we made there. We will be praying for the team that goes out on a weekly basis, that the right people will be in place so that work can continue and grow. We will also be remembering the homeless people on the streets of Sydney during this time, Christmas is a hard time for so many people, please join with us in praying that they can experience God’s love and the true meaning of Christmas.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Soul Touch Advent Prayer Calendar - Hillsong, Sydney
In February we visited Hillsong Church in Sydney Australia, there we worked with CityCare on a project called Street Beat, which works with the homeless people on the streets of Sydney. They work in conjunction with St Vincent de Pauls (who serve food to the homeless every evening). Today we want to remember the friends
we made there. We will be praying for the team that goes out on a weekly basis, that the right people will be in place so that work can continue and grow. We will also be remembering the homeless people on the streets of Sydney during this time, Christmas is a hard time for so many people, please join with us in praying that they can experience God’s love and the true meaning of Christmas.
we made there. We will be praying for the team that goes out on a weekly basis, that the right people will be in place so that work can continue and grow. We will also be remembering the homeless people on the streets of Sydney during this time, Christmas is a hard time for so many people, please join with us in praying that they can experience God’s love and the true meaning of Christmas.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Soul Touch Prayer Advent Calendar - I am the vine; you are the branches John 15:5
“Vine Trust is an international, interdenominational, volunteering charity which seeks to enable volunteers to make a real and significant difference to some of the poorest children and communities in the world. We welcome people from all backgrounds who share our ethos of caring and our belief that whilst we can’t help everyone we can all help someone.”The Vine trust began 25 years ago in the form of Branches Gift Shop Bo’ness. Branches is manned by a team of volunteers and each year they make a donation to the Vine Trust, since Branches opened The Vine Trust has grown and grown, to view a video of some of their work go to http://www.vinetrust.org/know/about/who_we_are We want to offer you an opportunity to pray and support for the Vine Trust today, You can do this by logging onto www.vinetrust.org where you can shop for gifts or leave a donation. Alternatively you can pop into Branches Gift Shop, Market Square Bo’ness and pick up some cards or a few gifts.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Soul Touch Prayer Advent Calendar - Day 1
As Jenn mentioned we're turning the Soul Touch Blog into an advent calendar of of the places, people and charities that have touched us so much we want to share them with all our friends! We'll take a new theme each day and give you some prayer pointers, we hope to also inform you of some alternative christmas gifts along the way...
It's nearly a year since Jenn and I stated our Sou
l Touch journey... the trip began in January in New Zealand, we left Scotland on the 8th and arrived on the 10th, completely loosing the 9th of January altogether, something we’ve never quite gotten over! Anyway our first volunteer opportunity began with Scripture Union New Zealand, Jenn and I were leaders at a camp for 15-18 year olds on an island called Ponui. We spent a fun filled week with some amazing young people! This camp will be starting again mid January. We would like you to join us in prayer today for the staff of the camp, that enough volunteers come forward and that they are the right people. Also pray for the campers that will be attending, pray that they have a positive experience and that God can use their time on Ponui to encourage them. Also pray for their time after the camp, and for previous campers. Pray that their experiences can continue after camp has finished and that they don’t forget what they have learned about God’s love!
It's nearly a year since Jenn and I stated our Sou
l Touch journey... the trip began in January in New Zealand, we left Scotland on the 8th and arrived on the 10th, completely loosing the 9th of January altogether, something we’ve never quite gotten over! Anyway our first volunteer opportunity began with Scripture Union New Zealand, Jenn and I were leaders at a camp for 15-18 year olds on an island called Ponui. We spent a fun filled week with some amazing young people! This camp will be starting again mid January. We would like you to join us in prayer today for the staff of the camp, that enough volunteers come forward and that they are the right people. Also pray for the campers that will be attending, pray that they have a positive experience and that God can use their time on Ponui to encourage them. Also pray for their time after the camp, and for previous campers. Pray that their experiences can continue after camp has finished and that they don’t forget what they have learned about God’s love!
