It is now 12:30 on Saturday and the forty hour fast, known as forty hour famine, is well on its way. The fast started last night at 20:00. The idea of this particular fast is to place myself in the shoes of thousands of South African children who don’t have enough to eat.

Last night when I lay in bed it struck me how many of these same kids would sleep cold. As I slept in my super comfortable warm bed I wondered how it must feel to be so small and be cold and hungry.

Earlier today a bunch of men from our church met at a locall mall. We do this every now and then to just hang out and talk about men stuff (the women also met today). Today was restaurant and brunch day. You can understand that I almost didn’t go.

While my friends ate their food, I drank a glass of water. One of the things I realised was that poor people in our country feel like this all the time. They feel left out. It’s not that they don’t know what they’re missing – it’s just that they’re on the outside. The breakfast was a buffet – R40 and you can eat as much as you like. My friends ate a lot (I took some pictures).

Just walking through the mall was also a stretch. When one is hungry (and I am) then the shops selling food magnifies to at least four times its original size and they beckon to come in. Not today though. I walked through the mall and did some sermon preperation with my camera in hand. My mission was to take pictures of all the diferent ‘voices’ that vie for our attention.

I headed home and stopped at the butchery and the bakery to get some stuff for a party we’re hosting later today. We celebrated Lollie’s birthday on Wednesday and today her family will come over for some cake and a barbeque. When I realised that this would clash with World Vision’s forty hour famine I almost decided not to do the fast. I know that there won’t be an ideal time for fasting and so I decided to go forward.

Anyhoo, I have to go now and will post again later today.

The buffet

The pancakes