Karenathome Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I am interested in your experiences... I would love to put a famine event together for our small youth group, but with the funds raised going to our church's missionaries in Africa to purchase food, instead of World Vision . What can you share? What worked? What didn't? Devotional ideas... etc. I don't know much about the 30 hour famine, just came across it while on World Vision's website... Thanks, Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I participated in one every year in high school. I don't know anything about the planning side of things, just that we all showed up at school with our sleeping bags etc in the morning, went through our school day then stayed and had activities planned all afternoon, evening, slept in the gym and when we woke up we wnet and had pancakes, eggs and sausage in the school cafeteria for breakfast before heading home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJoy Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I did 30 Hour Famine several times in high school, and I was involved in some of the planning. Basically, the way it works is you get people to sponsor you for the event. My sister and I went door to door as well as asking people we knew. The best donors were family and friends and random car salesman (they were all trying to outdo each other). The "famine" was from from 12:00 noon on Friday to 6:00 pm on Saturday. Since it was during the school year, we ate lunch at school, being sure to finish by noon, then met at the church at 4:00 in the afternoon. The afternoon/evening consisted of devotions relating to service, poverty/hunger, gratitude for what we have, etc. The nice thing about the official 30 Hour Famine is that there are videos & premade devotional materials--you'll have to start from scratch. We also played numerous games--everything from Pictionary to dodgeball to sardines. We went to bed about midnight. We really started feeling the hunger effects the next day. It was VERY hard to focus during the devotions later on Saturday. The leaders had to repeat the questions several times before we go it. Some juice was allowed, and one girl who had a medical excuse was allowed some saltine crackers. People in our church donated the juice. We also enlisted adults to pray for each specific teen involved during the event. At 6:00 Saturday we were served homemade soup and bread. You want to make sure the meal is not too heavy, because even after just 30 hours you can get sick if you gourge on pizza. One fundraiser I've seen for the 30 Hour Famine is that the teens stand by the side of a street with collection cans. Every time X amount of money, equal to the amount of money it would take to feed a child for a day is donated, they add a paper link to a chain. As time passes, the chain stretches quite a ways. They hold up signs explaining what the chain means. It was a very powerful visual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I did that in high school. It was much like what someone else described. We also had mints provided because your breath can get pretty bad during this, even if you brush. The most memorable thing I ever did though that addressed this was to stay in the Heifer International World Village for a weekend. We were divided into groups and had to trade to get food at each meal. Some of us had nothing to trade with, and no place to sleep while others had a lot and solid housing. My experiences there touched me deeper than the other because not only was I hungry, I had to sleep in a miserable hut in the heat eaten by bugs. It made me realize that those in Africa (and even in some places in the US) had much more to deal with than just hunger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntieM Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 Our youth group did it, but not me personally. There was juice and steamed rice available for those who felt too weak to carry on with absolutely nothing, but most did just fine without it. Seconding the careful attention to how you break the fast... pizza is definitely out! Our group went with Subway sandwiches, that seemed good to all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 We did one while I was in high school too, through youth group. We went 30 hours with only water and a runny oatmeal type soup in scant amounts. We also had a contest where each person had to peel an apple and the person with the longest peel won a bag of apples to keep or give away as they chose. I believe the lesson in that was that not the smartest person, but the luckiest gets the food sometimes and what would you do if you had apples but couldn't give one to everyone who needed it. I won that challenge and passed out the apples to groups of 3 to share. We raised over $3000 in 30 hours and it went to Heiffer Project. It was a positive experience for me, having never had to go hungry in my life. I really appreciated the lesson I was taught and have been affected by it even to this day. The only problem I remember is that some of the adults had serious problems going without caffeine for that long with headaches. They went and brewed a pot of coffee to help. HTH and good luck with your project! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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