Be The Message For Those Who Can Not
Posted: Monday, May 11, 2009
by Laura Trahan
My family is taking this challenge this week in an effort to make an impact in the life of a hungry kid. As part of our church's desire to impact the world, we have accepted a challenge to only eat beans and rice for five days and drink tap water.
Over half of the world's population survives on beans and rice. It isn't an all you can eat buffet either. Portion sizes are considerably smaller then our traditional American sizes.
Just look at the statistics:
- Half the world's population lives on less than $2 per day
- More than 1.1 billion people don't have access to clean water
- Every 5 seconds a child dies from hunger-related causes
- Every 15 seconds a child dies from water-related diseases
- 963 Million people suffer from hunger today and that number grows by 4 million each year
- 25,000 people lose their lives every day due to hunger and poverty
- More than 60% of chronically hungry people are women
- The United States throws away about 263,013,699 pounds of food each day
Despite all of these saddening statistics, getting it past my kids is a whole different story.
"What is tap water?" the eight-year old asks. I look at my husband in shock that our kids are really that spoiled.
"It is the water that comes out of the faucet," I reply.
"Gross, I don't like that!"
"Why, it tastes the same as the bottled water!" I yell back.
Then I find myself going into a ten-minute lecture how our water is so much safer than water around the world.
"Kids in other parts of the country get sick from drinking their water and most times don't even have a faucet," I say.
"But I don't like beans and rice," he whines.
At this point I think I am caught between feeling sad that we are this spoiled, and just frustrated.
"You can just go hungry then," my husband jumps in.
"Look you eat beans and rice all the time when we go to the Mexican restaurant. They are your favorite thing. You should be lucky we can use seasoning. It is like we are cheating anyway by doing so!"
"I am not so sure about this new church we joined," he said.
"Why?" I ask.
"They make you do things like this and for other people," he says.
It is a good thing he said it with a smile and jokingly look on his face. I roll my eyes and refrain from the lecture on what church really should be.
Of course, the point of this exercise is not to torture our kids, but to be the message. All the money I save on groceries this week will go to our church for a special offering to be given to feeding kids around the world.
However, I find myself in shock on just how good of a life we live here in America. We never have to worry about going hungry. We can go down the street to a store, fast food chain, etc. And if we don't have the money to buy that food, our government gives it to us.
Five days sacrificing and seeing how others live is so worth it if it makes my family grateful for what we are given in this life especially since we deserve none of it.
For more information on this challenge, visit http://www.bethemessage.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Great idea. Our whole country should get involved in this. It would probably give us all a true sense of humility.SandraThanks Sandra for the support!
I think it's wonderful your family is taking on the challenge. Let us know how it goes! You're right, we all have it very good compared to most around the world. Good luck with the challenge! Way to go!Thanks for the encouragement Brianna!!! It is actually pretty hard! We are starving and have resorted to just doing it at dinner. The kids are now allowed after an hour at dinner time to snack or eat something else. It was too hard having them starve. I think we all have had a wake up call on how blessed we are in this country! We all have such an appreciation now for what these people go through every day!! thanks so much for commenting and for the support!!
hi laura,they didn't have hamburger meat and rolls :)i think it's a great idea, and a spiritual committment.good for you.world hunger, starting in the u.s., has always been a pet peeve of mind, to the point that i came up with an idea to solve it, only i can't get in touch with oprah, donald, martha, or bill gates, to ask them each to contribute, and any other billionaires out there.if i had the money, that's the first thing i would do.thanks for sharing this with us,my best,sieSue-you so deserve to be a millionaire! Your love and compassion for those less fortunate is so evident. Maybe, we need to start stalking those billionaires;) I have to admit this is harder than I thought. I have every commercial for a hamburger stuck in my head. Can't wait to eat meat!:)love ya lots,Laura
You know I value your opinion and would never make light of children starving, but do you really want to feed your kids beans for five days? Not to mention your husband, you do have to sleep in the same room with him for heaven's sake.I'm playing around but truth be told, I'm not sure the kids will get it. I've tried similar things with mine so they understand just how fortunate they are. Problem is, people starving in Africa thousaands of miles away is an abstract concept and kids are concrete creatures, but I do admire what you are trying to do...but really, kids+5 days eating beans? Best of luck to you! lol girl.Myla-LOL! We were joking about the same thing last night! I have really been surprised. God is working in my kid's lives-their prayers are getting longer and longer for their continents every night!! They get it! They are tired of beans and rice and I think they got thepoint. Not sure I will make them go through all five days!
Thanks so much for commenting!
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