With a goal of raising $1000, Lakebay Community Church’s youth group fasted for 30 hours on Friday, April 8th, and Saturday, April 9th, to spread awareness for kids living in poverty around the world. With empty stomachs, we managed to get through a couple games like capture the food and a successful car wash. World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine taught me to not take what we have for granted and to be thankful for even the smallest things in life. Sure, I was hungry, but I knew it that it was for a good cause.

Missing dinner is one story. Missing dinner, breakfast, and lunch and going empty-stomached for the long night in between is something completely different. With games to keep us occupied, my group and I would forget all about being hungry for a second, until it hit us again.  One thing I experienced was pain. My head ached and throbbed. I felt tired all the time. When we began, I wasn’t very hungry. Before I  fell asleep, my stomach was pretty loud but so were all of the other youth group members. Being hungry feels awful. It makes you weak and tired. Friday night, the youth group met up at Lakebay Community Church at 6:30. We prayed, played, and prepped for the car wash that took place on Saturday, April 9th. We raised over $700 in donations and sponsors, and from the car wash, we raised over $700 too. That may seem like a lot, but www.30hourfamine.org says that it takes about $35 to feed a child for a month and $425 to feed a child for a year. According to www.wfp.org, about 3.1 million children die from starvation every year.

Before I fasted, I thought of the 30 Hour Famine as an event to raise funds for starving children around the world. However, after having nothing to eat for 30 hours, I felt proud. I knew that the hunger that I endured was nothing compared to some people going days without food, but I felt what hunger really feels like for the first time. This may seem cliche, but I now feel more grateful for the things that I have.

When I was fasting, I craved pizza. The thought of the melted cheese and the greasy pepperoni made me pretty hangry. I drank grape juice to satisfy my sweet tooth but it wasn’t enough to hold back my cravings. We were all given journals to write how we felt. One thing I wrote was “(Only) 20 and a half hours in. I’m not hungry like I was last night. I’m still exhausted… (but) people go days and days without food and I’ve gone not even one full day without food… that’s really why I chose to participate in the 30 Hour Famine. To make a change. A difference. To give them hope.”

Hunger is one of the many worldwide issues that many people don’t think about enough. One in nine people is chronically hungry – that’s almost 2.5 times the size of the U.S. population, according to www.30hourfamine.org. On top of that, all people get their energy from the food that they eat, so satiation is not the only thing at risk if food is not available. It’s hard to work and earn money for your family when you don’t have much energy. Did you know that one in ten people lives on less than $1.90 a day? That’s not a lot compared to the $94 an average american spends a day according to www.ibtimes.com. This isn’t just happening in Asia and Africa. This is a worldwide issue.

Every eleven seconds, a child dies from hunger-related causes. Count eleven seconds. One child just died. One after another, child after child, they go. What did I do to stop this? What did you do to help? And most importantly, what did we do? If you want to find out more about World Vision and the 30 Hour Famine, go to http://www.30hourfamine.org and http://www.worldvision.org.