Monday, November 29, 2010
A different sort of Christmas sparkle...
The past few weeks Laura and I have been really enjoying visiting a homeless ministry in down town Vancouver called Servants. As well as living in community in the poorest areas of the city and offering a friendly, warm place for dinner and friendship every night, Servants also have a group they call “Creative World Justice”. This group is a combination of missionaries, locals, friends from the neighbourhood and basically anyone else that wants to show up. They meet every Tuesday night after dinner for a time of prayer, worship and discussion of what actions can be taken to creatively fight for justice.
The topic focussed on switches every few months and as Laura and I first joined the meetings they were finishing off a long time of discussing what can only be described as slavery on cruise ships. Intrigued and a little confused I managed to corner Craig from Servants and asked him what this really meant. He sadly explained to me that most, if not all, cruise and cargo ships that travel the world are full of injustice and exploitation. These boats hire staff from our Western countries for the entertainment and the upper decks, the ones that mix with the paying customers. These staff are paid fairly enough, and as far as I can tell from conversations with people who have had jobs like these, they have a great time. However, below the decks is a very different story. The big ships stop in small countries, lots of them in Asia and pick up workers for their boats. They then take these workers to countries that have no labour laws and register them as their workers. This then means that very legally these ships can pay these poor people around $50 a month and have them working up to 7 days a week! The whole thing stinks of slave ships that we all pride ourselves in getting rid of so many years ago, but I wonder if we would be so proud after seeing the cramped and unhygienic living conditions of these modern-day slaves.
Craig explained to me that, being on the water so much, the ships have little accountability to any one source and, like me, most people have never even heard of this awful exploitation. So we happily, naively pay these big companies to cruise us on the holiday of our lives, completely unaware of the atrocities occurring in the well hidden, bottom, dirty sections of the ships.
So, to try to help, Servants don’t believe in only praying or only acting; they do both. For this issue their main goal is to raise awareness in the hope that companies will become accountable either to us (the paying customers) or even to governments that allow them to dock in their ports. Amongst these actions was a flash mob display of many, many “pirates” flooding into the local Quay demonstrating peacefully and in an entertaining way, whilst also informing intrigued passer-bys about the shocking truth. (Please see www.creativeworldjustice.org for photos and more information on how you can get involved).
But, like I mentioned, by the time Laura and I joined this interesting group of people on Tuesday nights they had began to switch focus to Advent (the time leading up to Christmas). One of the main things we have bee
n discussing is the commercialised approach we have all slowly slipped more and more into over the years, and how this disguises the true meaning of Christmas; Jesus’ birth bringing peace, love, forgiveness, life and truth. For many years now Christmas has been more about presents and nights out than anything else, and it seems that more and more we are even falling away from understanding the importance and the pleasure of spending real time with people. Instead we send them a Christmas card, updating them with our news and secretly hope they wont hold us to our word when we mention meeting for an “overdue coffee”.
However the thing that shocked and disgusted me and Laura the most was when we found out that whilst the states alone spend $450 BILLION on Christmas each year, it would only cost $10 BILLION (that’s right, one 45th) for every single soul in the world to have access to fresh, clean water. (For more info see www.adventconspiracy.org) I literally almost threw up and burst into tears all at once when I heard this. Because the thing is, these numbers are not just statistics, they’re not just interesting, sad facts, these are the lives of actual people that are being unnecessarily thrown away every few seconds because we have so much greed and so little understanding. All of a sudden I wasn’t so excited about the Christmas lights appearing in the streets around us.
