Following Jesus where the need is greatest
TEAR TIMES . 1 SUMMER ’15
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ALL WORK AND NO PAY Children trapped in modern-day slavery tearfund.org
EBOLA QUARANTINE
ORDINARY HEROES
PETE GREIG IN CAMBODIA
Supporting terrified communities
A movement of everyday people
24-7 Prayer on the front line
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
2 . TEAR TIMES
WELCOME... IT’S TIME TO END SLAVERY
Thank you for your prayers and enquiries about the impending arrival I mentioned in my introduction to the last Tear Times. My wife, Sara, gave birth to Flora on 6 January – they are both well and we are all delighted. It’s always painful to contrast the happy and healthy life I pray and hope for my little daughter with the realities of poverty that so many children face. For the next year or so, we will be highlighting the plight of children trafficked into forced labour. When you read the story of Nazeeb on page 8, it will be clear this isn’t just about children working when they should be at school. This is slavery. And it’s something Christians and churches should take a stand against. That’s why we’re asking you to share the story of Nazeeb with your church by ordering the new No Child Taken resources on page 25. We’ll be partnering again this year with the wonderful Big Church Day Out – an amazing opportunity for followers of Jesus to come and worship together. On page 28 you can read an interview with former Delirious? band member Tim Jupp, who organises the event. He tells us more about the ethos of the festival and how it’s become a great place for church groups to welcome non-Christian friends and family. We’ll be raising awareness and support for NoChild Taken at the Big Church Day Out this year. Do say hello to our volunteers when you spot them in their bright yellow Tearfund t-shirts!
Editor
Peter Shaw twitter @ TearTimes | email editor@tearfund.org Photo: Ralph Hodgson/Tearfund
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
TEAR TIMES . 3
CONTENTS
04
NEWS 04 News Southern African floods and more updates
‘WE HAD TO WORK HARD TO REACH PEOPLE’ 08
14 My lasting inspiration Tearfund’s CEO on moving on
FEATURES 08 My dream job Trapped in modern-day slavery 11 The frog farmer... And the world’s fastest growing church 18 Trapped in Freetown A journey into the Ebola zone
‘AFTER WORKING IN THE FACTORY NAZEEB CONTRACTED TYPHOID’
22 One step at a time We can restore our damaged world 25 No Child Taken Order our amazing new church resources 26 Connecting with people in poverty Journey together with a poor community
16
PULL-OUT POSTER 16 The path of the righteous
REFLECTIONS ‘THE PATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS LIKE THE MORNING SUN’
28 Interview: Tim Jupp Q&A with former Delirious? band member 30 Don’t just tell your children about poverty Take them to see for themselves
28
31 How the doughnut is mightier than the yoke (of slavery) Tom Herbert’s recipe for success in Laos
‘THE MEDIA TELLS US THE CHURCH IS DYING’
Copyright @ Tearfund 2015. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for the reproduction of text from this publication for Tearfund promotional use. For all other uses, please contact us. Cover image: 4,000 children a month are trafficked in Bihar, India. James Morgan/Tearfund
4 . TEAR TIMES NEWS
IN THE
NEWS DEVASTATING FLOODS ACROSS MALAWI AND MOZAMBIQUE Tearfund is helping thousands of people to recover after extreme flooding in southern Africa in January. Our partner Eagles is responding in Chikwawa district where 10,000 people across nine villages are homeless following torrential rain and storms. Homes, latrines, crops and livestock have been lost and there are fears of worsening hunger. As well as supplying food, Eagles has provided cooking equipment, bedding, roofing materials, seeds and irrigation pumps. Vincent Moyo, Tearfund’s Malawi Country Director, says, ‘Malawi experienced some of the worst floods in its history, devastating more than 15 districts. But the number of those affected would’ve been higher had it not been for Eagles training which enabled villages to activate early warning procedures.’
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
Homes were destroyed and farmland became inaccessible in Zambezia, Mozambique
Neighbouring Mozambique has also suffered extensively. Our partners Codesa and the Anglican Diocese of Niassa are responding in Zambezia and Niassa provinces after floods affected 300,000 people and damaged vital crops, such as maize and sugar cane.
