30-Hour Famine 6/28-29

This year Gracepoint Berkeley had the wonderful chance to participate in World Vision's 30-Hour Famine so we could experience a bit of the hunger that's an everyday reality for much of the world and raise money to help fight this problem. In the end, we raised almost $107,000! I'm thankful that people were so zealous and creative in their fundraising efforts, but I think we all realized at the end of this that given how much we have, it was the least we could do to help those mired in hunger and poverty.

We started the day of the fast by driving down to Fremont to see an AIDS in Africa exhibit. Each of us was given an iPod to listen to 1 of 4 stories of an African child as we walked in the child's shoes for a first-person experience of fear, starvation, or being orphaned after seeing one family member after another fall to AIDS. It was a deeply moving experience and I went away praying for those kids, praying for my heart to keep being broken, just like God's heart is.

After that, we teamed with Jin and Yumi's homegroup to serve food at Clinton Village, a convalescent home in Oakland. I was just happy to be all together and do what we could to bring some joy to that place. I thank God for this whole experience. Let's be grateful for all we have and continue looking for ways we can serve those who are needy around us! And hope to see more of us do the Famine next year!