But the more I thought about it, the calmer I became. Because the thing is, no matter how naive or childish this may sound, I do still genuinely believe that most people are truly good at heart. Even those who seem completely lost and consumed with greed, I trust they have a spark of passion for humanity somewhere within them, as lost as it may seem. But the problem in our commercialised world, isn’t lack of people trying to help, it’s the overwhelming need we seem to find facing us at every turn. I mean, in all seriousness, when I used to live in the city, if I had given to every charity box I met between my flat and the train station I would have ended up on the streets myself. There is just so much, everywhere, and it does just get to the point where the guilt and the overwhelming confusion over where to help drives us to the easier option; closing down and not helping at all. But the one thing I have had hammered into my brain time and time again this year, is the MASSIVE difference the tiniest thing can make to somebody with nothing. We think that if we can’t commit to donating a certain amount a month then we shouldn’t give anything, but that is so far from the truth.
For as long as I can remember my mum has been putting together shoeboxes at Christmas time to send as gifts to those in countries such as Romania for people with nothing at Christmas. They generally contain some concoction of gloves, a scarf, a hat, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a toy and some sweeties. I have always enjoyed making these with her and love the idea of a little child with nothing smiling as he opens this jam-packed gift. But when I first went to Africa a few years ago and saw how extreme poverty can be, I began to wonder how big a difference these tiny things make in the scheme of such a vast problem. However, this year, as we have met hundreds of people all in need of one thing or another, I have been reminded again and again of how important these little differences are. Not only will that child have a memory of kindness from Christmas, he knows that he is cared for beyond his family or the people he knows, he is given a spark of hope, and for once in what can be a difficult day to day life, this child experiences a taste of the unconditional love that was meant for him.
Or, on an even smaller scale, work it out for yourself. At some point in the next few days as you struggle through the crazy snow Europe is getting, or try to warm yourself waiting for a
bus, do me a favour and take off a layer of clothing. Remove your gloves or your scarf, or even just your hat. Just take one item of clothing off and I can promise you, within minutes you will have a whole new understanding of the huge effect you can have on someone else’s life through tiny acts of giving. You may not have money, or feel like you have many skills, but I am positive you have (or if you truly look for it, can find) time, and I guarantee you will have at least one person in your life that would love nothing more than your time.
I know, I know, this is beginning to sound like the end of a cheesy Christmas movie, but seriously, please let this be the year that we stop thinking and we start acting. Even if it is just little acts in our eyes, it wont be in the eyes of others, and you never know, your acting might just set the example others need to do their own “little” thing this Christmas.
If, you’re stuck for inspiration or ideas for the direction of your thoughts or prayers this advent, Laura and I are more than willing to help! The Soul Touch blog will officially become a 2010 advent calendar this year, with a small entry each day showing you the “door” into some of the inspiring lives and organisations we have encountered on our year so far. Please let these little messages resonate in your thoughts this advent and remember them as you reach for yet another reel of tinsel. Anybody that knows me knows I love glitter and all things sparkly, but there are also so many other people I know that despite all their own sparkle, they need so much more than glitter. Please remember them during this festive season.
Jenn x
The topic focussed on switches every few months and as Laura and I first joined the meetings they were finishing off a long time of discussing what can only be described as slavery on cruise ships. Intrigued and a little confused I managed to corner Craig from Servants and asked him what this really meant. He sadly explained to me that most, if not all, cruise and cargo ships that travel the world are full of injustice and exploitation. These boats hire staff from our Western countries for the entertainment and the upper decks, the ones that mix with the paying customers. These staff are paid fairly enough, and as far as I can tell from conversations with people who have had jobs like these, they have a great time. However, below the decks is a very different story. The big ships stop in small countries, lots of them in Asia and pick up workers for their boats. They then take these workers to countries that have no labour laws and register them as their workers. This then means that very legally these ships can pay these poor people around $50 a month and have them working up to 7 days a week! The whole thing stinks of slave ships that we all pride ourselves in getting rid of so many years ago, but I wonder if we would be so proud after seeing the cramped and unhygienic living conditions of these modern-day slaves.
Craig explained to me that, being on the water so much, the ships have little accountability to any one source and, like me, most people have never even heard of this awful exploitation. So we happily, naively pay these big companies to cruise us on the holiday of our lives, completely unaware of the atrocities occurring in the well hidden, bottom, dirty sections of the ships.
