Once there were two preachers who were going to use the parable of the wise and foolish builders as part of the all age bit of the service. 

The wise preacher found lots of lovely images online and created a wonderful PowerPoint presentation to accompany his telling of the tale.  The foolish preacher took a plastic tray, a flat piece of rock, some 'sand', some wooden building bricks and a watering can.

The wise preacher regaled the congregation with the exploits of the two builders.., even having the audacity to accuse the foolish builder of laziness or slipshod work (neither of which is in the original story), before announcing the moral of the tale.

The foolish preacher invited the children forward, tried to encourage them to build two identical 'houses' from her bricks, one on the rock, one on the sand.  A child was entrusted with watering can to  simulate rain... and the uppermost block toppled from the house on the rock, while that on the sand stood firm.  After a hasty rebuild of the house on rock, the intensity and direction of the rain was switched to undermine the house on the 'sand'.  No neat moral lesson to deduce from the tale, but rather 'I wonder what happened next'?  What if the wise men helped the foolish man to build anew house?  And a new 'moral' that sometimes we mess up, but Jesus gives us each other to help us start again...

Three times in the last decade or so I have attempted this.  Three times the house on the rock has collapsed under 'light rain'... is someone telling me something?

* The 'sand' I used today was sawdust made by adding water to wood-based cat litter, as I didn't have any sand.  In the past I've used both play sand and builders' sand with the same effect.

Adults

With the UK hosting the annual G8 summit (a meeting for the government leaders of eight of the world’s most powerful economies) this year, 2013 represents a historic opportunity in the fight to end world hunger. That’s why Christian Aid is joining together with other agencies to call for a fairer food
system that works for all. Visit christianaid.org.uk/campaigns to say you’ve had enough of people going hungry and call on our leaders to act.

Children

There’s enough food in the world for everybody to eat, but right now, millions of people still go hungry. This year, lots of organisations like Christian Aid are joining together to ask politicians to stop so many people being hungry. This weekend, write a letter to your Member of Parliament (MP) telling them that you think it’s really important that everybody in the world has enough to eat. Ask an adult to help you find the address for your MP, and make sure you include your own address so that they can write back to you!

This week I have received a fair few emails asking me to petition my MP about issues relating to poverty, both at home and overseas.  In a delightful and slightly unusual coalition, The Joint Public Issues Team of BUGB, URC, and Methodist Church along with the Church of Scotland have an e-petition we can sign.  More info here   It is also Fairtrade Fortnight, and you can create a 'mini marcher' here

This morning the radio news reported a government minister essentially saying we should cut benefits to pay for bombs (or in more PC language, that the short fall in the defence budgets could be redressed by reducing the benefits budgets).  I'm not naive enough to think balancing a nation's books is easy, or that we can just have whatever we want and hang the cost (though as I said yesterday I'd happily pay more tax if it meant more/better/sustained services, but it did make me pause for thought.

My pledge

Today - sign one e-petition related to issues of poverty (today I chose the JPIT/C of S one)

Total - £20.25, three prayers, a rant on voting and an e-petition to my MP (kind of liking that having voted I can also make my MP do some work!)

Adults

Guatemala has the fifth highest percentage of malnourished children in the world, despite being a middle-income country. Tax dodging by companies means that it has insufficient income to tackle the problem of hunger.

Give £1 if you have ever grumbled about having to pay tax.

That's an interesting thing to contemplate... my immediate reaction was 'no I haven't', indeed I've always been of the view I'd rather pay an extra 1p in the pound income tax if that would safeguard services.  But then I thought a bit harder and I realised that I have (a very long time ago now!) grumbled about VAT being charged on "feminine hygiene" products which are hardly an optional extra.  In recent months I have been shocked and disappointed to hear ministers telling how they pay for accountancy services that enable them to reduce (or even avoid some of) the income tax they pay... "if you do 'X' you can legally offest it against tax..."  Oh dear, I am sounding like kind of pious prig!

On balance, and given my choices earlier in the week, I think I can justify not paying today's 'fine' without it being avoidance, evasion or grumbling!!

My Pledge:

Today - zero

Total - £20.25, three prayers  and a call to 'use your vote and pay your taxes!'

(and a happy St David's Day to those who, like me, who cannot speak Welsh.  Hurrah for Google!)

This morning has been quite curious one way and another.

I picked up emails, including a request to complete a questionnaire for somone's research on women in leadership in BUGB churches.  Whilst I was in the process of completing it, I was interrupted twice, once by one of our 'building users' and once by the local council delivery man with a consignment of refuse sacks for us.  Neither of these 'real life' events would have fitted anywhere in the student's research, because, as I understood it, it was 'spiritual' matters she was interested in.  But each of them is ministry, as I understand it... being here, to handle the questions/concerns of a user group, sharing in the dull routine of property matters... these are a vital part of servant leadership.

I remember way back, in my training days, being surprised that the RC priest I worked with had to be consulted over the purchase of loo rolls.  Whilst I still think it is nuts that the cleaning team could not just buy/order them and then claim the cost back, as a symbol of servant ministry, not above the buying of loo rolls, it remains quite profound.

So, mid-morning and not one item on my 'to do' list started.  But that's the point - as so many others have said before, the ministry is the interruptions.