Three Sydney Anglicans spent the October long weekend with seven other young people living in a slum they built themselves.
Tim Vernum, from St John's, Sutherland, James Knight, from St Jude's, Bowral and Stephanie Wehrmann, from Figtree Anglican, all participated in a simulation activity designed to teach Australian youth about global poverty and equip them to educate others.
It was called "Slum Survivor", and was run by Christian aid and development agency TEAR Australia at the BlackStump music and arts festival in Appin.
The game consisted of building and living in a slum made from plastic and cardboard, as well as participating in a range of slum challenges.
Residents were provided slum food (just two meals a day of dhal and rice), and had no access to running water or a change of clothes.
"Slum Survivor has completely restructured my whole brain," said James Knight, a counselling student and part-time instructor at a Christian campsite.
"It's changed how I think about everything. I'll take it back to my youth group: get the kids to drink fair trade coffee, get them active."
Tim Vernum, 29, who works in the IT industry, found some aspects more challenging expected.
The time-consuming process of cooking each night meant that he found himself on the outer with his fellow festival-goers: they had time to relax and socialise, while the slum residents were still working.
"I'll have to take my convictions a lot more seriously," he said.
"It's really easy to say that we care about people in slums, that slums are bad and that they shouldn't be there. But after being that person for a few days, you realise that it could just as easily have been you."
Ben Thurley, TEAR Australia's advocacy coordinator, organised the event. "Up until the last challenge, I wasn't sure if everyone was coping, or if they were being challenged to reflect on issues of poverty and faith," he said.
"But in the last discussion, I realised they'd all been thinking quite deeply about urban poverty, what it means to be vulnerable, and their own response as a follower of Jesus.
"The reality is that about one billion people on the planet live in slums. This is forecast to rise to two billion people in slums by 2030."
For more details visit Slum Survivor.
