Tag Archives: Famine

At Least 10 Million Ethiopians Will Experience “Critical Food Shortages” in 2016

About 10.1 million Ethiopians — most of them children — will face “critical food shortages,” next year as the country grapples with its worst drought in half a century, Save the Children reports.

The international children’s advocacy group said in a news release this week that Ethiopia is currently experiencing its most devastating drought in 50 years, with the El Nino weather pattern to blame. The phenomenon occurs when a part of the Pacific Ocean is warmer than usual and has a far-reaching ripple effect that brings atypical weather throughout the world.

According to Save the Children, this year was the first time since 1989 that seasonal rains did not arrive in Ethiopia. With more than 80 percent of the country relying on that rainfall to produce the agricultural products they consume, many residents were at risk of going hungry.

The organization reports that 5.75 million Ethiopian children face food shortages, and 400,000 of them are at risk of severe malnutrition. The country’s population is about 95 million people, so data suggest more than 1 in 10 Ethiopians are at risk of the “critical food shortages” in 2016.

Save the Children reports northern and western Somalia are also affected by the drought, and some families in that country were venturing hundreds of miles as they tried to find water.

It’s expected that the emergency response to the drought will cost $1.4 billion, according to Save the Children. The Ethiopian government has already promised $192 million for relief efforts, though Save the Children said in a statement that additional assistance is “urgently needed.”

A United Nations group has warned this year’s El Nino is looking to be one of the three strongest in the past 65 years and may interact with climate change to create unprecedented effects.

UN: Ebola Could Trigger Food Crisis

The United Nations says that the Ebola crisis in west Africa could end up bringing a widespread famine that leads to more deaths than the virus will end up causing at the end of the outbreak.

The announcement came on the eve of the UN’s World Food Day Thursday.

“The world is mobilizing and we need to reach the smallest villages in the most remote locations,” Denise Brown, the U.N. World Food Program’s regional director for West Africa, said in a statement Wednesday. “Indications are that things will get worse before they improve. How much worse depends on us all.”

The World Food Program says that over 1.3 million people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are lacking enough food.  The organization says they don’t have enough supplies for everyone and currently are able to reach up to 700,000 people a month.

The WFP is providing food to families of Ebola victims.

“We are assessing how families are coping as the virus keeps spreading,” an organization spokesman said. “We expect to have a better understanding of the impact of the Ebola outbreak on food availability and farming activities by the end of October.”

Somalia Facing “Hunger Emergency”

Save The Children has issued a statement saying that drought and continuing conflicts in Somalia threatens the recovery from famine in the country.

The charity group says an “urgent increase” of aid is needed to the region because most families in Somalia are still unable to deal with the effects of the ongoing drought. East Africa had the worst drought in 60 years in 2011 and the drought conditions continue. Attacks by Islamic terrorist groups are also weakening the food supply. Continue reading →

It’s Later Than You Think

The week after the Japanese earthquake, many people world-wide began to take emergency preparedness seriously, at least for a little while.  The same seriousness fell like a blanket on this country after ‘911’.  People went back to church – at least for a few weeks.  Then, after the initial shock wore off, they were back to business as usual.  I don’t know why, but it seems like it always takes a major calamity to jolt people into action.     

This Spring and Summer, we have seen weather extremes like never before.  Record-breaking floods, droughts, temperatures and storms have battered the country and left much of our farmlands barren.  What do you think this is going to mean to food prices?  Well, I’ll tell you – food prices are going to skyrocket – and sooner than you think!

This past week, we have seen the stock market go up and down like a roller coaster.  What we don’t readily understand is what all that means to the economic situation in this country and the entire world.  What it means is that our money is very soon going to be worth almost nothing!

In Matthew 24:8 Jesus said the signs of nature will be like “birth pangs.”  The closer a pregnant woman gets to the time her baby is born, the birth pangs increase in two ways. They increase in frequency and intensity.  That is exactly what Jesus meant here. The closer we get to His coming, the more frequently we will see natural calamities like weather extremes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, plagues, famine, wars and the like. 

Why does Jesus tell us about the signs of His coming?  Jesus didn’t say that He would take us out of this world before we would experience any of these things.  If that were true, we would already be gone, wouldn’t we?!  No, Jesus told us about the signs because He didn’t want us to be taken by surprise and be unprepared! 

