Just for now...

I have been naive for so long about how our lifestyles have consequences on others in the world. I have thought for so long that I have no impact on others. But in the last few years I have been challenged about my own lifestyle. When I first met my husband he would buy Fair Trade Banana's and would eat his banana always following it with 'At least I haven't eaten the blood of innocent workers.' I thought that Fair Trade was a scam to get more money out of us. But the more I looked into the whole thing of Fair Trade the more I was convinced that every time we buy Fair Trade banana's or tea and coffee the more we are helping to change the lives of those who have worked to give us our food.

When we pay that little bit extra for our tea and coffee, we have helped the grower to have a regular wage, that will put food on the table, a roof over their head, pay for medical bills and also helps to support community projects and community infrastructure.

With all of this in mind I couldn't really not buy Fair Trade. I also realised that if I didn't realize what Fair Trade was all about then there are probably more out there that don't.

So on the 24th November a group of us are putting on a christmas fair all about Fair Trade and living an ethical and Sustainable lifestyle. There will be homemade and fair trade christmas gifts, make your own christmas cards and wrapping paper, a Fair Trade Cafe and live music. It is being held at Ichthus Newlife on Woolwich Road, between 1pm and 4pm So come along and how you change the lives of others.

Norway, May 2007 Part 4

Wednesday

Today was a bit of a quiet day. I spent the morning designing a leaflet for the service on sat night and then. I delivered them to the houses in the afternoon. I do not envy the postmen here, they have miles and miles to walk and most of that is up hill! Although if there are houses half up a mountain they have the post boxes at the bottom of the hill.

After that we went to Britt’s house for dinner. She made us a lovely dinner of sweet and sour pork with rice, which was a nice change from bread!

Then we had a massive evening of casa Feliz extra! Apparently the night before Norway day a lot of the teenagers go out and get drunk. But they put this extra event on so that they would go to casa feliz and stay sober. They even had a competition to win an iPod, if they could stay sober and pass a breath test.

It was a really good evening the atmosphere was brilliant, we had people praying the event all the way through and it really helped. Two young people became gave their life to Christ. We were able to build some relationships with them. So it was a really good time. It went from 8pm – 2am. It was only the lord that kept me awake!!

Thursday

Norway day! Or the Norwegians uniquely call it 17th May! Today is such a special day for the Norwegians. It commemorates the signing of the constitution in 1840. They all get dressed up in their national dress and watch parades or join in them. We went to Bergen and watched their parade and ate lots of Ice Cream!
There were so many different people being represented in the parade and they all had their different display. It was really lovely to see.

We then went to Arna and was part of the scouts parade. Most of the people in Arna join in the parade and they stop at the Old peoples homes and play music for them. The Parade then ends at the school and they eat lots of ice cream and hotdogs and then they listen to children playing the recorder and singing.
We had a party at the church. They have a delicacy in Norway of Raw Lamb that has been salted and dried and they eat this with a porridge that is not very pleasant.
The buffet was lovely, there was salmon and meets and lots of bread. It was a really lovely evening.

At 11pm I went to the Airport to pick up Tim. It was so good to see him.

Friday

It was horrible weather, the rain was back. But we went back to the house to paint. It calmed down a little bit so we were able to get a lot done, but we were finally rained off. The couple that we painted their house for, gave us an amazing lunch of pizza, chocolate and strawberries. It was so good.

In the evening we went to Casa Feliz again. It was a good time. They have such a good group of young people, and their way of doing youth work really works well, it was such an inspiration.

Saturday

Today was a bit of an easier day, we had the morning off and then in the afternoon we prepared for the evening family service.

The family service was really good. The church are great at doing things for individual groups, for example Popcorn church and casa Feliz, but all the groups don’t really mix together. So we put on a fun evening to get the church together, we did loads of little games and songs and the crowd puller. (If I was not upon this stage..) The church really responded well and it was a great evening.

Sunday

Today is officially the last day. We have two meetings to go to and that is it. Some of the group went to popcorn church again and some of us went to Bergen to the church there. Me and Tim led worship and Phil Trainer preached. It was a little hard work, but Phil spoke really well and I think it inspired the church.

We then went back to the church and we all ate pizza together with some members of the church. After lunch the Durham guys left for home and only the Radnets were left. It was really weird. For 10 days we have been a group of 21 and suddenly we were down to about 8 people. We just chilled out and ate waffles!

