Collin Creek Community Church | 5 Day Challenge Instructions

5 Day Challenge Instructions

We Stand

For most Americans, nourishment is easy. We go to the grocery store, head to a restaurant, or drive past a window where prepared food is handed to us in a matter of seconds. We turn on a faucet, and clean water flows instantly into our homes.

We are an exception.

More than 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean water. In many parts of the world, women and children carry 40-pound jugs for miles to retrieve their daily allotment—and even then, the water may not be safe to drink.

It’s a critical situation. Every five seconds, a child dies from hunger-related causes. Every fifteen seconds, a child dies from water-related diseases. And with the global economic slide, another 100 million people have slipped into extreme poverty.

Take the 5-Day Challenge

As an act of solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the globe, we encourage you to eat for five days, February 15th - 19th, as the bottom economic half of the world does every day. Eat the three meals of your day using only the options below. Set aside the money you would have spent on additional groceries, and bring it to Collin Creek Community Church’s LovePrint Global Missions Conference, February 20th -21st, which will support those who struggle with hunger and thirst.

Meal Options

    • Plain oatmeal or Cream of Wheat
    • A tortilla, rice, and beans
    • Rice with bits of fish or chicken, and a vegetable
    • Tap water (use your LovePrint cup)
    • African Porridge:
            Recipe
            5 cups of water | 2 ½ cups of corn meal or mealie meal | Salt

            Bring water to rapid boil. Add salt. Slowly add corn meal stirring quickly as you add it.
            Stir out any clumps. Turn down heat to medium and cook for 1 hour stirring hard every 15 minutes.

Food Portions

Portion sizes around the world are much smaller than a typical American meal. One cup or eight ounces is a generous portion. Meat is a luxury, with the average African consuming about ¾ ounce per day—the size of a small chicken nugget. Fresh fruit is rare, available only if locally grown and in season.

While these meals seem small by American standards, they actually represent diets in the broad middle when compared to the rest of the world. Half the world’s population lives on no more than $2 a day. Approximately 1 billion people live on even less—only $1 per day.

Water

Public water systems in the United States generally provide adequate, accessible, clean water for the common good in environmentally sustainable ways.

Choosing to drink bottled water when there is a safe and convenient public source nearby can be both financially wasteful and harmful to the environment. Please avoid such options during the challenge, as they are not readily available for the people we are standing with. Drink water from your LovePrint cup and remember the more than 1.1 billion people who don’t have access to clean water.

Doctor’s Recommendations

Please use your discernment in determining portion size and water consumption that will allow you to function in a safe manner while also experiencing what life is like for the other half of the world. If you have a medical condition, honor your physician’s recommendations. Contact your doctor if you are unsure about participating in this challenge.

Involving Your Kids

Beyond standing with others against global hunger and thirst, the 5-Day Challenge is also an experiential opportunity for you to form compassion in your family: seeing a need and doing something about it.

Throughout this challenge, use discernment with your children. Be wise with dietary limitations, and encourage honest conversation about how each person feels. Those discussions will be key in opening your family’s eyes to the needs of others.

If you have school-aged kids who are participating in the challenge, help them determine how to explain global hunger and thirst to friends who ask about the rice and beans they eat and/or the cup they use to drink.

Set aside time each day to talk about the experience, and to pray for families around the globe who face hunger and thirst every day of their lives.

Daily Encouragement

For encouragement and reflection, come back to the website the week of the challenge.

Attachment: 5 Day Challenge Instructions.pdf

Posted on Monday, February 8, 2010 by Alicia Trimble

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7 comments (Add your own)

1. Marquita De Jesus wrote:: Day One

My alarm goes off. And by alarm I mean my 8 month old who, like clockwork, screams at exactly 8:15 am. Day One has begun.

Last night we feasted on chicken mcnuggests and cookies knowing full well we would be deprived all week of such luxuries.

Daniel turns to me and says we have to be out of the house in thirty minutes. Our morning run has begun.

The moment we get out the door, my stomach starts to rumble. Its ok, I could still be true to the five day challenge. I would stop at Starbucks and pick up some oatmeal. That would do.

While at Starbucks, eating oatmeal, sipping on my grande water and listening to Michael Buble, I started to wonder if I were being true to the hunger challenge. Something just wasn't right. Because some other mother the same age as me probably woke up to her 8 month old she she couldn't feed. Her morning rush consisted of buying time until she could pull off the next meal and grant baby one more day. Instead of feeding herself, she might watch her child die today. I lost my appetite.

