Hunger
I was scolded today for my lack of blog posts lately. (A gentle, much-needed scolding.) So here I am, sufficiently repentant for my absence. And for today, I thought I’d share a little bit about something I’ve been doing on Facebook lately: Begging.
Yes, I’ve been using the infamous social-networking site as a place to plea for money. Here’s why: I’m a youth group leader at my church and next weekend I’ll be joining our teens in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. It’s a pretty simple concept, actually. We’ll go without food for 30 hours, and in the process we hope to heighten our awareness about hunger and poverty–and to raise some money to fight it along the way.
Now I’ve always been a fan of fighting world hunger. (Who isn’t?!) But there’s something about going to Ethiopia and seeing “world hunger” in reality that has put a new scar on my heart. When you sit in a “taxi van” on the dusty streets of Addis and see a child begging at the window–hunger clear in his eyes–it does something to you. You don’t forget eyes like that. I can’t begin to tell you how many times my mind wanders back to Ethiopia and all I saw while we were there–how many wrestling matches are currently going on in my mind and heart as I reflect on my situation in life compared to those I saw in Addis.
I’ve been home for three months and I still can’t wrap my mind around it all.
But the pertinent point for today is that my Ethiopia experiences have lit a fire in me where this 30 Hour Famine is concerned. I don’t just want a random weekend of fasting so I can go on with my life and feel like I did my part for world hunger. I want this experience to create more hunger–in me and hopefully the students who join me–a hunger to care, to notice, to bring relief to the millions who struggle with poverty, hunger, and disease.
And so I decided to use Facebook as a venue for finding Famine sponsors. And in the past couple of weeks, I’ve updated my status about a dozen times with some variation of “Would you be willing to give $20 to feed hungry kids. Learn more at My World Vision Fundraising Page.” I even came up with a clever “20 for $20 Campaign” to make things interesting: Could I find 20 Facebook friends to give $20 apiece as my 30 Hour Famine sponsors?
Honestly? I didn’t think it would take so long to find twenty sponsors! But it’s a busy time of year for people. A lot of folks have been gone for Spring Break. And I know there are always causes and people looking for money. And my appeals for money have probably gotten swallowed up by more exciting posts and pics on the Facebook news page.
But I can’t forget about those eyes. Those small hands making an eating gesture and looking up at me with an appeal for help.
So I’ve kept begging for money on Facebook. I’ve kept checking my fund-raising page each morning to see if anyone else has decided to sponsor me. And since I haven’t reached my 20 sponsors yet, I’ve gone back to my Facebook status again and again, trying to come up with a new way to keep asking for the same thing: money for hungry kids. And here’s how I’m starting to feel: I’m sick of begging. I’m tired of swallowing my pride and making yet another appeal for sponsors. I’m starting to wonder if everyone else on Facebook is sick of my begging too! Are they getting annoyed with my constant pleas for money? And who am I to ask anyway, when so many of my friends and family already give so much to various people and causes?
In the end, here’s what has happened. I started out this Facebook “20 for $20″ thing thinking it’d be a “fun” way to get a few donations for the Famine. And instead, it’s become an interesting lesson for me about begging. If this is how I feel after a few Facebook pleas for cash, what does it feel like for the people who literally beg for food every day? What kind of hunger must you feel to keep holding your hand out day after day, even as you suspect the people passing by are annoyed with your presence?
So here’s the deal. I saw people starving in Ethiopia. People who don’t have clean water to drink, much less a Facebook account or a laptop to blog on. They really don’t have a voice here. They don’t have any way of sharing their story with you or asking for your help. But I do. And so for today, I just want to be a voice for them. And here’s my humble plea: Would you consider helping the hungry?
Maybe you can sponsor me for the 30 Hour Famine. (Yes, there is a small ulterior motive to this post.) Or maybe you do something else, and that’s good too. But whoever you are, wherever you are, if you are reading this in a home that has food in the cupboards, would you take a minute to think about the people who don’t have that luxury? And what that must feel like?
I know that, personally, I have a lot to wrestle with here. Nearly everything I buy these days feels extravagant compared to the way many in our world live. And that’s hard. How much do I give away? What’s okay to keep? What can I justify buying when 26,000 kids die of hunger every day? Hard questions. Ones I would rather ignore. (And sadly, sometimes I do.) I don’t have any answers here. I haven’t achieved the right balance. I just know that it’s important to keep wrestling for it. To keep hungering for the right way. And inviting others to join me along the way.