uopChapChat

Summer - missing presumed lost

2008-07-07T14:36:00.001+01:00

Can anyone tell me what has happened to summer? We seem to have had days and days of rain and today the temperature hasn't even got up to 17C. My children seem to think I ought to be able to make the rain stop but sadly (or rather thankfully) omnipotence hasn't been granted me in the sphere of weather. Actually does anyone know - is there aever likely to be an invention which will control the weather?

2008-03-29T09:13:00.002Z

I'm finally finish this series of blogs - a week late and all in a rush! Anyway, if you have not kept up with it, you can do it all at once or any time - it is all here on the blog. Get a pen and paper, work through the entries, total the cost to you, and if you are willing, send the appropriate cheque to Count Your Blessings, Christian Aid Community Fundraising Team, PO Box 100, London SE1 7RT. It is eye-opening ...

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid:

Tuesday 18th March
In Burundi 45% of children under 5 are underweight.
Count 10p for every snack you ate today.

Wednesday 19th March
64% of Palestinians live below the poverty line. In 1998 that figure was 20%.
Count 40p if you have more disposable income now than in 1998.

Thursday 20th March
In Afghanistan a harsh drought recently forced parents to sell their daughters, some as young as 10, into marriage so as to feed the rest of the family.
Count 20p for every piece of food you threw away this week because it was past its use-by date.

Good Friday 21st March
Christ made peace through his blood shed on the cross (Colossians 1:20)
Reflect on your relationship with the world and all those in it. Ask yourself whether it is a peaceful one.

Saturday 22nd March
As increasingly unpredictable weather causes harvests to fail in Tajikistan, many men leave their families to find work in Russia.
Count 10p for every member of your family less thah an hour's journey away.

Easter Sunday 23rd March
Recount back to the risen Christ just some of his blessings to you this day. Thank God in particular for those you can't remember.
Add a final donation of your choice if you wish.

2008-03-25T08:39:00.002Z

Just this batch and one more batch, and we will have finished! Keep counting! If you have just joined, you can always recap, and you can take as long as you want to work through it all ...

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: (The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Tuesday 11th March
Two million people in the world have no access to electricity.
Count 10p for every non-energy-saving light bulb in your home.

Wednesday 12th March
Today somebody in Zambia has less chance of living to 30 than someone born in England in 1840.
Count 30p if you're over 30p.

Thursday 13th March
The world's surface temperatures are rising faster than at any point in the last 10,000 years.
Turn your thermostat down by 1 degree.

Friday 14th March
In Nicaragua, 13p could buy the 1lb of nails needed to build a latrine.
Count 13p every time you flush today.

Saturday 15th March
Rigged trade rules cost the developing world US$700 billion a year, according to the UN.
Visit christianaid.org.uk to join the movement for trade justice.

Sunday 16th March
On Palm Sunday we marked Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.
How could you live more humbly?

Monday 17th March
Four decades of civicl war in Colombia have created the second highest number of internal refugees in the world.
Count 25p for every holiday or short break you have had in the last year.

2008-03-22T14:01:00.002Z

Sorry - still behind - we'll finish off in batches after Easter! ...

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: (The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Tuesday 4th March
65p could buy a pair of shoes for a person in Cambodia.
Count 65p if you are wearing a pair of shoes, and 10p for every other pair you own.

Wednesday 5th March
Almost every other person in the developing countries lacks adequate sanitation.
Count 30p for every toilet in you home.

Thursday 6th March
In the UK on average each person emits around 9 tonnes of CO2 a year. In the US it is 24 tonnes. In sub-Saharan Africa it is less than one tonne of CO2 a year.
Visit www.christianaid.org.uk today to take action on the Climate Change Bill.

Friday 7th March
K Rajamuthu has spent 25 years breaking rocks in a quarry in south India, but never earns more than £2.30 a day.
Count £2.30 if you had a pay rise in the last year.

Saturday 8th March
In parts of Bangladesh, rising sea-levels are causing water salination, so the poorest people must travel up to 24 hours to buy drinking water.
Count 10p for every glass of water you drank today.

