AMITE, La. — Instead of preaching a sermon for World Hunger Sunday on Oct. 14, Pastor Mike Foster divided his Amite, La., congregation into three groups and played the Poverty Bean Game. The game demonstrates the disparity of wealth between developed countries like the United States and Third World countries like Haiti.
The congregation was divided into three groups. Five percent of the congregation represented the First World countries and received 20 beans of “money” per person. Fifteen percent of them represented the Second World countries with 15 beans per person, and the remaining 80 percent represented Third World countries with 10 beans per person. To win, or at least survive, each person had to have 17 beans at the end of the game.
As the members stood in line to purchase index cards representing food, water, shelter and medicine from “stores” in the sanctuary, two people acted as “natural disasters” and could take as many beans from each person as they wanted to. First-Worlders could take a bean from a Second World resident and they in turn could take a bean from Third World residents.
Several “missionaries” handed out one bean each to people, “but they ran out of beans pretty quickly,” Foster said.
“Just about everybody in the First World survived and just about everybody in the Second World survived but we quickly realized most of the Third World died out,” Foster said.
Exercises like the Poverty Bean Game can provide a small but powerful dose of reality for Americans who don’t realize how difficult life is for the majority of the world’s people, said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response.
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