30HF Wrapup

This is a little followup to last weekend's big event. Basically, the 30 Hour Famine was a hit. Here's a few highlights:

• Six local youth ministries from four denominations came together to see this happen. And the shared leadership and teamwork among each youth pastor was fantastic. We bounced well as a team.
• The one downer of the weekend was that overall participation was a little down due to kids' busy spring schedules, school sports, etc. I'm not really all broke up about this, but I guess there's just always that piece of me that regrets teens missing out on great opportunities to grow in their faith.
• The youth jumped all over the dang Kill-ball tournament (amped up dodgeball). I knew they'd have fun, but I just underestimated how much they'd get into it.
• We'd collected some cardboard boxes and let the youth build houses and huts to sleep in outside FriPM. Because of the threat of serious rain storms, we chose to go with Plan B and move into the gym for the cardboard village. A ton of cardboard and several rolls of duck tape later, we had a very creative little village. Some had multiple rooms, one group had an actual working door, and one group even included a dog house (which, yes, a boy slept in).
• On SatAM we spread out all over S'boro to show some love by serving in a variety of projects. Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, Keep Bulloch Beautiful, etc...
• While they had fun with the Kill-ball and building the cardboard houses, the whole weekend seemed to find a good balance between the fun/crazy stuff that gives some energy and enthusiasm to the event and the meaningful stuff that gives it a lasting purpose. In conversations during and following the weekend, several youth have told me the weekend really impacted them. For some it was experiencing the hunger pains. For others it was the uncomfortable night's sleep on the hard floor in a cardboard house that opened their eyes to the comfort they're so used to. For others it was seeing for the first time some of the needs of our local community through the service projects. For others it was bits and pieces they heard in the teaching times and Bible studies. And still for others, it was ending the fast by celebrating Communion.
• Bottom line: I think God used this event to help some students (and adults) take some steps in faith and recognize some ways we can meet some of the needs of the world around us.

Also, here's a little highlight video:

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