Monday 7 July 2014

XL Vegan update July 2014 - A year later

So! Nearly 12 months since my last update.
I think it is good to document Things that happen when you pray…

Last year after the fast, I was published in a National glossy magazine… on first January, while I was praising God for what had happened in 2013 with the whole vegan experience, the New African Magazine, The new blogging path (thefoodnutter.com and http://beenthere-reviews.blogspot.co.uk/ are mine too). One thing I wanted to achieve was to have a mention in a national new paper… I was thinking of the Metro or Evening Standard… I didn’t even know what the subject would be, but I wanted that to be my achievement on a personal point.

I also prayed for better finances and for my boss to recognise the value that I am… Well… Stick with it I am coming to it.
The vegan experience inspired me to do many things including doing something for the homeless or for foodbanks. Since God had blessed me in this way, why not give something back using those skills? The blogging kind of took over and as I was doing well at creating dishes I started to think that I should write my own recipes book… A vegan recipes book… So the part about the homeless or the foodbank got lost in my busyness and me me me me projects…

The Book
As I started to think of Lent 2014, I was once again prompted about a charity related project then one day as I did my devotion, I was given this Bible verse “Honey sees tasteless to a person who is full, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry”. Prov 27.7

Reading that bible verse in February reminded me and told me what lent project should be… A cook book for foodbanks’ users. I concluded that, that was what God wanted me to do in his name. See, in the UK, currently, there are 900 000+ foodbanks users, a gazillion of TV chefs, but there is no TV cooking shows those queuing at the food bank… It could only be a God project!

So, I did my researches, included the expense on my March budget and did the shopping before the 1st day of lent and was ready to create the whole book in 40 days of lent and night. I completed the project on Easter Monday at around 2.30am. Since I normally wake at 5am for work, I did not bother going to bed. Instead, I decided to blast twitter with the references to the book and the DotCom I had purchased to go with the book… I found few news editors’ email addresses on the web and sent them emails about the book. Within 48 hours, I was contacted by my local paper, a week later, I had appeared in THE Times yes, THE Times! That’s is amazing!
The article in the Times

Since then, I have been in the Church Times, the Croydon advertiser and an interview with few other magazines, I have also had a 20 minute feature on a National Radio.

Often when we achieve such project we start doubting ourselves, and I said to myself, if this is God’s then, the book will get to where it needs to end up. If it wasn’t God, then, I have done it any way. 

But God by his blessing on this project has proven that He asked me to create such resource and I am humbled to be His tool.
The article in the Advertiser

Working for a charity myself, I do not have the resources to print the book and distribute, but it free to download and copy for anyone who has the means to. So, if you are able to, please print a copy for a friend who is on low budget. If you are financially blessed, print few copies for your local food bank and may God bless you for that.

The Bank Cook is available to download from here
The printing guidelines can be found here.
Stay tuned… as you follow my journey since the XL Vegan blog.

Thank you for reading.
Be blessed, hold on to the Anchor, because when you fall or are let down, the Ancor will raise you up.

Hortense

Twitter: hjulienne