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Advent Conspiracy Project: 2009

In 2002, ELI Congo joined forces with a number of parents and guardians in the Keredi slum of Bukavu to start the ELI Christian Academy. The school is now providing education to over 600 children, many of whom would otherwise have no opportunity to receive an education. The community calls the school a “jewel that dropped from heaven” as it seemed to appear suddenly with its buildings painted white, a huge contrast to the dirt surrounding the school, and continues to bring a new hope to the families living in the slum.

ELI and its partners soon realized that education could not be successful unless steps were taken to break the cycle of hunger in the area. A daily feeding program was introduced so that the children would received basic needs that would allow them to participate in learning without this hinderance. Recent economic downfalls have placed a huge hole in this program and ELI has reached out to FLOOD for ideas and help. Our Advent Conspiracy project this year will be both a direct financial aid to this program as well as an experiment in personal formation. We are extremely excited to celebrate the great love that announced “the Kingdom is at hand.” We hope you’ll join us.

The $2 A Day Project

There are more than 1 billion people in the world living at the margin of survival on less than $1 a day. 2.6 billion people live on less than $2 per day – which is 40% of the world’s population. Over 800 million of these poor suffer from chronic hunger, which means that their daily intake of calories is insufficient for them to lead active and healthy lives.

One of the amazing things about the coming of Jesus was that he became like us. He felt human emotion, experienced human relationships, and understood the people and struggle of his time. In an attempt to live in such a way, we are going to experiment in becoming like the billions of people around the world who today struggle to find resources for a meal. The challenge will be to eat for two weeks on only $2 a day beginning on November 29th and ending December 13th. As a family, look at your budget and figure out what you spend on food each week. On December 20th, we’ll take what we would have normally spent on food and aid in ELI’s school feeding program. On the night of December 13th, we’ll celebrate and break the fast. On the 20th we’ll be presenting our project to ELI. Acts of sacrifice and the experiencing of real human connections have defined the Advent season for FLOOD over the past few years and we are very excited to share in this year’s experiment with you.

So where do we go from here? As you, your family, and community pray over your involvement in this project, we want to create some outlets where people can collaborate and engage together. We will be reposting this information on the Flood Google Groups- an open forum where people can offer up ideas, thoughts, and encouragement throughout this process. We will also have opportunities to share in our weekly formation families and on our Sunday night public gatherings.

Again, we are really excited to participate in Advent Conspiracy and ELI with you and hundreds of other mischievous communities around the world. Sean will also be teaching about the second strand of Advent Conspiracy, which is spending less on Christmas, being more creative and personal in our gift giving and using the money we didn’t spend on gifts and give it to an organization you as an individual care about.

Look at your budget, food resources, and talk with one another. If you have further questions about the project, please don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll keep you updated with resources, stories, and encouragement. Our prayer is that you would experience the Divine conspiracy that graced the whole world two-thousand years ago- and is still changing it today.

Photos of the ELI school by Micah Albert