According to the World Bank and the United Nations, people in developing countries can be defined as living in poverty when they have to live on less than $2.00 a day. Since my students spend more than that on a run to Starbucks, I wanted to figure out a way for my students to experience what it’s like to live on less than $2.00 a day.
Some brainstorming and prayer with a creative and mature student bred an idea we eventually called Two Whom. Not only did it represent the $2/day goal, but it dovetailed well with a repeated verse in our youth ministry taken from Jesus in Luke 12:48, To whom much is given, much more will be required.
The student and I mapped out an idea that invited as many of our youth as possible to sign up and pledge to live on two dollars a day for two days in the midst of their normal lives in Santa Barbara. We figured out a menu that mimicked, as best as possible, the nutritional contents of a typical Third World diet (white bread, white rice, tortillas and beans, minimal protein and produce) — and it added up perfectly to two dollars a day per person. Since living on these two dollars used up our “budget,” participants also had to pledge to fast from all luxuries — no electronics of any kind, no hot water (no hot showers!), no driving (or being driven) in cars, no money spent on entertainment, and each person had to sleep on the floor, rather than in their own beds. They also committed to no complaining — perhaps the most difficult challenge of all for an average teenager deprived of their iPod, their cell phone, and their fast food.
I honestly planned on fifteen students participating. Imagine my shock when FORTY of them signed up!
During our Two Whom weekend, students were required to spend at least two hours by themselves. We provided four brief articles on various social justice topics for them to read in that solo time, along with a blank booklet in which to keep notes. We also provided two different devotions for them to use, one for each day. We encouraged them to not cancel any family commitments they might have during the time; rather, we asked them to forgo whatever food was being served, and to explain, if asked, why they did so.
Many fun mental pictures scroll through my mind as I think about Two Whom, beginning with the very start of our weekend. Normally, a youth event starts off with a stream of SUV’s pulling in an out of the church parking lot, sliding van doors opening and slamming shut. Yet this Saturday morning was a quiet one as student after student pulled up on an old bike or beach cruiser. The parking lot looked like a paper boy convention!
We shared bowls of cheerios and bananas together before we spent some time in singing and prayer. A speaker came and shared a video from a fantastic organization called Lifewater that informed our students about the pressing health issues related to unsanitary water throughout the world. We did a few more exercises that helped them engage with some of the heartbreaking statistics about world poverty, distributed their food bags, and sent them off.
I gritted my teeth as they left. Could they do this? Let’s be honest — could I do this? Furthermore, would they get anything out of it? The hot afternoon made my cold shower manageable, and years of sleeping on the floor for various youth events must have made me sturdy. I felt like I should be “suffering” more. Sure, things got a little quiet for a Saturday night when I couldn’t watch a movie, but a night at home reading, without my cell phone ringing or vibrating, was frankly a welcome change.
Our church meets in the afternoon because we rent facilities from another church, so we planned on breaking our fast from luxuries together at dinner after church. I must admit that my eyes crossed a bit from hunger (or hypoglycemia!) during church, and visions of spaghetti danced in my head once or twice during the sermon. It was comical to hear students talk during the service as they strained to not make their conversation sound like complaining.
Overall, our dinner and reflection time was wonderful. At first I got nervous when I heard that some of our boys stayed out all night, approaching the whole activity more like an episode from Survivor than as a poverty experience. In hindsight, I should have kept MY cell phone on during the activity in case parents had questions. But several reflections from students were fascinating:
- I took the bus to an appointment I had to keep. I hadn’t taken a bus since I was twelve years old. I noticed that most every person on the bus was homeless, mentally disabled, elderly, or speaking a language other than English. I definitely did not see anyone I knew.
- At first I thought it was so fun to spend all day with my friends hanging out at the beach in the sunshine. I didn’t think this whole thing was that hard. Then I realized that if I was truly living on two dollars a day that I would not be laying around on the beach — instead, I would be working in the hot sun, even though I was really hungry.
- At night a bunch of us spent the night at (a girl’s) house. We rode our bikes there and laughed the whole way. When we arrived we said, “So what are we going to do now?” One girl said, “Let’s go to the movies! Oh, wait, we can’t do that…” “Let’s drive to the mall. Oh wait, we can’t do that either…” We listed several things and realized they all involved spending money or using expensive electronics. It took us fifteen minutes to figure out we could bike to the beach and watch the sunset! Even then, one girl said she wished she had her cell phone to take a picture of it. I was shocked to realize we just did not know how to simply hang out and create our own fun by being together.
©2009 Fuller Youth Institute
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