Give someone
a chance of Life!

Jesus said, ‘I have come that you might have life, and have it in abundance’. As we, the good folk of Wellesbourne and Walton begin to feel directly the effects of tax, benefit and price changes affecting our pay packets and purses we can be forgiven for feeling that this isn’t what Jesus promised. Many of us could say we are poorer than we were. But I think poverty is relative. In this country there are many who struggle to make ends meet and consider themselves to be in poverty but, by and large, our benefit and social care systems make sure most people have at least a roof over their heads and food on their tables.

Contrast that position with people overseas who have no welfare state, no money and no food or clothes unless they beg and scavenge on rubbish dumps; where small children, beggars and scavengers also, sleep under the stars in busy cities huddling together for safety and warmth. Picture the desperation of African farmers and their families who are forced to eat the grain they should have been keeping for seed and next year’s harvest, just to survive today. That is real poverty. It saps energy, it saps hope, it saps life.

May 15th sees the start of Christian Aid week. Christian Aid has been helping people to lift themselves out of poverty for more than 65 years. ‘Poverty is an outrage against humanity’, they say, ‘it robs people of power over their own lives.’ The big thing about the way Christian Aid works is that it does all its work in partnership. All their overseas work is carried out through local organisations on the ground who understand the causes of poverty and how to fight it in their own situation. Because they don’t give funds to Governments, therefore, they avoid corrupt regimes and know all their money goes to the people who need it.

The good news is that we can be a part of this bigger Christian Aid picture too. When we give our time, money and energy in Christian Aid Week, we are looking beyond ourselves and enabling others to do what seems impossible. This bigger picture is the world as it could look if we allowed the kingdom of God to be a reality, if we really believed in abundant life for all. It’s the world that Jesus showed us in his life and ministry: a world where we stop living for ourselves and start living for others, a world where we don’t put limits on love and justice, a world where the concept of our neighbour is startlingly redefined.

So please will you be generous when you have an opportunity to give money to Christian Aid in Christian Aid Week? Put your own relative poverty into the context of the very real poverty felt by so many around the world and give from your plenty. Give someone else the chance to have life out of your abundance.

Rev Andy Laird, Minister, Wellesbourne Methodist Church

At the Spring Show (page 6)

The end of an era (see page 7)

Sooty, Sweep & Soo with Mel Harvey (p8)