This Tuesday, our honors class participated in a 24 hour fast. The goal was to spend time in prayer while fasting in some way. Some chose to completely without food or water, while others chose to fast from certain foods, and others skipped a meal. Fasting is a way to shut out the noises and hindrances in the world and focus on the Triune God.
This connects to the class because we were able to feel what it means to be hungry, even though it was only for one day. It also gave us a chance to pray to God for the impoverished and the starving.
This experience brought me to a better understanding of what people really go through. I do not know how they have the strength to do normal everyday activity. And, some people work two or three jobs with just a little food in their stomachs. I think it was also a great opportunity to read the Bible and pray about their situation. I think that everyone is willing to talk about change, but when it comes to doing something they fall short. People do not like to go outside of their comfort zone, and fasting is outside of many comfort zones. Overall I think that fasting has tied the weeks together very nicely.
February 2007 Archives
On Saturday our honors class walked through the Philips Neighborhood, and we talked to a volunteer from Trinity First Lutheran. It was a good experience to see that the “nice” part of the neighborhood was still more rundown than other places in the metro area. We also heard stories of how poverty hit the members of the church community.
This connects with what we have been learning because we now got to see and hear first hand how poverty affects people. It is one thing to hear and talk about poverty but it is another thing to see it first hand.
This trip did not affect me as much as I thought it would, but I believe that part of the reason why is I have seen and helped people with the kind of poverty that we were talking about. I hope that next time we go out to the streets of a poverty afflicted community we go out to help and interact with the people.
In honors today we did a role play with Hunger 101. We were all assigned names and families and had one hour to try to understand what people with low income feel. During that hour we had to figure out our daily budget and get enough food for the family for the whole day. By the end of the hour no one in the class had enough food for their family, and many of the adults had to go without food for the day.
This connects so well with what we have been talking about the past two weeks. Now we were not only able to see pictures of poverty, but we got a realistic glimpse into their lives. People not only have to deal with the lack of food, but also the frustration of trying to obtain the food. Adults also have to live with the constant cries of their children because they are hungry.
The role play really had an impact on me because it shows me that food is not that easy to come by. There is also the stigma in America of people using food stamps. Many people look down on those people even though they are just trying to make ends meet. This also has shown me that more things need to be done to help the poor and hungry.
