30 Hour Famine

This past week went pretty well, though the CAHSEE testing wasn't the most exciting way to spend my time. The greatest part of the week was by far my first 30 Hour Famine experience at Trinity. I was really blessed with a great group of sweet and funny people making up our "Ethiopian tribe". The whole point of 30 Hour Famine was to experience fasting for 30 hours to feel uncomfortable and hungry like much of the people starving in foreign countries. While doing this, we raised funds for World Vision by going to homes in need of yard work or some other form of help to gain donations. Some individuals stayed at the church to do the car wash while there was also a yard sale going on. On Friday night, we had a great time at the "Dancing Upon Injustice" event with loads of amazing dancers all to help the famine's cause. After, we gathered back together and headed into the sanctuary for worship and devotionals. It was so awesome to reflect on the night and have the quiet time before we headed back to our assigned room. One of the fun things we had to do Friday night was to build a shanty, the card board huts that homeless people have on the sidewalks and what a lot of people have as their shelter in struggling countries. Though we had a lot of laughs trying to construct a house out of cardboard boxes and trash bags, it was pretty eye opening to how blessed I've been with a home and a bed and I don't have to build a shanty on a sidewalk. We failed at building a stable one and it ended up collapsing on the floor of our room. So one of our tribal members used a lemon crate box for a bed, that snapped in the middle of the night while others spent the night under tables or in little huts they built for themselves. It was a really fun experience!
We woke up early on Saturday and had morning worship before we started the day which was such a blessing. Then we went to houses and did a whole bunch of work. When we got back to the church we had the "1:30 experience". They gave us all a bus ticket to the public city buses and each group was assigned a market where we would go and try to buy food to feed our tribe with a dollar per person. This gave us an idea of what it must be like for those in other countries who try to get food with less than a dollar a day. We ended up getting a package of warm tortillas, 2 packages of Oscar Meyer deli meat, and a bag of shredded cheese. I don't think I've ever been so excited for a meal as simple and inexpensive as this :)
It was really cool how our group just worked together. We went back to the church to have our last devotional for the 29th hour of the fast and also went over what we learned from the famine. Then we broke up into our tribes again to finally eat our "feast". Before we ate we read the passage about Jeses' fast for 40 days and 40 nights, yet by the end of it He was focused on how men do not live on just food but also by the Word of God. It gave us a really good reminder before we ate together.

It was such a fun experience and I'm so grateful I got to participate in the event!