The evening meeting at the Arna church was so amazing. We had a great time in worship (even though it was in Norwegian!) Ian Marden spoke and was challenging us to be hot or cold Christians. We then spent time praying for the people in the church for healings and deliverance and for those that were challenged by the preach.

Everyone said goodbye to us and it was quite sad.

Monday

We flew home to England, Yay!
I do love coming home.

Norway, May 2007 Part 3

Saturday

The big day has come, a lot of our evangelism has been working towards inviting people to the 'Grill Fest' at the church. In the morning we went to the local shopping centre and gave out free waffles or should I say 'Grattis Waffler'. We gave out loads of invites. It was a good time people were really open and want free waffles. I was able to speak to some people and pray with people. I had been praying for this time that I would have at least one conversation with someone and get to pray for them. The Lord is good!

We then came back to the church and got ready for the BBQ. The norwegians know how to do hospitality, it looked amazing, they put loads of flowers out and tents up. They really put of effort into it. Loads of people came to the BBQ, a lot of young people came as well. We then did the ribbon sketch and 6 people responded to the Gospel message. It was really lovely to see the Lord work in peoples lives.

My evening was then spent with my hosts, watching the Eurovision song contest. I felt very embarrassed to be english. Our entry, although in true tacky eurovision style, was a little too tacky. But my hosts did comfort me by letting me know that Norway didn't even make it into the contest!

Sunday

Today was a little like being on mission in Africa in that we had three meetings to go to. They were all really good. The first one was Popcorn Church, it was so great. It is a service just for children. They also bring their parents. They don't have crafts or games. They have a sermon and songs and a competition. There was also a puppet show. OUr team taught them an english song and we played the water gargling competition, Jyothi also gave her testimony. It was really good to see how they do it. The kids really benefit from it.

After an amazing lunch of the most beautiful salmon ever, we went to a service at Espaland. It was a really lovely service, there were not many people there, but they are really wanting to see the church grow. Phil talked about faith and then we all prayed for each other. We then had more food!

After tea it was back to Arna for the evening service, once again there wasn't many people there, but it was such a great service. We were able to pray for people and encourage them and the worship was really good.

Monday

DAY OFF! Very exciting! Today I managed to achieve one of my ambitions, which was to visit the Bergen fish market. Its a famous fish market, full of fish that I have never seen before! They also sold seal skins, reindeer skins and wolf skins (They make a nice rug, so I am told!) I bought some prawns, which tasted so fresh and so much better than they do in England. We found a nice cafe and enjoyed a milkshake and then went shopping. Although I didn't buy anything (everything is very expensive) I am now having a very nice relaxing evening, listening to a bit of Godfrey Birtell and Chris and Jennie Orange.

Here ends part 3, part four will follow soon!

Norway May 2007 Part 2

Wednesday

Well the third day has been and gone, but it was a very long day. Today we went to Voss. Voss is a bit of a weird town because it is mainly inhabited by students because there are so many school there and boarding school. It is also not very big. To get there you have to travel through 40 tunnels, so it takes about an hour and a half. We had a time of prayer and then went out in two's to invite people to the gospel service we were going to put on.

Voss might be a bit weird in terms of atmosphere, but it has amazing scenery. There are snow capped mountains all over the place. The only problem is, that you can't take photos of them when the sky is really bright, because it is sort of the same colour.

We then had dinner at a lady's house. Her house was stunning with the best view in the world. She lived quite high up in the mountain so when the cloud fell it was in the clouds. It was also a very nice dinner.

In the evening we put on a Gospel meeting in Vos, we did the old favourite, Ribbon sketch and I gave my testimony and there was some worship as well. It was a good time and three people made re-commitments to the Lord. So very worth while.

Thursday

Wednesday was a late night, and thursday was a very early morning as we gave out teas and coffees at the train station. Arna Train station is nothing like train stations in London and their rush hour doesn't even compare. There were times when there was no one on the station and then there would be a rush of about 5-8 people getting the train. How I would love to commute in Norway!

Some of then went to the local schools CU. It was their first one for this term. It was really good there were so many young people there. Their classrooms had dead things in jars and baby birds that had been dissected and stuffed animals on the wall!
We talked to them and gave our testimonies and 3 people gave their lives to Jesus.

