Five-Day Solidarity Challenge

Rice and beans, usually a side dish, will be the sole entrée for five straight days as thousands of Creekers join in Celebration of Hope’s Five-Day Solidarity Challenge.  As part of the Limit Your Consumption phase of Celebration of Hope ’08: H unger, Creekers are challenged to eat like half the world eats every day of the year.

“To stand alongside our brothers and sisters living in poverty across the world, we’ll be eating what they eat,” said Willow Creek’s Compassion and Justice Director Heather Larson. “And typically they eat rice or beans.”  

Week One: Rice and Beans
Willow members Ryan and Cindy Chick and their daughters Elizabeth, 11, and Taylor, 8, got a head start on the Five-Day Challenge and Limit Your Consumption strategy. “We’ve been sponsoring a little girl from Uganda who eats rice daily,” said Cindy, “s o we decided as a family to eat only beans and rice for a week—and no eating out! The kids adapted well, but we grown-ups had a harder time. The monotony of it really wore on us.”  

Week Two: No Snacks
“Then came Week Two,” Cindy said. “To limit our consumption, we decided to eliminate all snacks from our diet.  This was harder on the kids.”  
“We normally get a snack after school, or maybe a snack after dinner,” said Taylor.  
“It was really hard to eat only at mealtimes,” said Elizabeth.
“Over the two weeks, we cut $125 out of our food budget,” said Cindy. “That provides 833 Feed My Starving Children meals! And the girls remembered the hungry in their prayers at night.  It’s cool that this issue is now on their radar.”

Everybody’s Doing It
Senior Pastor Bill Hybels said, “Last Tuesday, I challenged our whole staff on all of our campuses to be a part of this five-day eating challenge, and one hundred percent are in. They’re leading the way.” All of Willow’s e lders and t rustees are also participating. “Even if you don’t yet know God , do it for the poor, do it for the world,” Bill said to the congregation at weekend services. “I think it will have a spiritual impact on you as well.”

Just Do It!
For those joining the c hallenge, this means five days of rice, beans, plain oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, plain tortillas, and maybe a vegetable or small bit of meat, in quantities that will probably leave you hungry. “Day three, it’ll hit you,” said Bill. “You’ll think , ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to eat something else, to taste a different texture in my mouth?’ That’s when you realize there are people who eat the same thing every day, every week, every month, every year of their lives .”

How to join in the 5-Day Solidarity Challenge:

• Limit your grocery shopping to rice, beans, plain oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, and tortillas.
• For one week eat only these foods. A one-cup serving is considered generous in most parts of the world.
• Set aside the money you would have spent on additional groceries and redirect it toward the special offering to fight hunger, on Mother’s Day Weekend, May 10-11.

**Please use your discernment in determining a portion size that will allow you to function in a safe manner and to also experience what life is like for the other half of the world. Those with medical conditions should honor your physician's medical recommendations. Contact your doctor if you are unsure about participation in the challenge.

For more information check out www.willowcreek.org/COH08