Amanda's PRE Challenge Journal Entry - 2011

Here is Amanda's journal entry on the eve of the inaugural 

'A Dollar A Day Challenge' in 2011...

Sunday  February 13, 2011

The Challenge

I sit here on the eve of a day that might likely change my life forever.  A few weeks ago I was sitting on the rock at Tumaini reading a book about the millions in the world living in absolute poverty.  I looked just beyond the pages and across the rugged dirt road into the yard of our neighbors.  They live in grass-thatched homes, a grandmother, aged and weathered by years of harsh living, takes care of her many grandchildren.  They were left behind in the wake of the AIDS crisis.  I saw sweet Songa running and playing in the yard, knowing his fate had already been decided by the mistakes of his parents.  I realized in an instant the reality I was living in as my eyes shifted their focus back to the pages before me.  I then began to think about all the comforts I still have within the walls of the Tumaini compound, even thought I live and serve among those in the third world.  Conviction overtook my soul and I knew that I could no longer watch poverty from across the street.  In some crazy way I needed to know what it felt like, smelled like… I needed to taste hunger.  So as the sun set behind the scene of poverty that night, God proposed a challenge to me.  Live a week on $1 a day.  I will show you hunger, I will show you pain.  I will show you what it means to want, and to your surprise I will show you what it means to have plenty.  Tomorrow begins a labor of love for my African neighbors and all those living in poverty around the world.  How fitting that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.  I’ve always wondered why we needed to set aside a day to celebrate those we love… shouldn’t we celebrate the love we have for each other every day?  This Valentine’s Day I am choosing to show my love to the world by becoming like the least of these.  It’s my prayer that this act of love will not just be a day of remembrance, but instead create awareness that one day might change the world.  This journal will document the thoughts and feelings of poverty.  As I pen these words in RED, may I be reminded of Christ’s love and servanthood… In Red Letters!