Sunday 9th March
"Every day when I wake up I ask God to save our field staff from being targets of terror attacks," aaid one of our Iraqi prayer partners recently.
Pray for all who work for peace.

Monday 10th March
Every hour more than 1,200 children die away from the glare of the media - the same effect as three tsunamis each month, every month.
Count the price of the last newspaper you bought.

2008-03-18T09:20:00.002Z

Sorry - I keep getting way behind - I'll do a few today, a few tomorrow, etc ...

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid:
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Tuesday 26th Feb
Just 40p could buy 10 eggs, one week's worth of protein for a family of four living in poverty in Kyrgystan.
Count 40p for every box of eggs in your fridge.

Wednesday 27th Feb
A 15-year-old in Botswana has an 80% chance of dying from an HIV-related disease.
Count 10p for every teenager you know.

Thursday 28th Feb
An estimated 12 million children on Africa have lost one or more parents to HIV-related diseases.
Count 20p for each family member you've seen this week.

Friday 29th Feb
Almost a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read or sign their names.
Count 5p for every pen in your home.

Saturday 1st March
45p could pay for a child's visit to a health clinic funded by Christian Aid in Jamaica.
Count 45p for every time you went to your GP last month. Count 90p if you didn't have to.

Sunday 2nd March
Britain spends more than £1.5 billion a year on cut flowers. 25% are from Kenya where workers sometimes labour 18 hours a day for £25 a month, with no pesticide protection.
Count £2.50 for every bunch of bought flowers in your home.

Monday 3rd March
At the current rate of CO2 emissions, by 2050, 30 million more people may go hungry as agricultural yields drop across the globe.
Give 50p if you bought any fruit or veg from abroad this week.

Taize

2008-03-14T16:16:00.000Z

Trip to Taize (France)

For 18 - 30 year olds

A Joint adventure between Plymouth & Marjohns Chaplaincies.

Cost £160

Coach leaves Plymouth to London then London to France on the 26th July coming back on 4th August.

For anyone who is interested there will be a prayer and information evening on Monday the 28th April at 6.30pm followed by a simple meal at Holy Cross Church, Beaumont Road, St Judes.

If there are any queries in the meantime please contact Kate email pathways_community@yahoo.co.uk
or
on 07886840116/ 01752 667433

How NOT to walk on Dartmoor!!!

2008-03-10T11:42:00.002Z

hey everyone!!!

So we went on a walk on Saturday to Dartmoor and took 14 Students along. The weather was not great so we went on a SIMPLE walk from Prince town so it was wet and cold but we wrapped up and set off towards the old quarry. We had almost reached it when we had to climb over a bit of a rocky path and down the other side mmmmmmm....... being me and believe me when I say I am the clumsiest person I know, I thought i won't go down there because i will fall so i spied a path that looked a bit wet but not too bad, so me and a student started to walk down we got there and I steeped on and it was a bit boggy but not too bad. and so about a minute later i took a step and sunk ............oh dear i was up to my knees in mud so i had a little chuckle and said i think we should go back........meanwhile i spied Trevor at the top and he shouted "don't move until i get down there" it was at this point i began to realise i was stuck!!!! then i possibly did the worst thing i started to struggle and was sinking ah the panic was setting in........ i was now up to the top of my legs in mud!! then Trevor appeared and was trying to explain how i could get myself out. it wasn't working. at this point I think I was more scared than i had ever been in my life!!! eventually Trevor managed to pull me free (with me praying more urgently than usual!!!) i managed to get off this path and find a rock to sit on at which point the relief and realisation set in and I burst into tears........ i was wet and the wind was cold (and stupidly wearing jeans) needless to say we decided to head back and go home! it wasn't till we were in the mini bus that David suggested it would be a good sermon!!! which Trevor agreed with and used it at our Parish mass that evening much to my embarrassment!!!! and so let me be a perfect example to you all of how not to walk on Dartmoor!!!

