Lacey's PRE Challenge Journal Entry - 2011

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

 'A Dollar A Day Challenge' in 2011...

February 13, 2011

So it is the night before our ‘A-Dollar-A-Day’ Challenge begins. I have such mixed emotions as I sit here and contemplate the events of the upcoming week. I know that it is going to really be a challenge and I know that there is a lot that I am no where near ready for. As I sit here, this very moment, I am hungry…but I’m not really hungry. I have no idea what it really means to feel hunger. I believe that over the next, God is going to show us big things. I believe that He is going to show us what it means to truly rely on Him, for EVERY need.

All of this started a few weeks ago as Amanda and I were sitting on the rock outside of TMSC. I had let her borrow the book ‘Radical’ by David Platt earlier that week. Boy did it turn into something radical! She came up with the idea to actually try to live as the ‘least of these.’ We brainstormed some ideas and came up with our ‘A-Dollar-A-Day’ Challenge.  We have decided to live for 1 week on 80 Kenyan Shillings per day. That is the equivalent to 1 USD per day.

            We have all heard the staggering statistics about the millions of people who live on LESS than $1 per day but it never really changes anything. We go on as if ‘those people’ don’t even exist at all. Well, I now know that they do- their names are Gladys, Alfred, Mary, Martin and so many more. Sometimes if there is no name attached to it, it doesn’t seem to matter as much. Because of these people I will never be the same.

            Throughout my time here in Kenya, I have been convicted to live a much simpler lifestyle once I get home. I’m not saying that I’m going to take a vow of poverty, but I am definitely going to be more aware and responsible about where my money is going. Over the next week I will learn just how valuable each and every dollar really is.

            This journal will hold all of my thoughts, feelings, revelations and observations over the next week. It will also hold any thoughts about this challenge in the future. I pray that by living for one week among the ‘least of these’ that I will learn how to better serve them. I want to live according to the letters written in RED.

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!