‘We had to work hard to reach people’ The diocese supplied maize to 3,300 people in isolated Morrumba district as well as food, soap, water purification tablets and mosquito nets. ‘We had to work really hard to reach people,’ said Mario Muramua from the diocese. ‘We thank you for your prayer support. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have managed.’ Tearfund partner staff had to overcome huge obstacles to reach those in need. For example, to get to communities in Chire, where three bridges had been swept away, staff resorted to travelling by motorbike and then finding boats to cross rivers.
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
NEWS TEAR TIMES . 5
GOOD NEWS AND GREAT JOY IN NEPAL Thank you to all of you who sent back a decorated Christmas angel to give to a child in Nepal. We delivered them to rescue centres where our partners look after children rescued from trafficking. ‘It was amazing to see the pure joy on the children’s faces when they received them,’ says Dhan Raj, from Tearfund’s partner CarNetNepal. lay the angels Nepalese children disp
THANK YOU FROM NANG IN LAOS We have good news to report about teenager Nang who features in our No Child Taken anti-trafficking campaign. The 13-year-old from Laos, who was in the summer 2014 edition of Tear Times, has finished primary school and is now studying at secondary school, where she’s been since last September. Nang has been encouraged by the support from Tearfund through No Child Taken. She says, ‘I’m happy to know that people in the UK are helping Lao people – especially children like me. Thank you for caring for us.’ Thank you for all your prayers and support for No Child Taken. at Nang from Laos is now secondary school
PLEASE PRAY FOR FAMILIES SUFFERING IN IRAQ Tearfund has helped 19,000 displaced people in Iraq, providing clothing, shelter, food, sanitation and cash grants since starting work there last year. The Islamic State insurgency has created a humanitarian disaster, leaving 2 million people homeless and 5 million in desperate need of aid.
Please pray for children suffering in Iraq
Many of those affected have exhausted savings and can’t find work. After struggling through a freezing winter, they now face a blisteringly hot summer in tented camps. Please pray for those suffering in Iraq and for the safety of our work helping the most vulnerable people.
Photos clockwise from top left: Codesa/Tearfund, Dhan Raj Ghimire/CarNet, Sara Guy/Tearfund
6 . TEAR TIMES NEWS
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
IN THE
NEWS YOU MOVED A MOUNTAIN Ugandan sisters Doreen and Jouvllet used to have to walk nearly two miles up and down a mountain to fetch water but that daily grind has been consigned to history, thanks to your help. The teenagers featured last year in our One Big Mountain campaign highlighting the exhausting daily routine many children have to suffer to get a basic necessity. Your outpouring of support enabled our partner Kigezi Diocese Water and Sanitation Programme to install a rainwater collection tank for the family, which has transformed their lives, improving sanitation and hygiene. The big dividend for Doreen, 14, is that instead of spending time fetching water, she can now do more school work and as a result her grades have improved. She came 17th in a class of 41 last term. Parents Milton and Byamukama are delighted by the changes that Tearfund’s work has brought about. Now, they can clean household items, water their fruit trees and even get to church on time. And the impact of your support is spreading. So far 134 rainwater harvesting tanks have been constructed for the rest of the community and eight more are under construction.
GEORGE’S DREAM COMES TRUE Among those who’ve helped transform the lives of Doreen and Jouvllet is eight-year-old George from west Wales. After dreaming one night about people without clean water, George spoke to his grandmother, Rhonwen, saying he wanted to use his pocket money to help. Rhonwen, leader of New Life Christian Fellowship Sunday School in Kilgetty, asked the church to help George. The church had stalls at various craft fairs to raise money, resulting in a £300 donation to Tearfund’s One Big Mountain water project. Long-standing Tearfund volunteer Ann Maull said, ‘We thank George and New Life Christian Fellowship for their support, and would love others in Pembrokeshire and beyond to help raise funds for girls like Doreen and Jouvllet, so that they and their communities can easily access lifesaving water.’
Ugandan sisters Doreen and Jouvllet now have a rainwater tank
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
NEWS TEAR TIMES . 7
Giving thanks for The Whitehead family (left) who plan to climb all of the Lake District’s Wainwright 214 fells for No Child Taken.
CLIMB EVERY WAINWRIG HT Eric Whitehead and his children Hannah, ten, and Mark, 32, have an ambitious challenge for 2015: to climb every one of the Lake District’s Wainwright fells for Tearfund’s No Child Taken campaign against child trafficking. The Wainwrights are the 214 fells – hills and mountains – described in Alfred Wainwright’s seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published in the 1950s and 1960s.
