Gratitude and Awe

I once read a story about a young Chinese boy who was lost and starving, eating leaves and dirt to stay alive. He came to a house where he was given a bowl of rice and gratefully filled his empty stomach. Ever since, I find a simple bowl of rice evokes a deep sense of gratitude for the most basic of foods. This whole week has been a rhythmic repetition of that theme—gratitude and awe over God’s creation, for simple and nutritious food from the earth.

On Monday morning I woke up extra early to cook rice and beans for breakfast. We’d offered the kids to have regular breakfasts and save the beans and rice for dinners, but Hannah announced she wanted to try our new diet for every meal. Dave, Hannah and I sat down to steaming plates of rice with savory kidney beans and a dollop of plain yogurt on top. The artificially colored marshmallows in the boys’ cold cereal bowls looked poor and processed in comparison.
I love not having to think about what to make for dinner. The beans go on to soak at noon. Sometime in the afternoon, I start them simmering. As the kids are doing homework, the spices are added. Then the rice goes on the stove. A few chopped veggies and some yogurt on the side, and we have a delicious meal.

We’ve even been trying new recipes from around the world, from our favorite cookbook, Extending the Table: a World Community Cookbook published by Faith and Life Press. Monday was Red beans and rice from Mexico, Tuesday Cuban-style black beans and rice from Puerto Rico, Wednesday spiced lentils and rice from Bangladesh, Thursday white beans and vegetables from Iran, and today we’ll have curried chickpeas from India. We find the country on the globe and pray for that country.

As Robert (a new attender of NPC) reminded me on Sunday, beans and rice isn’t a subsistence diet at all to much of the world. It’s the equivalent of a thanksgiving meal! Imagine that with our simple feasts all week, we are saving about $40-$50 in grocery money to pass on to World Vision. Isn’t that just like God, to hide a treasure of abundance in a veil of simplicity?

2 Corinthians 9:8, 10-11, 14-15 describes God’s generosity at work:
8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work….10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God…. 14And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Submitted by: Kristen Mark

Thoughts from Jennifer Fitz-Roy

I’ve had chronic pain for the past five years, and spent almost three years in such severe pain that I was unable to work or go to school. In January of last year, however, my physicians finally diagnosed and treated my problem. I still have pain on a daily basis, but it’s managed with medication, medical massage therapy, physical therapy, exercise, and prayer. However, every once in awhile, my pain becomes extremely severe to the point that it is incapacitating for several days.


As I began my sustenance diet on Monday morning, I started to experience a very sharp pain in the back of my thigh going down into my calf. The pain was much more severe than usual, and I was unsure of how long it would last. All day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I not only dealt with the feelings of hunger and lightheadedness from my sustenance diet, but also was in such severe pain that I couldn’t work or go to class. I spent those three days lying on my couch or in bed, taking pain medication, and praying. I prayed for the pain to go away and to be relieved of my suffering, but I also prayed to be drawn closer to God in the midst of my pain, knowing that Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness and difficulty.

Participating in the sustenance diet only intensified my difficulties. As I experienced the hunger and monotony from my diet, I found myself thinking about the individuals who eat like this every day, who are hungry, and who don’t have a choice. Those thoughts helped me to endure.

My thoughts about people experiencing hunger, and my pain flare-up and sustenance diet occurring at the same time caused me to begin thinking of people in other parts of the world who, like me, experience severe pain. I'm ashamed to admit it, but this is the first time I've ever really and seriously thought about people who have severe pain who are in different circumstances than my own. So while I was praying to God to help me endure through the pain, I found myself praying much more thanksgiving for the things in my life that help me with the pain, like medications (and physicians who are willing to prescribe them and insurance to pay for them), my physicians who were able to diagnose and treat me, my massage therapist and physical therapist, and things like heat/ice packs that I'm using at home, a comfortable bed with pillows and blankets, and even the DVDs that are keeping me entertained and distracted. Yesterday, my medical massage therapist noticed that I was in more pain than usual, and he spent double his usual time with me, working on my leg and alternating heat and ice. I am so thankful for his compassion, skill, and willingness to spend so much time to help me.

When I think of people in severe pain in other areas, I know that many don't have the comfort of pain medication, the expertise of physicians, the physical comforts that I do, or the opportunity to rest. We are called to be thankful in prayer, and just like this sustenance diet is helping me to be thankful for the abundance and variety of my regular diet, my realizations about the experiences of others in pain is helping me choose to pray with thanksgiving for the first time.

My pain has been under control today and I pray that I continue to do well, but most of all, I am praying with a very thankful heart for all that I have been given in the midst of my suffering.

