Event Touches Raw Nerve for Church Youth Leader With Traumatic Memories

March 20, 2007

By Anthony McGuffey

Every year thousands of young people across the United States take part in the World Vision 30 Hour Famine to raise money for hungry children and — for a few hours — to experience their pain.

Last month Anthony McGuffey, 18, helped organize about 500 young people at Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, Washington to heighten that experience. The youngsters learned what it was like to live like a refugee — spending a night sleeping in cardboard boxes in the church car park, despite freezing cold and driving rain. When Anthony finishes his internship at Overlake he plans to study at Northwest University and hopes to become an elementary school teacher.

For Anthony, this was not simply another church youth event. He knows exactly what it is like to experience hunger and homelessness for real. He shares his own story ...


I didn't grow up living in the biggest house. In fact, when I was real young I felt lucky to even have a roof over my head.

Up until about the age of seven I was living on the streets — homeless. I lived with my mother, two sisters and brother. The thing is that my mother was an alcoholic, as well as a drug addict — and the only way she was able to pay for the alcohol and the drugs was by using her body to get money.

I remember as a child seeing a different man in the house every night, and I actually don’t even know who my own father is. Her addictions had taken over her life and because of that she spent all her money to satisfy her addictions, so we never had enough to eat.

I have a memory of my younger sister eating a hot dog with ants swarming all over the hot dog and all over her, but she was so hungry that she didn’t even care. She just kept on eating that hot dog like it was the best thing she had ever had.

It was up to my older sister and I to take care of her, because my mom was usually passed out on the couch. So for a time in my life I understood what hunger is really like. Eventually I would end up in a foster home where my physical needs were provided for, and I am thankful for that, but there was still a lot of pain in my life from those years.

'Something Hit Me, Deep Inside ...'

When I first heard about the 30 Hour Famine and saw the promotional videos something hit me deep inside. My eyes were opened to real starvation and what it’s like in places around the world, Africa in particular. It broke my heart to see what children are going through in these places, and immediately I wanted to do something to help. But I thought, I’m just one kid in my senior year of high school, with no money and an unsupportive family.

But that drove my resolve to earn even more money. I knew in my heart that I could raise a lot of support, and I would do it by any means necessary. So I just started talking to everybody I knew: family, friends, neighbors, I even walked around my school asking random people I didn’t even know if they had any money that they would be willing to give to the cause.

And it worked! I raised much more than I ever could have imagined … about $1,600.

Then the actual event and rally was a life-changing experience. I finally understood why I had to go through some of those hardships in my life. Because of them, I have compassion for less fortunate people all over the world, and I’m putting that compassion into action.

I’m interning at Overlake this year and not only am I able to be a part of the event that changed my life, I also got to help plan and run it.

I’m thankful for what World Vision is doing around the world and also right here — where students like me are finding out about what it means to live for something bigger.