Blessings Breakfast

What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  You might think of pancakes and eggs.  You might think of granola and milk.  I dream of my muesli with homemade yogurt with grated apples and sliced bananas. It is to die for.

In our ward, we have this guy named Marv Thurman and he is the breakfast guy. He served in the army as the cook and so he knows how to put on a huge breakfast and how to make it delicious.  Well, I am the new Activities chair and we planned a breakfast for our ward with a humanitarian service project at the end of it.  Everyone showed up expecting another Marv Thurman victory, but instead . . .

108 (60%) of them got 1/2 cup of rice and a glass of water, 
55 (30%) of them got plain oatmeal--no sugar--half a banana and a 1/2 c. of milk,
and 18 of them (10%) got pancakes, egg casserole, muffins, fresh fruit, chocolate milk and orange juice.

This is actually the same food distribution percentage throughout the world.  We, in America, are part of that tiny 10%.  And we really have no clue how blessed we are and how easy our lives are.  I know, I know, we all have problems and trials, but materially, we have so much.  As annoyed and hungry as the ward may have been at that moment (I actually heard that a few people left!), we all knew that our lives really wouldn't end by the end of the breakfast.  In fact, when we went home, we knew we'd find an entire cupboard or refrigerator full of many foods to choose from.  None of us have dirt floors—they may be covered in dirt because we haven’t swept in a while—but they are made of wood or stone.  They may not be shiny hardwood floors like we want, but they are sturdy.  They keep out the cold and the heat.  We have roofs that aren’t made from straw.  We have cars we can climb into and drive the .13/miles that it is to the church.  We don’t have to walk 5 miles to collect our water.  In fact, all we have to do is push this silver thing and water comes out—-at exactly the right temperature.  But at this activity, we tried to imagine what if we didn’t have all of that?  We tried to imagine what it would be like if that bowl of rice really was all we'd have for the day.  What would it be like if our health and our family's health and stamina was wasting away like some of the pictures we were shown during the activity?

As a ward, we watched the Church's video on humanitarian service (buy "In the Service of Our God" from the distribution center for $4.50--we watched the section 'Ye Have Done It Unto Me') while we invited the hungry crowd to help us finish off the over-abundance of food.  The video reminded us of our 4th Mission of the Church which is the relieve the suffering of the poor and needy. After the video, the ward completed two service projects:  We assembled 100 hygiene kits that many ward members donated supplies for, and made toy geckos and bumblebees out of beads for children in war-torn Iraq in 20 minutes! 

Although it is easy to forget in the midst of our soccer games, and March Madness on TV, and our trips to the malls and our Wiis and our iphones how the other 90% of people in the world live--for one hour--on a Saturday--the Sharon 8th Ward remembered.  And I hope now we'll do more than just remember.