kairos 1 @ berkeley - gracepoint fellowship church

The following is what I (James) have experienced from participating in the 30 Hour Famine:

Fasting has never been my thing. In fact, I have never fasted before, and the last thing I would plan to do is to give up food for any purpose. Food is simply too important to me. I understood the tragedy of the 15,000 children dying because of hunger everyday. I prayed for God to help them. But I agreed to do the 30 Hour Famine with Kairos brothers and sisters with the attitude that fasting would not help the starving children in any way. On Friday night before our fasting was to begin, I stuffed myself at dinner to the point that I couldn't possibly eat anymore, thinking to myself that this should at least last me a while. The next morning I woke up with my stomach growling. "Oh no," were the first two words that came out of my mouth that morning. We got to North Loop at around 10 am, and we spent some time doing saturation reflection on Psalm 32 before we started working on various projects at North Loop. Tai was helping out with the Compassion Wall, which contains photos of the Compassion children that our church sponsors. I got to help Jammy Yang build a door for the storage in the back. Tony, Robert Kim from Kairos 2, and some other brothers were building a step for the stage. I was able to help them out with that too towards the end when they were near finishing with the project. We ended our hard work at about 4:30 pm. Time flew by fast, and if it hadn't been for those work, I probably wouldn't be able to continue with the fast.

After we left North Loop, as Kairos, we went together to see the exhibit called Step Into Africa, where we were able to personally experience what a child's life is like living in Africa. We learned that HIV-AIDS has taken so many precious lives in that continent. Many kids grow up in children-headed households as a result of their parents killed by AIDS. Many of them live without shelter and without food. Reflecting back on the environment that we live in, we are very privileged compared to them. Same as people created in God's image, we don't deserve anything that we own as much as they do. I complain about the sudden change in weather, when it gets too cold I'm not happy, when it gets too hot I get lazy, failing to realize that some of these children in Africa sleep through storms with nothing but a thin sheet of straw mat and a few layers of banana leaves. The Step Into Africa experience definitely gave me a new perspective on life.

We spent the rest of the night at Andy's place. Some of us played Bang, some played Settlers, some tried to study, and some people, including our very own Yang, helped with preparing food that we will be eating to break our fast on Sunday morning. They really sacrificed because while they were cooking the food they couldn't taste any of it, they were that committed to carrying on with the fast. Brother slept over at Ken Chu's apt and the sisters spent the night at Andy and Amy's place.

We woke up at around 6:15 Sunday morning. As I was brushing my teeth, I kept thinking about the delicious breakfast that Yang and the sisters have prepared for us. I thought to myself that I had never been up this early and still very happy about it. Just then a voice spoke to me and told me that while my fasting hours can be counted, many children wake up from who-knows-how-long without food, and there is still uncertainty in whether or not they will be eating anything before the sun goes down that day. It hit me hard. The joy of anticipation for a delicious breakfast quickly vanished. A short glimpse of famine had only been 30 hours for me, but for others it can mean days, weeks, it's part of their life, and it dictates whether or not they will live to see another day. I was right. Fasting for 30 hours didn't do much to help the starving children in Africa, but instead it helped me understand how fortunate I am, and how I should be grateful for everything that I have, and that everything is given to me by my Father in Heaven, who is always providing for me.

On a lighter note, in the morning when the sisters were about to heat up the breakfast that they prepared the night before, Grace instructed: "Let's set the stove on fire." Good thing we didn't follow her advice. We were able to enjoy some gourmet chicken noodle soup and Chinese porridge with shredded pork (or fish) and thousand-year-old eggs. Also if you haven't had a chance to watch WALL-E yet, it's a really great movie. It touches on the lies and vice of consumerism, which is kind of related to the whole 30 Hour Famine thing.