Young People's Fellowship (YPF)

Our YPF is currently not meeting.  We'd love to get it started again...let us know if you want to help make this happen.  Meanwhile, see our NEWS page for upcoming events - we'd love to have you be involved.  Our youth and young adults are important to us!

OUR TRIP TO THE HEIFER FARM by Sarah Reich

As we stepped out of the car, together, we ventured to an uncharted land called Ceres and into the heat of the a.m. hours. Okay, so Ceres is far from uncharted, and the Heifer Project International’s farm was home to many, most of which are not human, and is always educating visitors. Truthfully, it was very hot, but thankfully, we were there together and supporting a good cause.

That first day, we all worked together in that heat to help around the garden. Our hard working hour or so under the sun this first day persuaded all of us to put our teen summer full of sleeping in on the backburner. Yes, we teens agreed to wake up before the sun rises in order to beat the heat and so that we may be able to lend a huge hand around the farm. We had the opportunity to help harvest, while taking breaks to make friends with the goats. We learned that the fruits and vegetables that are harvested go to a food bank close to the farm. All the hard work made us realize how hard many people in our country, as well as around the world, have to work to have the food that many of us take for granted.

Although we helped out a lot on the farm, more importantly, we were educated about hunger in the world. The staff at the Heifer Project did an excellent job at leading discussions and games. They were very kind and made our stay very educational.

Probably the most eye opening experience during our stay was the global village simulation. We were divided into two families of different social statuses. I, with Mother Susan pretending to be four years old, and Niyah from St. Alban’s, Brentwood, was in a family living in an urban slum made of cardboard, scrap metal, and tree branches. Our home for the night had holes in the roof and walls, a dirt floor, and was without a door. Needless to say, there wasn’t any electricity. Yes, this meant no television, no lights, and no oven. We were given only a few supplies and only one small potato to feed three of us. The other family was wealthier than us and had more, including eggs, rice, vegetables, and most importantly, water. Realizing that what we had was not enough, we began to trade with the other family. This was proven to be a difficult task, and we ended up having to trade labor.

After our meal that evening, we all lay awake on the hard dirt floor staring at the stars through the holes in the roof, thinking and talking about our experience and all those people who live like this every day. The next morning, we returned to our lives full of snack foods and electricity, yet we walked away with a new awareness of how lifesaving a donation of a simple pig really is to people who might call our urban slum home.

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