30 hour famine.

So what is this 30 hour famine? If you haven't heard of it, here's the description straight from their website.

Students around the world loving God and fighting hunger. It's that simple.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of students do the Famine. They go without food for 30 hours. They learn what it takes to stop hunger in its tracks. They raise funds to help feed and care for tens of thousands of kids all over the world.
And because the 30 Hour Famine is powered by World Vision, you're not just feeding kids for a day. You're helping them overcome poverty for a lifetime.

This weekend I participated in the famine again with my youth group as well as with 4 other churches. It's always such an awesome experience. And I always feel like I wouldn't ever be able to fast. I'm one of those people who eat like every 2 hours and not just because I want to, but because I really am obviously hungry. But yet I choose to trust God and focus on Him and not the hunger. And He always honors that and brings me through. True, I didn't do the full 30 hours, but I did make it pretty long, and longer than last year. Even though I did it last year, I was still surprised this year as to how God enabled me to participate. I don't know why I would be surprised though. I also decided to fast all impulsive media (Facebook, internet searching, TV channel flipping) and just took a break from technology. And wow, that almost took more restraint than not eating food. Food is a necessity, the internet is an addiction. I focused on reading and being quiet and talking with my family and those around me. And all through out the day I'd catch myself thinking, "I should blog that.", "Oh that'd be a great picture for instagram.", "I wonder what so and so is doing. I should check their facebook." And on and on. It's kind of ridiculous. I wanted to continue the fast until these impulsive thoughts stopped, but then I realized that I had to be realistic and that most of my work involves the computer so I had to end the fast. But fasting technology is going on my list of things in high priority to do in the future, and frequently. I would highly recommend it for all you.

Ninja is pretty much the coolest youth group game out there. If you don't know what it is, you're totally missing out.


way to mess up pictures Tucker.


and again. seriously. this post should be called "how many weird faces can tucker make"


Each finger print represented a child under the age of 5 that would die in one day due to lack of food. I don't remember the exact number, but I think that it's something around 8,000. Which is just way too many, considering that one would be way too many.






There was so much prayer involved in this event, and it was just awesome to be a part of.


Each team had to build a shelter out of cardboard for one of their teammates to sleep in. And yes, there were about 10 students who slept outside that night in their cardboard boxes.




Then the band from one of the churches played music both days. And they are such a great band. They bring such excellent spirit-filled worship.








The whole crazy group. There were about 130 of us (but due to my lack of a wide angle lens I could not get everyone in the picture).


And again, Tucker with his weirdness. But despite all of his weird faces, he really is a cool guy.


Did you know that it costs only $30 to feed a child for a month? With all of our fundraising so far we were able to feed 25 children for a whole year. And we're still not done fundraising. If you'd like to donate go here to my church's page. Or you can just donate where ever. It doesn't really matter because it all goes to the same place. Or if you actually know me and see me on a regular basis, you can make a donation through me with either cash or check.