30 Hour Famine 2009

So what are you eating for your last meal? That is, if you are doing the 30 Hour Famine, what are you eating? I personally am glad that the last meal will consist with the most important meal of the day (and my favorite), breakfast. But for your last meal, you have to make it count. This is going to be what sustains you for the next 30 hours. You don't want to make the mistake of putting a hot pocket or a Pop-tart or anything from Taco Bell inside of you. You want something that is--oh what's the word... nourishing. If I had the time, I would be at Cracker Barrel tomorrow morning gobbling down a Mama's Pancake Breakfast, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with plan B which consists of sausage biscuits, eggs, and grits at Ken's BBQ.

I can't believe it has already been an entire year since last time we did this. I have been anticipating it for a few weeks now and it's hard to believe that it's already here. Last year I remember asking myself if we could do the famine in a 1 Corinthians 13 sort of way. In other words, couldwe fast, raise money, worship and pray, and everything else with real and authentic love? Could we do this without sounding like just a clanging cymbal? Because I have never shed a tear for a starving African child. Though sad, it doesn't really grab me because it's the world we live in and I mistakenly assume that it has always been that way and it always will be.

Sitting in this luxury box that is America, it's easy to give in to apathy. It's easy to keep our "headphones on", to not listen to the stories of those who are suffering, to eat and drink and laugh without the slightest notion that the world is groaning with pain. We hear statistics all the time that are alarming. 26 million kids die each day from hunger or hunger-related illness. On and on and on, the staggering statistics. It seems like such a painful burden, one that we don't want to take.

I think that I might know one way that can help us from becoming clanging cymbals. Sure, it's easy to look at the problem and judge that it's too big and do nothing, but that's only an excuse. In my opinion, a great way to prevent apathy from setting in is to put a face with those numbers.

On the Monday after the famine this year I will be giving my last speech of the semester. The goal is to try to get the audience to either do something or stop doing something. It worked out really great because, without knowing that the famine was this weekend, I planned at the beginning of the semester to do this specific speech on aiding a child who is lacking food, education, and healthcare. Today I went to the library to work on that speech. I found a table in an empty spot of the room and set down my bag. After I had pulled out my notebook and a pen, I finally grabbed from one of the pockets a small picture of a young, African boy.

Kashala Mujinga is his name. He lives in the Congo and is 6-years-old. His parents work on a farm as regular laborers, and he has 4 sisters and 1 brother. His favorite hobby is, in his own words, "playing the football." I got this picture right before Christmas of last year, and I cannot describe to you how it felt to see this kid who is receiving food, education, and healthcare because one night at a WorldVision event, I made the commitment to send money to fund all of these necessities. It was unbelievable.

As I opened my notebook to jot down some ideas and plan my speech, I set Kashala's picture to the side where I could see it. Every now and then I would stop, pick it up, and just look at it for a minute or two. I wonder what he's doing right now, I would think. I wonder how his parents felt when they found out that their little boy had a sponsor. Of all the speeches I've done this semester, this one is different. It's a labor of love. It affects real people and real lives... it saves lives. It's personal.

Which takes me back to the cymbals. Whereas last year, apathy was a concern of mine, I know that this year it's not. I haven't even thought about it. Why? Because instead of hearing numbers and statistics, I've got a face to go with them. Instead of thinking, If I don't do something, some African kids are going to die; it's more like If I don't do something, Kashala will die. It's a real kid who goes to school, plays football, does chores, and just regular things that people do.

After over a year of supporting Kashala, praying for him, and sending and receiving things such as Christmas and Easter cards, I am all the more pumped up for this famine. Because yeah, it's going to suck when I've been at work for 8 hours and haven't had anything to eat. It's going to be just as bad trying to go to sleep on an empty stomach. But you know what? Because we're doing this famine, that's a feeling that several kids aren't going to have to experience. Because of our church doing God's work, kids aren't going to waste away because they can't fill their stomachs.

Finally, I just want to say that if anybody hasn't considered aiding a child in need, maybe you should look into it. It costs about 30 to 40 dollars a month (which is how much I spend on my X-box Live and Gamefly subscriptions). It's a great way to put a face with the many numbers and statistics that are out there and it's a great way of taking care of people who truly need it. I couldn't recommend it more. Give it a try, save a life.

See you guys at the famine.