‘The hardest part will be to just keep going’
Generous support that has enabled us to meet the needs of people whose lives have been blighted by conflict in the Central African Republic. You! People of prayer who share our passion to follow Jesus where the need is greatest and who faithfully lift up Tearfund’s work to the Lord.
PRAYER
PULSE
Praying for Families displaced by fighting in Nigeria and for Tearfund partners helping to build bridges between faith communities.
During the course of the year, the Whiteheads aim to raise £36 for each of the 214 mountains they climb – a total of £7,704 for No Child Taken – which will help prevent 214 children from being trafficked.
More support for No Child Taken at this year’s Big Church Day Out weekend on 23–24 May in West Sussex.
‘I imagine it will take most of the year,’ says Eric. ‘And the hardest part will be just keeping going, particularly if the weather’s not favourable.’
The speedy recovery of the people of Vanuatu after Cyclone Pam devastated the South Pacific nation, destroying homes and livelihoods
Eric and the family are blogging about their adventures throughout the year, which you can follow at wainwrightsfortearfund.uk You can show your support by donating at the family’s JustGiving page here: justgiving.com/wainwrightsfortearfund
Hannah and Mark Whitehead are fell climbing for Tearfund Photo top left: Marcus Perkins/Tearfund
8 . TEAR TIMES FEATURE
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
DREAM WRITTEN BY HELEN CRAWFORD
Fifteen-year-old Nazeeb clutches his hands as he tells his story. Six months in a factory, three hours’ sleep each night – forced to work 21 hours a day, making zips. Along with 11 other children, Nazeeb ate, slept and worked at the factory. None of them were ever paid.
Photos: James Morgan/Tearfund
It was a life of constant work, held under guard in the workplace. Although the factory closed on Sundays, the workers were only let out for two hours. Could that have given him an opportunity to escape? Sadly, no. His home was a three-day train ride away, and Nazeeb had no money for a ticket. Even at home he wouldn’t be safe: the factory owners knew where he lived.
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
FEATURE TEAR TIMES . 9
PREYING ON POOR FAMILIES It started when an ‘agent’ came to Nazeeb’s village in Bihar state, India, and offered him a well paid job in the south. Like many in the area, Nazeeb’s family were painfully poor. His mother, Nafisa, struggled to scrape together two meals a day for the family.
After one month working in the factory, Nazeeb contracted typhoid from contaminated water. His masters refused to take him to hospital but eventually, when he was too ill to work, they let him leave. Nazeeb borrowed money from a friend pay for the train, and made it back home.
Nazeeb left school when he was 14, needed at home to help support the family. The agent’s offer was a lifeline to the family – a dream job. He was promised a good wage of 6,000 Indian rupees a month – about £64 – which is twice the cost of living. Neither Nazeeb nor his family felt suspicious about the offer. They didn’t recognise the traffickers’ ruse, didn’t see that he was being sold into slavery.
‘IT’S ESTIMATED THAT 4,000 CHILDREN ARE TRAFFICKED FROM BIHAR EVERY MONTH.’
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
10 . TEAR TIMES FEATURE
Thanks to training from Tearfund’s partner, Nazeeb’s family have set up a poultry farm.
MISSING CHILDREN Sadly, Nazeeb’s story is all too common. Tearfund’s partner in his village, Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), showed me a list of missing persons. It contained 800 names of children, like Nazeeb, who had left with the offer of a good job in the city. They were never seen again. It’s estimated that 4,000 children are trafficked from Bihar every month.
WHEN THE TRAFFICKERS CAME BACK Since coming home, Nazeeb’s life has improved. Thanks to training from EHA, Nazeeb’s family has set up a poultry farm. After rearing chicks from when they hatch, they sell the chicks at market when they are fully grown. So Nazeeb’s family has an income and a trade: they have already sold one batch of chickens and there’s another on the way.
But EHA is determined to end the exploitation of children. They raise awareness of trafficking in schools and community groups. They encourage villages to set up Vigilance Committees – groups that can spot the signs and tricks of traffickers – and help families to get legal and government support.
