We spent the morning doing service projects. We raked leaves out of three neighborhood yards and behind a school baseball field. I couldn't stop shivering from the hunger and the cold. After working hard all morning we returned to the church and spent the half hour we would be lunch time reading the Bible.
Before our alone time with God we watched another video about the thirty hour famine. It started out with a girl who had everything but was suffering from a horrible disease - the disease of wanting more. It was pretty hilarious until they showed a child on the other side of the world who was living her life with nothing. No. Less than nothing.
Who could ever want the "American Dream" when there are millions of people around the world who don't even have enough money to have one meal a day. Children are starving and yet we dare to spend money on a new car or that fancy homecoming dress. It's murder.
Who could ever want the "American Dream" when there are millions of people around the world who don't even have enough money to have one meal a day. Children are starving and yet we dare to spend money on a new car or that fancy homecoming dress. It's murder.
Once we were finished "filling our stomachs" with the Word of God we headed back outside and greeted a slightly warmer day. Car wash time! We lined both sides of the streets with signs telling everyone who was passing about the free car wash for starving children in Africa. How can you get your car washed by hungry teenagers who are starving themselves for thirty hours for hungry children around the world and not give money? We didn't get as many customers as we had hoped but we did raise a lot more money than I expected.
By the time we had washed the last car our energy was spent. It was exertion just to walk up the stairs. We huddled in the warmth of the teen room and gathered our stuff before driving out to a friends house to wait for our meal. At last!
The final hour was the hardest without a doubt. We were so close, yet we still had sixty minutes until we could feel the warm food in our bellies. Fifteen minutes left and the food was put out on the table. We all huddled together and put our hands over the steam that rose off the hamburgers and hotdogs. Our mouths watered as we breathed in the smell that our noses had been missing, the smell of good food. We all piled our plates high with sandwiches, chips, potatoes (my favorite!), and fruit. The twenty of us sat down on the ground in a circle and counted the seconds until we had officially not eaten for thirty hours. Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . we all had some sort of warm food held up to our mouth . . . one . . . FEAST!
I dislike hamburgers and I hate hotdogs, but I have never tasted anything so good in my entire life. The warmth of it, the smell. Yumm! Anyone who has gone hungry for a day will tell you it was worth it just to taste the goodness of food again.
And then I remembered the starving children in Africa, I remembered Kasia.
The starving don't get to stuff their mouths full of food. They don't get food. They're still starving.
And I'm still starving to help them.
By the time we had washed the last car our energy was spent. It was exertion just to walk up the stairs. We huddled in the warmth of the teen room and gathered our stuff before driving out to a friends house to wait for our meal. At last!
The final hour was the hardest without a doubt. We were so close, yet we still had sixty minutes until we could feel the warm food in our bellies. Fifteen minutes left and the food was put out on the table. We all huddled together and put our hands over the steam that rose off the hamburgers and hotdogs. Our mouths watered as we breathed in the smell that our noses had been missing, the smell of good food. We all piled our plates high with sandwiches, chips, potatoes (my favorite!), and fruit. The twenty of us sat down on the ground in a circle and counted the seconds until we had officially not eaten for thirty hours. Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . we all had some sort of warm food held up to our mouth . . . one . . . FEAST!
I dislike hamburgers and I hate hotdogs, but I have never tasted anything so good in my entire life. The warmth of it, the smell. Yumm! Anyone who has gone hungry for a day will tell you it was worth it just to taste the goodness of food again.
And then I remembered the starving children in Africa, I remembered Kasia.
The starving don't get to stuff their mouths full of food. They don't get food. They're still starving.
And I'm still starving to help them.
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