Free

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Tom Bolton

I’m re-blogging a May poem about the vine today.

Tom Bolton's avatarHopeful

John 15:5-8 from The Message:

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

On the Path

Free of Self-Concern

I would be free of my own nothingness.
There is new freedom and everything of God.
Oh, for a relationship intimate and organic,
productive, mature.
Here are my hopes; bless them.
My aspirations are deep in this journal; bless them.
My plans are organized…

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Essay 5 from Bread 4 the World: Assistance Can’t wait

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Tom Bolton

I have been sharing links to a wonderful series by Bread For the World: Development Works! This week I am sharing the fifth essay: Why Assistance Can’t Wait. Please click on the link above and read the whole essay. Here are the highlights as I see them:

The volunteer trainers helping to tackle malnu...

The volunteer trainers helping to tackle malnutrition in DR Congo (Photo credit: DFID – UK Department for International Development)

Development Works explains why U.S. development assistance is important. This essay offers two examples—each affecting hundreds of millions of people—of why development assistance cannot wait until we have more money or enthusiasm for it.

Foreign assistance focuses on prevention. This is critical in the case of early childhood nutrition and, of course, when there is a possibility of famine.

Malnutrition is most dangerous during the 1,000-day window between pregnancy and age 2, when it can cause death or irreversible physical and cognitive damage. Early childhood malnutrition can also drain a country’s development potential.  Yet early malnutrition can be prevented at a modest cost with basic nutrition care.

Famine early warning systems are now sophisticated, forecasting accurately up to a year in advance. Foreign assistance cannot prevent natural disasters, but it can help save many lives.

The potential human consequences of inaction—particularly for children under 2—should be weighed carefully in decisions about emergency relief.

U.S. development assistance should focus on resilience—equipping people to develop strategies to cope with threats to their food security.

I was inspired by these quotes:

Children who are malnourished during the window don’t really get a second chance. They have a much higher risk of infections, illnesses, and death. One-third of all deaths among young children are caused by malnutrition.

Those who survive will not be able to catch up by eating healthy meals and taking extra vitamins in kindergarten.

Damage from malnutrition during the 1,000 Days lasts a lifetime.

The percentage of children with stunted growth is an accurate indication of the severity of a nation’s malnutrition burden. Being very short for one’s age is the most obvious sign of chronic malnutrition, but stunting has far deeper implications. For their entire lives, stunted children will be more susceptible to both infectious and noninfectious diseases.

Their cognitive development has also been stunted; they will finish fewer grades in school and earn less income.  This is obviously a tragedy for the children and their families.

Development assistance can’t wait for a more convenient time because it is about human beings and our basic needs—needs that cannot be changed. U.S. development assistance can help people become well-nourished and resilient, but only if we don’t put off making it available.

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Eternal

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Tom Bolton

John left yesterday, but as he left,
Still in Young Days found again,
He asked for God to help him.
And as I miss John,
I know today,
We’ll meet again, John and me,
in a better place, and
We look forward to that day.
Friends as brothers,
still we will share that bond

Reblogged

The Eternal Flame in front of Metro Hall.

The Eternal Flame in front of Metro Hall. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(C) Tom Bolton, 20 November 2012, Milwaukee

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Jubilation

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Tom Bolton

Words

This was another stanza from my meditation on Psalm 119.  I wrote this in early 2012.

I. In Judgement, Knowing

Jubilation! I know how you treat me!
As you promised, you treat me just so.
Judgement and knowledge are in your word,
and you teach me each day, because I see
your commandments as jewels.
Just then, again I thought I might wander
away from you again, but I know that in suffering, I yearned again
to hold onto your word.
Joy in the Word, Blessed!
Joy in your word! Teach me.
Judged by haughty and self-righteous hedonists,
I am defamed some days, but I do best when I set these things far away and
obey what you put before me.
Jaundiced and cold, calloused really,
they don’t see me, and miss you, Lord,
but I am happy again, enriched by your word.
Joyful in the word, blessed!
Once I suffered and I learned from you:
Joy and Hope!
Judged by the measures of this fanciful society,
your words fill me more than any
Jeopardy winnings. You are my prize.

