"Honour the Lord with your wealth" Proverbs 3:9
"…I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes
and you clothed me, I was in prison and you came to visit me".
Matthew 25 :35-36
Christians are challenged to regard all their wealth as a gift from God, and to
use it prayerfully according to his will. At St. Mary Magdalene's we give about
10% of our annual income to charitable and mission partners locally and
internationally. Please take time to read about our current mission partners,
and remember them in your prayers. The Charitable Giving Group meets regularly
to discuss and pray for our partners locally, nationally and internationally,
and makes annual recommendations to Prudhoe Parish PCC about which organisations
we should support. For further information on the Charities and Mission Group and
its policies, or if you would like to get involved,
please e-mail arthur.pratt@btinternet.com
Church Mission Society (CMS).
www.cms-uk.org
As a church we have made a commitment over
the next few years to donate the
major proportion
of our financial giving towards the work of David
and Dawn Curran,
who are currently undertaking
training with CMS at Redcliff College, Gloucester.
David grew up in Prudhoe where he was a member of the church here. After leaving
school he trained as a medical doctor at Newcastle University, and since then he
has gained additional medical qualifications, including a recent one in tropical
medicine. He also met and married Dawn, who is an accident and emergency nurse,
and together they now have two girls, Faye and Sian, and a baby boy
Boaz. In October 2009, after a long wait for visa's, the Curran's made the
move to southern Pakistan. After a period of acclimatisation and language learning,
David will work for a local tuberculosis (TB)
project and together, over time, David and Dawn hope to develop an active role
in strengthening the Christian community in that region.
The Currans visited the
region in which they are now living and working, for 10 days in April 2008, so they
already had some idea as to what they were letting themselves in for, but the
coming months will no doubt be exceptionally challanging for the whole family,
as they find their feet.
The Currans are an insprational family whose work has the potential to transform
lives in Jesus' name. Whilst not at the epicentre of the current Taliban threat
in that country, the southern area to which they will be travelling, is not
immune to the political turmoil around it.
Please pray for the Currans:
Practical Compassion for Destitute Children (PCDC) in the Lands of the Bible.
(no website)
PCDC was founded by local vicar Malcolm Jones some 13 years ago, and is a small
faith ministry to children whose lives are affected by poverty and violence in
the Bethlehem area. Now registered as a charity in the UK (Regd. Charity 1076588),
PCDC has grown over the years, comprising a team of eight people dedicated to
serving some 248 children in that region under Malcolm's supervision; the group
has strong links with 24 schools and three universities. Many encouraging stories
have continued to arrise from their frequent visists to the area, where the education and
health of sponsored children is a priority in what is a very unsettled environment.
Without this charity, many of these children would remain uneducated. We are grateful
to Malcolm and the team for their visit to St Mary's in Autumn 2009, and for their truly
inspirational bridge-building Christian witness in the Holy Land. For PCDC's
most recent newsletter, e-mail Arthur.
Korrogocho, Nairobi, Kenya.
www.vision-peoples.org
Korrogocho is a sprawling slum which houses over 2 million people in just 2
square kilometres on the outskirts of Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Overcrowding and
poverty, and the related problems of alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution and
preventable mortality due to infectious disease, are endemic here. Korrogocho
is the focus of the work of Vision Peoples Mission (VPM), a Kenya-based Christian
charity (UK-registered 1113819), and Murray Haig of our own parish, previously
together with his late and sadly missed wife Debbie, have been strong advocates
of VPM over the years. Specifically, and under the local directorship of
Rev Franklyn Otwoma, VPM funds primary education for local children, an orphanage,
a Christian church, vocational training for women, and a health clinic, all in
Korrogocho.
Prudhoe Community High School, South Africa Project 2009.
http://www.pchs.org.uk
The project will involve a team of Sixth Form students and staff spending
approximately 3 weeks working at Project Gateway during the summer holidays this
year
http://www.projectgateway.co.za
in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Project Gateway itself is a church-based community project who serve the people
in the local area and in nearby rural communities motivated in their work by a
spirit of compassion and a vision of equality. Gateway runs a school, HIV/AIDS
outreach projects, a pregnancy crisis centre, an overnight shelter for the homeless,
feeding programmes and is also linked with rural schools. We have have made a
modist financial contribution for young people and staff from PCHS to take part
in this project. We enjoyed hearing what they got up to when they came to speak
to us in church in November 2009, (see also November issue of Grapevine; parish
magazine).
The Rainbow Trust.
http://www.rainbowtrust.org.uk
The Rainbow Trust Children's Charity provides practical and emotional support to
families who have a child with a life-threatening illness. Although a national
charity, it has a strong presence in the North-East, with one of its respite
centres being located in Tynedale. The trust supports about 1000 families
nationally at any one time, and is dependent on donations.
Reserve Funds: Additional Donations…
On occasion, needs arise locally or internationally which require action in the
short term. In 2008, for example, we have diverted additional funds towards…