So Christian Aid Week draws to a close for another year… what a week it’s been! This was my first experience of CA week, and I’ve been so inspired by the dedication of our staff and supporters who make it all happen. Over the last week I’ve been involved in a variety of things, from giving talks & sermons in Cathedrals to producing short films in Cathedrals… one end of the scale to the other?! Certainly makes me proud to be involved with Christian Aid.
Christian Aid Week might be over, but the work continues. Find out how you can stay involved on our website.
Lori came to visit a few weekends ago, and the theme was clear… food!! We had a great time just hanging out, eating some good food, and launching the new Christian Aid photography exhibition, Congolese Dawn. I haven’t laughed so hard in a loooong time! A few snaps from the weekend:
Last week I sat down with Stewart Cutler to have a chat for the Something Beautiful podcast. I can’t say I particularly enjoy the sound of my own voice, but I’m fairly happy with the directions our conversation took! The episode went live yesterday, and you can find it here if you’re so inclined!
I was in a Christian bookstore a few weeks ago with a friend, and there was a song playing in the background that grabbed my attention. It was an artist I’d never heard of before, Brooke Barrettsmith. But the lyrics, oh the lyrics. “Right here in the moment I’m given, I’ll treasure the breath that I breathe in, And I’ll rest in You… Quiet my heart…” I’ve been feeling the pull towards stillness again. I need stillness, I need space, I need silence in my life. Breath deep. Quiet my heart…
My mind wanders away
Dreaming of where I could be on another day
I’m always so far ahead
I seem to miss the one that I’m in
And I regret the time I lost
Slow me down before it’s gone
Right here in the moment I’m given
I’ll treasure the breath that I breathe in
And I’ll rest in You
You quiet my heart
Somehow every second that’s passing
Is filled so much meaning
As I wait here with You
Quiet my heart
I get stuck in between
Yesterday and all that tomorrow brings
When all that You want from me
Is that I come and sit at your feet
And know that You are God
And with You no time is lost
Don’t let me run away
Show me why I should stay
Open my eyes to take in Your beauty
Keep me here in this place
Take me in Your embrace
There’s no place I’d rather be than right now
Ten reasons to be inspired this Christian Aid Week…
Nearly £15 million is raised – a sixth of our income in just seven days…
300,000 people care enough to go door-to-door in their community, raising over two-thirds of CAW’s amazing total
These 300,000 people, raising £10 million, make CAW the largest house-to-house collection, raising the most amount of money, in the UK and Ireland.
Many of these same people, and others, organise Quizaids, book sales, plant sales, sponsored walks and every conceivable fundraising event you can imagine.
Many of these people do this year after year, making Christian Aid Week the central focus on development for most local communities in the UK and Ireland every year for over 50 years.
Over 10 million households (around 41% of the total in the UK and Ireland) receive a red envelope bringing Christian Aid’s voice to their doormat, and over 1 million respond.
The media covers stories from the Hebrides to Hastings and Grimsby to Galway of people making a difference where they are so that others can build a future where they are.
22,000 churches (half of the total number in England) work together to help poor communities, resulting in over 1 million Christians hearing about Christian Aid in their churches during May.
And many of these churches, as well as fundraising, campaign using prayer and action cards, and focus on justice issues in their Sunday worship.
Our partners and beneficiaries find inspiration in our supporters, as well as the other way round. ‘Do you mean to say that in Christian Aid Week, respectable church people go out onto the streets to beg on behalf of the world’s poor?’ [Comment from Santiago, Chile]
At the start of last September, I spent a few days in London getting to know the other new gappers I’d be working alongside. It’s funny the things you remember when you first meet people, the impression you get.
One of those gappers was Steph. Steph was soo cool… she was smart, she looked great, and she was funny. She was someone I thought seemed amazing, but was way too cool to ever be my friend.
[She’ll probably also hate me for posting this picture… but I like it!]
Since then, I’ve been blown away as I’ve got to know Steph. She has the most amazing heart. She cares for people in a really beautiful way, giving us big hugs as well as making us laugh like crazy. And she knows films. She’s my go-to person for any kind of movie-related knowledge, and greatly added to the joy of Geek Summit a few months back.
When we were coming back from the DRC, Steph and I were laughing about those first recollections. And she drew me a picture to represent our friendship… in her own words,
“Us conquering the world in a celluloid dream aboard the dinosaur of amazing friendship!”
OK, so I’m just thinking aloud here… but I want to hear you’re take on this. We talk a lot about balance, about looking for balance, but here’s my question:
A little late, but here we go nonetheless. This song’s been on my mind a lot recently…
Happiness is just outside my window
Would it crash blowing 80-miles an hour?
Or is happiness a little more like knocking
On your door, and you just let it in?
Happiness feels a lot like sorrow
Let it be, you can`t make it come or go
But you are gone – not for good but for now
Gone for now feels a lot like gone for good
Happiness is a firecracker sitting on my headboard
Happiness was never mine to hold
Careful child, light the fuse and get away
`cause happiness throws a shower of sparks
Happiness damn near destroys you
Breaks your faith to pieces on the floor
So you tell yourself, that`s enough for now
Happiness has a violent roar
Happiness is like the old man told me
Look for it, but you`ll never find it all
Let it go, live your life and leave it
Then one day, wake up and she`ll be home
Home, home, home
Their chant echoes in the corridors of power and under the tree-leaves in the park just the same: Rescue Me. AK47s and teddy bears on their tees, a strange juxtaposition designed to stir us into action.
This is the RESCUE. For over 23 years, Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda have been engaged in the longest running war in Africa. That war is no longer contained within the Ugandan border, but spilling over into neighbouring Sudan and DR Congo. Though there have been stuttering attempts at peace talks – more stops than starts, lets be honest – the violence continues. After the last failed peace talks in March 2008, Kony’s forces regained strength. On Christmas Day 2008, 620 people were massacred by the LRA in eastern DR Congo, and 160 children abducted.
Every day that it continues, more children lose their childhoods; abducted and forced into child soldiering. The world knows them as a rebel army, but in truth they’re just kids.
Edinburgh seems a long way from northern Uganda, but on Saturday it’s streets were filled with hundreds of activists, young and old alike, to raise awareness of this war. 100 cities in 10 countries around the world joined together to symbolically abduct themselves to free the abducted child soldiers. Our march took us from the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, along the Royal Mile, finally reaching our destination: a mock-LRA camp set up in Princes Street Gardens. Our abduction would see us spend the night sleeping out; waiting for a celebrity to arrive and rescue us.
As the music got going, all across the camp people were writing letters to our political leaders, asking them to bring an end to this war. Alongside the painting & photo projects already planned, spontaneous acts of creativity occurred as people responded to the stories. One group of over 50 pupils from Carnoustie High School spelt out the name of their town and a tri-peace symbol using tealights… a mammoth undertaking! Despite not having official backing for it to be a school trip, the senior pupils went ahead in organizing it all themselves. They described their motivation as ‘young people standing for young people’, that as a generation we have the buzz to carry this forward.
We didn’t have to wait long for our rescue: Billy Boyd, better known by many as Pippin from Lord of the Rings, came along to lend his support.
“The reason that we’re all here is because we’re all human beings, and we see an injustice, a wrong, and as human beings we want to see that made right. It doesn’t really matter what country it’s happening in, or what race you are, or religion; it’s more than that. It’s about being human. We’re all equal and we all deserve the same rights; the right to a childhood and the right for freedom.”
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