Yesterday
afternoon at Feed My Starving Children I had the most wonderful privilege of
meeting a boy who taught me so much more than I have learned in quite a long
time.
I was talking
with a boy who was helping to scoop ingredients into bins. This was his
6th time volunteering at Feed My Starving Children. He said that now he
had done just about every different task volunteers can do except running the
machine that seals the bags of food. (Volunteers need to be at least 18
years old to use the sealing machines because it is a piece of electrical
equipment and has a heating element.) I asked the boy how old he was,
sensing that he was really eager to do the sealing and I hoped I would be able
to tell him he just had to wait a few years. He had recently had his 11th
birthday. We both did the math in our heads to figure out that he had 7
more years to wait- quite a while. I said a few words to console him and
made sure he knew that even though he couldn't seal the bags he was still doing
a lot to help and I was grateful that he continued to come and volunteer.
And do you know
what he said next? It caught me
completely off guard- I underestimated the wisdom and hope of an 11-year-old.
"Hopefully
by the time I'm 18 we won't need Feed My Starving Children."
He said this with
such confidence and hope and trust that it was clear to me that this wasn't
just something he was saying in passing or joking about. He was serious.
He fully and completely believed that it was possible that Feed My
Starving Children and other similar organizations might become obsolete.
He believed it was possible to end world hunger in the next 7 years.
My adult mind
immediately jumped to thinking about the reality of the world, the reality of
the millions and millions of people around the world who are starving, the
reality of the enormous amount of resources needed to end world hunger, and the
reality of all the other injustices in the world that are just as huge and
seemingly impossible to fix. I didn't want to destroy this boy’s hope, so
all I could say to this wise and hope-filled boy was, "I sure hope you are
right."
I learned so much
from that little boy.
I learned that
you have to continually look forward and imagine what the world could be.
We all need to seek and hold on to a vision of what a just world will
look like. And we need to dream big. The boy didn't just think we
could end hunger some day down the road. He believed we could end hunger
in 7 years- I haven’t met or heard of anyone who has such audacity as to
believe such a huge goal is possible. It is this vision of creating a
world without hunger in 7 years that motivates this boy to volunteer (and
probably donate some of his allowance) to do what he can to end hunger.
I learned that we
all need to do what we can and not worry about what we cannot do. The boy
was indeed disappointed that he couldn't seal the bags, but he certainly didn't
let that stop him from doing everything he could do. He worked hard
(doing as much work as some full grown men) and worked with a smile on his
face- excited and happy to do what he could do to help. He knew that he by himself could not do
everything needed to end world hunger, but he knew that he could do something
and he set out to do that very well. I
don’t know for sure, but judging by his enthusiasm I’m guessing that he has
talked with friends and family and encouraged other people to come join him in
volunteering.
I learned about
hope. Even with such a huge problem,
this boy had hope that something seemingly impossible is possible. In the six times he had been to Feed My
Starving Children he had seen so many other people working along with him to
provide food for starving children. He knew that when people join together to do something, wonderful things happen.
I learned that I
really need to stop underestimating kids.
I work with a lot of kids who come to volunteer at Feed My Starving
Children (roughly half of the volunteers are kids). In reality, the kids are the ones that are
often the most excited and passionate about volunteering. It’s often the kids who drag their parents
along to FMSC and I’ve overheard more than one kid ask their parents how much
they are going to donate. Adults might
be able to write a check or hand us a credit card to swipe, but kids often
bring in baggies of change to donate which was probably much more of a
sacrifice than what the adults donate.
Kids choose to have their birthday parties at FMSC and ask people to
donate rather than give birthday presents.
And kids have asked some of the most insightful questions and said some
deep and thoughtful things.
I do hope that Feed
My Starving Children will become obsolete in 7 years. I will hope and pray for an end to hunger
over the next 7 years. But I know that
this won’t happen without a lot of work from a lot of dedicated people. Over the next 7 years I will continue to do
what I can to end world hunger and to inspire and enable others to also do
something about world hunger.
And if 7 years pass
and Feed My Starving Children still exists because there are still starving
children in the world, I hope I can be there to see that boy use the sealing
machine for the first time. I hope and
pray that the world will not wear him down, that he will continue to have the
wisdom and hope he has today, that he will continue to do what he can to work
toward a more just world.
May we all have the
hope of an 11-year-old, believe that a better world is possible, and have the
courage to do what we can today to bring about that better world.