So instead of just eating what Im supposed to eat, Im channeling the emotions of those who hunger as I do. Those who won't have the Michael Buble option. Im praying and I thinking of you this week.
February 15, 2010 @ 2:42 PM
2. Sharla Gottschalk wrote:: Day One

I was hungry before lunch, and hungry by 3 pm. Do I really eat that much?! Apparently the small tortilla with black beans and small bare salad isn't what my body is used to for lunch. If I ate this much everyday, would I just be used to the hunger? I don't even think the bit of salad was completely in the guidelines. Temptation has rushed at me from mid morning on. I've been offered oreos, plump frosted sugar cookies, chocolate and strawberries becon from the frig and I nearly forgot to bypass the cheese quesadillas I was making for the kids/friends at lunch (This is optional for everyone at our house, some are planning to do it only at dinner.) As I shoppped for this week's menu, I saw anew the bounty of food choice within my reach. Within a half mile of my house. Where I had comfortably driven my warm car. Then, again, I saw it in my freezer and frig (we just went to Costco on Saturday - bad timing, eh?) It is amazing how cheaply I will eat this week. The Kroger-made tortillas are just over 6 cents each. Black beans were $1.27 a can, and it should last 5-6 meals. The veggies were probably 30 cents worth (?). 60 cents a meal. $1.80 a day. Good news: plenty left over to take to church on Saturday!
February 15, 2010 @ 4:44 PM
3. Rick Doss wrote:: My day started at the gym at 5:45am with a challenging workout...only to be reminded once I got in to the office that the 5 Day challenge was in full swing. Ugh, one small cup of oatmeal...are you kidding me? By noon I was starving but I knew that I had a client luncheon that would save the day. Fortunately my client didn't notice the hunger pangs while we were waiting on our food to be served! Wolfed it down in like 5 minutes and could have easily eaten a second serving. By the time dinner came around it was back to the challenge, so we had rice and some veggies which was pretty tasty although not near enough. The biggest surprise was when I drank the tap water...it was horrible, it tasted like it came right out of a fish tank! So much for the water from Lake Lavon. We have sooo much to be grateful for! I pray for my brothers and sisters who have so little eat.
February 15, 2010 @ 7:59 PM
4. Eddie Malphrus wrote:: Day one consisted of rice, tortillas, beans, and a bit of chicken... all in smaller portions than normal. And plenty of tap water. No Cokes today. Thinking about how blessed we are to even have the -choice- to eat less. A single cup of fresh water is one cup more than many had today.
February 15, 2010 @ 11:03 PM
5. Sharla Gottschalk wrote:: Day 2

Boy, was I ready for dinner last night!! White rice never tasted so good. I could taste the bit of salt, too, and I appreciated every grain. At the end of each meal, I can already tell it doesn't feel like enough. It'll satisfy soon, and for a while, but I'll miss the next meal sooner than it comes. While working today I snagged 5 goldfish crackers to stave off the rumblings at 12:15. Breakfast's plain oatmeal was long gone! FAIL! I only had a half hour to go! I knew food was soon to come. Millions of people don't have that assurance today. Or any day. When food is uncertain, how do you think about much else?

I really miss great quantities of vegetables. And fruit. And tea. Can I have tea?
February 16, 2010 @ 4:04 PM
6. Paula Doss wrote:: Day 2 for me on the modified 5 day challenge. I decided to substitute one meal a day with a challenge meal. It is not nearly as rigorous as all meals, but I wanted to participate daily so that I would have a time to pray, reflect and appreciate the amazing blessing of abundant food we have available. I started thinking about the fact that I have never in my 45 years of eating worried if I would have enough to eat. And what small percentage of people in the whole of human history could say that? Talk about winning the lottery -- as far as food goes, I have a winning ticket! I am also realizing how much food can be a distraction. There are so many, many choices and sometimes I think of eating when I'm not even hungry...just fidgety or bored. How much time do I spend thinking about food that I could be spending in a much better way?
February 16, 2010 @ 9:48 PM
7. Sharla Gottschalk wrote:: DAY 5
"I get it! Why do I need to keep doing this?!" It started as a mummured grumbling the afternoon of Day 4. Friday morning it was an inner scream! 9 am and I am hungry. Again! I already HAD "breakfast" . Seriously? I have three more hours? God, I get the point. What good is my personal hunger really doing anyone who is living like this? Nothing. They aren't eating the food I leave in the refrigerator. I can donate the money whether I eat cheaply or not. I already have felt some of the sensation of waking up, walking around, going to bed hungry. What does this really matter? I "get it"!!

That is when I heard it. The exact words and tone that my children use when they sort of understand what I want them to, and they want me to shut up. "I get it, Mom!" But they don't. Not really, or they'd use a different tone, and completely different words -apology or some other humble clarity of understanding. Ouch.

Quietly the Lord reminds me of what I already know. Those I am standing with do this always, for me it is just these few days. Just finish this last day, He asks. I can't resist Him. I know He has more for me. I truly can't imagine what, but I see that I am at a point of real resistance and that must mean something. I don't anger easily. So I say yes.

I already love to give. I was well taught by parents who lived a life of faith, on little income. Our livelihood was a blessing. Our personal talents and gifts were from God. I have always seen financial blessings in my life as a joyful opportunity & responsiblity to share, and to be good stewards. What more am I supposed to do, LORD?

As always, he answered. The kernel of an idea came to me, but it's personal. I think for me that was the point. Maybe it needs to become more personal, effect me more intimately, again.

I am taking a step of faith, believing I am on His path to truly "getting it." We'll see.
February 20, 2010 @ 2:53 PM

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