We finally made it to the end! Yay!
I’m just glad we got here. I think this year I felt hungrier more often. Maybe its cause we have so many snacks lying around. We did our grocery shopping on Day 5 which didn’t help. I also bought food for a party we are having at our Teens Fellowship this Sunday.
For dinner I took out all the leftover food we had to make some fried rice. Surprisingly there was quite a bit which we won’t finish. Honestly I don’t really want to finish it since I am pretty sick of the taste of everything…
Chris wanted to celebrate with a meal at midnight, but I value my sleep more than food…woke up in the morning to find Macca’s takeaway bags in the bin and two cokes in the fridge. I thought I might take it easy to ease back into normal food (last year I got an upset stomach) so I had something pretty plain.
Then we went off for the activities of the day. We headed up north to a seminar. One of the highlights (besides the thoughtful content) was morning tea. I was so happy! We also picked up lunch and ate at church.
My ‘taking it easy’ thoughts disappeared momentarily. The taste of it was SO good. Thankfully my stomach feels fine.
Sometimes as Christians when we are asked to pray for people suffering far away, it feels too remote, we can’t really understand their situation. I suppose being on LBL has helped me to have just a small taste of what they feel and think on a daily basis which helps inform my prayers as well.
Ultimately our model is Jesus, who cared for the physical needs of people:
“I have compassionon the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with Me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry,they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a long distance.” (Mark 8:2-3)
He then feeds them in the events of Mark 8 and John 6. Yet he recognises that when they eat, they will go hungry again. He offers a more permanent solution:
‘“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again.”‘ (John 6:35)
Thanks for cheering us on, encouraging and asking about us. The challenge certainly wasn’t just about us but all of you together with us on our way to contribute to alleviating poverty in PNG and together with everyone else and their supporters.
My hope and prayer is that us – particularly Christians; can recognise the responsibility we have with the abundance of material blessing that has been given to us and use it wisely to serve those who really need it in real, practical ways. Not just in a ‘convenient’ way, but perhaps in a way that takes some sacrifice; sacrifice of our comforts or sacrifice in our monetary giving, whatever the cause.
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/gracelung
Grace Lung 