I expect that many of you will already have seen this Christmas advert, but just in case you haven't...
I don't work for the company - I just love this advert.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Filling Shoe Boxes
Some of you may already know of the work of Samaritan's Purse, and their Operation Christmas Child campaign. Essentially, millions of people fill a shoe box with gifts for a child, they drop their box off at a 'drop off point', and then these boxes find their way into the hands of needy children right across the planet.
As a church we started filling shoe boxes a few years ago. Then two years ago we became a drop off point - somewhere were local people and schools could bring their boxes - and these would then be collected to be taken to a warehouse for the next part of the process.
This year, for the first time, we have become a satellite warehouse. For the past two weeks, and for the next two weeks, the church has become a warehouse during the week.
Boxes are delivered by the hundred.
A team of volunteers then process each box. This involves carefully checking the contents to make sure that unsuitable items have not been included.
Unsuitable items would include things like war toys (many boxes go to places affected by conflict), plastic snakes or biscuits. Other items, such as a tube of toothpaste, need to be wrapped in clingfilm to ensure that if they were to leak on their long journey the rest of the box will not be damaged.
If possible volunteers try to leave boxes just as they were when they were originally packed.
Once checked, the boxes are sealed with tape, and then boxed into cartons - about 10 or 11 shoe boxes per carton - each carton for a specific group: boy/girl aged 2-4/5-9/10-14.
80 cartons will fill a lorry - and these are then taken to a nearby storage facility, where 800 cartons will be loaded onto a container ready for shipping.
The first container will be leaving on Saturday, heading for Mozambique.
So far we have processed about 1300 shoe boxes, and we anticipate doing another 3000 before the end of the month.
To find out more about Operation Christmas Child click here.
As a church we started filling shoe boxes a few years ago. Then two years ago we became a drop off point - somewhere were local people and schools could bring their boxes - and these would then be collected to be taken to a warehouse for the next part of the process.
Boxes are delivered by the hundred.
A team of volunteers then process each box. This involves carefully checking the contents to make sure that unsuitable items have not been included.
Unsuitable items would include things like war toys (many boxes go to places affected by conflict), plastic snakes or biscuits. Other items, such as a tube of toothpaste, need to be wrapped in clingfilm to ensure that if they were to leak on their long journey the rest of the box will not be damaged.
If possible volunteers try to leave boxes just as they were when they were originally packed.
Once checked, the boxes are sealed with tape, and then boxed into cartons - about 10 or 11 shoe boxes per carton - each carton for a specific group: boy/girl aged 2-4/5-9/10-14.
The first container will be leaving on Saturday, heading for Mozambique.
So far we have processed about 1300 shoe boxes, and we anticipate doing another 3000 before the end of the month.
To find out more about Operation Christmas Child click here.
Monday, 24 October 2011
£7 challenge - a review
As we look back on last week's £7 challenge - first of all I want to say a big 'well done' to all of you who completed the challenge. About half of those who started at church made it to the end of the week, and although it was hard, I think we're all glad we did it. So what will we take away with us?
Everyone is agreed that we have so much to be thankful to God for, and so much that we take for granted. I think generally speaking, we have no idea just how fortunate we are.
It was also good to see just how little you can live off. We have already made some changes to our shopping/eating/cooking habits, in the light of this experience, and think that this week's shop (general supermarket shop including food, washing products etc etc), for the five of us, is probably about £30 less than normal. Even if it was only half that amount, that would still work out at about £800 saving over a year.
When it comes to awareness of the issues related to world poverty this was a very beneficial exercise. It has highlighted the significance of some of the issues in a way that straight statistics never could. For example, when we hear of rises in food prices, this is a slight concern for us, as strained budgets might be strained a little more - but it is rarely a potential matter of life and death. But when every penny has to be careful accounted for, if wheat or rice, for example go up in price, then something else has to be sacrificed - and that something might be vegetables. Alternatively if health care is needed then maybe what that increase in the food price means is that the family can't eat today.
Also whilst I rarely felt hungry during the challenge, especially after we bought a third loaf of bread, the numbers show that it wasn't a balanced diet. As I've mentioned there was little fruit or veg. although plenty of rice, bread and lentils. Throughout the week I kept a nutrition spreadsheet - which is a lot easier to do when everything you eat can be kept in a medium size plastic box, and is basically the same thing each day. The figures below are my daily average, with the figures in brackets being the recommended daily amount, and the percentage I managed.
