30 Hour Famine
Okayy, so basically the 30 Hour Famine was sweeeeeet. For those of you that didn't go, a group of around thirty VIers stopped eating on Friday at 1:00 pm. We gathered at the church at 7:00 pm for some hanging out, worship, and a lesson from Annie M. Around 10:00 we went to St. Paul's gym and goofed around. By midnight we were back at the church. Some people watched House in the youth lounge, others played video games in the family room. I fell asleep on a couch around one in the morning and was out cold til ten =)
I woke up on Saturday really excited to eat breakfast. Then I remembered...no eating until six that evening. Grrreat. After getting up and dressed for the day, we all gathered in the fellowship hall and were split up into groups that we would be going around with to collect cans. My group consisted of Acheson, Slon, and Olivia. We gathered several huge cardboard boxes and shoved them in the back of Chris's car, then set out to Madeira. We had three hours, and covered two streets. Now, you have to understand that these two streets were the longest I've ever seen in my entire life...no joke. But the three of us worked diligently while Ach sat in his warm toasty car and watched a movie on his iPod (coughslackercough). Haha, just kidding =). We got to meet some preeetty interesting folks, just ask Olivia about the huge dog that she encountered, or question Slon about the creeper who begged her to babysit. But overall it was really fun and rewarding. All the residents were really generous, and we only got one "no" from the many people we asked to donate food. I think the hardest part was getting the two big boxes stuffed to the brim with cans out of Acheson's car. The first one got in the church successfully, but the second box broke, and despite a desperate attempt to save the food, the cans all ended up falling on the ground...but thankfully none broke. My group came in 5th in the can/cash competition, with 128 cans and 5 dollars. The money was given to me at the last house I went to, by this adorable little old man, who insisted that I buy the cans for him, because he was afraid his wife would get angry if he gave any to me. Overall, the entire group collected 1,400 cans, which is pretty good if you ask me.
When I told my family and others about the famine, the first thing they asked was: "Geeez, weren't you hungry? Wasn't it hard?" I'm not gonna lie, around five on Saturday evening, after 28 hours of not eating, I got a little grumpy and really wanted something other than juice and hot cocoa. Collecting cans was sort of hard, because some people gave us food that looked really good, and obviously I couldn't eat it. But I found that if you just stopped thinking about food and focused your attention elsewhere, you forgot that you were hungry. However, I could not live like that all the time. As Lee mentioned, we knew that after the 30 hour famine there was going to be a nice, filling meal for us to eat. People in Africa don't have that comfort. They don't always know when or how they're going to get their next meal.
I know that part of this famine was to help relate to the starving citizens of Africa. And yes, I felt what it was like to be really hungry. But I didn't know what it was like to walk six miles to get water, because all I had to do was walk to the drinking fountain outside the youth lounge. And as Katie K mentioned to me, it's not like all of us survived solely on water. There was juice, Fanta, and hot cocoa. You think kids in Africa get that? Most likely not. And none of us that went to this event experienced the fear that those children live with daily. We slept in a warm church, in an extremely safe community. None of us had to worry about getting abducted by rebels and forced to become children soldiers. So, while this famine did give me a small idea of what some Africans go through, it mainly showed me how incredibly blessed I am. I have lots of food in my pantry, clean water, a safe, warm house, and my community isn't unsafe or frightening. It allowed me to truly put my life in perspective, because when I get angry and might think that my life sucks, I'll just think of those kids on those cards that we read, who don't know where their families are, who have to walk five miles just so that they can sleep in a safe place, who are blind or paralyzed...and then see how truly lucky I am.
Overall, the thirty hour famine was awesome. I really encourage everyone to do it next year, because it's not only rewarding, it's also extremely fun. Congrats to everyone who did it, great job =). Wellll, this blog is already really long, and I have to do my homework now, so I'll see you all at small groups tonight!
Love you all very much,
<3 Hold-That-Line
I woke up on Saturday really excited to eat breakfast. Then I remembered...no eating until six that evening. Grrreat. After getting up and dressed for the day, we all gathered in the fellowship hall and were split up into groups that we would be going around with to collect cans. My group consisted of Acheson, Slon, and Olivia. We gathered several huge cardboard boxes and shoved them in the back of Chris's car, then set out to Madeira. We had three hours, and covered two streets. Now, you have to understand that these two streets were the longest I've ever seen in my entire life...no joke. But the three of us worked diligently while Ach sat in his warm toasty car and watched a movie on his iPod (coughslackercough). Haha, just kidding =). We got to meet some preeetty interesting folks, just ask Olivia about the huge dog that she encountered, or question Slon about the creeper who begged her to babysit. But overall it was really fun and rewarding. All the residents were really generous, and we only got one "no" from the many people we asked to donate food. I think the hardest part was getting the two big boxes stuffed to the brim with cans out of Acheson's car. The first one got in the church successfully, but the second box broke, and despite a desperate attempt to save the food, the cans all ended up falling on the ground...but thankfully none broke. My group came in 5th in the can/cash competition, with 128 cans and 5 dollars. The money was given to me at the last house I went to, by this adorable little old man, who insisted that I buy the cans for him, because he was afraid his wife would get angry if he gave any to me. Overall, the entire group collected 1,400 cans, which is pretty good if you ask me.
When I told my family and others about the famine, the first thing they asked was: "Geeez, weren't you hungry? Wasn't it hard?" I'm not gonna lie, around five on Saturday evening, after 28 hours of not eating, I got a little grumpy and really wanted something other than juice and hot cocoa. Collecting cans was sort of hard, because some people gave us food that looked really good, and obviously I couldn't eat it. But I found that if you just stopped thinking about food and focused your attention elsewhere, you forgot that you were hungry. However, I could not live like that all the time. As Lee mentioned, we knew that after the 30 hour famine there was going to be a nice, filling meal for us to eat. People in Africa don't have that comfort. They don't always know when or how they're going to get their next meal.
I know that part of this famine was to help relate to the starving citizens of Africa. And yes, I felt what it was like to be really hungry. But I didn't know what it was like to walk six miles to get water, because all I had to do was walk to the drinking fountain outside the youth lounge. And as Katie K mentioned to me, it's not like all of us survived solely on water. There was juice, Fanta, and hot cocoa. You think kids in Africa get that? Most likely not. And none of us that went to this event experienced the fear that those children live with daily. We slept in a warm church, in an extremely safe community. None of us had to worry about getting abducted by rebels and forced to become children soldiers. So, while this famine did give me a small idea of what some Africans go through, it mainly showed me how incredibly blessed I am. I have lots of food in my pantry, clean water, a safe, warm house, and my community isn't unsafe or frightening. It allowed me to truly put my life in perspective, because when I get angry and might think that my life sucks, I'll just think of those kids on those cards that we read, who don't know where their families are, who have to walk five miles just so that they can sleep in a safe place, who are blind or paralyzed...and then see how truly lucky I am.
Overall, the thirty hour famine was awesome. I really encourage everyone to do it next year, because it's not only rewarding, it's also extremely fun. Congrats to everyone who did it, great job =). Wellll, this blog is already really long, and I have to do my homework now, so I'll see you all at small groups tonight!
Love you all very much,
<3 Hold-That-Line