Matthew 25 Challenge Day 1: To Be Known

This week, things on the blog and on my social media are going to be looking a little bit different. It's because this week, we are being challenged together through the World Vision Matthew 25 Challenge. In case you missed it, here's how you can join! It's not too late to opt in. Simply text M25 to 44888 and join me across social media @msrachelteodoro and follow the #m25challenge. "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat." Today's challenge is to skip lunch and break your fast this evening with a rice and beans dinner. If you watched today's video, I loved how it was pointed out that fasting without prayer is just dieting! So don't forget to pray as you go about your day.

Family Challenge: Don't forget to set aside some time today to watch the Ekai video with your family and have tea together. Don't miss the hunger trivia quiz in the M25 family guide. 

Matthew 25 Challenge Day 1: To be Known

Several years ago, I shared a challenge to fast for the famine in East Africa. 

2017 World Vision/Photo credit Jon Warren

Here is a little excerpt from the Fasting for Famine blog post in 2017 We read a lot of Dr. Seuss in our house. My husband grew up with the stories and the legacy has lived on as we read them to our children. The large hardcover books have made their home on the bookshelves of every one of our three kids and even though the youngest is in middle school, we still find ourselves flipping through our favorites from time to time. 

There is one book called "Horton Hears a Who" that is a family favorite. The elephant named Horton is splashing in a pool when he hears a speck of dust talking to him. Horton vows to take care of the voices he hears on the speck because after all "a person's a person, no matter how small." And while I love that profound statement, that's not why this book came to mind. Last week, I shared with you a little bit of information about the East Africa Hunger Crisis. I consider myself fairly informed about current events but as many as 25 million people are experiencing unprecedented hunger and famine, and it seems as though no one is talking about it. I feel like one of those small little Who voices from Who-ville speaking out, trying to be heard so that others can hear about what is happening in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya, and Somalia. I'm not a large news source. I'm not CNN or the Huffington Post, I'm a mom living in the suburbs of Seattle writing a blog trying to cry out for these people. In the book, Horton has to convince everyone around him that there are people on that speck of dust, and while I don't need to convince any of you that there are people dying of starvation in Africa {you just may not understand the gravity of it}, I did want to share with you one line from the book. Horton convinces the Mayor of Who-Ville to call a meeting of the Who's who tells them that they need to cry out loudly. And the books says "And his people cried loudly. They cried out in fear. We are here! We are here! We are here! We are here!" I feel like that is exactly what is happening. {click here to continue to read more}

You might also like: What you need to know about the famine in East Africa

After a trip with World Vision to Zambia, I was sitting in church still processing everything I had experienced. The sermon was on Zacchaeus but mostly it was about grace. The focus was on the concept of being known. In today's society, we are all struggling to be known. We post pictures of ourselves on social media, we tweet glimpses of our lives, we Instagram our moments. We have a desire to be known and to connect with others.  Every village we entered into on that trip in Zambia left us with the same message. Go. Tell our stories. Let others know about our suffering and rejoice with us in our thanksgiving. These people wanted to be known. 

I'd love to introduce you to some of those people so that you can know them as well. 

How did it feel to go hungry today? Share a picture of your simple meal of beans and rice at dinner or share something that challenged you about day 1.

Don't forget to join in and share your experience from the challenge today. Use #M25challenge to find, follow and post on social media.