So, to try to help, Servants don’t believe in only praying or only acting; they do both. For this issue their main goal is to raise awareness in the hope that companies will become accountable either to us (the paying customers) or even to governments that allow them to dock in their ports. Amongst these actions was a flash mob display of many, many “pirates” flooding into the local Quay demonstrating peacefully and in an entertaining way, whilst also informing intrigued passer-bys about the shocking truth. (Please see www.creativeworldjustice.org for photos and more information on how you can get involved).
But, like I mentioned, by the time Laura and I joined this interesting group of people on Tuesday nights they had began to switch focus to Advent (the time leading up to Christmas). One of the main things we have bee
n discussing is the commercialised approach we have all slowly slipped more and more into over the years, and how this disguises the true meaning of Christmas; Jesus’ birth bringing peace, love, forgiveness, life and truth. For many years now Christmas has been more about presents and nights out than anything else, and it seems that more and more we are even falling away from understanding the importance and the pleasure of spending real time with people. Instead we send them a Christmas card, updating them with our news and secretly hope they wont hold us to our word when we mention meeting for an “overdue coffee”.However the thing that shocked and disgusted me and Laura the most was when we found out that whilst the states alone spend $450 BILLION on Christmas each year, it would only cost $10 BILLION (that’s right, one 45th) for every single soul in the world to have access to fresh, clean water. (For more info see www.adventconspiracy.org) I literally almost threw up and burst into tears all at once when I heard this. Because the thing is, these numbers are not just statistics, they’re not just interesting, sad facts, these are the lives of actual people that are being unnecessarily thrown away every few seconds because we have so much greed and so little understanding. All of a sudden I wasn’t so excited about the Christmas lights appearing in the streets around us.
But the more I thought about it, the calmer I became. Because the thing is, no matter how naive or childish this may sound, I do still genuinely believe that most people are truly good at heart. Even those who seem completely lost and consumed with greed, I trust they have a spark of passion for humanity somewhere within them, as lost as it may seem. But the problem in our commercialised world, isn’t lack of people trying to help, it’s the overwhelming need we seem to find facing us at every turn. I mean, in all seriousness, when I used to live in the city, if I had given to every charity box I met between my flat and the train station I would have ended up on the streets myself. There is just so much, everywhere, and it does just get to the point where the guilt and the overwhelming confusion over where to help drives us to the easier option; closing down and not helping at all. But the one thing I have had hammered into my brain time and time again this year, is the MASSIVE difference the tiniest thing can make to somebody with nothing. We think that if we can’t commit to donating a certain amount a month then we shouldn’t give anything, but that is so far from the truth.
For as long as I can remember my mum has been putting together shoeboxes at Christmas time to send as gifts to those in countries such as Romania for people with nothing at Christmas. They generally contain some concoction of gloves, a scarf, a hat, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a toy and some sweeties. I have always enjoyed making these with her and love the idea of a little child with nothing smiling as he opens this jam-packed gift. But when I first went to Africa a few years ago and saw how extreme poverty can be, I began to wonder how big a difference these tiny things make in the scheme of such a vast problem. However, this year, as we have met hundreds of people all in need of one thing or another, I have been reminded again and again of how important these little differences are. Not only will that child have a memory of kindness from Christmas, he knows that he is cared for beyond his family or the people he knows, he is given a spark of hope, and for once in what can be a difficult day to day life, this child experiences a taste of the unconditional love that was meant for him.
Or, on an even smaller scale, work it out for yourself. At some point in the next few days as you struggle through the crazy snow Europe is getting, or try to warm yourself waiting for a
bus, do me a favour and take off a layer of clothing. Remove your gloves or your scarf, or even just your hat. Just take one item of clothing off and I can promise you, within minutes you will have a whole new understanding of the huge effect you can have on someone else’s life through tiny acts of giving. You may not have money, or feel like you have many skills, but I am positive you have (or if you truly look for it, can find) time, and I guarantee you will have at least one person in your life that would love nothing more than your time.I know, I know, this is beginning to sound like the end of a cheesy Christmas movie, but seriously, please let this be the year that we stop thinking and we start acting. Even if it is just little acts in our eyes, it wont be in the eyes of others, and you never know, your acting might just set the example others need to do their own “little” thing this Christmas.
