3 Wednesday October 3rd
Yesterday I told you about a memorable and moving visit to an old
housebound man. Today I will tell you of another very memorable visit last year
with the group from St Paul’s Church.
Without doubt it was absolutely freezing in Anna’s house. It was very
clear she had no heating, but when we enquired we found she had managed to get
a small number of chunks of wood to burn for heating. But the problem was that
she had such a very small wood burning stove so the logs would not fit in. And
she did not have the strength to chop the wood. Immediately the men in the
party found her rather small axe and set about chopping her wood into small
enough pieces to fit in her little stove.
Two thousand years James spoke about how Christian faith and acts of
charity must go together. He wrote “if you see someone in need of clothes and
food, and you say to them ‘I wish you well, be warm and well fed’ without
giving them those necessities of life - what good is your faith? Faith without
actions is dead”.
That is similar to the reason we don’t just ask for Christmas shoeboxes - after all what is the point of
giving a child a lovely Christmas shoebox in December, if in January that child
freezes to death or starves to death because the family have no heating or food?
For years now we have asked for money to purchase
bread and food for the neediest during the coldest winter months.
If you look on our Christmas shoebox leaflet you will see we ask for
donations of money to help save lives as well as Christmas shoeboxes to
brighten someone’s Christmas.
We want to express our faith through action. What about you? Can you do
something to support someone in need today?