The poultry farm is just in its infancy. ‘It’s small now but it will grow,’ Nazeeb says. With a secure income at home, he doesn’t need to find a job away from his family.
But the best way to safeguard children is to train families to develop successful businesses in their own communities. That way, they have enough food for the whole family, and their children are protected from the lure of traffickers.
But, just as he feared, the agent tracked Nazeeb down to his home. ‘We have trained you,’ the agent told him. ‘You owe us work.’ But Nazeeb refused to return. He has a different outlook: ‘Because my family has started a business, I have hope I can come up in life.’
You can help protect thousands of children vulnerable to trafficking, disease and disaster. Complete and return the form between pages 8 and 9 or visit tearfund.org/nazeeb
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
FEATURE TEAR TIMES . 11
THE FROG FARMER WITH THE FASTEST GROWING CHURCH IN THE WORLD Written by Pete Greig from 24-7 Prayer
Pastor Sambo’s frogs help combat poverty
There can’t be too many church leaders whose CV includes terrorism, alcoholism and frog farming... but Sambo is no ordinary pastor, as I discovered on a recent trip to Cambodia. This humble farmer might even lead one of the fastest growing churches in the world… I had travelled to Phnom Penh and then Poipet on the border with Thailand, with my two sons to get a better understanding of Tearfund’s No Child Taken campaign – something we’re passionate about. But nothing could have prepared us for our encounter with Sambo in the shade beneath his stilted home at the end of a dirt track,
surrounded by banana palms, jackfruit trees and scrawny chickens pecking lazily at the dust. We were about to witness first-hand the complexities behind human trafficking. We would also learn the spectacular, integrated way in which Tearfund’s partners address the root causes of the problem to bring profound whole-life transformation. A few days earlier we had visited Phnom Penh’s genocide museum. We gazed in horror at row upon row of clinical photographs depicting men, women and even children younger than my two, all condemned to be tortured to death by the Khmer Rouge [the communist party led by Pol Pot that ruled Cambodia in the 1970s and which orchestrated the genocide]. The eyes of those prisoners – some angry, some resigned, a few strangely smiling – still haunted me as Sambo shared his story.
12 . TEAR TIMES FEATURE
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
Pastor Sambo’s life was transformed when he was told to follow Jesus in a dream
A CHILD SOLDIER, TRAINED TO KILL Sambo had been a child soldier fighting for the Khmer Rouge. At an age when kids in the UK can’t buy a pint or drive a car, he was shooting to kill. Eventually he left the army, married Channary, and tried to settle down. But the shame of his past became unbearable and Sambo turned increasingly to drink to numb the pain. Sambo would regularly assault Channary, a sweet lady with a gold tooth, who brushed away a tear as her husband spoke. Coming
Eventually the two remaining sons escaped and returned home. They had gone to Thailand driven by poverty, illiteracy and despair. Hearing their story in the context of their rural home, I began to realise that trafficking may not be the biggest problem of our age after all. Slavery may be a terrible symptom, but poverty is the actual sickness we must fight. WHAT HOPE FOR TRAFFICKED CHILDREN? Combating human trafficking might be merely palliative without a programme of prevention, education, job creation, and the hope through the gospel which breaks cycles of despair. In rescuing people from slavery we must also ask what we are rescuing them for? People need hope as well as freedom. Wonderfully, when Sambo’s sons eventually returned from slavery, they discovered hope for the future. It was not just more of the same back home. Their family had been transformed, their father was free from shame and free from alcohol. ‘A man came to me in a dream,’ Sambo explained. ‘And told me clearly to get up and follow Jesus.’
‘WE GAZED IN HORROR AT ROWS OF PHOTOGRAPHS DEPICTING MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN MY KIDS, ALL TORTURED TO DEATH’ round from each drunken stupor he would, of course, find that his problems were even worse. His wife was angry and afraid, their money was gone, the farm was increasingly neglected and his sense of guilt and selfloathing was deeper than ever. In desperation, three of their sons took jobs working in Thailand, but found themselves forced to work in construction 21 hours a day, seven days a week, sleeping just two to three hours a day on-site. They were never paid. Their slavery continued for six years. Separated, it’s feared one of the brothers died.
