Pastoral Letter

I would guess that most of us have mobile phones, and most of us feel we couldn’t live without our mobiles.

 We use them, not just for keeping in touch with our families and friends, but we also use them to take photographs, check emails, and whole variety of other things.

The United Nations came up with a very sobering statistic recently. They say that in our world populated by roughly 7 billion people, 6 billion have access to a mobile phone, while only 4.5 billion have access to a working toilet. More people have access to a mobile phone than a toilet! Staggering!

It’s interesting then that one of Christian Aid’s projects in Kenya is a project involving mobile phones. In Kenya, the weather is erratic, and when there is not enough rain, crops fail and people struggle to eat. But farming methods in the area have been revolutionised by the introduction of simple targeted weather forecasts being sent to farmers by text message. Previously farmers were unsure how to plan for erratic weather patterns, but now they can receive advice on using different crop varieties and agricultural techniques to adapt to the changing weather patterns.

I wonder how much you pay for your mobile phone package? I think, for me (who doesn’t use it much) it’s under £20 per month. But for a donation to Christian Aid of £5, it will pay for text messages to be sent to 100 farmers in Kenya to provide them with an update on the weather which helps them to prepare their land, plan their planting and harvesting and produce healthy crops. All for £5!

Christians are called not just to devotion, but to action. Within our congregation we are good givers to Christian Aid, but when we see the difference £5 can make, and when we consider how much we spend on our own mobile phones, surely this year we can make even a greater impact on some of the poorest people in our world.

St Teresa of Avila said,

“Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world."

Yours in love,

Anne Paton