encouraging the board to make the course an available elective.
When I was in my early twenties, Tracie and I lived on Long Island and worked with the Timothy Hill Children�s Ranch. Working with these neglected and abused teenage boys was a pleasure. There were challenges and rewards that came with the opportunity to try and help these hurting young men.
Almost all of them had one thing in common. They knew nothing of the Bible. They usually didn�t know one character other than Jesus in all the Bible. They didn�t know the name of one book in the Bible. The first time they heard certain teachings you knew it was going to shock them. For example, the first time they heard of fornication we would have to define what the word meant. After a few minutes it would register with them that God was saying it was wrong. They would always look shocked and ask �what?� How could it be wrong? All their songs sung about it. Their movies portrayed it. They and their friends did it or would soon. Their mothers did it regularly, even their grandmothers. They would go back and read the scriptures and then ask us, �You mean you don't �.?� And they would learn something life changing from God�s word that they would never have learned anywhere else. "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, But shall not find it� ( Amos 8:11-12). Find it!