Fasting

Our Geography Co-op is studying Africa this year. We meet once a week for six weeks and learn about the regions and countries of the continent. Each child researches a particular country, and then presents the information. Then we all share a lunch of foods from the regions’ countries. Our most recent region was Tropical East Africa. I had sent out a link to a website that our family has used a lot for this year’s study. It is easily navigated, and the recipes are usually made from things I already have in the house. One of the mothers called to say she couldn’t find anything on her children’s page. I told her I, too, was having a hard time finding recipes for my children to try. We discussed different reasons for the lack of recipes, and decided that it must be that no one has really researched that area before. We were wrong. It seems that there are few recipes, because there is so little food available. It isn’t that they don’t like to cook, it is that they have nothing to cook. As we shared our meager lunch, one mother gave a visual lesson. She showed the children how much rice they would receive if they lived in the country her children had presented. It was one bowl of rice. After that sank in, she gave us the rest of the news: a week. Yes, one bowl of rice a week. Another child had given a visual lesson, too. She had us stand in groups of four and then send a representative to the stage. All of us left on the floor were dead. The statistics say 3 out of 4 children die by the age of 2. We wondered if it wouldn’t be better to die as a babe than to survive and endure such hunger. Tomorrow my children and I will fast for the day to help us understand what it must be like to want to eat and not be able to eat. How well will we think with our stomachs grumbling? Will we have the energy to do the work that needs to be completed? Will tempers flare? We will see. It won’t be a true test for us. We know there is food waiting at 7:00 to be eaten. We know that there is a pantry full if we just can’t last. But maybe it will be a lesson to remember. Who will remember these children when our lessons have ended? Will our prayers for them end as well? I didn’t know of them before, will I casually forget to know them again? God asks us to love, give, serve, share, provide. What can I do, a stay-at-home mother just trying to educate her children? First, I can continue to provide these lessons for my sons. Perhaps they will grow up to be men who feed the hungry. Secondly, I can continue to help feed those in my community who are hungry. Thirdly, I can share my wealth through an adoption program or some other charitable giving. Most importantly, I can refuse to forget. I can fast more often, to pray for these hungry ones. I can tell others about them. I can post notes about them to remind me. I can do whatever God shows me to do. After all, I am a mother, and a real mother feeds her children.