Minneapolis Day 2: Monday

Well, everyone had their first day of working at ministry sites today! Quickly followed by a trip to the world market, fun for everyone today (I ate weird African food). Below are some stories from our students, enjoy. (And after Kari's blog yesterday, we thought maybe you'd like to see the fun room we're in).
T

Formerly having worked in “Kids’ Club,” starting off with the Kaleidoscope Kids (a summertime education center for 1^st through 8^th grade, Muslim-based) was quite a bit different from my (our, speaking on behalf of Troy, Lindsay, Brendan, Drake, Adrienne) experience with children. Being at a secularized learning center makes it quite difficult to fulfill the purpose of the “mission,” as our influence is limited to the children identifying us as Christians, little more. Regardless, I can comfortably say the children have definitely began to familiarize themselves with us, despite a hectic first day to the U of M arboretum (a field trip for the kids!)…
-Bobby Herron

This is the first mission trip I’ve done, so I wasn’t sure what to expect on my first day. I was at Mary’s Place, which is a homeless shelter, a place for people to get back on their feet.  Its founder, Mary Jo still works there every day, from its start in the 1980s, and just talks to people, asking what they need.  It is amazing to see the love she has for all the people, and how she is truly a gift to people in need.  She came and prayed with us before we worked and it really puts into perspective everything she does for God, and how He has led her to begin this truly awesome program! The facilities are really nice, and we all couldn’t believe that all their funding comes just from donations.  They give out so much, with their food pantry, just writing checks to people in need, and giving away clothing and personal items.  It is truly a blessing to see what Mary’s Place is doing for people! We worked (me, Kristin, Natalie, Spencer, both Jacobs, Kinna, Mr. Meeks and Mrs. Patterson) with the kids in the playrooms, while their parents talked with advisors and tried to find jobs.  The kids were really great, and they just wanted us to play. While we were getting a tour of the building, some of them followed us and waited for us to go play.  They were so quick to just come up to us and give us hugs! We took them outside and made a slip n slide with a tarp, hose, and dish soap. They were so grateful for just being able to play, and they did everything in their power to get us wet! J after lunch, we went to the kids center and there were several rooms of toys for the kids, and it was great to see that they still get to be kids, despite the hard times their families are going through.  I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings, and I’m so excited to work with the kids and worship God with my service to these awesome children! J
-Amber Kline

Today was absolutely fantastic! My worksite was not nearly as labor oriented as most of the sites that I have worked at, in previous years I have worked painting or cleaning or building (Troy likes that for me, because physical labor isn’t my strong suit). This week I am working at a site called Urban Ventures that does outreach to all sorts of people. My group works specifically at the Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center, which hosts the Learning Lab program for 1-8^th graders. The facility and PRAISE GOD!! Has fantastic air conditioning. We started the day with a brief orientation that was very uplifting and highlighted how truly wonderful this program is. The kids at Urban Venture come from the Phillips neighborhood which hosts the highest level of crime and gang violence in the state. The kids are no strangers to gun shots or all night partying and often don’t sleep. The Urban Venture program gives them a healthy environment to play and work in and also provides a great learning environment for these children. Many of them are academically behind (the whole experience throws into sharp relief how blessed we are to go to school in Hamilton Southeastern Schools). The volunteers in the program facilitate by working with a child or children that are our buddies. My buddy is Kevin, and he was given to me because he is “problem child” and needs special attention. I focused on Kevin today and we did everything together. Including but not limited to, playing Twister and Apples to Apples, and doing a skit (yeah God really threw me a Home Run this week!!)  Kevin was never a problem the whole day, he is really a sweet little dude who wants to achieve the best and I hear that’s because he has a great mom. He is great and I hope to make a difference in his life this week, because he has already made a difference in mine. Please keep Kevin in your prayers that he can keep focusing this week and be as successful as possible.
-Dustin Meeks

Minneapolis Day 1: Sunday

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay. Thanks so much for all your prayers and support, we made it safely (and early) to Minneapolis, here are some pictures and stories of our day. Hope to share more soon!
T

