30 Hour Famine Update

Jonesy, this post is for you...as stated last week, we held our 30 Hour Famine this past weekend...all in all, I would have to say it was a success...some could look at it as not quite a success - we had several no-shows, we didn't reach our financial goal, etc. - but I think it was a success...the centerpiece of the weekend was a game that the 30HF people developed called Tribe...very cool!...it is a Survivor-esque game in which everyone is divided up into tribes which then compete in certain activities for Survival cards...and the games are not just random, have fun-type games...they were fun, but they also had a point to each one...just before each game, facts about the area we were focusing on - Kenya - were read (such as walking 14 miles to go to school)...this made the activities meaningful, instead of just crazy, mash food in your hair kind of stuff...it seemed like the kids enjoyed themselves, and that they learned something during the weekend...a couple of random notes:

• One kid stood out to me the entire weekend...I will keep his name anonymous (we'll call him A)...what stood out to me was how outwardly-focused he was...there was another kid (we'll call him B) who doesn't exactly fit in to the cool kid crowd...so he was often by himself...but not for very long at any time, because it seemed like whenever he was by himself, A would come along and hang with him...at the very last activity, the break-fast meal, B was eating all by himself...but before I had a chance to go sit by him, A sat right down with him and ate with him...A showed to me that he really knew what the weekend was about, and that it wasn't about him...
• Last year, I didn't hear one person complain or get ugly...this year, much of the same...it did get a little ugly at times, but that was mostly in the heat of competition...I think the lack of food, coupled with the desire to win, got to be a nasty combination at times...not real nasty, but we saw a little less kindness than we did when we were just sitting around...
• A good chunk of our Famine was spent at a neighboring church...why, you ask?...they have a gym...I know it's not in the near future for our church, but it sure would be nice to have a large area like that for our youth...just hanging out and playing dodgeball was a blast...we have a great youth area, but size-wise, it is limiting...
• One thing I like about the Famine is that it is one overnight activity that we make the youth sleep during...since we aren't getting energy from our usual source - food - we have to get it some other way...so we require that they sleep...and I'll tell you what, they didn't argue...they were ready to sleep...it was nice to not have to fight with them to go to sleep...
  
• As far as I know, we only had one person afflicted with projectile vomiting...usually, someone stuffs themselves silly at the break-fast meal and pays the price by bringing it all back up...but as far as I know, that only happened to one person this year...of course, that person was me...only three bites of salad and two bites of pasta were enough to send me over the edge...I hope I never have to drink juice again...
• I read a statistic cited from Christianity Today a week or two ago that startled me...it said that it all American Christians started tithing, giving in America would go up $143 billion...and how much would it cost to provide essential service like basic health care and education all of the world's poor people?...$70-80 billion!...we, who have it so good, are not doing our job...

Here endeth my ruminations on the 30 Hour Famine 2005...