If, you’re stuck for inspiration or ideas for the direction of your thoughts or prayers this advent, Laura and I are more than willing to help! The Soul Touch blog will officially become a 2010 advent calendar this year, with a small entry each day showing you the “door” into some of the inspiring lives and organisations we have encountered on our year so far. Please let these little messages resonate in your thoughts this advent and remember them as you reach for yet another reel of tinsel. Anybody that knows me knows I love glitter and all things sparkly, but there are also so many other people I know that despite all their own sparkle, they need so much more than glitter. Please remember them during this festive season.
Jenn x
Monday, November 15, 2010
Oh Canada!
So here we are...Vancouver, our final stop on our amazing Soul Touch journey! Neither of us can believe we are at this point already!
We arrived in about a week ago to be met by Laura’s lovely cousin Moira at the airport and brought back to warm comfy beds after about 16 hours travelling from Guatemala. (Stupid less expensive diverted all over the place flights!!) Our main focus during our time in Vancouver is to sit down and process the year and get it all down on paper. Between us we are working on writing up a detailed description of the different organisations we have been blessed to work with this year, with the intention of having this information available to everyone involved in Soul Touch and anyone else interested. Individually we are also working on writing up a personal reflection of the journey. Soul Touch, as incredible as it is, passes insanely fast and can sometimes feel like a whirlwind that you are somehow caught up in. So whilst we are here we have been given the chance to take some time to work out what actually happened in the past year, what we learnt, how we grew (which I hope we did a bit at least!) and where to go from now on. This will hopefully also help us process things and reduce the effects of any reverse culture shock when we finally arrive home in bonny Scotland.
Vancouver is actually the perfect place for us as we are able to stay with Lau
ra’s kind family and their amazing dog Jackson, but also our minister Albert has managed to put us in touch with a Theological Professor friend of his who lives just 10 minutes from us, who has kindly been helping to guide us with all our thoughts and get them onto paper without ending up in confused tears or over excited giggles (although they might come anyway).
Another reason Vancouver is so great for us stems back to a time many months ago when we were in Thailand working with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), and Laura and I stumbled across a friendly Canadian man named Kevin. As I was waiting for Laura to skype her family in the YWAM offices I became involved in a conversation with this man who was also taking advantage of the internet connection. I was shamefully quiet as we introduced ourselves to each other because in all, ugly, honesty I couldn’t really be bothered making conversation after a long day. However when Kevin mentioned he was only passing through Bangkok on his way home to Canada from Cambodia I asked unexpectedly if he had ever heard of a small ministry called “Servants Asia”. This had been my favourite ministry since I had read a book about them called “Urban Halo”, but nobody I had met so far had heard of them despite us being in Asia. So, expecting him to say no, I understandably leaped across the room towards him screaming at the top of my voice when he told me that in fact, he was part of that ministry and he had been in Cambodia finalising the details of his move out there as part of Servant Asia’s Mission. So after a long night of my incessant questioning, Kevin explained to us that he actually lived with the author of “Urban Halo” Craig and his wife Nay in Vancouver where they ran a homeless ministry. He promised to put us in touch as he ensured us volunteers are more than welcome and ... well... 8 mo
nths on, here we are!
Craig and Nay were, as Kevin had promised, more than welcoming and invited us to join them for dinner and a justice meeting on Tuesday nights. Servants Asia work on the basis of “incarnational ministry”. This is the idea that Jesus came down from Heaven to meet us where we are and so we must also live amongst the people we hope to help, rather than help them occasionally from our ivory towers. So, in Canada Servants have 2 houses in the rougher downtown area where homelessness is rife and they basically live in community with an open door. At 6pm every night they have dinner and anyone is welcome to join them. If they come on a regular basis they are expected to contribute either food or time, but basically anyone that wants can come and they all share a meal together. This means that the group can either have dinner with their fellow Servant’s missionaries that live in the community and one or two homeless people, or they can cram about 50 people that have shown up, around a table. Food is made for plenty and left overs eaten the following day. Everyone helps and nobody is considered at all “higher” or “lower” than anyone else.