Photos: Jamie Fyleman/Tearfund
At first no one was interested in Sambo’s new faith and freedom. In their minds he was still just the village drunk – a wifebeating ex-terrorist. But he began to study with the Tearfund partner Cambodian Hope Organisation (CHO) and for the last two years he and Channary have trained in discipleship and community transformation.
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
FEATURE TEAR TIMES . 13
As a result, with a loan from CHO, Sambo and Channary launched a self-help group with ten neighbouring families which aims to farm chicken, fish and frogs – a delicacy in the region. HOPE LOOKS LIKE A TRACTOR Incredibly, in the first eight weeks they had made enough money to buy themselves a tractor to increase productivity and even generate electricity. Sambo beamed with delight as he pointed to the shiny new machine parked just beside the kitchen table. Channary grinned too. Hope for them looks a lot like a new tractor.
Young girl at a school run by Tearfund’s partner
The new business has also given Sambo and his wife opportunities to share the tangible hope that comes through the gospel and they have established a simple cell church which has grown dramatically to include 23 other families – that’s more than 120 people. Ten per cent of their entire community have come to Christ in just two months. That’s a spectacular rate of church growth anywhere in the world. Together they are worshipping, working together to grow the business, educate their children and spread the hope that comes through the good news of Jesus. There was a joy in Sambo’s eyes that spoke of Easter – the very opposite of those I’d seen in the Genocide Museum. Pol Pot’s killer had become a life-giver, a wise pastor, a good father, a soldier of Christ. BREAKING THE CYCLE OF TRAFFICKING I glanced across at my own sons, listening to Sambo so intently, and then I looked at his sons. They have been to hell and back. But,
thanks to your support for Tearfund, they are learning to farm frogs, eating healthily after six years in slavery, and have dreams for the future. The familiar cycle of shame, alcoholism, violence and trafficking has been broken. These young men have been rescued from slavery, and that is truly wonderful. But they have also been redeemed for the future and that is better still. ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (Jeremiah 29:11). Amen.
Pete Greig is one of the founders of 24-7 Prayer – an international, interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice. Pete also leads Emmaus Road, a Boiler Room community in Guildford, England, and serves as Director of Prayer for HTB and Alpha International. Find out more at 24-7prayer.com
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
14 . TEAR TIMES NEWS
MY LASTING INSPIRATION 200 5- 20 15 INTERVIEW BY PETER SHAW
Matthew Frost will step down as Chief Executive of Tearfund this October after ten years. It’s been an eventful decade: ongoing conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the Philippines typhoon in 2014 and escalating violence in the Middle East... Tearfund has been on the frontline of the response in each of these areas.
Photos: Janie Fyleman/Tearfund, Cally Middleton/Tearfund
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
But it’s also been a time where the local church has made great progress in tackling poverty: from Tearfund’s Alive HIV campaign,through our Make life flow water campaign and on to our current anti-trafficking campaign, No Child Taken. We asked Matthew to look back over his ten years at Tearfund, and offer a few words of wisdom to his successor... What memories will you take away from your time at Tearfund? The memories I will take with me are mostly about the people I met on the front line. People like Tom and Margaret in Uganda, my visit to remote churches in rural Brazil, or meeting Tearfund partners serving Syrian refugees in Lebanon’s Bakaa valley just a few months ago. Wherever in the world I’ve visited Tearfund’s work, I’ve encountered the same story – people following Jesus where the need is greatest, inspired by their relationship with him. Hearing that story again and again, and seeing it in so many different contexts, will be my lasting inspiration from my time at Tearfund. Did you feel called to join Tearfund? Yes, I came with a strong sense of being called here: I wouldn’t have accepted the position otherwise. While it seemed like a good idea joining Tearfund, the weekend before I felt terrified. Suddenly the sense of responsibility descended on my shoulders. And I felt God say to me very clearly: ‘Matthew, this is not about you or your strength. It’s about my strength being made perfect in your weakness.’ I felt God call me to go and listen to the staff at Tearfund, the people we serve, our partners and supporters. So I spent the first three months listening to people’s hopes, dreams and aspirations. What was the result of that initial listening process? It was out of that time of listening that Tearfund’s ten-year vision moved sharply into focus. The vision came out of the process of God calling me to step out in faith into the unknown, urging me to keep my eyes fixed on him and me being called to listen to as many people as I could. Out of that and the strategic thinking process came the vision
NEWS TEAR TIMES . 15
that I really felt the Lord had led us to – to see 50 million people released from material and spiritual poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 local churches. Do you believe Tearfund is on track to achieve the ten-year vision by 2017? Yes, absolutely! And I think as we approach this milestone, we are accelerating what is being accomplished every year. And I don’t believe we at Tearfund can take credit for what God is doing. It is what God is doing that is transforming lives and lifting whole communities out of poverty. What we have
‘I DON’T BELIEVE TEARFUND CAN TAKE CREDIT FOR WHAT GOD IS DOING’ done is come into tune with him and I have no doubt we will see that vision – and much more – come to be realised. It may not always be in the way we imagined in the beginning. So we can’t claim we did it, but we can say we were part of it. What advice would you offer to your successor? I would say: Follow Jesus where the need is greatest. Keep an uncompromising Christcenteredness in all you do and keep wrestling with what that means in our work across the world.
