Mission Year Meals: Saturday

Saturday is the night we host our community dinner. We invite neighbors, friends from church, co-workers, or some combination of those to come to our house and share a meal. It’s out biggest meal of the week, so we sometimes have to get creative about how to make our money go farther. This week, though, we hosted our next-door neighbors, an older couple that look out for us and chat with us on the porch regularly. They were the first people we met in the neighborhood, so we’ve been trying to have them over since then! Finally we had them over to enjoy a meal with us.

On the menu: White Cheese and Chicken Lasagna!

Head Chef: Priscillia.

Sous Chef: Walter Levi

Check out the recipe here!

Actually this week we were a little ahead of the game, buying some of the ingredients last week, including the lasagna noodles, chicken broth, some of the cheese, and spinach.

Here’s the cost break-down:

One block of mozzarella cheese $1.99

Boneless, Skinless Chicken $5.98

Italian Bread $1.99

We have on hand many of the ingredients necessary for the recipe: onions, garlic, flour, milk, and spices.

In addition, our neighbors brought over a salad and dessert to complement our lasagna.

TOTAL: $10.00

Saturday’s meal is the most difficult to keep in budget, but with generosity from our neighbors and a little bit of planning ahead, we enjoyed a tasty meal and delightful conversation about our neighborhood, encountering critters in the city, home remedies for sickness, and Catholic traditions, with plans penciled in to visit mass at our neighbors’ parish.

Mission Year Meals: The Grocery List

Many of my friends were intrigued (or should I say shocked?) that my daily food budget is a little more than $2.00 a day, which totals to $117 for my team for the week. Some of you don’t believe that we actually eat enough to survive. This is the first in a series of posts this week to prove to you that we are not only surviving but thriving with plenty to eat and actually hosting guests for dinner once a week!

Early on we established a system for feeding ourselves that has endured until now. For some context to this conversation, here’s our system:

• Everyone is on their own each day for breakfast and lunch.
• For dinner, we are divided into pairs that plan and cook two meals each week, with everyone taking point on one meal a week.
• Every month we switch pairs and switch nights of the week, so that we cook with different people on different days.
• For example, this month I cook with Sophie on Sundays and Thursdays. If we decide that she will take point on Sundays, then I take point on Thursdays, providing the recipe and leadership in the meal preparation.
• We eat together for dinner whenever we can, which is most days, but we always eat together on Family Dinner night, which right now is Mondays.
• On Saturdays, we host a Community Dinner, inviting neighbors and friends from work or church.
• On Fridays, our Sabbath days, no one cooks.
• The pair that cooked the night before does dishes. On Saturday, the Thursday cooking team does dishes.

Now here are some of our operational systems for buying groceries:

• Each week on Saturday morning we create a grocery list, naming items we need for breakfast, lunch, and for each dinner.
• We allot ten dollars for each dinner, leaving about $50 for lunch and breakfast for the week.
• A group of three or four of us goes shopping and the rest of us stay behind to clean the house.

 

The grocery store we frequent is Save-a-Lot, a discount store that carries few name-brand items and has a somewhat limited selection. It’s about five blocks away (depending on how you count blocks), and we usually walk, although there is a bus that goes straight from our block to the store.

We’ve pretty well mastered the layout of the store, and it doesn’t take long for us to fill our cart with the items we seek. We record the cost of each item as we pick it up, and at the end of our spree we add it up and make sure it’s within our budget of $117. Usually it is, but sometimes we have to make hard decisions about what to put back to stay within the budget. 

For example, this week we didn't buy much meat, but we had a lot of dairy products on our list. When we counted up the costs, we were initially at $121. We talked through what we could put back, and ended up getting blocks of cheese instead of bags of shredded cheese, and traded one pack of sliced American cheese for imitation. We also considered putting back the ground turkey in favor of ground beef, but our cheese compromises saved us enough to stay at $115.

