Dear Friends,

As I write, there’s a DVD & newsletter from the Vine Trust on my desk. Perhaps you have seen some of the programmes STV put out following its activities during the month of August. Yesterday, there was a serious earthquake in Peru. Things must only be worse for the people of the Amazon.

As we shape up to Harvest time after a dismal summer, it would do us good to count our blessings.  Clean water and good sanitation, roofs over our heads and no starvation, family and friends around us and a Church in which to worship God – our blessings are many and so taken for granted.

 In a society where the media feed us with what is perceived to be news – the startling, the unusual, and the violent – we rarely look for a sense of perspective. Envy and greed stirred into rampant consumerism, are beginning to show up the bottom line of debt on which our country is based.

Comparing and contrasting the young people of our country, many of whom show the effects of too many possessions and too little love, with the feral children – particularly boys – of Peru means that we need to stop and think, to see what we can do amidst what distresses us most. This is not an either/or situation, but a both/ and!

Peru is maybe a step too far beyond Bonnyrigg Toll for us to go there and do something practical. We can send money and have it used for tremendous good. And locally, we can give our time as well. Volunteering for working within our church and community, and by the integrity of the way we live and worship, we give an example to those around us of the living Christ.

Christianity brings a sense of self worth which is missing in so many people in Britain, in Peru and most other places in our world. It matters that Christ died for all. It matters that we proclaim the message.

Let us give thanks for all our blessings and share them.

Yours in Christ,

Wendy Drake.

PS Look at the Vine Trust Website on www.vinetrust.org/