God bless
Kate

PS I can see the funny side of it now!!!

2008-02-25T10:21:00.002Z

Sorry! Just catching up AGAIN ...

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid:
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Friday 22nd Feb
It is expected that Africa's last remaining tropical glacier, on Kenya's Mount Kilimanjaro, will vanish by 2015.
Next time you boil a kettle, only fill it with the amount of water you'll need.

Saturday 23rd Feb
852 million people in the world do not have enough to eat.
Count 25p for every time you ate out this week.

Sunday 24th Feb
A Christian Aid partner in Mozambique gathers decommissioned weapons and gives them to local artists, who turn them into sculptures.
Pray that God may rebuild countries like Mozambique torn apart by civil war.

Monday 25th Feb (which is the beginning of Fair Trade fortnight)
There are now 1500 Fairtrade-certified products on sale in the UK.
Count 50p if you haven't bought a fairly traded product this week.

2008-02-21T10:45:00.002Z

Just catching up ...

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid:
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Tuesday 19th Feb
182 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone could die of diseases caused by climate change by 2100.
Count 10p for every car journey you have taken this week.

Wednesday 20th Feb
In 2003 the IMF forced Ghana to tear up a law protecting its struggling rice growers from subsidised imports. Now the US provides 40% of Ghana's rice.
Count 20p for every hour you spent earning a living today.

Thursday 21st Feb
Just 3p could pay for medication to combat sickness and fever for a person living with HIV in Honduras.
Count 3p for every bottle or box of medication in your home.

2008-02-20T16:32:00.002Z

I am really really sorry - I have forgotten to post these for a week. It doesn't matter - you can just catch up!

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid:
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Thursday 14th Feb
In some Indian villages, dalits - the lowest in India's caste system - are forbidden from using the same tea glasses as other customers in their local cafe.
Count the price of the last cup of tea or coffee you bought.

Friday 15th Feb
52p could pay for a notebook, pen, pencil, sharpener and chalk, allowing a woman or child to attend literacy classes in Afghanistan.
Count 52p for each personal email or note you write today.

Saturday 16th Feb
After losing both her parents, Talent moved in with her aunt. Money is tight, so free school lunches from Zimbabwean partner Christian Care keep her hunger at bay in the afternoons - but she still has only a cup of tea for breakfast.
Count 50p for each type of food and drink you had for breakfast today.

Sunday 17th Feb
"For some countries, the impacts of climate change are lifestyle threatening. In others they are life threatening." Khaled Zia Begum, former PM of Bangladesh.
Prayerfully identify one way you might consume less to lighten your tread on the earth.

Monday 18th Feb
Annual global military spending exceeds US$1 trillion - around 100 times the cost of putting every child in the world through primary school.
Count 10p for every educational course you've attended just for fun.

I think this might be enough for one day. I'll do Tuesday's and today's tomorrow. Keep counting!

24/7

2008-02-17T22:40:00.003Z

hey Everyone

Soooo its the first night of 24/7 prayer and so far so good though i must say the chaplincy is so much differnt at night.....colder and quieter .......... and too be honest a bit lonley ah woe is me!!!!

but i did actualy try out the stations in the prayer room and they are really good very prayerful

which i supose is the point really......

so i can't really think of any thing more to say so i will bid you farewell

God bless

xxxxxxxx

Grey morning

2008-02-15T09:42:00.002Z

I walked out of the front door this morning rather disappointed that it was grey morning. Instead of the blue skies of recent days the sky was covered in cloud. Then I looked again and in among the greys there were shades of blue and cream in layers with hints of pink and orange like a multi coloured layer cake. God, you do great skies!

The Scary Sayings of Jesus

2008-02-13T15:59:00.002Z

Bumping into a friend in the supermarket I asked him what his church was doing for Lent and he said that they were studying "the scary sayings of Jesus": he was writing something on Jesus' words to the rich young man "Go, sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven." Hmm, yes, that is rather scary.

