The $100 Challenge

Before I left Canada, a friend handed me $100 to take to Fiji (which, given the exchange rate, nearly doubled her money in Fiji dollars) and said, “do something good with this”. Despite the fact that she is a very sweet and thoughtful friend, I was still taken aback by her generosity and not really too sure what I was going to do with her money. Her challenge was wide open and I really had no clue what I was going to do, so I just tucked that money into my brassiere...

I'm totally kidding. I'm not 80 years old. 


At least not yet.

As I was attending DTS, I starting praying about how to use the money. I asked around, trying to find the best way possible to use her money to be a blessing. There were some good suggestions and ideas, but nothing was jumping out at me. I really wanted to find just the right thing, something tangible and meaningful, as well as something that could involve the entire DTS team. Some thing that meant something. Something spectacular. And something that oozed love.

Gotta live a life of love, right?

As we went on outreach, visiting with people in their homes, sharing our stories and the love of Jesus, I kept looking around for that spectacular idea. And one idea kept coming to me over and over and over again. It wasn't spectacular, yet it was everything to them. And it was something that meant everything to Jesus:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer Him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
(Matthew 25.35-40 ESV)

So this is the story of our $100 Challenge- or, what I referred to as Random Acts of Food. Read on, meet the families, the widows, the sick and the children that we met and gave and loved.

Ben and Kaba (pronounced Kum-ba) helped me do the shopping for our grocery packs, as I had no idea what to buy. It was a bit of a challenge for me, as I had to remember that very few people have refrigerators or freezers, so things like a frozen chicken were out. And although I had already been in Fiji for 3 months, I really still had little idea what foods were staples. Ben and Kaba helped me pick things that were not only needed, but would also last a long time. So, thank you Ben and Kaba for all of your help!

Lotsa flour, milk, sugar, rice, tea, canned meat plus a few treats! 

 Thank you Ben & Kaba for your help!

Let's spend some money!

1. We gave one package to an older widow who is on welfare. The welfare system in Fiji is very new and is honestly hardly any help at all. This woman receives only $50/month for housing and other expenses and $30/month for groceries, which does not even come close to covering her living expenses. She is all alone and no one is helping her, even though she has a son who lives near by. Her eyesight is very poor and she has a really bad cataract in one of her eyes. She really had nothing and is lonely. She was in tears when the team delivered her package.

2. Another package went to a family that we met at one of our medical outreaches. The father had recently had a stroke and was now wheelchair bound in a rural area that definitely was not made for wheelchairs. His son, who had been living on a different island with a good job, moved back to his parents' house to help care for his dad. He and his mother were looking for jobs to support the family, but they haven't been able to find anything yet.

3. We left another parcel with one of the nurses at the nursing station at our second medical outreach in Nadarivatu for a single mom. According to the nurses, this young mom may possibly be slightly mentally challenged and has no source of income. She has been taken advantage of by different men who have left her with children but no support. She comes to the nursing station once a month so the nurses can check on her children and give her milk for her malnourished children.

4. We gave a package to an elderly man who had multiple boils for 2 months. He had come to the village we were in to see the local doctor and was being taken care of by some local women. He died 4 days later.

These are just a few of the stories that were made possible by my friend's $100 challenge. If you'd like to read a bit more and see a few more families whose lives were changed by my friend's $100 challenge, click HERE to see the Facebook album.

And thank you, my Friend, for being a blessing, for blessing our team, blessing these people and giving us this challenge.

Thanks for reading,

Christy