i've always wanted to do this, especially with our youth.
a christian author by the name of criag borlase... author of "God's Gravity: The Upside Down Life of Selfless Faith" (i've never read it but i'll plug it since i'm talking about him...) is setting out to live on $1 a day for a week. his reasoning for this is simply because 1 in 5 people in the world live on this much or less to sustain themelves. and 50,000 a day die of malnutrition. that wipes out Sarnia in a day and a half.
but i always thought this would be a great exercise for our youth and leaders, or our small group, or some type of community to really understand and identify with those who are experiencing the slow death of malnutrition and poverty.
you can check out his reasoning behind this "stunt" (his word) and track his blog throughout the week here...
it seems that great ideas are flowing now that i only have 2 months left to implement them in our youth ministry... maybe i'll try to squeeze this one in before i go. and maybe i'll ask you all to join us too.
all that said, i wouldn't even know where to begin.
and how do you choose between soap and food or toothpaste and transportation on a given day?
it's got me thinking anyway.
we'll see.
5 comments:
Would that work for my circumstances?
My mom pretty much pays for my groceries...my toothpaste...my rides...everything. I'm pretty dependable on her, not matter how I look at it. (I wish I could say I am more independent..but that's reality haha)
It's a neat idea, but I was wondering how I could practically apply it to my situation.
julie... i would say its more about consuming than spending. it's not an experiment of just money but being able to identify with those who live in such poverty. so rather than going to the grocery store to spend $1 a day, perhaps the thing to do would be to only consume a dollar's worth of food/hygene/transportation in a specific day. so the end result would really be the same for you and i. that would mean refusing rides and then walking. it would mean not eating the full dinner your mom bought because it would be way over and above your daily limit.
hey nicholson's,
where did you get that quote from Eugene Peterson? one of his books?
hey, p.s., it's been fun to see God bring things together for you with selling your house and everything else involved with your big move west!
k-bye
chris... and everyone else... that quote is from an article that my friend Joe (http://www.thinkerlabs.ca/joemanafo) put on his blog. it's an amazing article... you can read it at http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1195
and yeah, it's pretty exciting about our move west and how God is bringing it all together. although about every 2 weeks one of us needs to sit down with the other and be reminded that it is in fact going to work out. today i needed to see it on paper as we discussed it for 45 minutes. this faith business is tougher than it looks... :)
good to hear from you chris...
faith is easy to talk about, isn't it. it's another thing when bills are due and big transitions are looming on the horizon...angela and i have done, and still do the same thing on a regular basis!
i'll definetly check out that article you linked! thanks!
grace and peace.
chris
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