As I was walking back home I thought of so many of the words of Jesus which are so challenging that they are scary, in particular the words from the Lord's Prayer " forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" - I like to think that God will forgive me but I know that I'm not too good at forgiving other people.

What do you think was the most scary thing Jesus said? Any suggestions?

Rev Ev

2008-02-13T09:28:00.001Z

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Wednesday 13th Feb

Life expectancy in Sieraa Leone is just 41 years. Count to 41 - then pray for the children born in that country this week.

2008-02-13T09:23:00.002Z

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Tuesday 12th Feb
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

According to the World Bank, at the current rate of CO2 emissions, sea levels could rise by up to 1m by 2100, submerging up to 16% of Bangladesh. Count 20p for every computer in your home. Count 20p more for each one left on unused for more than half an hour this week.

2008-02-11T16:10:00.000Z

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Monday 11th Feb
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

In the Gaza strip, 1.5 million people are locked into an area no bigger than the Isle of Wight. Count 50p if you have access to a garden.

2008-02-11T08:53:00.000Z

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Sunday 10th Feb
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Moises is 12. He lives opposite a US owned smelting plant in La Oraya, Peru, and like 70% of the population of the town, he has lead poisoning. Pray that poor people may be heard as, like Moises, they stand against unethical business.

2008-02-09T15:10:00.001Z

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Sat 9th Feb
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Two million people are living in camps in Darfur after the recent conflict drove them from their homes. Give 50p for each floor of your home.

Roger

2008-02-09T15:06:00.000Z

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Friday 8th Feb(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

Tea pickers in Sri Lanka earn around £1 per day. Count £1 if you bought an item costing more than that today.

Roger

Muffins, Coffee, Gin, Online Poker and Sex!!!

2008-02-08T10:21:00.000Z

Recently read this in a newspaper:

"Yes, it’s Lent, when people with an iron will or a well-developed sense of self-delusion waltz into the office and announce with insane certainty that for the next forty days and nights they will be giving up muffins, coffee, gin, online poker or sex, or anything else that makes life worth living. And they will be entering into this marathon of self-denial at exactly the time of year when they need those things the most".

Are these really the things that makes life worth living?

I wonder what you may be giving up for lent and is it something that really makes life worth living?

"I've had many things in my hand and I've lost them all but the things that I've placed in God's hands I still possess" - Martin Luther

2008-02-07T10:38:00.000Z

Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Thursday 7th Feb
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)

More than a billion children will not go to school this year. Count 20p for every year you have spent in full time education.

Roger

2008-02-06T22:15:00.000Z

Christian Aid have got an interesting idea for Lent - something to think about each day, that could end up costing a lot. I'm going to post their entry onto this blog every day, starting tomorrow. You'll need a notebook or sheet of paper total up your outcomes all the way till Easter. Roger

Lent

2008-02-06T14:56:00.000Z

Lent has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I grew up in a church tradition which seemed to mark Lent and to remember it, but then didn't really know quite what to do with it. We did seem to have Lent Bible Study groups (some years) and people did talk about giving something up for Lent (although it did all seem rather casual and soemtimes half hearted). So what's it all about?

Lent has traditionally been a time of self denial. Lent was held at that time of the year when self denial wasn't too difficult because the stocks of food from the previous year's harvest were running low after the winter. Today the stocks of food only get low in the supermarkets when the petrol tankers stop running or after the locusts have doen their annual swarm just ebfore the Christmas holiday.

Now anyone who has seen me in recent years knows that my waist line would benefit from a little bit of self denial, but self denial is meant not just to be a negative thing but a positive thing: by not spending money on sweets or alcohol you free up money that might be given to the poor or other good causes; by getting up earlier in the morning you might be able to spend more time in prayer; by not watching a certain TV programme you might be able to spend the time reading the Bible or helping someone else out.

However I think Lent is also about preparing for Easter, getting our mind, heart and soul in a state in which we can understand best what happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
I'm going to try and follow a book of daily readings over Lent to help me do that.

