I am feeling frustrated right now but can't blog about it.
Instead I will blog about the 30 Hour Famine!
7 youth participated and we had a great time. Oh, we were hungry. And there were times of extreme tiredness, especially as Saturday afternoon wore on. But overall, it was great! We had Bible Studies about hunger and about fasting and about temptation. We had temptation experiences. We drank quite a bit of juice...
We gathered 70 pounds of food during a 1-1/2 hour food pantry scavenger hunt, and we took it to the Crystal Lake Food Pantry. Good times!
Then came the mean part...around noon on Saturday, the 24 hour mark, we took the youth to the grocery store and had them try to feed their "family" (one group was three and one was four) for a week on the weekly food stamp allotment for their size family. It was tough, but they think they did it. I'm not sure they actually did--I think they might have been hungry around day 5 or so--but they definitely gave it a good effort, and they learned about how hard it is to be poor in our area. They also learned about grocery shopping when they were both hungry and on a restrictive budget.
We talked a lot about how we use food in this culture not to meet our needs but to take the edge off our boredom. If there's food around, we'll eat it--not because we're hungry, but because it's there and there's nothing else keeping our hands busy. We discovered that we were hungriest during the times we didn't have any activities planned. We also discovered that watching a movie with no snacks is brutal.
Everyone who participated met the fundraising goal (and then some) so we raised enough money to feed 8 children for a year and 1 for half the year. Excellent!
It was great.
Hey.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of having them try to shop on limited funds with "food stamps" and also while they are hungry.
Really good learning experience. I am continually humbled by those who come to our church for $ assisstance and to get stuff from our food pantry. I am most perplexed over the simple thigns they asked for and need. We take so much for granted!
Good work with the youth! We have also doen a caneed food scavenger hunt with a point system in place. Yout hahd great fun with it and we got a lot more stuff than normal
You do good/creative work, Teri - thanks be to God. Hang in there, with whatever is frustrating. All will eventually be well.
ReplyDeleteSFE
Thank you, Teri, for involving them in this.
ReplyDeleteHey Teri, what a great idea. True about the food. The westerners snack SO MUCH compared to the Khmer students. But then...this morning they deep fried the bugs from around the light last night -- so we all snack, just differently.
ReplyDeleteYou should go to Compassion and buy their new t-shirt to wear. It says the opposite of poverty isn't wealth. The opposite of poverty is enough.
Off to the jungle now -- see you soon!