What I'll be putting in the foodbank (final thoughts on living below the line)

This morning for breakfast I had a sausage sandwich. I had saved a couple of sausages from dinner in the week earlier thinking it would be a treat. I did enjoy it but what I really wanted was a bowl of cereal full of milk, and a piece of toast with margarine.

Here's what I'll be putting in the food bank collection based on this year's live below the line challenge.

1. Obviously the basics. Rice, pasta, porridge, tinned veg and fruit. And milk, powdered or UHT. I've been donating that since last year's challenge.

2.Things to add taste. Salt, pepper, stock, anything you fancy from the herbs and spices aisle. These are not affordable if you're on the breadline. This week, food that tasted of something was such a novelty.

3. Things to spread on bread. I've looked at my value bread several times this week and thought I could eat that but I've got nothing to put on it. Also, if you're struggling to buy food you're probably also struggling to pay energy costs so some days bread might be it. So, jam, peanut butter, Marmite, heck why not a jar of nutella? And on that note...

4. A sweet treat or a "luxury". I don't mean champagne. As I walked around the supermarket with my £5 for five days I realised that 90% of the shop had become a luxury item that I couldn't have. So, teabags and coffee, biscuits, instant hot chocolate etc. I loved the idea that went around at Christmas to donate advent calendars. Alice and I went back and put in Easter eggs too although I wish I'd put in more. I can't help thinking that when life is being cruel a little kindness goes a long way.

Why I'm living below the line (and where I get a bit political)

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it"

To Kill a Mockingbird

Going hungry for a week increases my capacity for compassion. Last year while doing this challenge I was reading stories on the Tearfund website. I read about a mum in an African community that had recently received a supply of clean water. She said that her children were no longer ill with diarrhea every day. 

I've found it hard to get through the day on the food available to me. But I have a ready supply of water. I don't have to grow my own food in hard soil with the sun beating down on my back. I don't have to walk to get dirty water, or send one of my children. I cannot imagine having to do all that and then having sick children every day- because of that water that I worked so hard to collect. And to not have clean clothes readily available, or any water to clean the children up with. Do you know, the people in that community didn't even know it was the water making them ill? No one had bothered to tell them.

1.2 billion people in extreme poverty is 1.2 billion tragedies. If we can change a few, lets do it. 

On a different note altogether, there's something I need to get off my chest. The character of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird stood out for his belief that a human being is a human being no matter what the colour of his skin. In today's political climate, where refugees are left to drown in the med and we talk of the poor as 'scroungers' and wonder whether immigrants deserve to eat, I feel like we are heading back to a time where a belief that some humans are worth less than others is rife. I am sure I am preaching to the converted here but it is a chilling thought.

www.livebelowtheline.com/me/mariewillingham

Live below the line- day one

I've been shopping for my 'livebelowtheline' week. This is what £5 in Tesco got me.

1 pack of frozen mixed veg.
2 tins baked beans
1 tin chopped tomatoes
6 eggs
1 carton uht milk
1 loaf value wholemeal bread
40 teabags
1 pack rich tea biscuits
1 pack rice

So that's it for the week. I'm allowed to work out the price of oil, salt, herbs and spices per gram so I left a few pence for that. Otherwise I am not allowed to use things out of my stock cupboard. If I wanted a bit of flour I'd have to budget for a bag of flour and I haven't. And I can't accept handouts. Please donate instead, even if it's giving me £1 when you see me ( I can collect offline as well as online.)

I've learned a few things from shopping last year. I don't need variety- I don't need rice and pasta. There are some brilliant cheap, tasty, inventive recipes out there but I didn't really care if it was bland as long as it filled me up. (Except for porridge with water. That was unbelievably disgusting and I was still hungry. If you eat that you have my admiration.)

I have budgeted for a couple of things that are luxuries rather than necessities, namely teabags and biscuits. Giving up caffeine is another challenge for another week. My family don't deserve to live with me hungry and caffeine deprived. (Its 20p for a value pack of teabags. I didn't actually buy it because I like to buy fairtrade, but I took the 20p out of my budget and counted out 40 teabags from my stash.) I will no doubt drink less tea due to the limited milk I have. I don't know if anyone remembers but last year I became slightly obsessed with milk, or lack of it. So this year it's in the budget. And the biscuits- if I don't allow myself something to grab between meals I'll fall at the first hurdle. They were only 23p.

In many ways this is not true to real life poverty. I'm living like this for 5 days only, just me, not my family. Already, like last year, I have become very aware of all the things that my £1 doesn't have to stretch to- the clothes and shoes my family are wearing, their education and healthcare, the car I drove to Tesco in and the petrol I put in it. But for the 1.2 billiion people that this is in aid of, that £1 does have to stretch to that.