Energy in kC...1805...(2500...72%)
Protein in g...59...(55...108%)
Carbs in g...265...(300...88%)
Fat in g...58...(95...62%)
Fibre in g...32...(25...129%)
Although protein and fibre were high, with energy and fat being well down it is not surprising that everyone who took part lost weight - some as much as 2 to 3 pounds (if you take into consideration exercise which added an average of 430kC per day to my total required - that then gives an energy percentage of 62%).
Obviously eating this diet over a long period of time would have health implications. But eating the right foods can make a big difference. Peanut butter on toast was probably one of my best buys of the week. One slice of toast, no marg. or butter, and 20g peanut butter provides about 6% of daily energy, carbs and fat, but just over 10% of protein and fibre. On the days I ran I had six slices. Porridge was also very good as were kidney beans and rice.
Again this shows that little changes to diet can have a big impact. Schemes that allow people to grow their own veg., or improve the quality and quantity of what they grow are great. As are schemes that provide a goat, a chicken or a cow. Little things that have a big impact.
One of the biggest dangers of all this is that we are so overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, and so aware of the 'smallness' and insignificance of our efforts to change things and make a difference, that we end up doing nothing. But small changes really can have a life changing impact on one person or one community. Let's play our part.
Everyone is agreed that we have so much to be thankful to God for, and so much that we take for granted. I think generally speaking, we have no idea just how fortunate we are.
It was also good to see just how little you can live off. We have already made some changes to our shopping/eating/cooking habits, in the light of this experience, and think that this week's shop (general supermarket shop including food, washing products etc etc), for the five of us, is probably about £30 less than normal. Even if it was only half that amount, that would still work out at about £800 saving over a year.
When it comes to awareness of the issues related to world poverty this was a very beneficial exercise. It has highlighted the significance of some of the issues in a way that straight statistics never could. For example, when we hear of rises in food prices, this is a slight concern for us, as strained budgets might be strained a little more - but it is rarely a potential matter of life and death. But when every penny has to be careful accounted for, if wheat or rice, for example go up in price, then something else has to be sacrificed - and that something might be vegetables. Alternatively if health care is needed then maybe what that increase in the food price means is that the family can't eat today.
Also whilst I rarely felt hungry during the challenge, especially after we bought a third loaf of bread, the numbers show that it wasn't a balanced diet. As I've mentioned there was little fruit or veg. although plenty of rice, bread and lentils. Throughout the week I kept a nutrition spreadsheet - which is a lot easier to do when everything you eat can be kept in a medium size plastic box, and is basically the same thing each day. The figures below are my daily average, with the figures in brackets being the recommended daily amount, and the percentage I managed.
Energy in kC...1805...(2500...72%)
Protein in g...59...(55...108%)
Carbs in g...265...(300...88%)
Fat in g...58...(95...62%)
Fibre in g...32...(25...129%)
Although protein and fibre were high, with energy and fat being well down it is not surprising that everyone who took part lost weight - some as much as 2 to 3 pounds (if you take into consideration exercise which added an average of 430kC per day to my total required - that then gives an energy percentage of 62%).
Obviously eating this diet over a long period of time would have health implications. But eating the right foods can make a big difference. Peanut butter on toast was probably one of my best buys of the week. One slice of toast, no marg. or butter, and 20g peanut butter provides about 6% of daily energy, carbs and fat, but just over 10% of protein and fibre. On the days I ran I had six slices. Porridge was also very good as were kidney beans and rice.
Again this shows that little changes to diet can have a big impact. Schemes that allow people to grow their own veg., or improve the quality and quantity of what they grow are great. As are schemes that provide a goat, a chicken or a cow. Little things that have a big impact.
One of the biggest dangers of all this is that we are so overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, and so aware of the 'smallness' and insignificance of our efforts to change things and make a difference, that we end up doing nothing. But small changes really can have a life changing impact on one person or one community. Let's play our part.
Sunday, 23 October 2011
£7 challenge - day seven
As this coming week is going to be a normal week, shopping had to be done. Nine apples for 65p - couldn't find them at that price last week - and there were some other great bargains too. With a slight change in habits we have probably saved about £30 on our normal weekly shop for the coming week, and if you take just the food, for all five of us, then we have probably not spent much over £2 per person per day.
Of course the purpose of this exercise wasn't primarily about saving money. What long term changes will it lead to? Changes that will have a meaningful impact on the lives of those who do live off $1 a day? Or maybe a less daunting question, a better question - what changes can I make that will have a real impact on one person who currently lives off less than $1 a day?
What's with the chocolate coated apples? That was this afternoon's activity with our girls, in preparation for this evening's meal. Probably the hardest few hours of the challenge so far, especially when they started licking the spoons!
Come back tomorrow for some final reflections.
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