This week I have been eating on $2.85 a day
to raise funds for TEAR Fund to fight human trafficking. It has (mostly) been a great experience. As I mentioned last week, the objective is to identify with
those in poor communities who live on $2.85 a day. These people are particularly
vulnerable to being sold or trapped and trafficked into modern day
slavery. Women and children are often
forced to work as prostitutes. TEAR Fund
works to strengthen communities so people are less vulnerable, to rescue and
rehabilitate people from slavery, and to bust up the human trafficking
networks. It’s been great to be able to
raise money to help. Thank you to those who have supported me. As I write I have raised around $200.
One interesting experience from the
week. It was a colleague's birthday on
Wednesday. She is also doing live below
the line. One of our team kindly made a
cake and worked out that each slice cost 35 cents, so that we could eat some
without blowing our budget. It felt good to be able to celebrate, and yet do so in a way that kept us "living below the line".
The other
interesting experience was the sugar high that hit me. My body must have got used to doing without sugar. This week my budget has stretched to some extras, but the extras have been a piece of fruit. Not quite the same sugar load as a piece of cake. About 5 minutes after eating the cake I felt the sugar kick in. The rest of the team noticed it and gave me a bit of a hard time. It lasted about 45 minutes.
Several reflections:
First, I was surprised that if I was careful I could manage a couple of little luxuries - even on $2.85 a day. I couldn't afford a cup of real coffee obviously, but I did manage a few instant coffees.
Second, it made me realize how my body must normally be full of calories and stimulants like caffeine. Our culture promotes high energy, excitement, entertainment and stimulation. One of the most common and scathing criticisms we level at something is that it was Boring! To connect with people in this culture we need to be high energy, exciting and stimulating, but I believe we also need to bring a refreshing (Paul Windsor would say "intriguing") challenge to our culture so that we don't "entertain ourselves to death".
Third, sometimes it takes an out of the box experience to have the shock value necessary to refocus my global vision to see and identify with the
world that God loves and sends us out in mission to make a difference.
Thanks for reading,
Martin.
