The past six weeks have been a struggle for many members of the Friendship Community Church. First, 75 of them did a week where all they ate was rice and beans. Then even more members joined in for a five-week attempt to avoid western-style consumerism — no buying products, or paying for things that weren’t a necessity. That meant, according to Senior Pastor Spencer Stadler, “no $5 lattes, no going out to eat, no going to the movies.” The end goal was to take the money saved and put it towards helping a Nigerian orphanage build a much-needed facility.

“This summer we started to talk about doing something significant with the orphanage in Nigeria,” said Stadler, explaining that the church has been raising funds and helping out the orphanage for almost six years now. Church member Paul Welle, who had been on a trip to Nigeria with family, brought the story of the orphanage back with him and suggested the church could become involved in some way. The orphanage is the largest in Nigeria and works with 300 people, many of them physically or mentally disabled children, Welle explained, and the men and women who are hired to help care for them are also often working to overcome challenges of their own. Recently the orphanage was required to move one part of their operation — that devoted to babies and toddlers — from a rental situation in a city to a rural property on the outskirts, and is now looking to build a facility to house the smallest children and their caretakers. The church decided to try to raise enough to build the facility; it was that goal that lead to what they’re calling, in a play on ‘Freedom 55,’ the Feed-em 5-5 project.

“We decided to challenge the congregation to experience what, to a small degree, it’s like to live on a subsistence diet,” said Stadler, explaining that the orphans eat cassawa, rice, and beans at three meals a day, every day. Church participants quickly learned just how limited such a diet really is, he said.

“At the breakfast we had to celebrate finishing the week, everybody shared how it went, and one man stood up and said, ‘This has really changed my life. Baked beans used to be my favorite dish. Not anymore,’” said Welle.

“It made shopping and cooking easier,” said Associate Pastor Byron Knight. But for most members, five days on a limited diet was easy compared to breaking the habits of a lifetime for five weeks. Not everyone thought they could manage it -— one man said he’d do everything except give up golf — and others came up with creative ways to raise funds, including a silent auction that raised over $4,000 and one child who asked for donations to the cause as birthday gifts. “The children were involved,” Stadler said, noting that it was a good teaching moment for the church’s younger members. “They get to see a little of what it means to be living in a third-world country. It was a big wake-up call, how much we are consumers.”

For different families, the five weeks had varying impacts on how they lived their lives. “The biggest thing [for us] was not going out to entertain,” said Knight. “The good thing was, we spent more time doing stuff as as a family.” His children, he said, were conscientious about the project -— once, when he slipped up and suggested that they go for ice cream, “My daughter said, ‘We can’t do that, that’s spending money.’”

“There were things around the house I would’ve liked to fix,” said Stadler. “But I built a dog run with scraps around the yard instead of purchasing supplies, and it works fine.”

Besides funds for a new building, Stadler said the church also hopes to raise enough money to add some variety to the orphans’ diet. “We haven’t figured out yet what that might look like,” he said. “Maybe providing some chickens — just some protein in their diet.”

Welle said that church members have been glad to raise the funds knowing that the money goes directly to those in need. “The money goes direct - there’s no money taken away for administration. One hundred per cent of the money raised goes straight to them,” he said. There’s also been a lot of personal contact between the Friendship Community group and the orphanage.

“We sent a group of six three years ago, and Paul and his daughter went again and built a solar-powered water pump,” said Stadler.

“It’s not just anonymous. There’s a real bond between us,” Welle said.

The project finished up on Sunday, October 18, with the funds saved from five weeks of restricted spending collected at the church. Stadler said that in his family, at least $1,000 was saved in a month through avoiding needless consumption, while Welle said that at his home they hadn’t been keeping track, but had rather decided to just commit to a large donation. In the end the Feed-em 55 Challenge for housing and Feeding the kids in the orphanage raised $35,000.

“We’re pretty excited,” said Stadler. “We’re going to make a significant difference — not just for the kids there, but in personal benefit, in the raised awareness of how much we consume.”

For more information on Friendship Community Church and the Feed-em 5-5 project, visit friendshipcommunitychurch.ca; more information about the efforts in Nigeria and the history of the orphanage are available at www.ministryofmercy.org.

editor@peninsulanewsreview.com