Halfway Done

Well, 23 days down, 23 days to go. I cannot believe it has been that many days; every day from here will be down hill for me. So far, I am more than halfway to my goal of $2500. I am excited and blessed by all that has been donated by my friends and those who have heard about mine and the other three pastors' fast for Stop Hunger Now ( www.stop hungernow.org ). Our journey has been filled with many opportunities to share with others about the purpose of our journey; to raise awareness and funds for an organization which is dedicated to providing shelf-stable meals which are shipped around the world.
      So far, Stop Hunger Now has provided more than $70 million dollars worth of direct aid and 34 million meals to 72 countries worldwide. For those of you wondering what is exactly in those meals, it is a combination of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavoring mix including 21 essential vitamins and minerals all packed into small meal packets. All of these meals are packed by a specially designed process which uses volunteers in an assembly line type operation to put the meals together. This overall process keeps the costs of the meals low; how low you may ask? Each meal costs only 25 cents!!! The food stores easily, has a shelf-life of five years and transports quickly.
       I have a favor to ask of you; find a quarter and put in your hand. Look at it and try to imagine what you can buy with that quarter. Not much? WRONG!!! Please send me that quarter; put it an envelope and mail it to me and I will make sure Stop Hunger Now gets it. If you want to be a little more adventurous, get a dollar bill (which will feed 4 people) and mail it to me. Shoot, why not live on the wild side, and mail me a five dollar bill and know that you are going to feed 20 people!!! AND if you really want to get wild and crazy, get out your checkbook and mail me a check made out to Stop Hunger Now in any tax deductible amount you want. Multiply your dollar amount by four and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you fed that many hungry people somewhere around the world. Please consider sending me any amount you can so that WE can feed those who have little or less to eat.
       Also, please continue to pray for us as we continue to eat our Stop Hunger meals only. We're halfway there and I am looking forward to celebrating what God has blessed us with. If you are led to make a donation, please make your tax-deductible checks out to Stop Hunger Now and please mail them to me at Rev. Dan Dixon, c/o Mount Gilead UMC, P.O. Box 72113, Newnan, GA 30271-2113. And if you like, you can also donate online at: www.stophungernow.org/4for40 . You can donate to us as a group or you can place my name in the “honor” option. Help us complete the Project. Help us make it: 4 for 40 for 40,000.

Rev. Nathaniel Long, Rev. John Mattox, and me

(not pictured is Rev. David Blackwood).

We are the 4 for 40 Project (Four pastors fasting on

Stop Hunger Now meals for the 40 days of Lent

raising money and awareness to feed 40,000 people.



      

Only 100 meals Left!!!

     As of this writing, I currently only have 100 meals left on my Lenten fast of Stop Hunger Now (http://www.stophunger.now/ ) packaged rice meals. This of course means that I have so far about 35 meals of the rice mixture. Needless to say, it didn't take long for me to get tired of just adding butter and salt to it. Myself and the other three pastors have been letting each other know about the various creative ways we have been fixing the meals for our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have been fairly simplistic in my approach most of the time "doctoring" the meals after they have been cooked in a 12 cup rice cooker. I do this so I can keep to the original way of how the meal will be fixed overseas although our local representative from SHN, Kyle said that many of the local cultures who have received the meals adapt them to their taste and cuisines adding whatever spices and other food sources they can to the mixture.

