I live and minister in a VERY affluent community. I recently took my middle school students on a 3 day mission trip to Wichita, KS about an hour away. We live in a small town (14,000) which does not have any major shopping malls or ‘trendy’ stores or restaurants. The students do all of their major shopping in the newer well kept parts of Wichita and never see the underpriveleged places in Wichita.
After taking the students on a tour through two very rough neighborhoods I used the “Give and Receive” chapter in Deep Justice Journeys which discusses the idea of “Teenage Affluenza”. After showing the you tube video my students were stunned looking at the TV with their mouths dropped open. That video and the rest of the lesson did such a great job of highlighting the privilege my students have compared to the rest of the world. They didn’t really know what to do with it. They still don’t exactly what to do with it. But it made them uncomfortable. It made them start to wonder. It made them start to question.
Now I am in the process of helping them take day trips back to the neighborhoods we worked in for service projects and follow up. I am so excited to watch an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on and through these middle school students as they begin to experience the life God has for them!
Thanks for a GREAT resource! I can’t wait to use it to prepare my high school students for Nicaragua and Mexico next summer!
NOTE: Here’s that video, courtesy of World Vision Australia:
©2009 Fuller Youth Institute