Laura and I have had a brilliant time with Servants on Tuesdays and have popped along other times to just spend time with the great people there. However, worryingly for everyone else when we asked how we could best help we were assigned to the cooking rota a couple of nights a week!! This basically involves us rocking up with the will to make whatever we can think of from the donations they have been given on a mass scale! It’s great fun, and the dinner conversation is always so interesting with so many people from different backgrounds. I have to admit though, it’s much easier now we can fully understand the language people are speaking!
We were excited to hear that Kevin, who we met so many months ago, is actually coming back to Canada for a short time in a few weeks so we will get to see him before we leave. Also, our good friend Matt who we met in New Zealand, at the Scripture Union camp 3 days into the start of Soul Touch, is in Vancouver for a while and is meeting us tomorrow to come with us to this brilliant organisation. It will be great to see them both after so long.
Just a wee depressing (or inspiring depending on how motivational your reaction is) note to leave you on. We were discussing the lost meaning of Christmas at the last justice meeting and we were told that while the States alone sp
end $450 billion on Christmas each year, it would only take $10 billion for EVERYONE in the world to have access to clean water! So, maybe as we go to buy those extra unnecessary Christmas decorations, or another pile of chocolate, we should try to remember a few coins, thoughts or prayers for all of those still thirsting. Tesco is right, every little really does help.
Jenn xxx
We arrived in about a week ago to be met by Laura’s lovely cousin Moira at the airport and brought back to warm comfy beds after about 16 hours travelling from Guatemala. (Stupid less expensive diverted all over the place flights!!) Our main focus during our time in Vancouver is to sit down and process the year and get it all down on paper. Between us we are working on writing up a detailed description of the different organisations we have been blessed to work with this year, with the intention of having this information available to everyone involved in Soul Touch and anyone else interested. Individually we are also working on writing up a personal reflection of the journey. Soul Touch, as incredible as it is, passes insanely fast and can sometimes feel like a whirlwind that you are somehow caught up in. So whilst we are here we have been given the chance to take some time to work out what actually happened in the past year, what we learnt, how we grew (which I hope we did a bit at least!) and where to go from now on. This will hopefully also help us process things and reduce the effects of any reverse culture shock when we finally arrive home in bonny Scotland.
Vancouver is actually the perfect place for us as we are able to stay with Lau
ra’s kind family and their amazing dog Jackson, but also our minister Albert has managed to put us in touch with a Theological Professor friend of his who lives just 10 minutes from us, who has kindly been helping to guide us with all our thoughts and get them onto paper without ending up in confused tears or over excited giggles (although they might come anyway).Another reason Vancouver is so great for us stems back to a time many months ago when we were in Thailand working with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), and Laura and I stumbled across a friendly Canadian man named Kevin. As I was waiting for Laura to skype her family in the YWAM offices I became involved in a conversation with this man who was also taking advantage of the internet connection. I was shamefully quiet as we introduced ourselves to each other because in all, ugly, honesty I couldn’t really be bothered making conversation after a long day. However when Kevin mentioned he was only passing through Bangkok on his way home to Canada from Cambodia I asked unexpectedly if he had ever heard of a small ministry called “Servants Asia”. This had been my favourite ministry since I had read a book about them called “Urban Halo”, but nobody I had met so far had heard of them despite us being in Asia. So, expecting him to say no, I understandably leaped across the room towards him screaming at the top of my voice when he told me that in fact, he was part of that ministry and he had been in Cambodia finalising the details of his move out there as part of Servant Asia’s Mission. So after a long night of my incessant questioning, Kevin explained to us that he actually lived with the author of “Urban Halo” Craig and his wife Nay in Vancouver where they ran a homeless ministry. He promised to put us in touch as he ensured us volunteers are more than welcome and ... well... 8 mo
nths on, here we are!Craig and Nay were, as Kevin had promised, more than welcoming and invited us to join them for dinner and a justice meeting on Tuesday nights. Servants Asia work on the basis of “incarnational ministry”. This is the idea that Jesus came down from Heaven to meet us where we are and so we must also live amongst the people we hope to help, rather than help them occasionally from our ivory towers. So, in Canada Servants have 2 houses in the rougher downtown area where homelessness is rife and they basically live in community with an open door. At 6pm every night they have dinner and anyone is welcome to join them. If they come on a regular basis they are expected to contribute either food or time, but basically anyone that wants can come and they all share a meal together. This means that the group can either have dinner with their fellow Servant’s missionaries that live in the community and one or two homeless people, or they can cram about 50 people that have shown up, around a table. Food is made for plenty and left overs eaten the following day. Everyone helps and nobody is considered at all “higher” or “lower” than anyone else.