Today as the group took an adventure, we stopped at a local Burger King to get a quick bite to eat.  While in the Burger King the four freshman girls (Adrienne, Kinna, Kendall, and Kate) collected a plentiful crop of red straws. We collected the straws so that when a certain young lady we might be rooming with begins to snore we can pop them so the noise will wake them up enough to halt the obnoxious snoring.  Minnesota is a beautiful state and we enjoyed the ride here because of all of the rolling hills and leafy trees.  We are all looking forward to beginning an amazing week with the locals and YouthWorks staff.  We are determined to win in a game of cards against Thomas a.k.a the master of cards. At least in Minnesota.
-Makinna Laymon

This morning at 2:45a.m., six of us (Chris, Andy, Landon, Kari, Dustin, and I) took a trip to Steak n’ Shake for shakes.  After our adventure we went to the church at 4 a.m. to wait for everyone else to show up.  While at church the boys played Frisbee but Kari was convinced the police would come so we drove around for an hour. Oh Kari…
After leaving the church I embarked on my first Senior High Mission trip along with Kendall, Makinna, and Kate.  My time spent here so far has been an amazing experience, but has also been an enormous change from Junior High.  I hope to spread the word of the Lord and make relationships with those in the Minneapolis area.
-Adrienne Meeks

Hello there. We are here! After a day of travelling, we have safely arrived to our destination, Minneapolis, MN.  For many of us, the car ride always seems to be a memorable part of the entire mission trip experience.  This year was no different.  In my van, we enjoyed the expanse of the Chicago skyline, took the occasional nap, and sang some improv music for the lovely adult leaders in our van, Judge Henke and Mrs. Patterson. 
We are staying at the Elim Baptist Church, and this building is absolutely wonderful.  There is a gymnasium for us to play basketball and other games, a spacious club area for nightly worship, and my favorite room of all, the dining room.  This is NOT your typical dining room.  The whimsical walls are filled with vibrant murals, and I feel like I am in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory (despite the lack of a chocolate river, but that’s ok).
Tomorrow begins our first day at the worksites, and we are filled with hope for this opportunity.  Tonight during church time, we discussed our goal to encourage each other and to challenge ourselves to reach outside of our comfort zones.   Additionally, we are excited to embark on this experience with an open mind as God works in our lives. 
- Kari Lorentson

"You Are Here" mission trip leaves tomorrow!

We'll be doing our best to post stories here and snipits to Facebook. Follow our trip and pray for us! T

Trapped By Memories

One of the things I hate about my little mind is that I remember some of the stupidest things from long ago. Decades ago. Sometimes they're good memories, but sometimes it's a memory of something I've done wrong or messed up or someone that's hurt me and it kind of boxes me in. Even though it shouldn't that memory determines how I will act in a situation.

During the Cold War there was an elecrtic fence on the German/Czeck border. Obvioulsy it was a political thing, it was meant to keep people on their own side. But it affected some other animals, like the red deer. They weren't able to travel their normal routes, they would be shocked if they did. So they adapted and changed.

But here's the funny thing. That fence came down in 1989 and still, today, the red deer won't cross the political border we created. Even though all the deer that would have remember that fence are gone, their great-great-granddeer won't travel where that fence used to be, the memory of the pain is still with them.

I hope in all the memories that we hold on to, the ones that bind us are the ones we let go of, and the one that frees us, we cling to...

Ephesians 1:7 ~ Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! (MSG)

T

Legacy

The last little bit I've been reading I Chronicles. Now, many times it's a skim read, so-and-so begat so-and-so who knew so-and-so who was neighbors with so-and-so, etc., etc. But this time I've been slowing down a little and reading the names. Many of them I recognize from different stories or other readings, and it got me to thinking how little we know of where we come from.

A few years ago they tried to sell me a book of the Richards family history. I didn't bite because there's so many Richards and the name slowly appears about 800 years ago, but in many ways I wish I could tell you exactly where I came from. That was the cool part of I Chronicles. It's been hundreds of years and these people can still trace their families back to the origin of their people, all the way back to Abraham (and in Genesis back to Adam). I Chr. 9:14 even tells who the church custodian was (temple custodian in this case).

So where do you come from (and is it important to you)? Sometimes it's cool to look back at where your roots come from, and I don't mean just history. Looking at the line of my music teachers, my Sunday School teachers and who taught them, things like that. If you're ordained in the Methodist church they can trace your ordination back to it's founder John Wesley. The real question is how did I get to here? Because many times that helps determine where to go next...

