Well, well, well... this is post number 3000!  Hard to believe I not only kept writing this stuff for more than seven years, I have also now reached this ludicrous number of posts.

Some of you have been kind enough to keep reading this stuff since it began, others have dipped in and out. Literally thousands land here from web searches as diverse as children's poems, liturgies for funerals, breast cancer, prayers and even yours trully.

I still enjoy writing random bits of stuff, and feel it a real privilege that people take time to read and (when the site allows!) comment.

So thank you to everyone who reads... without you it would not be as much fun as it continues to be.

Adults

Sudan’s civil war claimed more than 2 million lives, mainly due to hunger rather than as a direct result of the combat. Fighting disrupted farming, and raids by combatants took the little food farmers had left.

Give 20p for each conflict mentioned in the news today.

That's a good challenge!  It made me pause to think what I mean by 'conflict'.  Do I mean major international issues, or do I include local distrubances or isolated instances of violence?  Does it mean, listen to one news bulletin or does it mean scour the web?  In the end I decided I would look at the BBC news website, select pages that I vist fairly regularly (so quite a few local UK ones as well as world and national), and identify headlines that, to me, speak of conflict.  I identified nine that met my criteria, ranging from local affray to continued unreast and warfare.  So another £1.80 pledged.

My Pledge:

Today £1.80

Total £12.10 plus two prayers