From left to right- David Blackwood (Trinity UMC,

Dalton), John Mattox (Pleasant Grove UMC, LaGrange),

me, and Nathaniel Long (Senoia UMC)



      Some of the ways I have tried to eat the rice is by adding sauces such as barbecue, soy, teriyaki, and worcestershire. So far, my favorite way to prepare and eat it is by pan frying the mixture with a little olive oil. This removes a lot of the moisture and stickiness from the rice and when it is cooked right (I'm not always successful) it has a kind of crusty crunch to it and reminds me somewhat of hash browns. I recently bought me some Cajun spices the other day and I can't wait to see how it taste.
       I did have my first challenge in eating my meals. I went out of town last week to seminar where I and several other pastors were giving some great tips and instruction on planning several months ahead with our sermon preparation. I called the place where we were staying ahead of time and was told that they had a full kitchen available for us with a microwave. Before heading to the seminar, I iced down four of my prepared meals before I left home so I would have plenty to eat while I was away from home. When it came time to eat our first meal there, I noticed that there was no type of butter/margarine or sauce available for me to put on my rice. Luckily, (and I'm typing this sarcastically) I was able to get several packets of yellow mustard from the attendees from their Chick-fil-A packed lunches. For that meal and the balnce of my time there, I spread the mustard over the rice the best I could so it would have some flavor to it. Of course, I did whine to myself and my wife about my dilemma of "mustard rice" but finally remembered as I was typing this that my fast is NOT about flavor. It's about eating this way in order to raise awareness and the financial resources needed for Stop Hunger Now. Instead of whining, I should have been praying for God's help and for God's blessings to those in the world who eat these meals with gratefulness and probably whole lot less flavor and frequency.
      Will you join us on our journey? It all starts with a quarter, 25 cents per meal; think what even the smallest of your donations can do for the hungry all around the world, even Japan where Stop Hunger Now is trying to get their meals there to help out with that tragedy. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to eat our Stop Hunger meals only, but if you are led to make a donation, please make your tax-deductible checks out to Stop Hunger Now and please mail them to me at Rev. Dan Dixon, c/o Mount Gilead UMC, P.O. Box 72113, Newnan, GA 30271-2113. You can also now donate online at: www.stophungernow.org/4for40 . You can donate to us as a group or you can specify on of us in the “honor” option. Help us complete the Project. Help us make it: 4 for 40 for 40,000.

      Thanks again for following my journey and blessing me with your time...



Dan

Please look up their website at (http://www.stophungernow.com/ ) and

"Like" them on Facebook and you can see how people share how

Stop Hunger Now is working in their communities.

Media Day for Stop Hunger Now

Here's a quick blog for yesterday as I am trying to get out of town for a meeting 2 and half hours away. Yesterday, 3/16, the three other pastors and I met at Senoia UMC for a quick lunch and a catch up on our stories in raising money for Stop Hunger Now (http://www.stophungernow.org/ ) and sharing "recipes" on how we are eating our SHN rice meals. Here's a picture of the four of together:

                                                 

After a quick lunch, the four of us headed up to a local restaurant called Maguires to meet up with a TV crew from WXIA-TV here in Atlanta. There we were greeted by Ted Hall, one of their anchors who actually set down to talk to us about what we were doing and then ate some of the SHN rice meal we had brought with us. Here's a link to that story:

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=182992&catid=3

After meeting with the TV crews, the four of us pastors said our good-byes and left. Later that evening, I caught up with Nathaniel Long, the pastor from Senoia UMC who I am on the fast with and we were both interviewed by WEKS 92.5FM  the Bear Radio and were interviewed by them about our involvement with SHN.


                                          
     Nathaniel                                                                 Me and "Uncle" Rich
 
After this day, All I can say is, "Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;


Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hoping Big Time!