Thanks to generous friends I am already only £30 short of my fundraising target. I usually get between 25 and 40 people reading a post. So if you all donated £1 each...  A little can go a long way to helping.

www.livebelowtheline.com/me/mariewillingham

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 
1 John 3

Living below the line

I'm getting ready to take the 'living below the line' challenge for the second time.

There are 1.2 billion people worldwide who live in extreme poverty- they have £1 a day (or the equivalent purchasing power) to live on. For them that includes everything- food, drink, education, you name it. Global Citizen run this challenge along with many charities to raise awareness and funds.

So, from 27th April or thereabouts, for 5 days I have £1 a day to spend on all my food and drink. I am raising money for Tearfund, and any donations will go to help some of the world's poorest people. (Please sponsor me!!)

I've learned a few things from last year. It was an eye opener in how much choice I have and how much I waste. I also had some interesting conversations. I talked to a lot of people about food banks in the UK, as I saw just how far £1 goes (not very) in the supermarket. I am more than happy to talk about food poverty in the UK- in fact there's an election coming up, lets talk about it!! But the focus of this challenge is more on developing countries, where people have nothing. No water. No ready access to healthcare, or education. Real, grinding, exhausting poverty.

 I will soon be boring you on facebook, instagram and everywhere else with pictures of my bland repetitive meals. In the meantime please sponsor me!


I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. Matthew 25

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5

Because I don't write about chocolate enough

Today was one of those caffeine-and chocolate days. Well most days are but Alice fell out of her bed last night and didn't get back to sleep for a while so today was a bit more extreme. ( I'm prodding her to stop her from falling asleep as I write.) And I had such good intentions about healthy eating today too. I'm really good at good intentions. 

Anyway after lunch I went to the kitchen cupboard to sneak some mini eggs then persuaded Alice she wanted some Easter chocolate just so we could have the tub open and I could share. I picked up my phone to read my Instagram verse of the day. 

'How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. ' Psalm 119:103

Anyone would think He knew.

Next time I need something to pick me up or get me through, looks like I should go somewhere other than (or as well as) the kitchen cupboard.

The voiceless will sing

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

Isaiah 35

When I was 20 I spent three months in Israel. I stayed on Mount Carmel. It was our autumn but it was hot and sunny. One day it rained- just a little. And as I went outside the guest house where I was working, I saw that the tiny bit of rain had caused some beautiful small flowers to appear in the sandy earth. 

A little bit of rain brought forth life from dusty earth. 

I recently discovered Isaiah 35. I'm sure I must have read it before, but it felt brand new. (I love that the bible never grows old or stale, no matter how long I read it.) I discovered a wonderful vision of what it will be like when Jesus renews all things.

Imagine a desert, a parched land, a wilderness. Its not hard, just switch on the news. Nigeria under Boko Harem. A refugee camp as big as a city in Syria. The isolated elderly neighbour or the desperation of the person feeding his family from a foodbank. Now apply these verbs: 

Rejoice 

Blossom 

Shout for joy

Be glad

Strengthen the fearful

Why? 

God is coming. 

The wilderness shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom. Anywhere that is scorched or dry will become a pool of cool refreshing water. This is an image of abundance. Not just a sprinkle of rain and a few small flowers. Whole deserts springing forth with flowers. No more thirst. No more lack. The majesty of mountains given to dry and parched, featureless lands. 

This is what the glory, the majesty of God looks like. 

The next part makes my 'mum to special needs' heart rejoice. The lame will walk. The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The voiceless will sing. Those who can't speak and those with no one to listen, your time is coming. 

Then, a road. A highway. A highway of peace, of safety, of holiness and salvation. A highway full of joyful songs, a highway that leads to God's city. 

I can't wait. 

Good Friday and the big 'God and suffering' question.

Does this question ever go away?

Don't our hearts keep asking, even if we understand with our minds, every time we are faced with it again?

Why does a loving God allow suffering?

Today is the day when we remember the cross. The nails. The death of Jesus.

Suffering is woven into the fabric of the Christian faith. Its at its very heart.

When we ask this question with our hearts turned to him, he meets us.

It matters that our God took on a human body. He had arms that ached and a body that tired. He had hands that bled when the nails went through.

He chose that cross. For me, for you. Instead of me, instead of you.

Today is the day he gave us himself.

We can't tell Jesus he doesn't know what we are going through- because he does.
We can't tell him he doesn't care, because he does.
We can't say he is distant, because he left heaven for us, and went to hell and back for us.

Today is the day that shows that he is the light in every darkness, the light that never goes out.
Today is the day to remind us that he is the everlasting arms.
And coming is the day of glorious light, of glorious hope.

Let him meet you in that place, in that question. Let his love become your comfort, your treasure, your joy, your hope.

Can I ask you a question? What do you want him to give you? Because what he wants to give you is- himself.

'I have loved you with an everlasting love.' Jeremiah 31

'The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.' Deuteronomy 33

'For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet he did not sin.' Hebrews 4: 15