A ringing cowbell marks the beginning of the Friday midday meal at European Nazarene College (EuNC), and though students, faculty, and staff eat together Monday through Friday in the dining hall, Fridays are unique. For more than 30 years, EuNC students have chosen to finish the week with a simpler meal, known as Rice and Prayer.

What began as a soup-based meal before transitioning to mainly rice, Rice and Prayer is now usually a meat-free lunch, often using leftovers from previous meals to save on the cost.

Each week, students pray for a specific theme and area of the world. This term, focuses have included clean water resources in Malawi, Burmese refugees, and those who are homeless throughout the world.

"Not eating the same thing that we eat the rest of the week, being deprived of certain foods, helps us to understand a little bit of what other people go through," said EuNC student Johanna Radziszewski, "and it also draws us closer to the people who are experiencing various forms of injustice throughout our world."

Since students have already paid for a full meal plan for their current term, a vote is taken to determine which ministry or project to support using the money saved on Fridays.

The 2009 spring term project is especially significant for a current EuNC student, 26-year-old Cezarina Cufaj from Albania.

Cufaj suggested sharing this term's Rice and Prayer funds with another meal that is offered at her home church, Durrës Christian Centre, in Durrës, Albania, where she first became a Christian at the age of 12.

Cufaj was also among the 12 and 13 year olds who helped the pastor plant the church in 1996. Her family had recently moved to Durrës, and the first friends she made in the city were Christians.

"This friend of mine wanted to open a church in Albania, and I told him I don't agree with that religion, but I would still help him because I could tell it was important," she said. "Before that I was deeply [other religion], but at that point I wasn't practicing it anymore. When I was with these friends, they would pray, and I would pray too. I was also given a Bible, and I began to read it every night; I was very drawn to Christ and to his teachings."

Cufaj began playing an instrumental role in both growing the church in Durrës. Soon, she was leading Sunday School for children. "We were teaching as we were reading the Bible for the first time, and we were so eager to learn," she said.

Cufaj's family noticed the changes in her.

"My mom still didn't want me to spend all of my time at the church, so after I did my homework every night, I would study the Bible with my sisters," she said. "After a year, I told my mom nothing has changed, and my faith is only getting stronger so I was going to go to the church more."

Cufaj continued to grow as a leader in her congregation. During Albania's civil war in 1997, unrest in Durrës motivated the believers to gather people on the street and take them to the building they were renting as a church. In 1999, during the war in Kosovo, the church was able to help refugees who fled to Albania. The church planted additional churches in the area, and had more than 1,000 people by 2003.

Around 2004, the church, located in one of the poorest areas of Durrës, began a feeding program for children, youth, and widows, and has expanded to offer a hot meal six days a week. It's these meals that Rice and Prayer will support, allowing more children to eat at the church and receive a Bible lesson with their meal.

"It is difficult to preach the gospel to those who are starving for food; the two must go hand in hand," said Cufaj.

The feeding program also offers families a food bag to allow for better meals all week.

"Sometimes parents come on Sundays, or occasionally they come to the feeding program," said Cufaj. "Widows come to the meal because they don't have any kind of help from anyone, but they can receive it at the church."

Currently, 60-70 people eat at the church daily and another 80-90 receive food bags.

"Many of the children who attend this meal have grown up thinking they are nobody, so the meal at the church is a way to tell them that they are special," said Cufaj. "For EuNC students, I think this project will help us experience the gift of giving and sharing, to see how God can do great things with little sacrifices."
--Eurasia Communications