I hope it's safe enough to say this since I'm out of seminary but one of my favorite authors is Max Lucado. For me, he has a God-given gift of taking ordinary events of life and their stories and then links it to the ways God moves in our lives. I came across this definition of hope from him, "Hope is not what you expect (but) a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I'm-dreaming ending... Hope is not a granted wish... (but) a zany, unpredictable dependence on God who loves to surprise us out of our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction." (from his book "God Came Near")
       As I continue my Lenten journey with my other three pastors, I am beginning to sense some excitement. Some of the media in our areas, along with our Annual Conference is spreading the news about our journey and I am very hopeful that the four of us will be able to pass our minimum goals of $2500. In fact as of this morning, I am one-fourth of the way having ten of my forty days sponsored with over $600.00 raised so far. I believe that for me (and maybe the others too) to achieve and go beyond our individual goals, we do need to have that type of hope mentioned above, that "unpredictable dependence on God" so that God will continue to bless us and use us as we continue to raise awareness and money for Stop Hunger Now (http://www.stophungernow.org/ ).
        Will you join us on our journey? It all starts with a quarter, 25 cents per meal; think what even the smallest of your donations can do for the hungry all around the world, even Japan where Stop Hunger Now is trying to get their meals there to help out with that tragedy. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to eat our Stop Hunger meals only, but if you are led to make a donation, please make your tax-deductible checks out to Stop Hunger Now and please mail them to me at Rev. Dan Dixon, c/o Mount Gilead UMC, P.O. Box 72113, Newnan, GA 30271-2113.
       Thanks again for following my journey and for your time...

Dan

Please look up their website at (http://www.stophungernow.com/ ) and

"Like" them on Facebook and you can see how people share how

Stop Hunger Now is working in their communities.



A Great Day All Around

Today was day 4 of my Lenten fast and it was a day filled with temptations and many, many blessings. Our church held its annual barbecue complete with chopped pork (cooked all night long over a wood fire), Brunswick stew (some of the best I ever put in my mouth) and all the other fixings. The smells of barbecue, stew, and desserts filled my nostrils all day long but by the grace of God and a whole lot of prayer (had to be somebody else besides me praying for me too) I made it through the whole day without succumbing to anything edible other than my meal of Stop Hunger Now rice. I will confess here that the rice had some of Mount Gilead’s secret BBQ sauce mixed in although even with the sauce on it, only one person was willing to taste my lunch. And by the way, let me mention and say here how blessed I am to be serving such a wonderful congregation who loves to serve. Thanks to everyone at Mount Gilead for all of your hard work and shining the light of Christ.


Quick question for you, have you ever noticed how many times Jesus is seen throughout the Gospels eating and fellowshipping with others? From eating with “sinners” to feeding the 5,000, Jesus uses food as a way to share the good news concerning the kingdom of God. Of course, he also talks about how we are called to reach out to others just by meeting their needs in various ways in Matthew 25. One of those ways is by feeding the hungry which is one of the main reasons I am on this fast for Stop Hunger Now (www.stophungernow.com ). It is my prayer and hope to raise enough money ($2500.) so that my church and I can purchase the food necessary to host a packaging event where we can package 10,000 meals which will then be shipped overseas. Each of those servings costs only 25 cents; five dollars would feed 20 people! 100 dollars would feed 400 people!!! Any amount can and will feed so many hungry people.

Would you consider making a donation today? If you can, please mail your tax deductible checks made out to Stop Hunger Now to me at Mount Gilead UMC, P.O. Box 72113, Newnan, GA 30271-2113. As always, I covet your prayers for me and the other three pastors who are on this Lenten journey with me as we continue to raise awareness and money for this great organization. Thank you for your time and support.

                                                             

I sure am glad this chopped pork and stew freezes great! Guess what I will be having after Easter? 

