Over the weekend, from 1:00p.m. on Friday through 7:00p.m. on Saturday, 10 youth and 4 leaders participated in Christ UMC’s annual 30 Hour Famine, an event sponsored by World Vision to help fight hunger.

As always, the event was a great time. Kids arrived shortly after school and we had free time until about 6:00p.m.; during this time, the kids did pretty much whatever they want, from video games to ping pong to puzzles and much more. After that, we had the first of four (or five?) sessions of Tribe, a game that focuses on the children and events of Uganda. Each child (except for one lucky one) had a disability of some sort, from typhoid fever (these kids had to wear multiple coats/jackets) to blindness (bandanna covering the eyes) and several others. The kids competed to earn survival cards which were used at the end of the famine. I’m not sure what they were used for this year, as I fell asleep during the last session of tribe :)

At 8:00p.m. we bowled a couple games at Strike Zone Lanes in Sunbury. When we got back, the kids played the much anticipated Hide and Seek in the Dark. I’m not sure what it is about this game, but the kids look forward to it whenever we’re planning a lock-in. After a few rounds, we headed to various ares of the church (guys in the pastor’s office, girls in the choir room) to go to bed.

The next morning, we had more free time, another round of Tribe, and a pantry raid in several neighborhoods around the church. We donated all of the non-perishable goods to a local food bank called the Kitchen Cupboard, so it was a great use of our time. When we returned to the church, we had a mix of free time and a couple rounds of Tribe before it was time to clean up and prepare for dinner.

At about 6:50p.m., we broke the fast with communion. We served the bread and juice to each other, which I think is a great idea because it gets the kids involved in a church function that they might not normally be asked/invited to do. When we got to the last few people, one of the kids spilled the grape juice all over the tables and onto the floor when passing it to the person next to her. I’d never seen that before, though I’m sure it’s happened hundreds (maybe thousands) of times before; I was thankful that it wasn’t an entire tray full of communion cups.

After we finished communion, we had a dinner of barbecue sandwiches (what we call Sloppy Joes in Connecticut), hot dogs, chicken corn chowder, and lots of other goodies. As always, the kids ate way more than they should have as they failed to realize that their stomachs had shrunk during the past thirty hours.

By 8:00p.m. the leaders had finished cleaning up and I was heading to another event. All in all, the 30 Hour Famine was a great time, educating kids about how many people around the world die of hunger every day. We haven’t yet received all of the money raised, but it’s already a few hundred dollars, so I’m really thrilled. It’s great to see people willing to donate money to an excellent cause such as this!