Wednesday, March 3, 2010

St. Paul's youth fast and fight against world hunger

Our teenage youth group spent the weekend inside St. Paul's fasting in solidarity with those who are hungry in our world. When you see our youth please thank them for their effort and dedication.

The photo at right is of a cardboard village the youth group constructed to show how millions of people worldwide live, and it was on display in our parish hall on the Second Sunday of Lent. The Rev. Janet Legro, our associate rector for youth, wrote about their experience:

We did it!
Twenty youth and three adults fasted for 20 hours (some fasted 24 hours!) and we had a great time doing it! We arrived at church at 1PM and talked about the day ahead. Then we started building a cardboard village, painting a world hunger map and learning facts about hunger.

For example, did you know that a child dies every 5 seconds from hunger? Did you know that 26,000 people die every day from hunger related causes? Did you know that you can't think straight or go to school if you are hungry? Did you know that more people die from hunger than from war? (although we want to stop the war too.)

Then we played some games outside, then we played some games inside, then we learned about a hospital in Rwanda that Jacob Rambo's family serves. Then we finished the village and map and designed T-shirts with slogans to fight hunger. Then we played two hours of gargoyles and finally, quiet time - movies and bed! We woke up at 8AM, cleaned up and had a small morning service to talk about our experience and hear some stories from scripture. Oh yah...then at 9AM we broke the fast!

It looks like we have pledges close to $1,000.00. HOORAY! The money will go to:
(1) World Vision
(2) Episcopal Relief and Development
(3) Charlottesville Emergency Food Bank

If you would like to make a pledge (after the fact) to support these causes, please mail a check made out to "St. Paul's Youth", to Janet Legro, St. Paul's Memorial Church, 1700 University Ave. C'ville 22903. Or you can drop it by the church office.

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