Throughout Lent from now on we'll be pausing for ten minutes of reflection and prayer at 12.15 and 3.15 in the Chaplaincy downstairs room - please do join us if you can. The exception will be from February 18th to 22nd when we shall be taking part in a 24:7 prayer vigil. For more information about this and everything else we do in chaplaincy get in touch.

Lent arrives early this year

2008-02-05T16:55:00.000Z

Lent is almost here! I think we had sixty to seventy people in the chaplaincy at lunchtime today eating free pancakes for Shrove Tuesday and free chocolate from the taste for Life Fair Trade stall.

Before anyone starts saying that Lent seems to get earlier every year - it actually has this year. Because of the wierd way that the date for Easter is calculated Easter is as early as it can be this year (that's why this term ends on March 14th) hence Lent starts on February 6th.

Tomorrow there will be a service for Asdh Wednesday in the Chaplaincy Lounge from 1.30.

After that every weekday to mark Lent there will be a short time of prayer in the chaplaincy downstairs room at 12.15 and 3.15 tll the end of term with the exception of 17th-24th February when we shall be using the room for a 24/7 prayer vigil. Please do come and join us.

2008-01-31T19:37:00.000Z

Holocaust Memorial Day

2008-01-27T09:20:00.000Z

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. I always feel overwhelmed by the day as if a dark cloud rests on my heart. I know I want to move away, to pass on to happier more pleasant things than contemplating the fact that in the last World War six million people, largely Jews but also many others including, gypsies, homosexuals and the physically disabled were systematically exterminated.

If only I could pretend that this was an aberration - something which only happens once in a thousand years but the Armenian massacres at the beginning of the twentieth century, the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia, the Rwanda genocide all prove that this is something which can surface almost anywhere given the right conditions.

I suppose part of the key is that it all starts by treating other people as less than human - they are not like us and so we don't have to treat them by the same rules as we would treat "our own kind".

I would like to think that there was something positive that I could bring out of this day but apart from the determination that it must never happen again I'm not sure what I can - and even that resolution by so many people proved helpless in the face of the Rwandan genocide and the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia.

Any thoughts?

Pancakes!

2008-01-25T15:55:00.000Z

Children say the funniest things!

2008-01-24T22:14:00.001Z

Sometimes it is through the mouths of children that God speaks to our hearts! Even to those who don't see themselves as 'religious'. Just asking questions that make us stop in our tracks and think, or those comments that remind us how dear we are to God.

One story I heard was of a child and parent having a dispute when the child turned round and said 'Well you can't tell me what to do because you are only a child also.' Parent asked 'how am I a child?' Child responded, 'You are a child of God!'

Children who have such a simple faith in God our creator can sometimes remind us of some simple facts and add a smile to our day.

I'm wondering if the little girl I met today is a prophetess in disguise! Apparently I am going to have 2 little boys!
News to me!

Keep smiling and remember we are all children of God!

False Prophecy!

2008-01-22T14:32:00.000Z

"If I were a gambler I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000" or so said Paul Ehrlich Professor of Biology at California's Stanford University.

To give him credit he did say it some time before 1977 (as that was when the book I was flicking through looking for something else was published) but it does seem rather stupid now. I wonder why he thought it? Could ti be that he thought that we would all have blown the world sky high in a nuclear apocalypse or that we were all going to be taken over by the Soviet Union. Either way it shows how stupid our predictions about the future can seem!

2008-01-17T16:25:00.000Z

Hi, well this is the first real entry as opposed to a test entry on the UoP Chapchat blog. It's here to share chaplaincy news, views and - what rhymes with news and views??? - well other random things that intrigue, puzzle inspire you.

All the contributors are members of the University of Plymouth Chaplaincy Team but as ever anyone can comment on what's been put up.

So, I offically declare this blog ope! Where's the champagne bottle? You broke it?!!!

Test Post to Blog

2007-11-30T10:12:00.001Z

Hello world!

:o)

2007-11-30T10:00:00.001Z

Welcome to uopChapChat

2007-11-30T09:35:00.000Z

Welcome to uopChapChat! What do you think of it so far?