40 Day Fast

This is from a friend of mine. I am humbled by his devotion.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

My name is Jesse Resch. I have been married to my loving wife Melissa for sixteen years and we have three beautiful kids. We've been believers for eleven years and have witnessed God's mercy, grace and love poured out on our lives many times over. As I've grown deeper in my relationship with Jesus, I have felt Him prompting me to focus less on myself and more on others.

Over the last three months God has been challenging me to step out and help those around me. When I learned that over 30,000 kids in the last ninety days have died due to starvation in East Africa, I knew I could not turn a blind eye to the suffering of others simply because they are so far away. Since they are near to God, they should be near to me! If it were my kids dying of starvation, I'd want someone to help.

Hunger - a strong or compelling desire.

Hungry - having a strong desire or need for food.

Starve - to die or be in process of perishing from lack of food or nourishment, severe hunger.

As you read this, tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters in the Horn of Africa have already succumb to starvation in what is being called the world’s worst famine in over twenty years. The reports coming out of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are dire. Exhausted, rail-thin, mothers are entering refugee camps in Kenya carrying children dead from starvation. Many children are being left behind because their mothers are too weak to carry them any further. The devastating drought compounded by war, neglect, and inflated food prices pose a challenge that cannot be solved by human efforts alone.

Through God’s grace and mercy, I will participate in the suffering of our brothers and sisters by going without food for forty days. I realize I cannot do this in my own strength, to be honest, if I could I would be doing an injustice to my God and His people. That is why I am coming to you.

The goal during this forty day fast is two-fold:

1. To raise awareness to the extreme situation in Eastern Africa and have God’s people begin to pray for this region and for God to bring relief and resources to the suffering.

2. To raise funds. I will be partnering with Samaritan’s Purse (www.samaritanspurse.org) to bring needed resources to hurting and hungry people.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?...And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:6,7,10

I will be fasting from September 1 through October 10, and I invite you to participate in any of the following ways:

• Pray. You can choose a day during the week leading up to my fast and/or a day during the fast to pray for me as well as for Africa.
• Fast. You can choose a day to fast along with me, joining in the suffering of the saints.
• Give. You can choose to give, whatever amount you can. According to Samaritan’s Purse, just $7 can furnish a week’s worth of dinners, and for $35, SP can deliver enough food to sustain a family for about a month. Any amount would be a blessing.

Melissa and I have asked our friend, Beth Corcoran, to handle all of the logistics of "Hunger for the Hungry" so that I may focus on the fast. Beth will be happy to answer any questions or comments you might have (elisabethcorcoran@mchsi.com).

If you choose to pray or fast, please let her know which date, so she can set up a calendar.

If you choose to give, please let her know the amount for record-keeping, write the check directly to Samaritan’s Purse, write “Hunger for the Hungry” in the memo line, and mail it to SP, P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607-3000. All gifts will be tax deductible.

I believe that with the help of God ordinary men and women can do extraordinarythings. Will you join me?

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

In Him,

Jesse Resch