The 30 Hour Famine was an amazing experience. We gathered the some youth and adults for our "Last Supper" on Friday at midnite. 25 people showed up; high school students, parents, college students and youth mentors...with the thought of their last meal for the next 30 Hours.
The next morning, we gathered at church to begin fasting together. We worshiped and shared scripture to give us insight into God's character. Since we were talking a lot about Africa over the course of the day, my mom shared some stories of her experiences in Africa. She had been a missionary there from 1960-1963. The kids seemed to enjoy hearing some real stories. We had dug out her old reel to reel tape player and one of the college students was able to help me transfer the audio to a computer file. We had audio of street musicians- I talked to Ron, my brother and he remembers hearing this tape. We also had audio of the kids in the school singing. It was so beautiful.
We imported the audio into the Power Point for the 30 Hour Famine. Mom came to speak at the beginning of the day, after a short acoustic worship. She was seated on a chair and her reaction when we showed the slide with the street music was beautiful. She said, "I can see what that looked like in my head." She just smiled. Then she shared some of her experiences and encouraged the kids as they took on the challenge of fasting for 30 Hours to learn more about world hunger, famine, and other problems around the world. She reminded them that they can't do this on their own strength and that others were praying for them. She talked about her experiences at the school she was the principal of, where she had planned to just go as a nurse. It started at 125 students and ended up with 425 students over three years she was there. There were 80 children in the youngest classroom, with one teacher. And the all behaved. She was so joyful as she shared about the people and the beautiful way that they talked and sang. We ended her talk with an audio portion of a classroom of children singing a beautiful song in their native language. She was thrilled to hear the children again.
Ron and I were recalling the old days in the Wesleyan Church of the Missions Fair, when Mom would share her experiences about being in Africa. She would bring her African slides, share the reel to reel tape and show some of the things the children made for her while she was in Africa. She did this nearly every year. Ron and I remembered hearing the street musicians on a reel to reel tape. They made their own instruments and sang with such joy. When I set up the reel to reel to see if it even still worked, guess which reel to reel tape was still on the player. The African street musicians! What a great memory that was.
When Mom talked, we video taped the entire thing. It will be a priviledge to have a few of the stories from her journey to Africa for 3 years. It has been a delight to see how much she had enjoyed sharing some of the stories. She re-wrote her talk 3 times over the course of the last week, to be sure she would reach the students of today. She said, "I should have told them that I was young once too." The kids listened with respect and interest in what she had to say. She prayed for us all weekend as we were fasting.
I saw God do some work on so many hearts over the weekend. They experienced hunger and sleep deprevation and hung in there inspite of it. At one point, one of the adult leaders went to get more juice for the juice break and he took a long time getting back from the grocery store. He said he sat and stared at the Doritoes. We many times don't stop to realize all we have until we take it away.
Inspite of the hunger and exhaustion, the students did some service work at two places in town. When we got back, we had a juice break and a "daily bread"- word from God to keep us going. After some games and some videos about famine, we talked about how people in the world are suffering. One of the college students put together a Bible study from the Matthew passage on sheep and goats. It was difficult to grapple with all this, especially as the day went on and we all were more tired and keeping going on juice breaks. Inspite of that, no one got upset with anyone, everyone kept on working together. During the late afternoon juice break, I pulled out the saltines, in case anyone was really loosing it. The students who had been fasting for 16 hours said, "We don't need those, that is cheating!" The students who had come to just hang out decided to have a snack. It was interesting how the fasting crew held each other accountable.
It is difficult to watch videos of starving children, to think about suffering around the world, to even consider those in our own town who don't have enough. It is difficult to realize that so many are going without food. There is so much suffering. It might be easier to just pretend it away. As one youth said, "I never really thought about all the ways people are suffering."
Spending 30 Hours fasting with these students has given me new hope. God is raising up a new generation to take a stand for Jesus and show people His love. It was a priviledge to work with such a committed group of young people to share the 30 Hour Famine journey. They held each other accountable, they were not afraid to talk about difficult issues, to grapple with suffering in the world. Each one of them showed love and kindness to each other throughout the day. At the end of the day, there were lots of comments about "When we do this again..." Really? Not eating for 30 Hours and talking about suffering and serving in the community was a good experience? There is hope. God is working! At the end of the day we ask God to: "Give me your eyes for just one second,....Give me your eyes so I can see.... Everything that I keep missing... Give me your love for humanity..." (Brandon Heath)
Isaiah 58: 6- 9
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
