30 Hour Famine

It's been a week since the 30 Hour Famine. I think I'm ready to think about it again.

It went really well, with a few exceptions. I normally don't have this problem when fasting, but Friday night my brain totally checked out. I had great difficulty making decisions and was rather emotional (not that most people could tell). About 10pm I ran into brick wall after brick wall. Some of the kids were being difficult and spoiling things for the other teens, and I couldn't get the main dvd player to work or the one in the little classroom. I was ready to cry, scream, or just go home. Finally we got the main one to work. The kids watched a video about what's going on in Uganda with the LRA using children for soldiers. We had spent the earlier part of the evening learning about this through different games and activities, but when the teens actually got to see real children whose lives had been forever changed by being forced to kill or be killed, it really opened their eyes to what is a horrible reality for thousands of children.
We transitioned immediately into a time of silence in a dark room that was lit with 300 tea light candles. Every few seconds on of the leaders would extinguish a flame, representing the fact that every 3 seconds a child dies from hunger and other related diseases. In 15 minutes, the room was dark. All through this the teens were completely silent.

I then talked about how Jesus calls us the light of the world, and how it is our responsibility as His children to help those around us in any way we can - through the giving of our time, money and lives, and by praying for them. We then each took a candle, I lit mine and said a prayer, then passed the flame onto the next person to pray. Each one said a prayer, some in their hearts and others aloud. The prayers ranged from, "God, forgive me for my selfishness," to, "wrap each child in Your arms and let them know Your love," to, "help us to remember what we've learned and to make a difference."

The miracle, is that from the moment the video started until the last person had prayed was way over an hour. And throughout that the kids were so focused, so quiet and respectful. To me, it was definitely the most impactful part of the weekend. And when I looked back on it, of course the hour before that was so terrible! How many times does the devil try to rob us of what God has planned by trying to get us in a bad mood or to give up? But God is greater, and when we walk in faith, trusting Him and submitting ourselves to Him, we invite Him to do something big in our lives. Even when we don't feel like it and the heavens seem brass, He opens the skies and showers down His favor. He is always good.

The next day was a lot of fun. We got the church all cleaned and got ready for Youth Sunday the next day. We completely revamped the bulletin and it was hysterical! I wish you could have seen it - not a bit of dry, boring information to be found! Every word was delightfully humorous! The chairs we rearranged in a wave - there wasn't a bad seat in the house!

We were suppose to serve dinner to the homeless the last 2 hours of our fast, but half way to Asheville we figured out that the people in charge had us down for the wrong day - it was very frustrating because we had gone through great lengths to get this particular day. But oh well. We'll make it over there some other time soon!

Once we broke the fast (yea pizza!) I was so hyper and giddy. It's strange to get such a high from simply eating, but it did make me think how when you don't get food regularly, your morale is affected as well as your physical body. Anyway, I stayed up till midnight doing something - I don't remember. But I did sleep in the next day, and take a 3 hour nap, and go to bed early. A few days later I was recovered...and now I'm about ready to think about it again and figure out what I am going to do with all the left-over stuff that's sitting in my room.

As a side note, the teens raised over $2,000 that will go to World Vision to feed starving children. Actually, so far they have raised enough to feed 6 kids for an entire year. Good job, guys!!! (That's one thing I really like about the 30 Hour Famine - it educates the teens on global issues and gives them something specific to do about it; It also challenges them to look around them in their own backyard and make a difference at home too.)