From The First Presbyterian Church of Scottsburg, Indiana:

Tom Blake, a Bread for the World volunteer in Greenwood, is working to form an ecumenical network of churches located within the ninth Congressional District.  The plan is for these churches to join our efforts to coordinate when and how we conduct our 2018 Bread for the World Offering of Letters.

My Scottsburg First Presbyterian Church has been organizing an annual Offering of Letters for the past 13 or 14 years.  For this year’s campaign we have decided to join the group effort so that our collective work will result in stronger voices on behalf of hungry people.  We realize that, given the stated priorities of our current national leadership, we must do even more than ever to protect programs that are the lifeblood for hungry folks both here and abroad.

If your congregation already participates in the annual Offering of Letters, please consider joining us!  In Scottsburg, we will be writing our letters in mid-late May (culminating on May 20).  Tom Blake is working on scheduling appointments in June with Rep. Trey Hollinsworth and Senators Donnelly and Young.  He will be inviting all who are interested to bring letters from our individual churches to join him in delivering them during these appointments.  This visual will be a powerful reminder to our legislators that there are MANY folks throughout the ninth district who care deeply about our Christian mandate to care for the “least of these.”

If you decide to join our collective efforts, please contact Tom Blake at tnoblake@sbcglobal.net. Also—please don’t hesitate to email (cjdunn@c3bb.com) or call me (812-820-2245) for more information.

Information about the 2018 Offering of Letters can be found at the Bread for the World website:  www.bread.org.ol.

If your congregation has yet to join with Bread for the World to advocate for hungry people, please consider starting an Offering of Letters Campaign this year.  Bread for the World has been a collective Christian voice since 1974, when it first began to organize to urge our nation’s leaders to end hunger.  Partnering with churches, campuses and other organizations, and moved by God’s grace, BFW envisions and advocates for a world without hunger.

The annual Offering of Letters Campaign was initiated in 1975, when 100,000+ letters were written and sent to Congress on the topic “right to food.” This resulted in the landmark Right to Food Resolution, passed overwhelmingly by Congress that states, “. . .the United States reaffirms the right of every person in this country and throughout the world to food and a nutritionally adequate diet…” Four decades later, this simple idea—offering letters—remains one of BFW’s organizing strategies.

These truly are extraordinary times in our nation’s history. How we address the challenges for poor and hungry people that our time presents will reflect our faithfulness to God’s call to care for just such folks.  This year’s Offering of Letter is titled: FOR A TIME SUCH AS THIS (Biblical reference:  Esther 4:14).  Perhaps we, like Esther, have come to “royal dignity” for just such a time as this.

Yours in Christ,
Carol Dunn, Leader, Christian Outreach Team
Scottsburg First Presbyterian Church