30 Hours Without Food

What a weekend was last weekend!

On Saturday morning, following a breakfast of champions (cereal and coffee) and a minimal lunch (pizza and an apple), I embarked on another adventure with CHAOS.  Beginning at noon on Saturday, February 23rd, we went without food for 30 hours.  That meant we didn't eat again until 6:00p on Sunday evening.

For the first couple hours, we were at the church.  We rolled coins from the "Change the World" Jar and from the donation in the "Kiss A Cow" competition that we held for the event.  It was menial, but we would have hated doing it when we were even more tired and cranky.

Then we loaded up into some cars and headed to a farm.  Keaton had collected the most amount of money in his jar, so he had been chosen to kiss a cow.  After petting some cats, looking at the baby cows and wandering in to greet all the lady cows, Keaton took a while in picking his favorite "lady" to kiss.  Finally, he presented some flowers to Elsa and got a couple smooches in before the camera worked to get a good picture.

Then we headed to Meijer for one of the most interesting moments of the entire event (in my opinion).  We split up into three teams and each of us got a slip of paper.  Each paper listed a family's situation in Haiti.  It told about a job, the year's salary and how many children were in each household.  Then it stated how much we had to spend for a week's worth of groceries.  My group had $9.25 to spend for a family of five for a week.  A week.  I sometimes spend more than that on one meal for myself.  I know I spend way more than that on groceries each week.  As we went and got a bag of rice and a bag of potatoes, it was sobering to think that I would eat way more than this for dinner the next night.

Upon completion of our task, we headed back to church for some juice and a short break.  Next up was a worship session at The Edge, an urban ministry on Division near Burton in Grand Rapids.  It was definitely a different experience to what I've ever experienced in a church.  The message was on "Biblical Manhood."  Words like "smash" and "penis" and "rape" which would have never been spoken at Home Acres passed through our ears.  However, they weren't used inappropriately - they were REAL talk about a REAL subject.  We ladies sat back and listened, and hoped our future husbands heard the same talk... and I hope the boys sat back and listened and thought about what exactly it means to "be a man."

As we headed back to church, we had more juice and took some free time before we had our own worship service.  With a service of remembrance for "the least of these," the children who die every 13 thirteen seconds.  After this, each and every one of us was exhausted... and proceeded to promptly pass out.  The lack of food had lead to a lack of energy.

The next morning was church, which was really hard to sit through.  I actually felt extremely nauseated throughout the entire service... and I was starting to get a migraine.  We cancelled our post-church events and decided to lay low.  Spirits were low and patience was at an all-time minimum, so free time and just relaxing was what was in store for our afternoon.  A few others joined us throughout the day, which was nice.

Later in the afternoon, we re-gathered for a short film.  It was called "Journey to Jama'a."  It was about a young boy and girl whose parents die from AIDS and travel to their aunt's family, all while carrying their mother's body in a crate.  They encounter all kinds of trouble, including a man who wants to get them into the child labor or sex slave industry.

As we prepared to break our fast, we spent some time alone.  As people began to bring in food, it was hard to not get excited.  Smelling the macaroni and cheese cooking in the oven was amazing.  Slowly, friends and family started coming to join us and at 6:00p sharp, we began our feast on Macaroni and cheese, chicken noodle soup, homemade bread, yogurt, fruits, cakes and more.

As we sat and ate with members of our church family, it was sobering and shocking to learn hear what each person had experienced.  From temperament changes, to actually hearing their stomach growl for the first time in years, to being convicted by the movie or the shopping event... it was so good.