Hungry

This past weekend the youth at my church did something they call The 30-Hour Fast.  It’s an annual event where, as the name implies, nobody gets to eat for thirty hours.  From 1 pm on Friday to 7 pm on Saturday the kids, and their adult chaperones, eat nothing but the occasional broth or juice, and they spend this time learning about the devastating effects of world hunger while trying to do something about it.  They raised money for World Vision, ran a food drive, and made meals for local people in need.  They also had a lot of fun.

Last year I volunteered to help with the music, and kids brought in instruments and we tried to put together some songs for the closing service that they have right before they break their fast.  It went all right, but try hanging out with a bunch of teenagers who have not eaten in over 24 hours, and you will see that sometimes less is more.  This year we tried to think about what we could do that would involve more fun, less thinking, and more stuff prepared ahead of time.  We settled on a music video.

I went in with a concept, which was to take Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy” and change it to “Hungry” in an effort to spread the message of the weekend.  On Friday night I met with some of the youth who wrote the new lyrics themselves, and then I went home and recorded what they had written (since they all flat out refused to sing), so that we would be ready to construct a video around the song the following afternoon.  This seemed to work well, other than we ran out of time, so instead of playing with all of those repetitions of the chorus, they mostly stayed lyrically the same.  But I think they did a great job.  Those kids have something to say.

On Saturday, the choices for activities were between helping me with the video, or watching “Frozen,” so I had one person volunteer to help.  We went into a room and brainstormed ideas, hoping to capture more assistance once “Frozen” was over, but then two more kids came in and suddenly the four of us were off and running.  We filmed all over the church, outside and around the building, and even across the street, all while having a blast.  The main concept was, dance, have fun, be as silly as possible, and we decided that we should also feature some facts about global hunger and poverty, which were helpfully plastered all over the walls for the weekend, so I got some footage of that as well.  And more help arrived during the “boring part of Frozen.”

When we were out of filming time, it was my job to cut the video together in time for their closing service, which I completely failed to do, because Windows decided to update itself in the middle of my editing, and the file corrupted itself, and I had to start over about half a dozen times.  It was frustrating.  Windows!  How many times do I have to tell you not to restart yourself?!

So I apologize to all of the kids who did not get to see it at the service, but it is finished now, and I think it turned out really well.  These young adults are all talented and amazing, and I hope they, and you, enjoy the video that we made, and that you will share it far and wide, in support of these kids, and their message that poverty and hunger are not acceptable.