30 days to the 30 hours Days 1 and 2

 First I would like to give an explanation of what the 30 days to 30 hours is. An organization called World Vision, a group that helps to fight poverty and hunger throughout the world, has an annual event called 30 hour famine. This is an event for youth groups to put on at their local churches to help raise awareness of hunger. I have attended this event the past 3 years. It has been a great experience for me. I however have decided though that I cannot be happy only giving 30 hours a year of my time to fight for this cause. Knowledge of this plight must be shared. My family and I have taken this as our first step. Over the course of the next 30 days we will give up something each day that people in poverty stricken areas normally go without everyday. Which we will end on the last day with a 30 hour famine of our own here at home. I will write as often as I can, so that you will be able to follow along with us. At anytime if you feel the need to help with poverty and hunger please contact Annie or I and we can give you some great suggestions for ways to contribute.

Day 1, No shoes. Many poor people in the world go everyday without anything to wear on their feet. They have to go barefoot, walking many miles over rough and rocky terrain to go to work or collect water as they do not have plumbing. Many children do not get to attend school because they cannot afford shoes and the schools won't allow them in without them. We went the whole day on Sunday with no shoes ourselves. After talking with Annie and the kids we could all agree on one thing walking to church that morning was very painful. The rocks and dry grass made for a very unpleasant experience. Annie and I also agreed that it gives you a prisoner feeling, not being able to enter into many places, because of the no shoes, no shirt, no service rule. We did like that it was an effective way to get people to notice us and ask why we had no shoes. Then we could explain what we were doing. Any chance to raise awareness of the fact that many poor people do life with bare feet everyday is good.

Trust me, I have no illusion that no shoes or socks for one day in central Illinois is anywhere near the plight suffered in places like Haiti. I thank God for the blessings he has given us and I continue to pray for God to attend to the needs of those  who don't have.

Day 2, No electricity. So if I gave you any indication that no shoes was tough it did not even compare to this. First, it turned out that it was impossible for me to go the whole day without electricity. We have become to dependent on the convenience of just flipping a switch for light or pressing a button for entertainment. Which was an area we all agreed that was very difficult after a long hard day of work, everyone really wanted to kick back and watch some TV and we could not. This however was no comparison to not being able to run the AC for the day when the high reached 93 degrees. Everyone here at the house was miserable. Once again no real comparison to many of the children in places like Uganda.

After the first 2 days of our 30 days, I can safely say that I have taken many aspects of my life for granted. I pray that the Lord keeps opening my eyes to this.