My little musings...

T

More Or Less?

My mother posted this quote the other day that got me thinking...

We have bigger houses but smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement; more experts, but more problems; more medicines, but less healthiness; We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour. We built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; We have become long on quantity, but short on quality. These are times of fast foods but slow digestion; Tall man but short character; Steep profits but shallow relationships. It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room. - Dalai Lama

The question that keeps going in my mind, where does Jesus fit all this? Not to sound cliche, but what would He want for us and what will we do about it?

T

Being A Panda...

First off let me say I love pandas. They're big, their fluffy, they're lovable animals. I've seen the video of the baby panda sneezing and watched the webcam of the panda baby at the National Zoo. But unfortunately...

I am disappointed in pandas.

Here's why. Panda's are carnivores. They are designed to eat meat. Their digestive tract wants small animals inside of it. And whenever you see them, what are they eating? Bamboo.

Panda's have learned to settle. Some believe they eat bamboo because they are bad hunters, some think they were forced from the natural habitat many moons ago and adapted to eat bamboo. Whatever it is, it has ruined them. Because they don't hunt, they don't eat meat. Because they don't eat meat they are unable to hibernate, there's not enough energy in the bamboo. This is also the reason they seem so lazy, they don't have the energy because of their diet. They will even eat meat if it's offered to them, but when left to fend for themselves, they eat grass instead of what they were designed to eat and because of that live a dull, dreary life.

It made me start thinking about our spiritual lives. Are we selling ourselves short when we were designed for so much more? Could it be because of our diet, we've settled like the Panda? A proper diet of thinking right, God's Word, spending time with Him, serving, love, kindness, maybe it's too much, but settling for just enough spiritual food to survive and living a life sitting around all day, that seems like a fair trade.

It all starts with the food we eat, and I hope we're eating what we need to spiritually. Maybe then, we'd be ready and full of energy when God needs us...

T

Summer Vacation

The other night I was lying awake (which happens often) and remembered travelling as a youngster on vacation, and I was thinking about some of the complaints I have heard from students about their travels, so to put things in perspective, here are some tidbits of vacationing a few decades ago.

No cell phones, internet, or in some cases, even phones where we were going. You could not check Facebook. Believe it or not, you went on vacation and didn't talk to your friends. And they survived. And so did you.

We did not have thousands of songs and movies in our pocket, internet in the car, DVD players or anything like that. We had these things called books. Or looking out the window. If you wanted music you brought a pile of your most precious tapes and a walkman with plenty of extra AA batteries. And we used the headpones that came with your tape player. If they broke you couldn't go to Wal-Mart and get new ones, you lived with a broken piece of metal jabbing you in the scalp.

You were able to take 24 pictures throughout your vacation. And you didn't get to see them right away. So after trying to get that perfect shot you would have to wait until after the vacation to get the film developed, pay $20 and wait another week only to find a blurry grey blob and you trying to remember what you took a picture of.

There were no vans with captains chairs. There was a big huge backseat with an imaginary line that divided your area from your sibling's area. Occasionally someone (or their stuff) would cross the line leading to a heated debate and parents demanding silence, to which you would retreat to your music on tape that is sounding a little warbled from dying batteries and a piece of metal jabbing you in the scalp.

There were also no exits every 2 miles. Going to the bathroom was few and far between and meals were either at the only greasy diner we could find or sandwiches someone made the night before that were now warm and mushy, eaten at a picnic table on the side of the road which for some reason had no trees anywhere near it.

So for all you weary travellers this summer who have to endure the suffering of a personal Laz-Y-Boy in an air conditioned vehicle with the world at your fingertips, I have zero sympathy for you. Go enjoy vacation.

T

Follow The Tiny Clues

I have become obsessed with the tiny. It's something in my head lately, how big really doesn't exist. Anything big it really nothing more than a pile of lots of little. A mountain is nothing more than billions of tiny pieces of dirt.

I was watching someone the other day teaching their student about tracking. The ability to follow an animal (or a person) through the woods. And the teacher said something very interesting to me. It's not the big things to look for, it's the tiny things. A bent leaf, broken blades of grass, the tiniest little things that unless you are looking for them you will easily miss.

