At St Thomas’ we follow the biblical principle of giving 10% of our income away. We support and have links with a number people and missions. These include The Children’s Society, Tearfund, Word of Life, CMS where our link missionary is Shelagh Wynne working with Friends of China in Thailand, Interserve where we have links with Karin Whetham in the UK, D and M W with K working in South East Asia and we pray for Jo and Denny Fleming working at the Christian Medical Hospital in Vellore, India,. We also support Nathaniel and Donna Jennings with Micah working in Bangladesh and the Children’s Uplift Programme where Beth Jennings is working also in Bangladesh who are working with Serving in Mission.
Tearfund
At harvest time we usually support Tearfund and this year we will be learning about Stidia, a 13-year old girl living in Southwest Uganda. The pastor of her church listened to his people talking about their children dying of cholera, dysentery and typhoid, all waterborne diseases, and asked the Diocese of Kigezi, one of Tearfund’s partners, for help. They have worked together to ensure that all the households have a pit latrine ad have received hygiene education. Now they are looking at the provision of clean water. Girls like Stidia have to walk 3 miles down the mountain twice a day, carrying their 20 litre cans, to collect water from a spring. This journey take1 ½ hours round trip. They often are late for school and face the risk of attack and even rape from local youths on the way. The village people are working together to build rainwater tanks to store water, so that the girls don’t have to make the journey every day. An added bonus is that they can spend time helping their parents in the fields !! We take turning on a tap for granted but Tearfund is helping others to know that luxury too.
At our Harvest Thanksgiving on 11 October, we will have our usual bread and soup lunch after the service with a table of Traidcraft goods for sale. People have asked about Christmas cards. I will put Traidcraft and Tearcraft catalogues at the back of church in October. If anyone wants to order their cards please put your order in before the end of October.
