Wow – the 2011 40 Hour Famine has come and gone! It was a very interesting week and weekend. I have now had my first coffee and chocolate bar in 40 days, and I must say, I don’t think I’ve appreciated either of those things this much in a long time!

I have some funny 40 Hour Famine stories for you – For the weekend, I decided to go without food or spending money, so I had to make sure I organised myself so I wouldn’t get myself stranded somewhere if my car ran out of petrol. Although, I did forget to buy barley sugars, so all weekend I was determined to stick to my commitments and so I didn’t buy any! Silly me.

Also, rather ironically, my coffee machine at home decided to break on me during the 40 days I didn’t use it (I think we have a very strong bond and it must have felt left out) so on Tuesday morning I woke up to have my first coffee, and alas, I couldn’t turn on the machine. Maybe this is me learning to appreciate what I’ve got and maybe God is teaching me that I don’t actually need to have a coffee every day.

I found it bittersweet ending the Famine. You see, over the 40 hours and also over the last 40 days, I have learnt to associate cravings and hunger pangs with a reminder and conviction of the needs in the world – namely, the families and children I met in East Timor who wake up every day and all they have is a cup of dirty water, and a small piece of akar or cassava. So ending was tricky, because I knew that just because I could go back to ‘normal’ life, poor kids around the world did not have that option... We are abundantly blessed in Australia, and we should remember to be so thankful to God for his provision.

I have been so overwhelmed by people’s generosity in the weeks leading up to the 40 Hour Famine – dear friends and family have helped me to reach my fundraising target, and so I decided to raise it. Now I’ve almost reached that higher target, and it’s only August 24 which means there’s over a month to keep collecting money! So I’m going to keep encouraging people to donate to this fantastic, life-changing cause, and you can do the same. We all have our part to play – we’ve now done the 40 Hour Famine and we can share with everyone what we did and why. Every dollar is a life-changing dollar that will help reduce the chance of East Timorese people having to go through another hungry season, or suffer from fatal, preventable diseases.

Congratulations on your amazing efforts! I am honestly so proud of all your hard work. Just remember that there is still lots more you can do.I would like to leave you with the words in Matthew 25 where our Lord will congratulate us on our efforts, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” This is true even when things don’t turn out how we expect – if you don’t raise as much as you would like, or if people don’t seem to care about poverty like we do... Don’t give up! Just keep serving and caring and being faithful, and God will acknowledge that.

We are so close, and yet there is still far to go...

-Marissa