Starting on Saturday, I will post our individual dinner meals, sharing recipes and cost-saving ingredients. Each day’s post will be about what we ate exactly one week earlier, so don’t get confused when I reference a Super Bowl party on Sunday! I hope you enjoy this series—it has been fun so far to make it. And hopefully the doubters will believe that we eat and eat well--with just $117!

Team Covenant

The following is the covenant that I and my teammates strive to uphold in our lives:

We the Southwest Philly Team—Priscillia, Sophilia, Denise, Walter-Levi, Preston, and Nichole, in accordance with our commitment to Jesus, hereby commit to uphold the following:

·         Edifying each other through speech (Ephesians 4:29, James 1:19)

o   Not partaking in:

§  Gossip

§  Sarcasm

§  Racial Jokes

o   Encouraging and affirming each other

o   Being quick to listen and slow to speak

·         Sustaining our community through committing to intentional relationships. (Galatians 5:22-23)

o   Out-serving one another

o   Extending grace and mercy

o   Self-care

o   Ensuring that our home is a safe space for daily interaction

o   Celebrating victories and mourning losses

o   Biblical conflict resolution

§  Being present

§  Staying in the midst of conflict

§  Addressing all conflict

o   Having fun

·         Maintaining the values of the technology fast.

o   Sustaining a lifestyle of simplicity

o   Being present in conversation and group activities

o   Embracing solidarity with our neighbors

o   Learning to rely on each other as our main support system

·         Transformation of our neighborhood through:

o   Upholding and adding to the dignity of our neighbors

o   Building relationships

o   Pursuing sustainable community and justice

o   Utilizing a multiplex model to build community connections

o   Empowering our neighbors and encouraging their dreams

We commit to uphold the key pillars of the Mission Year program: community service, church partnership, relational impact, justice, Christian community, spiritual discipline, simplicity, and diversity. In doing so, we embrace one another as a family and, to us, family means loving each other in a way that nobody gets left behind or forgotten. We will spur one another on towards God, in faith (Hebrews 10:24-25), to fulfill this covenant. Furthermore, we commit to reviewing this covenant with each other regularly.

Disconnecting?

Most days when I’m between activities or have a few minutes of time to kill, I turn to my iPhone for entertainment or distraction. Often I will go to my New York Times app to review the latest headlines or read an article that seems interesting. Today I had a moment on the shuttle to do just that and discovered an article discussing a popular YouTube video which drew attention to the fact that human interaction, especially in my generation, is more and more dominated by the presence of 4-inch, hand-held screens such as the one from which I read the article.

Although I encourage you to read it yourself by following this link, it discusses the recent overwhelming tendency to document everything through different social media outlets: “People make dinner reservations on OpenTable; check in on Foursquare when they arrive at the restaurant; take a picture of their food to share on Instagram; post on Twitter a joke they hear during the meal; review the restaurant on Yelp; then, finally, coordinate a ride home using Uber.” But it also discusses pushback against such hyper-connectivity to technology. Some bands are forbidding concert-goers from recording their performances, and some restaurants no longer allow patrons to take pictures of their food. And the video that inspired the article shows dissatisfaction among friends of those recording live performances or posting pictures of food.

I found this article interesting because part of my Mission Year will include embracing a simpler lifestyle that doesn’t include such hyper-connectivity. In fact, I’ll be fasting from all use of technology for the first 7 weeks of my year! Some people ask, “By all technology, what do you mean?” And my response: “All technology.” That means facebook, computer, internet, texting, calling, cell phones, movies—everything. (Yes, I will have my cell phone to use in an emergency, but I won’t be constantly connected to it like I am right now.)

Why the technology fast? Several reasons. Technology can cause many distractions from face-to-face connections. In the MY handbook, it explains that, “Rather than dealing with the issues that you will face as a result of living in a new city and with a community, you will be tempted to ‘escape’ from the issues,” by turning to a movie, a game, or even a phone call to a friend outside of Mission Year. But removing those crutches will help me to remain present in the face of a difficult situation such as a conflict with a Mission Year teammate. 

