Upper Room is a prayer and worship gathering at The Garden that meets every 4th Wednesday of the month.  It’s a gathering without any agendas except for intercession and praise.

Come out this week at 7:30pm.  We will meet in the main sanctuary.  Get more details at: thegarden.cc/upperroom .

Don’t forget that we are also fasting during these days.  For this month’s fast, we are also having a “One Meal for Japan” campaign where we are asking everyone to donate the money they would have saved fasting from food and donate it to Japan Relief.  Just bring the money to the donation table on Sunday.

Our 2010 30 Hour Famine is now over. Day 2 was filled with information about issues that plague so many lives around the world. We covered topics like the complexity of poverty, teens infected with “affluenza,” and the impact of AIDS on hunger and poverty. Knowing so many lives are affected, it’s easy to lose hope in trying to make a difference. But one thing we learned is that it all starts with us taking little steps to change our attitudes. Maybe we give up eating ice cream for a day or two, knowing Americans spend $20billion a year on frozen treats alone. Maybe we say a prayer for the homeless person we just passed, instead of ignoring him.

In Day 1, we spent time creating crosses out of popsicle sticks. We planted them in the courtyard to help bring awareness to the rest of the church (see image above). The sign reads “Did you know…while you were in service, 1,812 kids died from hunger and treatable illness? What are you going to do about it?” We wanted people to notice, if anything to get them thinking, but we didn’t expect our members to want to donate money right then and there. Those crosses will stay up for one more week, next time with a table to accept all those donations.

We concluded our 30 Hour Famine with worship time. We knew everything up until then was a lot of information. But it was now time to plead to God for action. It was a wonderful time for students to place God as priority over their lives. Our actions to confront hunger and poverty will only be effective to a point. We must be led by God to bring true renewal and hope to this world.

We planned and strategized to take concrete steps to get involved as a youth group. Some of the things that are being planned are a clothes drive, a game tournament, and silent auction to help raise more funds to donate to World Vision. All of these events will be led by our students! Way to take charge of what God has impressed upon us over the weekend!

Earlier, we discussed Jesus’ desire for us to shine His light into the darkness of hunger and poverty in this world. With 29,000 kids under the age of 5 dying from hunger and treatable diseases a day, the task seems daunting. But knowing that we now live in a generation that has the money, medicine, and food to eradicate hunger and poverty, it’s a wonder why so little gets done. It starts with a mindset – a change in attitude about what we can accomplish through the power of the church.

To help bring awareness to the church, we’ve built 1,208 crosses out of popsicle sticks. Each cross represents a young child that dies every hour from hunger and preventable disease. They will be planted in the courtyard of our church where we normally have snacks after service. The point is to bring awareness and hopefully stir up action amongst the church body.

Tomorrow brings a new day with more ways to see God’s heart towards the impoverished, and more importantly, strategizing to shine Jesus’ light in our communities and in this world.

Read about Day 2 here.

In 2 Samuel 24, King David declares “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing” (v. 24).

This Wednesday is Lent. It’s the start of a 40 day journey leading up to Easter Sunday. Traditionally, Lent is the practice of giving something up (most people give up red meat) as a way to show God He is more important than that thing we are giving up. It’s also a call to go above and beyond what we expect from our “normal” Christian activities (group meetings, praying, devotionals).

Lent is fasting from something in our lives that can be replaced by prayer and “almsgiving” or service to our community. It is an opportunity to do some soul-checking and reflect on those things that distract us from getting close to God.

So what is one thing that could be preventing you from getting closer to God? TV..? Facebook..? In light of what Jesus had to suffer to restore our relationship with God, don’t you think we can give these things up to be replaced with a few more minutes of prayer?

To help you meditate on what God expects from our fasting, read Isaiah 58.