June 10, 2008 — The physical needs of people in third world countries can be staggering. For example, according to World Vision, a Christian relief organization, “Every day 29,000 children under the age of 5 die from hunger and preventable illnesses.” Teens in the Calvary Chapel Westwood M.A.D. Ministries [Making a Difference] Youth Group not only learned the statistics, but shared some of the experience by participating in the World Vision 30-Hour Famine Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31. The purpose of this event is to raise both awareness of the poor and destitute throughout the world and to gather donations to help them.

“We do the famine so the teens can put their faith into action helping needy kids who don’t have food. As Christians we are supposed to be servants,” said Norm Wilson, the youth group leader.

To learn what it is like to be hungry, the teens went without food for 30 hours. To learn how physical disabilities caused by natural disasters, malnutrition and unsanitary conditions can impact daily living, they assumed the identity of a child from Indonesia.

The group was broken up into tribes from the island of Borneo and island of Sumatra in Indonesia and given a profile of the person they would portray during competitions. One wore a heavy backpack when in character to portray a boy who was always tired from lack of food because he had to let younger brothers and sisters eat first. One teen had a full leg splint because his leg had been crushed in a tsunami; another wore a blindfold because she had been blinded when hit by debris while being rescued from a flood.

The natural hunger each felt by going without food and the simulated disability often worked against the teens when competing in the planned activities such as Mosquito Menace, where the object of the competition was to avoid being tagged by the person who was “it.”

Those who did get tagged were handed a colored sticker at random and only learned if they had contracted malaria at the end of the game when the color of the malaria sticker was revealed. Competitions that required fetching water and finding food were also inhibited by having a disability.

At the end of each competition participants completed a journaling exercise to examine the activity in a personal way. For example, following the Food Grab competition teens were asked how the game made them feel about the abundance of food in the United States.

The 30-Hour Famine for M.A.D. Ministry teens and leaders who participated began at 12:30 p.m. Friday, May 30. Wilson headed up the event and eight teens and one other leader participated. The teen participants included Brandon and Colton Fletcher, Andrea Terry, Phylicia and Lynsey Hinze-Buff, Chelsey Chapin, JJ Martin and Bryce Kelly.

At 5 p.m. everyone assembled at the Calvary Chapel office to travel to a house on Lake Almanor Greg and Gloria McCandelist donated for the event. The remainder of the time was spent doing World Vision 30 Hour Famine planned activities and a series of Bible studies on Christian maturity. Periodically everyone took a juice break.

Participants returned to Westwood at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 31 to break the fast with a dinner prepared by church members, friends and family.