This semester I am taking a class called World Prospects: Population, Food, and Hunger. It is a class about third world countries and how their populations are expanding, yet their food is not, and what we (America) can do about it.I took it originally because I needed an easy general education course. However after I walked out of the first class I knew God had something in store for me through this class and that it was going to challenge not only my mind, but also my heart. The class is taught by this little old man who has traveled the world many times over and has thousands of stories and souvenirs to share. Not a class goes by when we do not get the chance to meet another family from Africa, or touch a native plant from the Philippines.
Our assignments in this class other than our tests are all what our teacher calls "out of class experiences". We have had to write family value papers, find our ecological footprints, and analyze the millennium development goals. I have learned so much and it has only been 5 weeks. The two big out of class projects though are to do 15 hours of community service, and write a grant proposal for a service project that will help a developing country. I have not yet decided what to write my grant proposal on, but I have a few ideas. The real reason I am writing today is to talk about the community service.
I had a really hard time deciding and finding where to do my community service hours. There are so many possibilities through NC State to be involved in and I was slightly overwhelmed. Then one day in class we learned something that sealed my decision. My teacher spent one whole lecture explaining the difference between aid and development. Aid is something short term (like disaster relief) while development is more long term (like teaching skills). One problem in developing countries is that developed nations are only providing aid and not development, so the developing countries are not getting better.
It was then that I decided to do my community service at the food bank in Raleigh. Yes the food bank provides short term aid in the form of food. Yet they also provide long term aid in the form of programs and government intervention. When people come in to get the food they are directed to programs that can teach them life skills and get them back on their feet and walking in the right direction. Every time I go in and give a few hours of my time I leave with a deep feeling of contentment knowing that I am helping provide development to many people around Raleigh. Just to be able to spread the kind of love God gives to everybody all the time every day just makes my heart happy.
Yes this post was kind of boring and not super exciting, but it was something that has been on my heart and my mind for the past couple weeks and I felt like I needed to share it with everybody. There really is a difference in the kind of service you can do for people. It is like that old saying, "You can give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, or you can teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime." How many fisherman will you create in your lifetime?
I love you all and thank you for listening to my heart. I pray that all is going well and of course that your journey is oh so blessed!!!!
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