Matthew as part of the team at Big Church Day Out
We will include an update on progress towards Tearfund’s ten-year vision in the annual review section in the next Tear Times.
‘ The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day’ Proverbs 4:18
Photo: James Morgan/Tearfund You can download this image from tearfund.org/photos
18 . TEAR TIMES FEATURE
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
TRAPPED IN FREETOWN My journey into the heart of the Ebola zone
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
In January this year Mairo Retief, Tearfund’s Ebola Crisis Programme Officer, visited Sierra Leone. The country has been severely affected by the Ebola outbreak with more than 10,000 estimated cases of the disease and a death toll of more than 3,000.
FEATURE TEAR TIMES . 19
Thanks to your generous support for our Ebola appeal, Tearfund’s partners have been able to respond quickly and effectively to the crisis. Mairo visited and worked alongside New Harvest Development Organisation (Nehado) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone (EFSL), two of Tearfund’s partners that operate in the capital, Freetown and the surrounding districts of Port Loko, Bombali, Tonkolili, Bo and Moyamba. Mairo gives her account of a journey through the Ebola zone...
20 . TEAR TIMES FEATURE
WEDNESDAY 21 JANUARY, 2015
Driving down a dirt track, we pass a dilapidated, abandoned school to reach a village just outside Bo that suffered a major Ebola outbreak back in August last year. An infected villager returned from a visit to the city in July, passing on the virus to 46 people in the community. Soon 23 villagers fell sick and went to Bo to seek help. Because there were no specialist Ebola facilities in the city, the group were forced to sleep rough outside the health clinic, before being brought back to be quarantined in the abandoned school. Still more villagers contracted Ebola, resulting in 35 deaths, which left 18 widowed and 65 orphaned. One widow, Claudetta, told me how she fears for her future without her husband, as she does not have the strength to farm and harvest her land.
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
Returning to Bo, I meet with Christian and Muslim leaders trained by Nehado to offer psychosocial support to affected communities and provide practical training to prevent the spread of Ebola.
‘A STRETCH OF GREEN ROPE IS ALL THAT SEPARATES US FROM THE PEOPLE UNDER QUARANTINE’ It’s great to hear how successful they have been in combating stigma. Health workers, particularly ambulance drivers, used to be refused entry to communities because people feared infection. But thanks to teaching against stigma from pastors and imams, communities are more welcoming to health workers, and to Ebola survivors too. I spoke to one imam, Amadu, who told me the vast majority of people in Sierra Leone still have deep respect for faith leaders and will listen if they give clear instructions. This is particularly crucial in the disposal of dead bodies.
A community living in Ebola quarantine in Freetown, Sierra Leone
We learn that, because of the quarantine, the community had to abandon their rice crops and now they don’t have enough food to last until the next harvest. Tearfund’s partner Nehado is doing all it can to support the widows and orphans, but it’s a huge number of people to look after. Photos: Mairo Retief/Tearfund
The washing of the deceased before burial is an important cultural practice in Sierra Leone, but it’s a very dangerous thing to do with an Ebola victim. I hear the story of Mamakoh, a woman aged 22 who died of the virus and was safely buried by a medical team. Fearing she would not be ‘clean’ for the after-life, her parents dug up Mamakoh’s body and washed her. Seven more villagers died as a result. That’s why involving faith leaders is so crucial, as people listen to them when they give reasons for not washing departed family members.
