Getting A Taste Of Hunger: Fasting To Fight Famine

By Shannon Hicks

Six hundred teenagers across Fairfield County purposely went without food for 30 hours last weekend. The teens were joining nearly 500,000 other young adults across the country who were fasting to fight hunger, and among those teens was a group representing Grace Christian Fellowship.

The Newtown church was represented by 11 young adults, led by Reverend Adam Fredericks, the children’s and youth pastor of Grace Christian Fellowship (GCF). The event began on Friday, April 4, at noon — while participants were still in school — and continued to Saturday, April 5, at 6 pm. GCF’s group participated with a number of other churches who were also observing the 30-hour famine at First Assembly of God in Brookfield, one of three sites to host 30-Hour Famines last weekend. The other two were at Calvary Evangelical Free Church in Trumbull and New Life Christian Fellowship in Darien.

Members of First Assembly welcomed members of Grace Christian Fellowship along with members of Cheshire Assembly of God, Danbury Chinese Alliance Church of Brookfield, New Life Community Church United Methodist of New Fairfield, and Walnut Hill Community Church of Bethel for last weekend’s event. Combined, 100 young adults participated in the famine in Brookfield.

According to World Vision United States — the organization that created the 30-Hour Famine — 29,000 children under the age of five around the world die daily from hunger or related issues. One child dies every two minutes. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization based in Washington state that is dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities around the world to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

Two national 30-hour famine events are planned for 2008. The first took place on February 22–23, the second will be later this month, April 25–26. World Vision encourages groups to also choose and observe their own date, however, which is what many of the churches in Fairfield County opted to do last weekend. (Newtown United Methodist Church in Sandy Hook also chose its own dates for a 30-Hour Famine this year, and 20 young adults spent 30 hours at the Sandy Hook church January 20–21 doing their own self-imposed fast.)

Thirty-Hour Famines raise awareness and funds to fight hunger on the global scale. During the fast, participants go without food (consuming only liquids), learn about world hunger and poverty, and perform community service projects.

Once everyone arrived at First Assembly of God by 8 pm Friday, there was a time of singing and worship followed by a 30-minute talk about the number of children who die every day around the world from a lack of food. Six hundred tea lights had been lit around the room where everyone was gathered for the talk, representing the number of children who would die during the 30 minutes the young adults were listening and learning.

“Someone slowly blew out all of the candles to represent these children’s lives coming to an end. It was very moving,” Reverend Adam Fredericks said this week.

The Brookfield-based group began Saturday morning by participating in a pandemic flu surge capacity triage center exercise that was taking place April 2–5 at Bethel Health Care Center (see related story about the drill elsewhere in this week’s Newtown Bee). The young adults were in Bethel by 8:30 and participated in the exercise, taking on the role of patients in the drill.

Next the young adults divided into three groups, with one group going to Green Chimneys, the children and family agency in Brewster, N.Y., to plant seedlings, and another group heading to St Paul’s Church in Danbury to run a field day for inner city children.

The third group stayed in Brookfield and ran a car wash outside First Assembly of God, and raised $700 for their efforts. While most members of that group were outside washing cars in the chilly but sunny early spring weather, others made cards to be sent to children who are sponsored by World Vision.

By 3:30 Saturday afternoon, everyone had returned to the church. The pastors offered a debriefing, and then the teens had some free time before a presentation by World Vision representative Jessica Somerville planned for 5 pm. The fast was going to be broken at 6 pm with everyone sitting down to a pasta dinner catered by Olive Garden.

The free time before Ms Somerville’s presentation was a good time for some of the GCF young adults to talk about what they had been doing for the previous 24-plus hours and why.

“We wanted to do this because we wanted to make ourselves known in the community,” said Tom Budd. “We hope to do more events in the future to raise more money and more awareness for the kids in Africa,” he added.

Thirty-Hour Famine participants raise funds through promised donations from sponsors.

“Each of us went to others for sponsorship. Some will give us a flat donation after this, while others will give us a certain amount of money for each hour that we’re successful,” explained fellow GCF member Chuck Maier.

Last year World Vision raised $94,000; they are hoping to top the $100,000 mark this year. The totals of how much the young adults raised last weekend won’t be available for at least another week, as sponsors begin to deliver on their pledges.

Temptation wasn’t missing during the 30-Hour Famine, and that made the participants appreciate what others in less fortunate places go through as part of their lives.

“All of the food around us is a temptation,” said Mike Hadgraft. “But that’s unlike the kids in Africa” who don’t even have food available to tempt them.

“I chose to do [the 30-Hour Famine] because we hear about all the problems in Africa and it makes me feel blessed for all we have here in Newtown,” said Kristen Budd. “We’re hungry today, but we’re still healthy. These kids are hungry, and unhealthy. It makes me feel better about doing something to help.”

Representing their church last weekend were the following members of Grace Christian Fellowship: Christal Furphy, Hiram Orama, and Sarah Keayes of Newtown; Maggie Binelli and Emily Binelli of Brookfield, Will Herrmann of Easton, Lizzy Gilbert, Corey Brinckerhoff and Andy Ventresca of New Milford, Maria Wrabel of Monroe, and Jenn Tarallo of New Fairfield.

Last weekend was not the first time GCF has participated in the 30-Hour Famine (it was the fourth), and it won’t be the last. When asked if they would be willing to go through the experience again, the group gave a resounding Yes. High school senior Maria Wrabel, in fact, may take it a step further next year.

“If they do this in college, I’m definitely doing it again,” she said Saturday afternoon. “Even if they don’t have it at school next year, I may start it. It’s an awesome experience.”