Obviously, I don’t know much about Africa since I’ve never lived there, although I spent 24 hours in Nairobi -Kenya- a few years ago.
Pretty much all I know about this continent comes from the media. However, I know that in most countries, people are living in a very poor conditions.
« In 2009, 22 of 24 nations identified as having « Low Human Development » on the United Nations’ (UN) Human Development Index were located in Sub-Saharan Africa » (Wikipedia)
Introducing the Discomfort Weekly Challenge
Every week, I’ll try to put myself in a discomfortable situation for several reasons:
- Training my body to get used to discomfortable conditions
- Experiencing, as tiny as it is, another way of living
- Having empathy for the poor in living one aspect of the way they live (or similar)
- Growing my relationship with God
- Enjoying even more my daily life by realizing how much God has blessed me
The kind of situations I’m going to put myself in, temporarily during a week, are:
- Physical discomfort (food, hygiene, health, tiredness, not using some tools…)
- Social discomfort (physical appearance, verbal restriction…)
- Getting rid of hobbies (usage of Internet, phone…)
- Spiritual « tasks » (longer prayers, devotions, worship, evangelizing, Bible reading…)
- and some other miscellaneous stuff for « fun »
Every Monday, I’ll announce the new challenge of the week on my dedicated Facebook Page « Discomfort Zone: Getting prepared to be a Missionary » (that you are welcome to « like »)
I hope that this will be fun and inspiring for all.
Plus, it is a way for all the readers to support me in a casual and light way 🙂
A few examples of the upcoming weekly challenges:
- Not eating meat
- Eating with hands only
- Not using Facebook
- Not using tissues
- Not using lights
- Taking a shower for no more than 1 minute
- Using only cold water
- Preaching to homeless people everyday
- Waking up several times at night
- Not listening any music
- Reading the Bible as the very first thing to do in the morning
- Using only one hand
- .,..
Discomfort Weekly Challenge #1:
My sleeping bag at the door of my bedroom
Last week (July 4-10, 2011), I slept on the flood in a sleeping bag. I kinda needed to do it anyway for some reasons and I’m actually going to keep doing it for a while.
This challenge wasn’t actually that difficult for me because my mother started several years ago to make me sleep on wood planks, covered by a very thin duvet. It is said that it is good for the back… Anyway.
Last week went pretty well. I did have some tiny back and neck pain but nothing major at all.
I know that if one day I’m called to go on a mission, I won’t be able to sleep in a King size mattress produced by a Swedish chain shop. And I think this is something I am pretty ready for. Of course, there might be other issues like heat, light, insects, smell etc.
I’m happy and excited to start these challenges and share it with you. It’s gonna be fun! 😉
If you have any challenge ideas, please don’t hesitate to share them on the comment section below!
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