Day 11: Lifted Up

Our travels along the Avenues of Hope take us to a church today over in Broomfield, CO, where fellow hunger relief advocate Suzi Karrer shares this message:

“I am busily teaching Vacation Bible School at my church this week (Broomfield UMC) and our mission emphasis this week has been on Feeding the Hungry. Each day, I've been getting in front of 340 kiddos to teach them that Christ wants us to serve the hungry.

They have been emptying their piggybanks and filling up containers with coins and dollar bills to "feed the kids with no food." A bunch of them keep asking me why some kids don't have anything to eat and what happens to them.

"Why don't they go to the store and get some?"

"Do they have houses? I saw a kid on the street once."

"Why does God not let people have food?"

I’ve done my best to answer their questions with love and simple answers, but the truth is I often struggle with the same questions, especially the latter.

On Tuesday, we did a science experiment with the preschoolers and kindergartners involving picking up flakes of pepper with static electricity on a balloon. Through this experiment, my message was that Jesus will always lift you up when you are down, just like the pepper was lifted up off the plate.

As we were doing this, I thought this a good message to teach the kids about hunger. I told them that just as Jesus lifts us up, it is our job as God's servants to lift up others who need our help. As simple as this sounds, this seemed to really get through to these kids. They have become little "hunger advocates" and it lifts my heart to think that maybe in their lifetime the issue of people going hungry will no longer exist.”

Day 11. Dollar 11. Our thanks to all who teach the children, listen to the questions, encourage the real-world connections, and lift up the hungry. Share your stories of understanding hunger at hope91011@gmail.com. We are all a part of the Avenues of Hope!