Laura and I have had a brilliant time with Servants on Tuesdays and have popped along other times to just spend time with the great people there. However, worryingly for everyone else when we asked how we could best help we were assigned to the cooking rota a couple of nights a week!! This basically involves us rocking up with the will to make whatever we can think of from the donations they have been given on a mass scale! It’s great fun, and the dinner conversation is always so interesting with so many people from different backgrounds. I have to admit though, it’s much easier now we can fully understand the language people are speaking!
We were excited to hear that Kevin, who we met so many months ago, is actually coming back to Canada for a short time in a few weeks so we will get to see him before we leave. Also, our good friend Matt who we met in New Zealand, at the Scripture Union camp 3 days into the start of Soul Touch, is in Vancouver for a while and is meeting us tomorrow to come with us to this brilliant organisation. It will be great to see them both after so long.
Just a wee depressing (or inspiring depending on how motivational your reaction is) note to leave you on. We were discussing the lost meaning of Christmas at the last justice meeting and we were told that while the States alone sp
end $450 billion on Christmas each year, it would only take $10 billion for EVERYONE in the world to have access to clean water! So, maybe as we go to buy those extra unnecessary Christmas decorations, or another pile of chocolate, we should try to remember a few coins, thoughts or prayers for all of those still thirsting. Tesco is right, every little really does help.Jenn xxx
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Leaving Guatemala
Hi folks, a bit late here but just wanted to fill you in on the work we were doing while in Guatemala. It really was a crazy busy and wonderful experience for Jenn and I.
Like I mentioned in my previous blog we spent most afternoons working at The Lords Kitchen, but we also had the opportunity to visit a few more projects. One of which was the amazing project the Gyseppi runs (mentioned in Jenn’s previous blog). This man is a complete legend. Ha has the warmest face and sparlky eyes and is so in love with God! He has the biggest heart for the people on the streets and in particular the children.
Gyseppi sends a bus out every morning to pick up the children on the streets and bring them in for warm breakfast, after that they attend lessons in the school which Gyseppi has set up and funds himself, with God’s provision of course!
The children break midmorning for another snack and back for more classes, before Gyseppi’s bus drops them back
with their parents they are fed lunch.
As if that wasn’t enough, Gyseppi heads back out to pick up another 50 older children, these are the ones who have to work for their parents in the morning.
Three evenings a week Gyseppi heads out on the streets to 9 destinations with sandwiches, soup and coffee for the parents of the children attending his school. Gyseppi begins the evening with a word from God, an encouraging story to show the people how valued they are by God and how loved they are.
By the way - yes I am his biggest fan!
We had the chance to visit the school and were out a few evenings with his team. It was great to be in amongst all that he is doing on the streets and the school was a definite highlight for Jenn and i.
