ABOUT US
A couple years ago, a young physician from our church gave a lecture on the health changes that occur in our bodies when we fast once a week. The physician himself testified to experiences positive changes after he had fasted this way for several years, so my wife and I were inclined to try it ourselves. We started off by fasting every Friday of the week, consuming only water for 24 hours. By the time we went to bed however, we realized how hard it was to fall asleep because of the gnawing hunger in our stomachs. But, we persevered and continued to fast once a week. Several weeks passed when we began to notice a slight issue with our fasting schedule and it was simply that Friday nights often meant meeting with and eating out with family and friends. So after some re-evaluating, we came to the conclusion that Mondays, then, were perhaps a better day of the week to fast on in terms of avoiding any obligations to eat meals with other people. So we made switch Fridays to Mondays as our fasting day of the week. Luckily as expected, we had no trouble keeping our Mondays free of food and in fact, even came up with a new “name” for our Mondays on the calendar. Rather than calling Mondays “Monday,” we began to call it our “No food day”. Hence the days of our week became Sunday, “No food day,” Tuesday, … etc. And that is how our website, nofoodday.org, came about.
Thinking about it, it’s such a fascinating idea to be fasting for essentially 52 days out of the year. Until this point, I had rarely ever skipped a meal, much less fasted for an entire day, but to starve for 52 whole days? Now that was food for thought! Once we began fasting, my wife and I laughed and started joking about how “rich” we would be by giving up food for 52 out of 365 days in the year. That was approximately 156 meals we didn’t have to pay for! Although my wife was more excited about the thought of losing weight from the fasts, mostly, we were thrilled about the idea of becoming physically and mentally healthier, as the physician had testified to.
However, I must say it is not an easy task for the weak-willed. Once 2pm came around, we were absolutely starving, but it only got worse as the hours passed and by 6 pm, we were famished to the point where we couldn’t tell whether the uncomfortable feeling in our stomach was out of hunger or pain. However, we pressed on and refused to give up on our goals. As the weeks went by, we began to experience first-hand what hunger really felt like. And that’s when we began to wonder whether this was what some people were experiencing in other less fortunate countries- people who couldn’t eat simply due to the lack of money or resources in their community. A couple days later, I approached my wife and asked her, “What if we were to provide the food that we would have eaten, had we not fasted, and instead give it to these hungry people? We would essentially be trading places with them by giving them the food we would have eaten and starve for them.” My wife was absolutely delighted at the idea, so we immediately started calculating how much a day’s worth of food would cost, given that we prepared a homemade meal. We came up with a total of $15 per days o from that day on, we started collecting $15 into a coffee jar every week that we fasted. The weeks flew by, and likewise, our coffee jar started piling up with our funds. Several months passed and slowly, we began to experience miraculous changes in our physical and mental, not to mention a slimmer physique.
Since last September- when we first started this challenge- we have raised a total of $780. With that money, we found ourselves delighted to send it to Mongolia, a country in need. It is incredible how much joy something so small as this could bring us, so much so that it has inspired us to continue this journey for the rest of our lives. Although my wife and I were able to raise a small total of $780, it is clearly not enough to feed every hungry individual that needs it. So we created this website in the hopes to find anyone who is interested in joining us in this endeavor. Perhaps though it may not be all 52 days out of the year, we are asking is there anyone who would be willing to give up his or her meal by fasting so that you may feed another hungry person in need?