Living Below the Line
Today's is a guest post from Beth Rowland, a student at the University of Nottingham who attends St Nic'due south.
The concept of Live Below the Line, spending just one pound a twenty-four hour period on nutrient, was something I'd heard of before May 2015, but not something I had ever considered doing myself. The idea terrified me – I love food, and food is pretty expensive. How would anyone even survive on £1 a day? The brutal reality is – billions of people do. 1.3 billion people, to be exact, are living on $1.25 a day, just less than i pound sterling. And 3 billion people live on just $two.50 a day. This truth is humbling, to say the least.
This summer, I will be joining Operation Mobilisation (OM) on a mission trip to Hungary. I'll be helping out a church bible army camp, teaching English and generally entertaining the children of the village of Felsoors, many of whom are from very basic backgrounds. A grouping of seven friends from my domicile church, St. Nics in Nottingham, are travelling on a like trip to Moldova, where they will exist building a playground for the local children and as well didactics them some English.
Together, nosotros needed to heighten over £2,000 and it was agreed that nosotros would set up ourselves the challenge of living below the line. Moldova is widely regarded to be the poorest country in Europe and the team wanted to claiming ourselves earlier we went abroad to step out of our comfort zone and brainstorm to appreciate what life was really like for the people we would be working for in Eastern Europe.
As I write this, I have just finished my 7 days of Live Below the Line and I think my immediate reflection is that it was tough – really tough. Yet I am glad I did it. When it was get-go suggested to me, I was sceptical to say the to the lowest degree. But I am glad I have washed it, and I learnt so much about myself and nearly the strength I take through God that information technology has potentially been one of the best weeks of my life.
To make things easier and more economical, nosotros shopped together before the starting time of the week. Viii people, living on £1 a day for seven days, meant nosotros had £56 to spend on food. Initially the prices of food surprised me – from such a privileged background, I give very lilliputian thought to how much my food costs, trying only to 'buy in moderation'. Cereal, squash, ketchup – all items we might consider 'essentials' were startlingly expensive with only £56 between us for the calendar week. We were able to buy more than we thought though – lots of bread, rice, pasta and eggs. We even managed to sneak in a packet of custard creams so that nosotros could have a few treats at to the lowest degree.
Nosotros split the food betwixt us at church on Dominicus night and prayed for the calendar week ahead. Some members of the grouping frequently fast just I had never changed my eating habits earlier and I was very apprehensive. I struggled to come across how I was going to take the strength or self-control to last vii days. We prayed approval over the food, asking God that it would be enough to keep usa fit and healthy, and we prayed that we would spend the week thinking securely about our motivations for the challenge and how privileged we truly were, for this to be a 'one-off' challenge.
Monday morning time arrived and by midday I was starving. Breaking my usual routine of big bowl of cereal and plenty of chocolate snacks throughout the twenty-four hour period knocked me sideways. The fact that information technology was a week I had set aside to revise hard for my upcoming exams didn't help – every educatee knows that revision fourth dimension is prime snacking fourth dimension! For dinner on Monday I ate pasta with passata sauce and some ham and vegetables. It was bones, and not particularly tasty, but it was what we had and I was grateful that there was a lot of pasta so it filled me up.
One of the best things virtually this week was definitely eating with friends. Living and so close to other members of the mission trip group, some of us were able to melt and eat together every nighttime and that was truly a approving from God. With friends to chat to and express mirth with, the food became less of the focus, and nosotros were able to share with each other how we coping and feeling. In that location is something very special nigh eating with company, and friendships were grown and strengthened as we sat and shared our food together.
Tuesday morning was by far the toughest time of the week for me. I woke upwards at 5am, feeling ill I was so hungry and could do nothing but weep. I knew if I ate at 5am I'd be hungry over again by 9am and and so I forced myself to stay in bed and go back to sleep. That morning, I appealed to the balance of the group for prayer – I wasn't certain if I was going to be able to last the whole week. Information technology was but Tuesday and I was already losing motivation, fast. I spent most of Tuesday sleeping, as I had barely plenty energy to eat and I was scared that if I ate too much, I would run out of food before Sunday. I couldn't believe that I had lost so much energy and so quickly, as it was simply ii days since I had eaten properly. I was miserable and could practice zip merely pray, begging God to fill up me with his strength. The moving-picture show that comes to mind is of Jesus in the desert for 40 days. We don't get to hear all the details, and I take often wondered if he was hungry. Did he weep every bit I did? Did he beg his Father to provide for him, as I did? I'one thousand sure he did and like he did for Jesus, the Lord provided for me.
I woke up on Midweek feeling much more energised and healthy, though I had still not eaten properly. And for the rest of the week, I was able to recognise but ignore my hunger. I spent a lot of time in prayer and reflection, thinking about the people of Hungary and Moldova, and those beyond the world for whom poverty is a chain they cannot break free from. And now, having started a new week eating normally again, I am still acutely aware of that reality. I thoroughly enjoyed my fry upwardly breakfast and the sweets I used for revision incentives, but I thought of those with nothing as I ate. And I realised that information technology was through the strength of God that I survived living below the poverty line. God said that he is the bread of life – you demand only Him to survive, and it'southward truthful! Humans often limit themselves: I'll merely run that far, I'll but get that high on the career ladder, I'thou but worth that much. These limits are the devil'due south lies. Through God, we tin can exercise annihilation. Through God, we can do everything. That truth is humbling and liberating and it is one the Church needs to retrieve – I lived below the line because I had everything I needed in God and the claiming was nothing when faced with his immeasurable strength, love and perseverance.
What is the claiming in your life that you can conquer, with God in your heart, today?
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