"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition, it does not exist in nature." -Helen Keller

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Famine Experience

This past weekend I participated in a retreat at my church called The Famine Experience. During the weekend we spend together, we fasted from solid food for thirty hours and did service projects in the community. Along with the service projects, we also collected donations that went to the Women’s Resource Center and the Belize Outreach Program (a missionary program for St. Michael’s Parish).  During Friday evening, we met and made a banner with our theme for the year on it. This year’s theme was “Fast, pray, love” and the Bible verse was, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink…is not life more than food and drink?” (Matthew 6:25).
The same evening, we had a Confession service in the church and some silent prayer time. Then we left for the YMCA and spend a couple hours there. After we came back to the church, we went to sleep and then the service projects began Saturday morning. I was with the group that went to the City Mission, where we cleaned the kitchen, dining area, chapel and tool shed. Some other groups went to the Habitat for Humanity store to volunteer, and others cleaned out garages. After a few hours of service, we met back at the church and made cards to pass out to residents at a nursing home we visited. We spent time there talking to the residents, and then we once again returned to the church to reflect on our weekend and get ready for Mass. After Mass we broke our fast with a Pancake Dinner that sponsors the Belize Outreach Program.
This was my first time participating in the Famine Experience, and I have to say that I enjoyed very much. Not eating for thirty hours wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, because we got to drink as much liquid as we wanted, though at times I did get pretty hungry. It made me more aware of the reality that a lot of people have to feel that every day, and made me more eager to help them. Learning more about the City Mission also made me aware of the fact that there are less-fortunate people even in my own community. All in all, it was a great experience and I can’t wait for next year.

Story

Quote of the Day:
"Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy."
-Walt Disney

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