Activities

The 24 hours of your FAST are an ideal time to talk about hunger, volunteer in your community, study your Bible, and get to know each other a bit better. Be creative as you come up with activities to fill your FAST with. Then e-mail us your best ideas, so that we can share them with other churches (fastforward@crcna.org).

Here are a few activity suggestions to get you started:

Hungry Decisions
Hunger No More
Banana Splits
Food Distribution Exercise
Enough for Everyone
Volunteer
Bible Study & Prayer
Speak Up!
Thank your donors
What Others Have Done

Hungry Decisions is an interactive, simulation exercise that will help you understand the realities of poverty. Church World Service has now made this resource available online.

Hungry Decisions will help your group explore and experience the problems of hunger and poverty and begin to respond faithfully to help end them. Through the use of each person’s imagination, this exercise will aid youth in better understanding the plight of the poor. It will also involve everyone in making some of the tough survival choices that many people in the world face day after day.

Use a school computer lab, or visit your local library. If possible, provide a computer for each person. If that isn’t possible, have them work together in pairs or groups of 4. Before beginning the exercise, tell participants to read the introduction and decide if they will be a man or woman in the story. Ask if there are any questions about the exercise. Remind the participants that they will have 30 minutes to go through the program and make their decisions.

At the end of 30 minutes, pull the participants together into one group. Use the reflection questions at Church World Service's website to start your conversation.  Also consider asking the following questions:

• What was the hardest decision you had to make?
• If you could change one of your choices, what would it be? Would that make a real difference?
• Does playing this game give you any different perceptions about people who live in poverty? What are they?
• What type of help could a person in your situation most use – food, medicine, transportation, shelter, clothing, other?
• Once the immediate needs were met, which of these long-term programs, offered by CRWRC in your community, would be most helpful in your person’s situation:
  • learning a new job skill
  • a loan to start a small business
  • instruction in health, preventive medical care, or nutrition
  • classes in reading, writing, and math
  • better agriculture skills to improve crop production
  • increased income
  • better sanitation, clean water for drinking, or a community health worker with a portable pharmacy
  • access to Christian fellowship

Hunger No More is a uniquely cooperative effort of 23 churches and organizations, to get people talking about issues related to hunger, poverty, and powerlessness. The Christian Reformed Church is one of these sponsors.
Click here to get activity suggestions, stories, and current data. Don’t be afraid to check out the "children’s resources", some of them would be great for youth and adults too.

Copies of the Hunger No More study guide are also available from the Christian Reformed office of Social Justice and Hunger Action. Click here for more information on how to contact them.

Banana Splits - This is a 30-minute introduction to trade issues using bananas as an example of the way that world trade works to the disadvantage of poor farmers and their families. Click here to download the pdf document.

Food Distribution Exercise - This activity and discussion guide provides a visual example of how the world’s food and wealth are distributed. Click here to download the pdf document. 

Enough for Everyone - This activity builds on the Food Distribution Exercise. In this game, students play a variation of musical chairs where they are encouraged to work together to share increasingly limited resources. This cooperation is designed to promote discussion about sharing and how people treat on another. Click here to download the pdf document.

Volunteer – Use a portion of your 24 hours to contribute to your community. Be active in responding to hunger by volunteering at a local soup kitchen, food pantry, or homeless shelter.

Bible Study & Prayer –  FAST Forward is not only about creating more of an awareness of the hunger and poverty in your community and the world. It is also about understanding and learning what it means to be followers and image-bearers of God. Here are some scripture passages that talk about helping those who are in need. Suggest them for quiet meditation, or during your discussion to help your youth group FASTForward into a life of service for Christ.

• Deuteronomy 15:7-8
• Deuteronomy 26:12
• Proverbs 31:8
• Isaiah 61:1-4
• Lamentations 4:1-4
• Matthew 25:31-46
• Luke 4:18-19
• 1 Corinthians 12:1-26
• Philippians 2:13
• Hebrews 13:16
• James 2:14-17
• 1 John 3:16-18

Please also use a portion of your FAST time to pray for those who are hungry in your community and around the world. Pray for local, national, and world leaders that they may make good decisions about helping those in poverty. Pray also that you make be able to make good decisions in your own lives.

Speak Up! - You can use your time during the FAST to advocate for those who are hungry. This could include participating in an offering of letters for Bread for the World. This annual activity encourages churches of various denominations to send letters to elected officials about specific legislation or policies that pertain to hunger in the United States and around the world. Bread for the World offers a video workshop to help you get started, and you can then write your letters together mentioning your fast.

Those FASTing in Canada, could browse the "Global Issues" section of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank site and use the tips listed there to engage with members of parliament.

The main goal is to contact your elected officials during the FAST and talk about hunger issues. Feel free to be creative (call your local politician to tell him why you are FASTing, or create a video message to send to your federal government), as long as you use this opportunity to speak up for those who are hungry.

Thank your Donors – The people who have supported your FAST have played an important part in making it possible. Why not use a portion of your 24 hours to write thank-you notes to those who have donated items, supported the FAST with prayer, and/or contributed financially by sponsoring the participants.

What Other’s Have Done - Information is not yet available. If you have an activity suggestion that worked for your FAST, send it to us at fastforward@crcna.org.  We'll post it here.