30 Hours of Hunger

So, where was I all these weeks?  Well, let’s just say that I chose a really GREAT time to start a blog!  Just before a weekend-long famine and leaving to visit The Ol Man!  Truly GREAT!  But, that’s where I have been and there is much more detail I wish to share.

The weekend of April 20-21 BH and I participated in World Vision’s “30-Hour Famine” with our Youth Group and the Youth Group of Lancaster Moravian Church.  It was a long 30 hours but certainly worth the time and energy spent participating.

My first experience of the weekend was that of “patience in affliction”.  Although the affliction was self-induced it was still very difficult.  30 hours without food is a long time.  And as an adult trying to role model for the youth who are feeling tired and hungry and overwhelmed, I found it even harder.  Sure, we made jokes throughout the time about how hungry we were and how 2 saltines and a little cup of juice every 3 hours just didn’t seem to cut it.  All we wanted was for the 30 hours to end.  Not just because we were hungry and tired, but because we knew what awaited us at the finish line!  We had to have the patience to wait through our hunger for that ever blessed hour when we would sit down together and share the meal that had been prepared in our honor!  A meal to mark the end of our affliction.  Oh, it was glorious!  And bitter-sweet.  You see…something funny happened amidst 30 hours of hunger.  In about the 26th hour of the famine we ALL began to realize that at least we had something to which we could look forward!  Oh, what it must feel like to be a child who is starving and who is just waiting for a little something to fill her empty belly!  But how long must she wait?  Does she see an end to her suffering?  How amazing it was for us to just feel an ounce of her hunger but know that there was an end.  That we would go home to our nice warm beds and running water and pantries full of food.  What a blessing.

And what about being “joyful in hope”?  I know what you are thinking.  But no, it was not joy that the famine was ended and that we had pancakes and sausage and bacon and eggs and orange juice and bagels and cream cheese and SODA waiting for us (of course I would be lying if I didn’t say that we were certainly relieved to finally put something other than water, saltines, and juice into our aching stomachs)!  The true joy came in knowing that we made a difference and a hope that perhaps some day another child’s suffering might end because of the very small 30-hour sacrifice we made.  You see, in the weeks prior to the “30 Hour Famine” both church Youth Groups raised money to donate to World Vision.  In the last hour of our famine we totaled our money and learned that together we raised $1,704.13.  So, what can be done with that “small” amount of money you might ask?  I mean here it might buy a really nice large screen HDTV.  Or maybe groceries for 6 months.  Well, let me tell you…in Africa that amount of money will feed 57 children for a day or will feed 1 entire family for a whole year!  And who said that 4 kids and 4 youth leaders from 2 small cities in PA couldn’t make a difference?  As if that weren’t enough, during the famine we walked through the neighborhood collecting non-perishable food items to donate to Lancaster’s Water Street Rescue Mission.  In 30 minutes we collected 10 grocery bags full of food.  WOW!!  I was astounded and overwhelmed with joy!  The families we asked for food walked into their houses and returned with their own grocery bags full!  They were pleased to be asked and even more pleased to help!  In my eyes it was truly a miracle.  In only 30 minutes we involved an entire neighborhood in our battle to fight the poverty and hunger of our own neighboring city.  We also provided an ear for some people who just needed a visitor, if only for a couple minutes!  We did more good in that 30 minutes and in the whole 30 hours than I could have ever imagined we might!  And that brought me GREAT joy in my hope that the children of this world WILL see a better future. 

Of course, throughout this weekend we were ever-”faithful in prayer”.  Many times during this weekend we stopped to pray and we knew that our friends and family were also praying for us.  We asked that God would give us the strength to make it through 30 hours of fasting and that He would open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the plight of His children as they face poverty and hunger.  

So, what does this have to do with waiting?  Well…many things!  I look at my own wait and just KNOW that there will be an end.  While it seems so far away, in actuality it is in sight!  My wait will not end in pain or sorrow or death!  It will end in joy and happiness and celebration!  My heart aches knowing that there are others in this world who wait for something far greater than what I wait for yet for them there is no end in sight!  And for many their wait ends in death.  So…that is what I wait for now!  An end to suffering and pain.  An end to hunger and poverty.  An end to children growing up without a family and a home.  I do not have the answers for how to end this (God…if only I did) but there is Someone who does.  We too can learn those answers if we only take the time in our busy lives to stop, wait, and listen.

~ by shoolady on May 7, 2007.