(C) 2012 Tom Bolton, Milwaukee

Re-blogged

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Essay 4: Farmers: The Key to Ending Global Hunger

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Tom Bolton

Agriculture

The fourth essay in the Bread for the World series, called Development Works, is all about farmers solving problems. I think would please, but not much surprise, my ancestors and Karen’s ancestors.

Here are the key points, but please do read the whole paper at the link above:

Every year, U.S. humanitarian assistance,  such as food aid, eases the hunger of millions  of people who have fled natural disaster or  conflict. These are clearly emergencies. But
worldwide, most hungry people are hungry  or malnourished as a fact of their everyday
lives. Chronic hunger and malnutrition sap  the strength of adults trying to earn a living
and the potential of children trying to learn.

The 2012 Africa Human Development  Report identifies two areas of bias as “principal
factors in explaining Africa’s food  insecurity”—a bias toward towns rather than
rural areas and a bias toward men rather than  women.

Local farmers, most with less than five acres of land and little or  no animal or mechanical power, bear most of the responsibility  for feeding people in developing countries. Enabling small-scale  farmers to increase their productivity is essential to reducing
hunger or even maintaining recent progress. More than 75 percent of the world’s hungry people are smallscale  farmers or landless laborers. Fortunately, growth in the
agriculture sector is very effective in reducing poverty. (My Grandpa Bolton knew this, but lived far off the farm–poor most of his life. Grandpa Neville died of exhaustion on someone’s farm, knowing this, I think.)

Gender bias is a principal cause of hunger since women produce  well over half of the global food supply and are more likely to  spend additional income on food.

Nonetheless, few female farmers own the land they work, have  the authority to make decisions about crops and livestock, or  control their own incomes. New tools such as the Women’s  Empowerment in Agriculture Index help track progress toward
gender equity.

“Fortunately, boosting agricultural productivity has  proven to be one of the best ways of reducing global poverty.  Feed the Future, the U.S. global hunger initiative,  reports that growth in the agriculture sector is at least  twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other  sectors. In fact, improvements in agriculture deserve the  credit for much of the recent significant progress against  hunger—which was at 14.9 percent of the world population in 2010-2012,  down from 23.2 percent in 1990-1992.”

The information in the Bread For the World paper is compelling and detailed. I urge you to read it.  Digest it.  Share it!

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Mr.Roger’s Place

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Tom Bolton

English: beginning of the Gospel of John

This morning, the Second Saturday Servants group from West Allis First UMC (and friends from other churches and communities) will make lunches for our homeless friends, and go to work at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. I am praying as I read the Gospel of John in the Message.

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

–John 1:14

Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”

“Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.

“I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.

“You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.

“I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail.

“Get up. Let’s go. It’s time to leave here.”

–John 14:22-31 The Message

It is time to go now.

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A Stanza on Psalm 119

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Tom Bolton

H. Hope Rises, Hope is High

Words have a power all their own

Words have a power all their own (Photo credit: Lynne Hand)

Hope. I have hope. Hope is my inheritance.
I hold tightly to your words and look into them; it is my promise.
Heart-deep, heart-filled, I hear your blessing–my hope. Hope.
Hearing my life over again–deep inside, and
Holding onto your word–I hasten to your calm, your guide.
Hesitating once, now with no halt, I
hasten to obey this day.
Hemp-ropes are tied about me, binds of my people, and I ignore
these binds today, positive in the word.
Heightened in this night, time perverted, I rise up,
hearing the word clearly in my head too,
Hopeful, friendly to brothers and sisters here in your word,
I have hope–Joy in the Word!
Hopeful, your mercy and justice find us;
hopeful, we heed these words of mercy–
Blessed! Joy in your word!

(c) Tom Bolton, January 2012, Milwaukee

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