We hosted the 3rd Hunger Banquet at UPC last night. Even though Anna and Taylor have done this now 4 times (we put one of these on in Nashville at St. B's as well), there are still such good conversations that come out of this in our family.
This year, Taylor was at a high income table and experienced the awkwardness of having more food than everyone else in the room. I was thankful for the chance to talk to him about his feelings over the last couple of years of how unfair it all was and for him to contrast those feelings of anger to how it felt to him in this spot at the table.
Below is an email from a friend who joined us and was placed at the table with Taylor as well:
We enormously thank you guys for the significant experience we just had.
It wasn't all that fun, initially anyway, to be rich people eating amid the poor. So what did we do? Tried to find any possible way to ignore the plight of the poor, obviously. We struck up a pleasant conversation with the rich people around us, eventually forgetting about the poor, and focusing on the unusually excellent kale salad.
At the end of the evening, we circled up and broke down those barriers of high/medium and low income sections of the room.
Through this simple simulation with food and seating arrangements, I think we all left with a bit more awareness of some of the issues surrounding the inequalities in our world. We are now left with this question below:
It is my prayer that God will continue to use a simple event like this to stir up in us a desire to join Him in His work more fully in this world.
"Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." John 20:21
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