Thursday, March 2, 2017

$3.10 Poverty Challenge: Day 2

Day 2 of the $3.10 Poverty Challenge began once again by feeding myself on the Word of God with a continued study from Women of the Bible about Potiphar’s Wife. Yesterday’s revelation, that every choice to sin or not to sin is reminiscent of that first Garden choice, continues to play through my mind. Today, though, I’m reminded that the immediate circumstance in which we find ourselves making a particular choice ought not dictate our decision (pleasure or pain) and that God blesses those who have pure hearts and lead upright lives (1 Chronicles 29:17). What better reason to choose the tree of life?

I’d been putting off cutting my hair thinking some new style would better suit me only to reach my overheating limit after that long walk yesterday. This morning, I hacked it all off. What I hadn’t counted on was that the longer hairs needed no styling gel and the shorter hairs do. Whoops. Oh well, flat short hairs it is for these next 9 days. Just call me pinhead. Men here get their hairs shaved about every two to four weeks, this seems to be non-negotiable regardless of your financial circumstances.

Sunday I will be preaching at the Malindi Prison and so I spent part of the day preparing a sermon based in large part on the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, and the various revelations and parallels to these men in prison. I also worked on talking points of sorts for leaders who want to communicate to their stakeholders the benefits of attending our ministry-teaching. I realize that less is more, but that’s not my gift for sure. We’ll find out how the first two recipients respond and adjust from there. Finally, I have a meeting in Watamu tomorrow with the leader of the Watamu Pastors’ Fellowship to discuss the April workshop and the August short-term ministry team program as well as some ideas about short business films filled with ideas for African startups.

Recall that I saved 0.23 cents from yesterday and add to that today’s $2.20 so I began the day with $2.43. Now, I know that I’ll need $3.00 for transportation alone to attend tomorrow’s meeting so I need to save more money again today so that I’ll have enough for that transportation as well as a small bit for food.

Expenses
Photocopy a receipt      0.03
SMS messages              0.03

Dinner can be another sandwich (only three pieces of bread left) (0.10 cents) with peanut butter (0.10 cents). My vegetables are gone and I was too lazy to walk to the corner to buy more so maybe I’ll have an extra helping of nuts (0.20 cents). If you think about it, a simple sandwich and some nuts is a pretty healthy and simple meal if I’m only going to eat one. With this, my cash balance for Friday will be $1.97. That added to tomorrow’s $2.20 will be $4.17 minus the $3.00 for transportation is $1.17 for food and phone. Seems like it should work out okay.


Today’s Challenge: Walk to work.