Free Rice.com

My mother-in-law, a retired school teacher, shared with me her joy in playing a vocabulary game at FreeRice.com. I have played it quite a few times as well and I do find it to be fun as well as beneficial to my vocabulary.

It is a free game designed to challenge people in their knowledge and use of vocabulary. It also offers advertizing space to sponsors, by which each right answer results in a donation equal to 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

This last point is the one thing that troubles me about this program. I ordinarily do not support the United Nations or any of its programs voluntarily. Yet if by playing a free game food will be given to hungry people, even if the UN gets the credit, hungry people are nevertheless fed.

It does trouble me that the UN is the instrument for distributing the food. Yet if people are kept alive, perhaps a few people will live to hear the Gospel and receive not only rice for their bellies, but also the bread of heaven for their souls. If God can work through the Pharaohs of the world and through the many corrupt government officials of the world, surely He also is working good even through this UN program.

I would be interested in hearing whether anyone knows of more specific reasons to be concerned about this game and the UN World Food Program.