Maybe in tracking God we need to stop looking for the big and start looking for the small. Instead of wanting God to do some amazing "big" thing that can only be God we start looking for the thousands of tiny clues God gives us every day. After all, God said to the people through the prophet Isaiah, "I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found." (Is. 45;19 NLT).

Where can you find God in the small?

T

From The Heart Is Always Better

The other night I was watching a documentary on a popular band talking about their biggest album ever. The company had asked them to make another album and gave them everything they could possibly need to make it. And I mean everything. They spent 3 months writing and recording this CD and cost the studio over $1 million. It was supposed to be amazing. Except the band was struggling. They weren't getting along. Things in their lives were in chaos. They were about to break up.

After the three months and millions spent on the CD they were about to play their final show (unknown to anyone). But they hadn't played in a while. And it was fun. And they wanted to play more of the music they love. So they did something crazy. After the show they went to the singer's house, went in the basement, and recorded a whole new CD in a week.

Guess which CD the label chose? Guess which CD has become their best selling CD to date? The one from the heart. Money, production, time, none of these match someone sharing from their heart.

When it comes to sharing our faith, to telling someone about Jesus, what do you think people want? You to take them to a church with the coolest light show, a friend who has all the answers, maybe a polished speech to tell people about Jesus? Or do you think they just want to hear from your heart...?

T

Remember Why You Do It

I was reading an article the other day about the rules at Burger King. Many of you know them, they're at most fast food places, no shirt, no shoes, no service. At one particular Burger King a family ordered their food, sat down and started to eat. But a few moments later an employee approached them and asked them to leave, they were breaking the rules. And this employee was correct, someone didn't have shoes on. However, it was the six month old daughter sitting in her chair...

Sometimes we get so bogged down in doing what we've always done we forget why we do it. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and ask, "why am I doing this again?" The answer may surprise you.

T

The Cookbook In The Cupboard

Shortly after Lorie and I were married her mom gave us a gift, one we used last night to make awesome french toast. A cookbook. 800 pages of recipes guaranteed to taste good. We use this book all the time. We've written notes in the book, put little pieces of paper to remember things, all the while using this to get the best possible food for us. The recipes aren't only tasty, they're pretty healthy too (except maybe last night's french toast).

But here's the funny part. When we got the cookbook, we thought we knew all we needed to know. We were cooking awesome meals of frozen chicken and tater tots, what else did we need? So we put the cookbook in a drawer, and left it there for about five years.

After using it last night, I wonder how often we do that to the Word of God. We know enough, we hear what we need to know Sunday, so it sits on a shelf. And we keep living our lives, filling our spirits on frozen chicken and tater tots thinking this is as good as it gets.

But what if it can be better? After all, Jesus said, "Blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it into practice." (Luke 11:28 LB). I wonder what a blessed life is like? Maybe like our meals have become, with way yummier french toast then I ever thought I could make...

T

Is It Awkward Because We Make It Awkward?

Last week at Drink Deep we were talking about sharing our faith and in our conversations I ended up talking with a student who went to a Christian camp one summer. Not a bad thing, I've done it, Christan camps are nice. But he said something that stuck out to me. At this camp they wanted students to be able to talk about their faith. Also not a bad idea. So they took the students to a soccer field, spread them out, and had them stand there while adults randomly walked around and asked them to defend what they believe. Bad idea...

Really? Someone thought this was the best way to have children learn to share what they believe? Maybe talking about God is awkward because we've made it awkward. No one has ever knocked on my door in the middle of dinner (because they knew we'd be home) to try and convince me to cheer for their favorite baseball team. I've never listened to a band because someone stood on a street corner handing out little pieces of paper with the four laws of why I need this band in my life.

What if we shared our faith the same way we shared other things that affect our life? We tell people to try a restaurant because of how much we liked the food. We get excited when talking about our favorite football team. We tell a friend about a sale because we benefited from it and want them to share in that benefit. We invited people to a movie by simply saying, "Hey, want to go see a movie?"

Maybe we're overcomplicating this a little...

T

Perception Affects Change

Spring is here. It's a wonderful time of year, the grass is green, flowers are blooming, and we haven't hit the over-bearing heat of summer yet. It's such a nice time of year.

But Lorie and I have noticed a problem at home with spring. It's incredibly cold. Our house is freezing. Part of that may be me keeping the heat at Canadian temperatures, but we wake up in the morning and it's incredibly cold.