We also fast from use of technology to be present with those in our new neighborhood, entering into a context that is not as heavily saturated with technology and social media, sometimes because of a lack of access to it. Again, removing those elements from my life will increase my capacity to be present and connect with my neighbors.

Some people can’t handle the idea of completely disconnecting. I must admit that I don’t fully know what to expect. I’m like most people in saying that I appreciate the idea of it, but I’m not sure how it will be to actually practice it. In truth, the principle of being present in my neighborhood means NOT being present with other people that I care about. It will be hard to limit my contact with my family and close friends who are normally just on the other side of a text message or phone call. I’ll even be limited in my ability to engage with friends living in Philadelphia who are NOT in Mission Year. In a way, I’m straddling a line between two worlds.

But the technology fast is not just about denying myself. Disconnecting from one world means connecting to another in new and more genuine ways. The life I have lived so far has not allowed me to connect with a neighborhood like Southwest Philly, and if I'm going to take seriously my charge to love God and love people in that neighborhood, then I need to be fully present and connected to it in every way that I can. I will miss the ability to check my New York Times app for interesting articles such as the one I stumbled upon today. But I think the activities and relationships that will replace it will make it more than worthwhile.

Gratitude and Humility

After this week, I am ever so close to finishing my fundraising for Mission Year! A couple of events pushed me so close that I can taste it! One was last Sunday when my family and I hosted several friends, many of whom have already supported my Mission Year financially, for a graduation and send-off party. We intended it to be a time for me to connect with friends in Charleston before I leave in a couple of weeks, and to thank the many people who have supported me so far.

The first guests arrived promptly at 3:00, the starting time of my drop-in. For some reason, I was surprised when they handed me an envelope. Now I realize that it is customary to bring a gift to a party celebrating a momentous life occasion such as graduating from college. But for some reason I didn't expect that this time. As more and more guests piled into our somewhat cramped home, most of them presented envelopes upon arrival, and suddenly I had a large stack piling into a chair near the front door, the impromptu gift depository. At one point I had a couple of minutes in between conversations to consider that each envelope probably had a check inside (also customary for a graduation party). I felt tears well up that I quickly suppressed. I know it was my party, but I didn't want to cry.

The tears were of gratitude, something that I have felt over and over throughout my fundraising process. And that is a rather different reaction from four years ago when I graduated from high school. My family hosted a party then, too, but at that party I was counting the number of envelopes as they piled up. I couldn't wait to open them and total up the money I had “earned” by graduating from high school.

That old sense of entitlement seeped into my Mission Year fundraising at first. I have raised thousands of dollars of support for several different endeavors, so committing to Mission Year and $12,000 of fundraising wasn’t overwhelming to me, even though it is by far the largest sum I’ve attempted to raise. I have been a part of many churches that taught me by example the meaning of generosity. So I had complete expectation that they would teach me again how the Lord equips those He calls. But the faith the Lord has given me is not always seasoned with humility or gratitude.

That’s where the (almost) tears came from. Raising $12,000 offers a lot of opportunity for humility and gratitude. Here are a few of them:

One of the very first people to make a donation was a friend from freshman year that I had not kept up with as much as I always wished I did. Even though we hadn’t spoken in months, he promptly made a donation online when I first announced my commitment to MY. I might expect that from a Christian friend who shared my same passion for justice (one such acquaintance from church made a $200 donation). This friend does not fit that description. I was humbled by the gift coming out of the blue toward a mission that didn’t match the giver.

Several students still in college have given $50, $100, and even $200! Granted, I went to a private school where most students have wealthy families, but it’s still humbling to have peers--college students--give that much!

