Lauren Allen is participating in the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries Living Justice Seminar Program in New York City. The purpose of this event is to provide an introduction to the issues related to the health of women and children, and to foster discussion among young adults who share a common interest in the intersection of faith and justice. Below is part of a summary of her experiences during this program, as well as some pictures. Enjoy.

The Prez

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Lauren is 1st on the left sitting

The next day we went to the CCUN, Christian Church of the United Nations I believe, owned and operated by the United Methodist women. They allow other denominations to have offices in the building. We had speakers come and speak to us about the disparities of health in various countries and right here in the U.S. We watched a movie when the bough breaks (I had already seen it, Dr. Rush showed it in our applied ethics class) it was a study done on how racial tensions cause African-American women to have a higher mortality rate than any other race. It is depressing and eye opening. The day before we had watched a movie called "In sickness and health" and it was about how no matter how much education or economic status we have we are still at a greater risk than any other race for health issues. We then had speakers come in and talk about poverty issues in other countries and the lack of resources. 

Later that night during our bible study and debriefing we played a game the pursuit of happiness. And we drew a slip of paper from a basket that placed you in a certain community. I was in the poorest group. We had to build schools, hospitals, a government, houses, etc. Our community had no resources, so we had to be really creative. Then what would happen was that a crisis in the world would happen. And the people in the rich community had to make a decision and in our group someone had to die.  So we were the first to lose a member, and then we lost another and then another. So our community was wiped out. Then in another community they worked together the poor and the rich to build a utopian society. It sounded good in theory, but had us thinking could this actually ever happen.

This “game” opened my eyes to what really happens in the world. I always viewed poverty as a mismanagement of resources. I believed that the rich would herd all resources for themselves or that the people would somehow do something wrong. I was shown that this isn’t the case. These people were never given the necessary tools to survive, and then the poor are the first to die.

- Lauren Allen