The other day I figured out why. Our heat was set at the same temperature as it was all winter. So in reality, our house is no colder than it has been for the past six months. But winter looks cold. There's snow on the ground, wind blowing, the darkness creeps in so early. And because of this we dress for the cold, heavy sweaters and slippers on our feet snuggled under blankets.

As I write this it's sunny and nice outside. The sky is blue. Birds are chirping. So I am dressed like spring, t-shirt, even wore shorts to bed last night. But the house is still the same temperature as it was in the middle of January.

Instead of dressing for the temperature I've been dressing for how the day looked. I've been basing what I do on what I perceive not where I really am. And in my readings there has been a common thread that when it comes to change this is a problem. We perceive things to be different so we act different. We exercise for six weeks, finally see some progress, so we back off a little, we perceive a change has happened. We faithfully spend time with God, things seem to be better, so we skip a day here or there, I've perceived the change so I don't need to be as diligent. In reality, these little perceptions cause us to change what we should be doing and we slide back to where we started (or even further back).

Sometimes, we need to wear a sweater even if we see the snow melting. Dress for the temperature, not what's outside the window. Do what's right beyond the change we immediately see...

T

People Don't Like Your Smell

Some of you, this is true (I've been on mission trips with you), but I'm not going for the physical smell. Yesterday Pastor Kevin talked about the aroma we give off, our Christ-like fragrance.

II Corinthians 2:14-16 ~ But thank God! He has made us His captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this? (NLT)

Naturally, I like to gravitate to the nice-smelling, pleasing to God type picture here. But the last few weeks we've been talking at Fire & Water about sharing our faith, our theme for the year of "Everyone Involved, Everyone Inviting". In our discussions we've talked about how a lot of students have friends at school who really want nothing to do with God.

Maybe this verse sheds a little bit of light on that. Perhaps it's not because they don't like us, but we are the smell of death and doom. We're happy, they're depressed, and they don't know why. We feel loved in a way only God can provide, they don't, so we smell. We are forgiven, they carry the weight of their sin, the pain, the guilt, the overwhelming sense of helplessness. Maybe the world's hatred has nothing to do with us but with what we have and they're jealous of it.

If only someone would explain this is a free gift and help them understand they could have the all-encompassing love of a Holy Father too...

T

One-Sided Relationships

Last night at Drink Deep we talked about how Americans really don't like making friends. It's something we're just not good at. I've been wondering to myself if TV has ruined our ability to have real relationships.

Here's what I mean. You can watch a television series and get to know a character, their likes, their dislikes, their favorite food, what they do when they're stressed out, you can get to know them really well. So well you've formed a bond with them. When they hurt, you hurt. When something great happens to them, you celebrate (I always think of Friends, when the characters would have ups and downs, how people related with them). In essence you have formed a relationship with that person.

But it is completely one-sided. They know nothing about you. You have zero involvement in their life. To them you don't exist. And I almost think we like it that way. We get the feigned intimacy of knowing someone really well without having to put in anything ourselves. No risk. Even today with Facebook, you can not actually talk to or see someone for a decade and know what's going on in their lives, and you've put nothing into that relationship.

Real relationships are harder. Real relationships take work. One of our core values at FIRE & WATER is Allying, the idea that we need real relationships that are so strong they aren't viewed as a once in a while friendship, you would actually call this person an ally. But to have a relationship that deep, that impactful, that strong, it can't be one-sided. It takes work. It takes time. It takes commitment. We just have to decide if the effort is worth the pay off.

Are real relationships worth the time and effort to you?

T

An Easter Question

This has been on my mind for a while. If you have an answer I'd love to hear it...

Why did Jesus teach first, then go through the crucifixion and resurrection?

Why didn't He do it the other way around? Think about it, if Jesus rose from the dead then taught us how to live, wouldn't people be all over it? If He got a crowd by doing a few miracles, what if people saw Him die and rise again? Wouldn't that be instant followers?

Maybe those aren't the followers Christ is looking for, He wants those who choose to do what's right when there aren't signs and wonders.

Maybe people would be so in awe of the resurrection they wouldn't listen to the teaching.

Maybe I should shut up and accept that God knows what He's doing...