Very Special Quarters

If you noticed in the above picture, you will see six quarters. These are six very special quarters. They came from two different sources. The first three coins were given to me by Miss Sarah who is a permanent resident of the nursing home/rehab center I serve on Wednesday afternoons. She gave them to me as a gift to the church and to use it anyway I wanted. What made her 75 cent gift such a blessing is that she gave out her meager monthly allowance. After her government check pays for her living expenses, she is left with about $15.00 which means she gave 5 percent of her allowance to my church. How many of us are willing to give 5 percent of our total monthly income to a church let alone feed someone around the world we don't even know? (yes, I am a pastor and know we are all called to tithe 10 percent but with the way the economy is, any extra giving can be a stretch for many people).
        The other three quarters are very special to me too. When I officially announce my participation in my Lenten fast for Stop Hunger Now to my congregation, I also extended an invitationin the children's sermon to the children of our church to particiapte by collecting quarters in order to provide meals to the hungry children and adults around the world. Our church is making this a mission projecct for the kids and if they raise $400. then the church will have a partyof some sort in their honor for reaching their goal. After the worship service was over later, one of the children came up to me by himself and offered the quarters to me then. When I told him he could bring them back next week for the offering, he said he wanted to do it now not later. How I could refuse that offer?
         Six ordinary quarters; that's what they may look like to may people but to me they hold a very special lesson on giving when most people won't or can't. Thanks to Miss Sarah and one of my church's children, these six quarters will provide a meal to six hungry people somewhere in the 72 countries Stop Hunger Now (http://www.stophungernow.com/ ) serves around the world. Would you like to join me in supporting this wonderful organization? If so, please make tax deductible check out to Stop Hunger Now and mail it to me at Mount Gilead UMC, P.O. Box 72113, Newnan, GA 30271-2113. If you have any questions about this, you can also reach me at preacherdanumc@yahoo.com .
        Thank you for your time and prayers...

It's almost time!

Well, Lent is almost here. Starting tomorrow on the first day of Lent, I will begin a journey with three other pastors by fasting away from the food I would normally eat and only eat a pre-packaged meal of rice for the entire day. Of course, this is no ordinary bag of rice. It is a bag of rice which contains all of the daily requirements for the nutrients needed for any person to live on. These pre-packaged meals contains six servings and are normally shipped to third world countries around the globe to help those feed the hungry within their borders. These meals are packaged usually at packaging events around our country where everyday people like you and me get together and package the rice and nutrients together so it can be boxed and containerized for shipment. The organization who oversees this non-profit endeavor is called Stop Hunger Now (http://www.stophungernow.com/) and currently is serving these meals in 72 countries around the world. Since 2005, the organization has packaged and shipped almost 40 million meals!!!
         The minimum cost for one of the events is $2500. and during the event at least 10,000 meals will packaged and boxed ready for shipment. The cost for each one of the meals is $1.50 and serves 6 people which means it cost 25 cents to feed one person; what greater value can you find anywhere than to feed one hungry person for 25 cents? In the world today, under nutrition contributes to more than one-half of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries. This means that one child dies every six seconds from malnutrition and related causes. Every six seconds a child dies from hunger! That means since I started typing this, over a dozen children have died from the effects of hunger.
And this is one of the major reasons, I am starting this fast and promoting awareness for the work that Stop Hunger Now is doing. It is mine and the other three pastors' plan to eat the same food that is being shipped around the world for the forty days of Lent. We will eat one package a day which is about 1300 calories (yes, I do have my doctor's approval). What I would like for you to prayerfully consider is to support our cause by donating any amount you can so that we can package as many meals as possible. An example of support would be the cost of bag ($1.50) multiplied by the forty days of Lent ($1.50 X 40= $60.00). But that's just an example; I will gladly accept any amount you feel led to send. If you are interested, please make out your tax-deductible checks to Stop Hunger Now and you can mail them to me in care of Mount Gilead United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 72113, Newnan, GA 30271-2113. If you have any questions or comments, please feel to e-mail me at preacherdanumc@yahoo.com . Also, please feel free to forward this blog or a link to it to your family and friends for their consideration of support too.

Six quarters can feed a family of six

somewhere around the world.



I will try to share with you over the Lenten season on how my journey is going thorough this blog. I covet your prayers for me and the other three pastors (Nathaniel Long from Senoia UMC in Senoia, John Mattox from Pleasant Grove UMC in LaGrange, and David Blackwood from Trinity UMC in Dalton) as we begin this spiritual journey serving God and humanity along the way...

Nathaniel Long, John Mattox, and me at the

Stop Hunger Now warehouse in Marietta.