We then went to do some gardening. (The norwegian way!) We didn't do nice gardening but chopping down trees with saws, and digging up a patch of moss and dandelions. It felt good doing some gardening!

In the evening we did some teaching on evangelism in Bergen and then took the church out to some. It was challenging but very good and the church really accepted it.

Friday

Friday was another good day, we went to paint a couples house. They have a beautiful house and we painted it yellow and white. We still have a way to go but it is looking good.

In the evening we all went off different youth groups, I went to Casa Feliz younger and older group. In the younger group we got them to ask us questions about England. They asked a lot of questions about Football, so i wasn't very good at answering those ones, we also played a computer game that is like karaoke, so me and catherine had a go. It was very embarrassing!

The older group was very emotional as they have just lost one of their friends in a very tragic accident. So we were there to support and pray for them.

Another late night, but I am having a good time and it is worth it to see what God is doing. Watch this space for part three.

Norway, May 2007 Part 1

Monday

Well, I am here in Norway. It has been a dream of mine to visit this fine country, but have never had the opportunity to. But I am now here on Mission as part of Radnet.

We got here about 1.30pm on Mon, and after changing cars because the exhaust was blocked. We were finally on our way to Arna. (Which is just outside Bergen) The scenery here is amazing. There are trees and mountains every where.

Every house has big square windows. But its not surprising as out of every window you can see a mountain! Some of the houses are built into the side of a mountain, they seem to be dotted here and there as if when building the house they have chosen a spot and a view and plonked the house to suit that. As you fly into Norway it looks like a model town railway. Its so sweet. There are also little islands and some people have built there houses on them. Sometimes its one house per island.

We didn't do much on Monday apart from eat fish soup, it had massive balls of cod in. I loved it. Also someone made us a cake, which had cream, jam, custard and marzipan in! We also had a brilliant prayer meeting. It was really great to get to pray for some of the church member and pray into the week.

Tuesday

Tuesday was good (apart from the rain which has been constant since the time we arrived) we went on a prayer drive! We visited the train station and prayed there and then the shopping hall and some different churches. The church plant has been given a prayer house (They are set up a hill a bit and they used to be used to pray in!) which they have done up. We had a pray in there and then we went for a drive around the town to pray for the houses. Door knocking is really difficult, even though people are in they don't want to answer the door. After prayer walking we came back to the church and learnt the old favorites of the chair sketch and the chocolate box sketch.

Our evening was spent at the K.K.U youth group (it means the best night of the week, its not some communist gathering) It was great, we were given more cake and lots of it. (Everyone gives you cake! O and bread) We played silly games with them, like singing, whilst gargling and the team has to guess the tune and sausages in Jelly and cream and you have to get them out without using your hands.
James then preached (with an interpreter, well done him!) about grace. After that meeting we then were taken to the church plant and had a prayer meeting. Which was very good.

Even though we haven't done a whole lot over the last two days, we were so tired, so they let us get a fairly early night! (The norwegians don't seem to sleep much!)

Well here ends part one watch out for more installments of Norway, May 2007.

Stop The Traffik

We are fast approaching 'Freedom Day', which is on the 25th March.

I have been really challenged whilst preparing for our Justice Sunday meeting at 'HCF (Havering Christian Fellowship)'. I have been preparing a presentation about the small things we can do to make a difference in our society. For example:- buying 'Fair Trade' (a very controversial issue! Your thoughts would be appreciated), recycling and banking with an ethical bank such as 'Smile'.

I have had so many conversations about things like Fair Trade and it has helped me to really establish my thoughts on the whole thing.

As a Christian I want to do as much as I can to be able to help others who need a better wage so that they can survive and not have to work 18 hour days just to make ends slightly meet. If buying tea and paying a bit more for it does this then I am willing.

I must confess I haven't always felt this way. I use to be so cynical about it. But I really feel we have a responsibility to make a difference and not stand back whilst this is going on in our world.

People trafficking must stop. This whole thing really breaks my heart and it breaks God's heart.

If you have any more ideas on how we can help in these situations I would love to hear from you.

Chalk Drawings

Chalk Drawings

Someone showed me this link for Chalk Drawings

It is so cool you should have a look.