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

Adults

Four out of five refugees are hosted by developing countries, many of whom provide refuge despite their own national challenges, including food and water shortages.

Give 20p for each time you stayed with family or friends in the last year.

Children

It’s great that we can find out the news in lots of different ways; online, from the television, on the radio or in newspapers and magazines.Watch Newsround or take a look at the First News website (firstnews.co.uk/news), and pray for any countries where there has been bad news.

If I am honest, I am not entirely sure how to count this one!  Increasingly when I visit people I will book into a Travleodge - cheap  'n' (usually) cheerful as it gives great flexibility all round and in any case, some of those I visit have no suitable space to accommodate overnight guests, others have houses .  I guess having the wherewithall to pay for overnights is an even greater blessing, so I will include overnight stays.  I can't recall exaclty how many nights away visitng I had, but ten is a reasonable guesstimate, so I will give £2.

My Pledge

Today - £2

Total - £10. 30 plus two focussed prayers

One sixth of our way through Lent - how's it going for you?  I am having a good one so far!  Busy and challenging, but some real senses of tuning into God a bit more than for a while, that makes me feel encouraged.  Yesterday was very productive and energising, so, yes, life is good, I have many blessings to count.

Adults

In countries torn apart by war but now at peace, such as Angola and Sierra Leone, Christian Aid is helping communities to rebuild their lives and to work towards peaceful, long-term development.

Pray for lasting peace and reconciliation for communities recovering from conflict, especially those in the news at this time.

By way of prayer, I offer this hymn by Alan Gaunt, which came to mind as I read today's challenge:

We pray for peace,
But not the easy peace,
Built on complacency
And not the truth of God.
We pray for real peace,
The peace God's love alone can seal.

We pray for peace,
But not the cruel peace,
Leaving God's poor bereft
And dying in distress,
We pray for real peace,
Enriching all the human race.

We pray for peace,
And not the evil peace,
Defending unjust laws
And nursing prejudice,
But for the real peace
Of justice, mercy, truth and love.

We pray for peace:
Holy communion
With Christ our risen Lord
And every living thing;
God's will fulfilled on earth
And all creation reconciled.

We pray for peace,
And for the sake of peace,
Look to the risen Christ
Who gives the grace we need,
To serve the cause of peace
And make our own self-sacrifice.

God, give us peace:
If you withdraw your love,
There is no peace for us
Nor any hope of it.
With you to lead us on,
Through death or tumult, peace will come.

Alan Gaunt (born 1935) © 1991 Stainer & Bell Ltd

My Pledge:

Today - one prayer for peace

Total £8.30, one prayer of thanksgiving for education, one prayer for peace

This week the focus is on Peace and Reconciliation:

Adults

At the end of 2011, an estimated 42.5 million people were living in a place to which they had been forcibly displaced due to conflict or persecution.

Give 10p for every year you have lived in your current home.

"My father was a wandering Aramean"... a verse out of context I cite more often than enough.  I have moved house more times in my life than most people, some of them before I can remember.

I was born in London and my parents were forced to move house because their landlord had a 'no children, no pets' rule.  They moved locally, and almost a year later twins arrived.  Sadly one of them died, and is buried in north London.  We moved then to Buckinghamshire, where we lived in one of a pair of farmers cottages, which my parents rented, and my other two siblings arrived.  The farmer decided to sell the houses and our neighbours gazumped us, buying both (and later converting them into one large house) so we moved to Northamptonshire, to a council flat in the upper part of what had been a Victorian rectory.  By age five, then, I had lived in at least four homes.  A huge old rectory, partially demolished so that an internal wall became an external wall was bound to have problems with damp, and we were forced to move again, albeit just a few miles, to the place that would be home for the remainder of my childhood.  A well built four-bedroomed council house in a large plot - so large that when the council eventually took some of it away to build bungalows my parents were paid £200 compensation - was home for nine years until I left for university and never really returned.

As an adult I have lived in various places, for various lengths of time, and was fortunate enough to own property for some of that time.  Now I am blessed to live in a beautiful third floor flat, safe, comfortable and well equipped.  I can sleep easy at night knowing that no-one will come and turf me out for having a pet cat, that no-one will sell it over my head, that any structural issues will be addressed should they arise.  I wil never again be in a position to own property, but I think that puts me more in the 'new normal' given how stupid house prices are, but it is not the name on the deeds that make a house a home, it is the love and life therein.  As I wont to say from time to time, in blatant plagiarism,  'wherever I park my car, that's my home'

I have now lived here for three years (all bar a few days) so I get off cheaply today!

My Pledge

Today 30p

Total £8.30 plus one prayer of thanksgiving.