Day 9: The $1 dinner party

Tonight I wanted to make the challenge a little more realistic. In the slum colonies where I often visit with locals near the programs that my charity operates, there are some of the most hospitable people you will ever meet. They have invited me in to their shanties, to sit and sip tea and freshly prepared snacks they share with me out of their humble allotment of food that they can barely afford to begin with. All of those experiences have been overwhelmingly humbling and very memorable to me.

So tonight, in their honor, I shared what little rations I have available with my friends Ryan, Becki and Brady, who came over to share a humble meal with me. I used about $1 of my rations on this one meal (whereas I usually average about that much over an entire day) but I should be able to make it up in the days ahead with a few tweaks to my rationing. Ryan & Becki, in turn, will be starting their own mini-challenge of living on $7 worth of food for 7 days to help me raise more awareness. I am so encouraged by their support!

 I'll also share with you a little anecdote from my 'Hunger Journal':

Last night, I think I truly experienced hunger for the first time in my life. Now, of course, I'm not talking famine survivor here, I know that this challenge is but a shadow of what millions have faced in much worse conditions. But my experience is relative to my own story, and mind you, I've been living on a very limited calorie intake the past 8 days. So I went to the kitchen last night to whip up a snack thinking I had some rice, but forgetting that I had used the last of my previous batch in the dinner recipe. I thought to myself, ok, 45 minutes is too long to wait for fresh rice, what else do I have? I looked at the raw potatoes, I looked at the minuscule beans I had left, I thought about my frozen banana slices, my cold tortillas, my one-third of a carrot ration for tomorrow, and realized, I don't have anything to eat [according to my ration chart, in terms of options, and what would not take a long time to prepare]. This was a very sobering moment. It's what I imagine many people face daily: feeling hunger, true hunger, and looking in the pantry, and there's just nothing there, and no money with which to buy any more food.

Update on my "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" progress. We're getting really close to filling in that fourth row! Today someone sponsored the $34/mo heart!  

However, I'm a little off-pace to reach my goal of 50 hearts sponsored by the end of the month, but it's ok, I am believing we will get it, because we are all working together to make this happen for these amazing children we serve. 

I'm dedicating day 9 to the children of our Uganda rural primary school, who are some of the most cheerful, smart, and grateful children you will ever meet. These children benefit directly from the "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" of our Sustainer's Circle team, so I thought it appropriate to share their beautiful smiles with you as a visual reminder of what this campaign is achieving.

These are photos I've taken on my several visits to the school.

Meal time is something our students are especially thankful for

One of our faithful teachers

Another one of our faithful teachers; he teaches lower primary

These young scholars are grateful for their rice and bean lunch

Charitable goal update. In order to reach my goal of finding 50 new "heart sponsors" on my "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" I hope to see three new "monthly hearts" on the "Heart-Chart" sponsored by tomorrow. I will need your help to make this happen!

For those of you just tuning in, I'll recap what I'm trying to achieve with the "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" and my goal of finding 50 new sponsors for these "hearts" which I like to think of as representing lives being transformed and, ultimately, saved.

Why am I seeking monthly donors? The orphan care, child labor response, and human trafficking response programs we've pioneered at Peace Gospel and She Has Hope— while sustained in part by small business enterprise— need charitable support to be fully sustained. The budgets of these programs have fixed, monthly expenses. Thus, while one-time donations are deeply appreciated, it's the monthly donations that give us something to count on and plan with. Thus, long-term, they're the most powerful.

What I need next to stay on track for my goal. For day eight, I need two people to sponsor the $36/mo, $37/mo, and $38/mo hearts on our "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart"— this means you're willing to make a small monthly sacrifice to help ensure that the following merciful actions are fully funded each month. With your help, our monthly budget enables us to…

• Provide resident care for 290 orphans in 11 homes in Asia and Africa
  
• Operate 4 schools and 4 after-school care programs reaching over 1000 children
  
• Serve approx. 50,000 fresh meals to children in our programs
  
• Train 100s of girls how to avoid the dangers of human trafficking
  
• House, rehabilitate and empower 20 girls recovering from human trafficking

On to what I was able to create with just $1 worth of food today.

Click or tap on image to enlarge...

Breakfast. ▼

  
Lunch. ▼

Dinner. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider helping me reach my goal to find 50 new "Sustainers"— donors willing to give a small amount each month toward our work helping vulnerable children and trafficking survivors. Learn more and sign up here!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to the work of Peace Gospel's programs helping orphans, at-risk children of the slums, and human trafficking survivors.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!