Finally Friday

It's Finally Friday! This week I have been on this 5 Day Food Challenge that my church kicked off this past weekend.

Basically, it is part of a much bigger project that we have going on called the Mina Project.

"...'Put this money to work, 'he said, 'until I come back." -- Luke 19:13

We first did this back in November of 2007 with $35,000 and turned it into $200,000. This time our congregation was given $50,000 in cash and the hope is to bring back $400,000 this weekend so that we can give it to some local charities and build a hospital in Haiti.

You can read more about this awesome project HERE. It has been very cool to see how creative everyone has been with their money to make it grow.

The 5 Day Food Challenge was kind of the icing on the cake, so to speak, to finish the Mina.

Basically, the premise is that the American diet is so different than half of the world. Some living on less than $2 a day. That doesn't even cover my latte.

So, the challenge was to eat like those in a third world country might for 5 days! Then to give the money we saved back to the Mina Project. We were asked to pick one meal. Hubby and I actually tried to do 3 meals a day without any snacks. Even the kids joined in some days. For the most part we did a pretty good job. (It was hard!)

The meals consisted of:

Plain oatmeal or Cream of Wheat
Plain tortilla, rice and beans
Rice with bits of fish or chicken and a vegetable

So, Friday is the last day of this. I have never eaten so many beans in my life.

I learned some things this week.

1. I eat too much meat on a general basis and We really don't need as much as we think to be full. Basically, I eat too much!

2. I throw out way too many leftovers. We did not waste any food because I made rice and beans and some veges at the beginning of the week and have been eating from that all week.

3. I thought this would be easy. I have fasted and I thought it would be easier to at least have some type of food. What I found out is that I am spoiled and I want what I want when I want it. If I want a cheeseburger, I can have one within a short period of time. Chocolate - in the pantry. A fresh crisp apple - sitting on my counter. It was hard to deal with the fact that I didn't have more choices.

So, I'm learning to count my blessings as far as our food consumption goes. I hear a lot of talk about the price of food going up and to be sure - it has! My grocery bill is outrageous these days, but maybe I don't need as much as I buy. I was counting my blessings that within 5 minutes of my house there are 4 grocery stores that I can just walk into and buy whatever food I want. Blessed for sure.

It's Finally Friday, though and that means I will be finished with the food challenge. I am so glad I did it, though. I felt the heartbeat of another part of the world for the last 5 days by doing this.