On Friday evening, the students were divided into 5 tribes representing countries from the Amazon: Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. These would serve as not only their teams for the weekend, but also, their families. We started by playing some games teaching them about the struggles that these families go through each day just to get a mere bite to eat. A lot of them complained that the rules "weren't fair," but that just drove home the point that life isn't fair for most people. While we sit at home and get fat on whatever food we want, others in the world wonder if they're even going to live to see tomorrow because they have no food. We had a short worship service, which was great because a good portion of the students had never witnessed that before.
We called it quits around 1am and went to our separate rooms to sleep on the hard, concrete floor. We did let them sleep in, but once they were awake, we divided into teams to go "canning." We basically went out into Dunellen door to door asking for donations of canned food for the FISH program run by our church. Karl advised us to "stick with houses that we knew," but my team totally ignored that and went to every house. We ended up collecting over 300 food items to donate.
We played some more tribe games with them to keep their spirits up and their minds off food - by lunch time, you really start to feel the hunger pangs. Then we put on a movie: "The End of the Spear" for them. Most of the students took this opportunity to take a much needed nap...including me. After the movie, we played crab soccer, which they liked. The last game we played was called "Endurance." In this, one girl and one guy would hold a bucket of water at a 90 degree angle at shoulder height and the moment they started to drop, they were out. The one with the highest time wins.
All of the games awarded Survival Cards to the winning tribe. The tribe with the most survival cards at the end of the weekend got to eat first!
Our pastor held a communion service for us, which was awesome. Something came over me, and I was so moved to see all of our students graciously accepting the bread and the wine as a symbol of faith. In fact, 5 of our students raised their hand to accept Christ into their life! Praise God! I couldn't help but get a little teary-eyed.
Finally, it was time to eat. Parents started dropping off food for us ranging from pizza to Planet Chicken to White Castle. We didn't care, we just wanted to eat. The food never tasted so good. It really gave us a deeper appreciation for food. I never really realized how easy it is for us to get food. While, for the kids in most parts of the world risk their lives for food everyday. I was so thankful for the weekend. Of course, we had some hiccups - but that's to be expected in youth ministry. It was a great weekend. We had a great time, and grew closer to each other as well as to God. Overall, we raised over $2,000 to send to these kids in the Amazon. That will feed about 5 or 6 kids for a year. Amen!
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post because my camera wasn't working :-( Hopefully, I can scrounge up some pictures from some of the students to post for you all.
So, the next time you sit down to eat, whatever it is, thank God for your food, and say a prayer for those that are struggling for theirs.
1 comment:
Very inspiring blog.
Praise God for the work you are doing.
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