Just something in my head lately, especially with having just celebrated Easter.

T

The Power of Words

I heard a story the other day, I had to check it out and see if it was true. It was...

On December 19, 1973, the Tonight Show aired as usual with Johnny Carson performing his evening monologue. Earlier a Wisconsin congressman had announced that the government was falling behind on making bids to get toilet paper. So Carson made a joke about it, saying toilet paper was disappearing from shelves, that there was a shortage of toilet paper in America.

It wasn't true, there was tons of it, but it was a poorly timed joke. The country was in the midst of other shortages, oil for instance. So when the 20 million viewers heard there was a shortage of toilet paper they ran out and bought as much as they could. They created a panic. And they created a shortage on toilet paper. For the next few nights Carson tried to explain it was a joke. Toilet paper companies showed videos of the plants making toilet paper. But all people saw when they went to the store were empty shelves where the toilet paper should be. They had created their own shortage. It took almost a month for the stores to be resupplied consistently and end this "toilet paper shortage".

The fact is the people created their own panic. And how often do we do that? We hear something and blow it out of proportion, we create our own panic. Maybe it's not toilet paper, but something at work, in a relationship maybe. It's kind of like the comic I saw as a kid, ten people told a girl her hair looked nice, one made a snide comment, and she goes home saying "everyone hated it". I've seen it happen. What we say, even in jest, has the power to change our world. Even if it's in toilet paper consumption.

T

A Little Bit More...

This past weekend I was trapped in a FedEx office for a few minutes, waiting for someone making an order, so I did what I normally do and looked around trying to kill time. While there I found a book that talked about the 212 difference.

The concept is pretty simple. It's how a tiny bit more can make all the difference in what we do. The title of the book is based around water. At 211 degrees Fahrenheit, you have hot water. At 212 degrees you have boiling water, you have steam, you have power. That tiny bit makes all the difference. The rest of the book pointed out different times in history where the difference between success and failure was a little more perseverance.

What was really amazing is I witnessed it firsthand later that night. We were at the Indiana State Percussion Finals, the last chance to win it all. Teams performed based on how they places the week before, so we knew in one division the home school was set to win their division. They didn't. Instead they came in third. By 0.125%. In that competition the margin between first and third was 1/8th of a point.

It's got me thinking about my faith and what I do. What if I pushed just a little bit more? What kind of a difference would it make if I read my Bible just a few more minutes a day, prayed a few more minutes, served just a little bit more? What if I applied that thinking to my ministry, to my marriage, even my hobbies? How often have people been on the cusp of success but they slack off or give up?

I don't know, if I had been told before a competition the difference between first and third would have been 0.125%, how much harder would I have practiced? Since I usually don't know that, I guess I'll just have to assume it and work hard all the time...

T

Fundraising

First, let me apologize for it being a few weeks for this blog. I honestly did try to get more up but for some reason I was not able to get into blogger for a while. But I'm back, yay...

This past weekend we did the 30 Hour Famine with our sr. high students. For much of the time leading up to it, I was thinking too much about it. For instance, how our idea of fundraising is skewed. If every American eligible to vote gave about $10 a month to feeding those in poverty, world hunger would be abolished in a year or two. But we don't give. We need a reason. So instead we have to have teenagers starve themselves. For some reason, that act allows people to more freely give money. Why not just give since it's the right thing to do and people need help?

Then there's the whole idea of getting students to do the Famine to raise money. To get people involved it has to be fun. That was really messing with my head last week. We make poverty "fun". Although part of that is a learning experience (which usually, if it's fun you learn more), we use activities to get a glimpse into what life would be like for someone in poverty. But I kept thinking about what it would be like if someone who had lived in poverty overseas were to come visit us doing the Famine. What would they think?

But there's the other side of this whole equation. The students who were there did great, little complaining about hunger (even during discussions on bacon and cheese), they raised their own awareness for what is going on in the world (the balloons are filled with food necessary for a balanced diet, frustrations abounded when they worked so hard to find things that had no nutritional value all the while trying to get food with physical disabilites), and a handful of students managed to raise money for those in need well into four figures (I won't have the totals until next week, some are still collecting money). So as odd as it is and my mind still tries to wrap around it, the good far outweighs the questions and I can't wait until we do it again! Thanks to everyone who supported us!

T