Why then do we yawn when we hear these things in our newscasts and act as if we are not going to be affected?  It’s time now to ‘read and heed’ Matthew 24! 

A recent article I read said we can count on three things very soon:

  1. Food supplies becoming scarce
  2. Food prices doubling in 2-3 years and then doubling again in the next 2-3 years
  3. Growing food will be more valuable than gold

Today, you may only hear about the world’s violence and economic woes, or see the faces of famine in another country on the news, or watch as natural disasters effect other parts of the nation and the world. But rest assured, we will not always be exempt from all these things. The world you see around you today may be very different tomorrow.  Don’t wait until it comes to you – you need to be ready today for what may come tomorrow.

The prophetic dreams, visions and revelation that the Lord gives his people are for a reason! We are not to ignore them! Everywhere, the Prophets are warning to get ready!  Of course, that means spiritually FIRST – but it also means get ready with food, water and other necessities! 

“A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”  (Proverbs 22:3 NLT)

“A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them. The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences.” (Proverbs 27:12 TLB)

As we see the events of Revelation escalating at a phenomenal rate, let’s make sure we are prepared – spiritually and physically. We still have time but we need to act NOW. The economic situation in this country and all over the world is going to make it very difficult, very soon to gather things we need for Times of Trouble. The stock market is on a roller coaster and it’s not going to end well.  The drought and extreme weather we are having is going to make food prices unaffordable rapidly!  It’s all coming together, or maybe we should say it’s all coming apart.

For now, we have a good supply of emergency food that we can hold the line on the pricing.  But in the very near future, you won’t be able to get this food at any price!  It’s fast coming to that and we know it to be true by the economic forecasts.  Don’t wait on this – your family is counting on you to provide the basic necessities of life for them when calamity strikes.

Do what you can today for your family and then rest in the fact that we are in the hands of a loving God.  Get your plan going! Do something today to prepare for tomorrow!

I don’t want anyone I love to have to suffer unnecessarily, and I want to have something left over to give to others.

Love,

Jim

Famine in the Revelation Days

Famine is spoken of in the Bible as an increasing and accelerating sign that Jesus is coming soon.  We can certainly see it in our news headlines, particularly recent headlines, with the food crisis in North African countries that produced a very poignant plea from the President of Somalia for immediate help.  But, there is another famine that is even more deadly coming soon.  It’s the famine of the Word of God, which feeds the soul. 

The third horseman is riding. “When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius . . . and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (6:5–6 NKJV) The rider of the black horse carries with him famine and economic collapse, signified by the weighing scales and the exorbitant prices for food.”

Imagine, if you can, how famine might affect our own nation. Your worst nightmare could soon be a reality.  Intensifying the effects of famine brought on by the galloping of the black horse will also be economic chaos and inflationary prices, which is what is indicated by the phrase “a quart of wheat for a denarius” (Rev. 6:6 NASB). In biblical times, a denarius was equal to a day’s wages. The implication is that we could spend a day’s wages for a loaf of bread.

But there is another kind of famine spoken of in the Bible that will be prevalent in the Last Days that is even more destructive.  How can it be more destructive than the famine that kills the body, you may ask.  Because the famine I am speaking of can kill not only the body which is temporal but can also kill the soul, which is eternal.  The other famine I’m speaking of  is a famine of the Word of God.

In the Times we are living in, there is an acceleration of events in the world which are quickly taking away our right to our very expressions of our faith as Christians.  These campaigns and events are quickly bringing about an atmosphere of antagonistic persecution of our very right to practice our Christianity.  We are being told not to mention the name of Jesus in any speech or prayer or other public setting.  Our lawmakers are quickly bowing to the powerful antichrist spirits that are busy influencing the masses to call evil good and good, evil. 

“‘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.” (Amos 8:11)

God’s work of proclaiming His Words through His ministers, as well as through the mass media, may one day be prohibited, perhaps through persecution, governmental regulations or a combination of these and other factors.

There’s a reason why the scriptures exhort us to “hide the Word in your heart” and to “eat the Word”.  One day there will be a famine of those Words that we take for granted now, and we may have only what we have hidden deep down inside to sustain us through tough times. 

Let’s be sure we have the Word of God deep down inside us, where we can carry it with us always and where it can feed our souls in times of  famine.