Even more humbling is to hear the story of a friend and financial supporter whose life has been marked by tragedy and, in its wake, financial hardship. After sharing about how the Lord has shown His faithfulness through the provision of others, she handed me an envelope with $100 inside. In the midst of hardship, she had learned the importance of generosity. Let me tell you, it’s humbling to receive from the humbled.

Other college friends gave out of their hard-earned summer paychecks, some with large, one-time gifts and others with smaller gifts out of each paycheck over the course of the summer. Knowing how precious that cash can be, I was humbled.

Also humbling are the gifts of family friends whose love is rooted in memories of me as a child. Their support has always been there, and only now do I appreciate it.

It is really those that give on a regular basis that draw out the most gratitude. Several dear friends and family members have been giving for several months now, becoming my largest financial supporters. Although I am tempted to feel entitled to those monthly gifts, they also hold the greatest potential for humbling me because they came once…and then again. And again. And again! And they continue to come. Each gift is more humbling.

And finally I’ll share the second event that pushed me very close to finishing fundraising. On Wednesday night, my church home for this summer, First Baptist Church of Ravenel, voted to give $1,200 toward MY expenses! What an unexpected blessing, another humbling experience.

And that’s where I am now. I’ve been hit with generosity so many times that I couldn’t handle the sight of the envelopes sitting in that chair by the door last Sunday. In fact, I delayed opening them for a bit to keep from facing it. But gratitude and humility are not to be staved off. Thank you to all of my supporters, from the $5 one-time giver to the $100 monthly giver, for so many opportunities for gratitude.

Stay tuned for another post about all of the fun details I’ve recently learned about what I’ll be doing during my year in Philadelphia!

Reflections on Simplicity

One of the disciplines that will become a part of my life during Mission Year is simplicity. The Mission Year handbook explains it this way: "A lifestyle of simplicity challenges cultural values of individualism and materialism while helping you better relate to your neighbors from a position of humility and mutuality rather than power and privilege."

As I learned about Mission Year during the application process, I was excited about many of its facets. Simplicity was one of the most exciting. The Lord has been slowly working through many issues related to money, possessions, and insecurity in my life for a while. My brokenness in this area existed at many levels, and it has been a journey just untangling it all.

Like many people in our culture, I was caught up in image at a young age. Starting in fifth and sixth grade, I became obsessed with matching colors, name brands, and cool hair. It's funny to look at pictures now, but those early habits built deep insecurity into how I thought of myself. They began to have serious implications for all my social interactions. I constantly questioned and wondered how people perceived me. It wasn't until college that I realized I was dressing and styling, and then speaking and even leading, for everyone except myself.

A second layer of brokenness was the impact of the bargain-hunting culture. I became uncomfortable and unable to spend more than a certain amount of money on a single item of clothing, and I could never pass up a bargain sale if it presented itself at a time when I had money to spend. This seems like it would be a great setup, right? Unfortunately, it landed me with a bunch of clothes bought at great prices that I only half-way liked. You can imagine that so-so clothes and an obsession with image made for an unhappy person.

The Lord began untangling this brokenness last year during Lent, when I fasted my wardrobe. I wore only one pair of pants and two shirts for 40 days and took every moment of insecurity as an opportunity to pray. (And yes, I changed underwear and undershirts and socks.) This experiment in simplicity exposed so much in my life, helping me to become comfortable with dressing myself to express myself and spending a little more money on clothes that expressed me well.

I was inspired to write because today I took three trash bags full of clothes to Goodwill, another exercise in simplicity. Returning home for the summer revealed how much stuff I have: all that I had taken to school plus all that I had left at home. Usually I can just store parts of my wardrobe for the summer, but coming home without the expectation of going back to Emory has forced me to purge. I purged items that were the wrong size or an outdated style but also a couple of items I really like, just to break my attachment.

Looking ahead to September and Mission Year, I expect this is just the beginning of my journey with simplicity. But like I said, I couldn't be more excited about that! Who can pass up the bargain of trading in brokenness and insecurity for restoration identity?