Thursday, February 19, 2009

Taking a trip around the world

Our Five Day Hunger Challenge starts next Wednesday. A friend passed on a great idea to tie the experience in with home-schooling. She suggested getting books and information about countries with poverty/hunger issues and teaching about those countries, perhaps showing where they are on the world map.
I think it's a great idea and am excited to do some library and Google research to share with S and the family. I think it is a good way to show geography and to talk about other countries, their customs and lifestyles and to pray for them.
Today at lunch I shared the idea with S and she was very excited. I also showed her the hunger cards that were passed out while we were in the food line. I read one of them to her about the Saharawi people, a people in Western Sahara who were forced from their homes over 30 years ago and live in refugee camps in the desert. Our church has built up a strong relationship with the Muslim group by helping them out, providing services, even helping to establish an English speaking center, where a couple of our members now reside.
The hunger card was about a typical refugee kitchen. After reading the card, S said that one day she would like to go with me and M and Daddy and drive to the Saharawi camps. She said it would take a long time to get there but that we could go there and bring food to the people.
I was so touched by her generosity and eagerness to help. I am excited to see what this challenge will bring to us as individuals and as a family. I anticipate dietary challenges with the girls, given a diet of all rice, beans and oatmeal, but I think we'll be OK.
I do think that through the experience, in addition to the family devotions provided with the meal kits and our home-schooling travels to these countries, that we will have a better understanding of hunger issues and how we can reach out to those in need. S has sch a tender heart so I am encouraged by her readiness to help and her empathy for those in need. Since Christmas, I have begun to understand how we have so many comforts and how blessed we are with those comforts. But I do want to help others. We can't go through life ignoring those in need.
I know that there are many global issues and that we need to get out of our comfort zone. So, yes, S, I do hope we can make a trip to the Saharawi people, although, God willing, they will be able to return to the homes by then!
But I also feel compelled to help locally. Many ways I have in mind for us as a family are to donate to our church food pantry (many thanks to couponing and the stock I've been building), volunteering for the Salvation Army, walking as a family in a local CROP walk, which, from
what I read recently is Oct. 11. Such an event allows us, at a local level, to reach globally.
There are so many opportunities to give of our time, money, resources and efforts. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You might also want to try the Operation: World book they were selling at CTR a few years back. It has good reviews of each country with social, economic and religious breakdowns. Probably advanced for the kiddos, but it might be good for you and C.