Solidarity Day 3 Update

So the first day of our Solidarity Challenge I woke up and decided to go ahead and eat my morning oatmeal, as that was the recommended breakfast (that, or cream of wheat, which I have no idea what it is, and honestly I do not want to know). I opened up the can of oatmeal, took one look inside, and then got this weird anxiety that I was about to eat it. I then opted to skip breakfast, and just head straight to work. That day I didn't eat anything until about 5pm when I got home from work, and at this time I was pretty hungry. Through out the day I had drank about 3 or 4 nalgenes full of water (which, ounce-wise I don't know what it is, but its a lot), So I was very ready to eat my cup of rice. So I did, and it was tasty, but not satisfying.

Since the 5pm cup of rice was my first meal all day, I justified that that was my lunch, and therefore decided I still owed myself my dinner cup, so I had that a few hours later.

Day 1 accomplished.

Now, day two I was at work at Willow Creek, and to support all those who were participating in the Solidarity Challenge, they sold a small bowl of rice and beans, complete with small tortilla, for only a dollar. I wanted to drop a 5, and get a few extra bowls, but I stuck to just the one. About 45 seconds after sitting down to lunch I was out of food, so I called it a good meal and distracted myself the rest of the day to keep from getting hungrier.

Now, here is where I am going to be completely honest and admit my short-comings and failures. When I got home from work that night, I had a handful (or, maybe 2) of m&m's. I told myself that it was ok because they weren't anything that would satisfy my hunger, but they made me happy. So unfortunately I have to admit the fact that I didn't stick to the strict diet of rice, beans, and tortillas. Don't judge.

Today was much easier, surprisingly. Maybe it had to do with the fact that so many people from WIllow were talking about how they got their portion of rice and beans at Chipotle and it was super cheap, and thats where I decided to get mine today. They were packed with flavor, but when it comes down to it, it is still just rice and beans. I think its the monotony of eating the same thing every day that gets to you more than the hunger itself. But I could be wrong, because I'm pretty sure that those who are without food would much rather eat the same thing everyday than eat nothing at all.

I am looking forward to the rest of the Challenge, while at the same time I am not. I don't want to bend the rules anymore, and I want to be able to stick much closer to the actual recommended food portions that way I can truly experience the hunger that more than half the world feels.

Speaking of which, ask me to tell you about Feed My Starving Children sometime. If I get even one comment on this post, I promise my next post will be telling you about what that organization is doing to combat world hunger. BUT, that comment must include the word "elbow" somehow. Make it happen.

Dominican Republic

well, for some reason the pictures wouldn't upload. I'll get them though, I promise.

Celebration of Hope 2008

First of all, yes, I realize it has been almost 3 months since my last post. I attribute this to both my laziness, and to the fact that so many great and sometimes hard things have happened, that I had a list piling up of "things I need to blog about," and rather than actually starting that list at some point, i just kept adding things, and then eventually lost the list. I didn't really lose it, but it sounds better than saying that I just decided not to start it. However, I feel like today I have something really worth Blogging about. And I hope you enjoy it.

Beginning today, thousands of people in the Willow Creek community, including just about all of the hundreds of staff at the church, are beginning something called the Solidaritiy Challenge. Since half of the world lives on less than $2 a day, we are being asked to limit our consumption for this 5-day challenge, and at the end of the week donate what money we would have spent on food to aid eliminating hunger around the world.

For these 5 days we have three meal options to chose from, each of which in 8 oz. portions:
Plain oatmeal or cream of wheat
A tortilla, rice and beans
Rice with bits of fish or chicken and a vegetable.

For most of the people doing this challenge, me included, I think it is going to be pretty hard. But I think we, who are so blessed to be able to have large meals multiple times every day, are going to think about the people in third world countries who feel those hunger pains every day, and hopefully those images and those feelings will give us strength to make it through the challenge.


The Celebration of Hope that Willow Creek is engaging in this week is so much more than just this one initiative of limiting our consumption, and as I give updates on how this challenge is going for me (hopefully each day), I will also write about another aspect of the Celebration of Hope that we will all be experiencing this week.

Until then, in my next post (which, for you will actually be the previous post) I am going to post pictures from the Dominican Republic. I wish I could write more about that experience to go along with the pictures, BUt i have only recently started journaling about that time, and truly getting to see what God taught me through that experience. So when I get all that figured out, I will share it.

Good days!