On our last night with gyseppi he came to thank us for our time with him. Jenn and I were shocked when he told us he had learned a lot from us... eh?! This is just an example of how completely humble this man is! We were the one’s learning from his amazingly generous heart!
Like I mentioned in my previous blog we spent most afternoons working at The Lords Kitchen, but we also had the opportunity to visit a few more projects. One of which was the amazing project the Gyseppi runs (mentioned in Jenn’s previous blog). This man is a complete legend. Ha has the warmest face and sparlky eyes and is so in love with God! He has the biggest heart for the people on the streets and in particular the children.
Gyseppi sends a bus out every morning to pick up the children on the streets and bring them in for warm breakfast, after that they attend lessons in the school which Gyseppi has set up and funds himself, with God’s provision of course!
The children break midmorning for another snack and back for more classes, before Gyseppi’s bus drops them back
with their parents they are fed lunch.As if that wasn’t enough, Gyseppi heads back out to pick up another 50 older children, these are the ones who have to work for their parents in the morning.
Three evenings a week Gyseppi heads out on the streets to 9 destinations with sandwiches, soup and coffee for the parents of the children attending his school. Gyseppi begins the evening with a word from God, an encouraging story to show the people how valued they are by God and how loved they are.
By the way - yes I am his biggest fan!
We had the chance to visit the school and were out a few evenings with his team. It was great to be in amongst all that he is doing on the streets and the school was a definite highlight for Jenn and i.
On our last night with gyseppi he came to thank us for our time with him. Jenn and I were shocked when he told us he had learned a lot from us... eh?! This is just an example of how completely humble this man is! We were the one’s learning from his amazingly generous heart!
We spent the other two weekends visiting the sister church of Shekinah and a breakfast and afterschool club run by a family in the congregation. 
In Shekinah we visited the childrens church which takes place on a Saturday and hosts about 300 children.
After the church we took some of the teenagers for a Ceilidh lesson which they were due to perform the following morning during the Sunday service. That afternoon we went to the Pastor’s house who taught me how to make chicharron (similar to pork scratching, but these one’s were made with chicken skin).
The following morning the young people performed their dance, and did a spectacular job! After that there was a guest speaker from the States who delivered a healing service which was amazing to see!
After the church we took some of the teenagers for a Ceilidh lesson which they were due to perform the following morning during the Sunday service. That afternoon we went to the Pastor’s house who taught me how to make chicharron (similar to pork scratching, but these one’s were made with chicken skin).
The following morning the young people performed their dance, and did a spectacular job! After that there was a guest speaker from the States who delivered a healing service which was amazing to see! 
Later that week we left to visit Rodolfo and Evelyn at the breakfast club they have set up, this was a good hour from home so we had to leave very early. We arrived in time to serve over 90 children breakfast before painting one of the rooms in the house that had been acquired by Rodolfo and Evelyn for the childrens club they run. The house is perfect and has huge grounds for games with the children in the good weather.
The club is run by one man, Fester and a team of volunteers. Rodolfo and Evelyn both work full time so they can support the club financially. We spent the next couple of days working with them and attending their childrens church which runs on a Saturday morning.
Our final day in Guatemala had been set aside for a trip to Antigua, it’s a beautiful place and we had an amazing day there. In the evening we stopped
off at the church for a quick baptism before heading home to pack.
Laura <><
The club is run by one man, Fester and a team of volunteers. Rodolfo and Evelyn both work full time so they can support the club financially. We spent the next couple of days working with them and attending their childrens church which runs on a Saturday morning.Our final day in Guatemala had been set aside for a trip to Antigua, it’s a beautiful place and we had an amazing day there. In the evening we stopped
off at the church for a quick baptism before heading home to pack.Laura <><
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Soul Touch takes over Stirling Uni!
Yesterday, 1st of November a handful of pupils from
By Shona MacLean, Aileen Ferguson and Ruth Porter J:P ☺☻♥♦♣♠•◘○◙♂♀♪♫☼►◄↕‼¶§▬↨↑↓→←∟↔▲▼ !”#$%&’♥
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