Simply Sharing Tea

June 14th saw some 35 people gather in the church hall to "Eat Like a Refugee". The Education and Social Committee had  received a box of rations from Act for Peace that corresponded to the food a refugee on the Thai-Burma border would receive for a meal.

The Committee prepared the meal and served it to thirty people from the congregation. It consisted of split pea soup, boiled rice with fish paste topping, flat bread and water. Some people found the rice difficult to swallow on its own and decided that if they had volunteered for the week-long ration program they would mix the soup and rice together!  We all appreciated what it would be like to eat that type and amount of food indefinitely.

Skaidy and Linda from Act for Peace attended, and gave us a half-hour presentation, explaining how the Ration Challenge worked. They played a video made by a group of young men living as refugees on the border. We were able to see their shelters, their lifestyle, and how their rations were doled out and cooked.

Act for Peace received a donation of $1256 from the Marsden Road Congregation as a result of our Sunday night  “Eat Like a Refugee” dinner. The state-wide grand total raised was $56,000, which will go a long way in supplying rations and garden implements for the Karen people, who are living on the Burmese border.