Tonight, I assisted my friend, Travis, with Cornerstone Church’s participation of the 30 Hour Famine. If you really want to learn about it, check out the link. The nuts and bolts of it is that kids stop “go hungry” from 6am Friday to 12pm Saturday in order to understand what kids in 3rd world countries go through and to raise money to help feed them.

There was a game played where the kids found themselves in “Somalia” and the adult leaders played military leaders. A quick rundown of the situation there is that there has been a civil war going on there for over 20 years, the government has “absolute power” and can do what they want, 1 in 4 children under the age of 5 die from malnutrition (compared to 1 on 160-something here in the US), and Christianity is outlawed.

I wanted the kids to fear me, so I dressed in my black ranger vest (supplied by the folks who brought you Syphon Filter) and clipped the walkie-talkie to the top and walked around throwing kids in jail “just because I felt like it”. I began chasing them and decided that some of them were “injured” and had to go to the hospital (part of the game). There was also an underground church and if anyone was found with a Bible, it was immediately confiscated and they were taken to prison. I even got to raid the “encampment” and retrieved three hidden Bibles and stole their food and water. Since I was a government official, I could do as I wanted.

One of my favorite parts was when I got four of them to do manual labor in exchange for a food voucher and five dollars. I made them move my old couch that was sitting in the lawn and then gave them their vouchers and then only one dollar. When they complain, I said, “I lied! This is Africa!” (I was told that was taken from the movie Blood Diamond.)

The funniest thing is how the kids responded afterwards. Apparently, they really found me scary. Here is this big guy, dressed in black and with a deep voice (their words, not mine) and I’m literally running through the dark chasing after them. I guess it gave them a sense of realism or something.

Anyway, it was a fun time and I enjoyed myself. I did my job by scaring the children and they learned important lessons about the struggles that kids in other countries face. I’m debating whether or not to show up to the lunch tomorrow wearing my ranger outfit, just to mess with them again.