LIVERMORE FALLS – Youth Pastor Miranda Silver walked around to help children in Little Workers’ Youth Group open large cardboard boxes they plan to camp out in Saturday night.

“We don’t know if it’s going to rain, but if it does, we’re going to be covered, guys,” Silver, 23, told the group in the Livermore Falls Church of the Nazarene parking lot. “We’re going to sleep out rain or shine.”

The group is raising awareness for world hunger through a Nazarene 30-Hour Famine mission. Participants will stay outside from 5 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday, Silver said.

She saw some literature on the 30-hour famine, which has served as an outreach to youth since the early 1990s to help transform the lives of people living in poverty.

“I studied on it, prayed on it and decided to kick it off during the summer,” Silver said.

She cut out a couple of hundred paper bracelets to make a chain. For every dollar raised, a paper link will be added to the chain hanging in an entryway to the church. So far, 88 links have been connected.

The group will continue through April 25 to raise money for the project, Silver said.

The group’s goal is to raise $29,000, Silver said. “Believe it or not, it is a reasonable goal because 29,000 children under age 5 die of hunger and poverty-related issues every day.”

They already have a few fundraisers planned. One is a table at the Apple-Pumpkin Festival on Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Livermore Falls recreation field. They also will have a table at the craft fair on Saturday, Nov. 15, at the church.

The group will sell calendars and chain strips, and will take bottles, cans, pennies and other cash donations, Silver said.

During the sleepout Saturday, the children will get thin blankets and water to drink, but they won’t be allowed to eat or have electronics.

Silver said she would speak briefly and share a story from the Bible. The group will share ideas about how to raise money for the cause.

Erikka Cheverez, 9, and Jessica Judd, 9, of Livermore Falls thought sleeping out Saturday night in boxes was a good way to experience how homeless people live and to make people aware of the hungry children in the world. Nathan Cloutier, 10, and Travis Judd, 11, both of Livermore Falls, said they were looking forward to the sleepout.

“It’s going to take courage and tolerance,” Judd said.