Submitted by: Jen Fitz-Roy

I would consider myself a pretty healthy eater, after all, I did choose nutrition as a profession. However, just about the one and only food that I lack a desire to eat would be beans. I come from a long line of bean haters all marching to the banner of the beans texture being its main character flaw. I can eat them but its never my first choice. So the thought of eating just beans and rice all week almost sent me running for the door Sunday morning. Now I wouldn't have felt so bad for myself if it was just myself I had to feed because I could have stretched the definition of beans and rice just a bit, but being married to a willing beans and rice contestant makes the sneaking my normal foods somewhat of a challenge. So I relunctantly dragged the bag of beans out of the cupboard and set to work making enough (and just enough) to get us through the week. However, being a bean hater I realized very quickly that I do not know how to cook the darn things. Being ever aware of sodium in the canned varieties, our beans came like little pellets right out of a sack. I've been boiling them all day it seems yet they don't want to become soft. Talk about a test of patience. This week has shown me how much I have to be thankful for, how much I take for granted (like NOT usually having to cook something all day to make it palatable) and most importantly that I NEVER have the right to complain about my life. I thank God for the gift of this life and although I do not know why I was born here and not there I choose to do HIS will in this place today and forever with a grateful heart.

Submitted by: Jackie Hempel

Freedom From Food--Thoughts from the Johnston Family

We have offically completed day 4 of our "rice and beans" diet. Our children our 4,2 and 14 months so we are having oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast, a normal lunch (sandwich and fruit) and only a bowl of rice and beans for dinner. We have no snacks after lunch. (The baby is of course excluded). Barrett and I are taking it a step further by having rice and beans for lunch as well. Going into the week we were not sure how much impact this would have on our children but were excited to see what happened. All I can say is that the Lord works in amazing ways. Abram (4 years) has soaked it up. He and his little sister, Faith (2.5 years), had the most amazing conversation around the dinner table last night that started with the discussion of the poor kids in the world who "don't even have popsicles or gum" and ended with them talking about Jesus and how he lives in all kids hearts and how God will take them all to heaven to be with Him. Faith ended it with "Abram, I don't know where Heaven is but when I am 5 I will learn that".
This is not a diet. To me, fasting is freedom. The freedom from food and the role it plays in our lives. The freedom to NOT think about food. It seems like there is so much more time in the evenings to spend with family or to read rather than hang around the kitchen and snack while watching our favorite show. Fasting is something that has been a part of my family for a long time. Every year, my father fasts for 3 whole days leading up to Thanksgiving. He uses it as a focused time of prayer and a way to be reminded of all that he has to be thankful for. As a child, I remember my dad eating very small portions on Thanksgiving Day. Yes, because of the fast, he would have been sick to eat a lot but it was also because he felt like it wasn't a time for us to indulge. Food is a gift. So many people don't have it. We have too much of it. He always spoke of how grateful we should be to just sit around that Thanksgiving table and eat a meal together. I learned watching him (and later doing it with him) how much freedom I found in those 3 days of fasting. It is hard when you are hungry but it also provides some freedom to just be still and pray and be thankful. For 3 days, you don't have to think about food, the kitchen, snacks, etc...This week as actually been a little harder for me because I have to be around food and be disciplined about what and why we are eating. It has had such an impact on our family.

I am looking forward to the fast on Saturday. Although it is not easy, I pray that God will change my heart and mind and break my spirit so I have greater compassion for those that do not have the luxury of returning to a normal diet like we do. All of the encouragement from the entire NPC family has been amazing. We are so blessed to be a part of it!

Submitted by the Johnston Family

I'm not the only one who misses Starbucks

So this week we are on a subsistence diet which includes oatmeal, beans and rice. That means no Starbucks. I miss my Chai. But funny I am not the only one. Zach wanted a treat with his tea at snacktime and when he looked at the empty snack draw he turned to me and said "Can we go to Starbucks for a treat?"  Of course this week it's easy, I don't even have to think about how to respond. We are not hitting any restaurants or grocery stores this week. He quickly said "Well let's go to Starbucks and just have oatmeal. They have that there." (pretty clever I thought) . But again I said "Nope sorry bud." He sighed. And then I thought why not see how much he has taken in this week. And so I asked, 'Why?" "Why are we not going to Starbucks this week." Without hesitation he said, 'Because people who have nothing to eat don't ever get to go to Starbucks."

submitted by Nici Smith

Thoughts from the Campbell girls

Today is day 3 of our limited diet…


Elizabeth - It is very hard to eat only limited food when I usually eat a lot of fancy food like meat and I am  trying to get through it because I know a lot of families do not eat breakfast lunch and dinner. Me and my cousin Grace are e-mailing each other to check in to see how we are doing. It is much easier to do this with my buddy Grace.

Erin - Today at school there were birthday lunches for April, and my birthday is in April. When the principal offered me an ice cream sandwich I told him I could not eat it because my family is eating rice and beans like families in Africa and other places. It is hard to do this but I know I am doing a good thing. It is teaching us what it feels like to be hungry.

A little ones shall lead us....

So, today I need to brag about my kids. God has really blessed us as a family. We are learning lots about self-discipline and compassion for those who are in need. Today, Elizabeth has been toughing it out, wanting sugar but remaining resolved to stick with the subsistence diet. This is huge because Elizabeth eats every 12 seconds. Mary decided tonight to forego a soccer game (not usually a big deal but she has missed two of three games already due to a heel injury) to participate in the 30 Hour Famine on Saturday. And Erin, she was invited to a special birthday lunch with the principal for all the kids with April birthdays. She ate her meager lunch she brought and when the principal brought out cake and ice cream, she declined, and told the principal what she was doing at her church. Today I am tired and had a headache most of the day. So tonight I will go to bed inspired by my children's faithfulness.