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
SATURDAY 24 JANUARY, 2015
I travel with EFSL to visit three homes under strict quarantine in Fullahtown, a community within Freetown, to give them food. When just one person is taken sick with Ebola, the whole community is quarantined for 21 days. If any further people are taken sick, then the three-week quarantine starts again from scratch.
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We give families food and pray with them, asking God that no more people will be infected. As we leave to visit the next community, a woman cries out, ‘God bless you – he has protected us!’ Ebola Crisis Offcer, Mairo Retif, visiting Tearfund partner staff in Sierra Leone
Our car squeezes through the narrow streets, past heaped garbage in the open drains. We visit one quarantined area down a side street, where a small stretch of makeshift green rope is all that separates us from the people held here. We’re greeted by an armed police guard and pretty soon our presence causes a crowd to gather.
‘GOD BLESS YOU. HE HAS PROTECTED US!’ Behind the rope I see women, children and a few young men. It’s difficult to tell from their expressions what’s going on in their minds. I speak to one young man, Victor, who tells me he’s frustrated and tired – stuck in his home for 20 days. The government enforced the quarantine in Fullahtown in early January when a community member died. The day before our visit a young boy showed Ebola symptoms – high fever and aching limbs – and was taken to the clinic. The community is anxiously awaiting the results. If Ebola is confirmed, they will have to endure another three weeks behind the cordon – with all the frustration, stigma and fear that brings. But the people of Fullahtown have not been completely cut off. Thanks to you, Tearfund’s partner EFSL is providing enough food to see them through the quarantine and will continue to support families when it’s all over.
PLEASE KEEP PRAYING As the infection rates continue to decrease in Sierra Leone, thankfully more and more communities are being released from quarantine. But the effects of the outbreak will be felt for many years to come. As well as livelihoods destroyed, many people will have lost wives, husbands and other loved ones. And thousands of children have been left orphaned. With schools and colleges closed, teenage pregnancy has been on the increase since the outbreak. The country’s fragile healthcare system must begin to address again the wider medical issues in the region such as malaria, typhoid and other waterborne diseases, which have been sidelined during efforts to tackle Ebola. Find the latest updates at tearfund.org/ebola
22 . TEAR TIMES FEATURE
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
CHANGING THE WORLD ONE STEP AT A TIME Tearfund turns 50 in 2018! And we’ve been looking at how poverty has changed over the decades. Where have we come from? Where should we go? And can ordinary heroes help? Written By Paul Cook, Advocacy Director, Tearfund
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES Recently we’ve seen amazing change. Between 1988 and 2008, the proportion of people in extreme poverty halved – that’s faster than any other time in history. This was mainly due to poor nations growing their economies. It’s no longer the ‘West and the rest’, we live in a world of emerging Asian nations and growing African economies. So, do we just need faster economic development to reduce poverty? Unfortunately, no, there is a tragic paradox. Our economy, driven by our lifestyles, has lifted people out of poverty but has also caused environmental destruction and growing inequality. Our high-carbon, high-consumption economy is causing climate change, deforestation, water shortages, land stresses and other environmental risks.
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For years our global partners have told us how these hazards are devastating already extremely poor families – exacerbating disasters like Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, the worst since records began. At the same time, whilst extreme poverty is declining, inequality is growing, resulting in mounting injustice and social tensions. The top one per cent globally now has almost as much wealth as the remaining 99 per cent. A DIFFERENT STORY: THE RESTORATIVE ECONOMY So where do we see God in all of this? We believe God wants a system that will ‘raise the poor from the dust’ (Psalm 113:7), preserve his works of creation’ (Psalm 104) and where ‘there might be equality’ among us (2 Corinthians 8:13–15). Nearly 3,500 years ago when God’s people entered the promised land he gave them rules for how they should structure their
‘WHILE EXTREME POVERTY IS BEING REDUCED, INEQUALITY IS GROWING’
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
24 . TEAR TIMES FEATURE
economy to bless, not exploit, people and the land: divide land fairly (Numbers 26:53– 56), provide for the poorest (Deuteronomy 24:19–21), don’t over-exploit the land (Leviticus 25:4–5). And, periodically, reset the economy when inequality got too out of hand (Leviticus 25:8–41).
‘WE BELIEVE GOD IS RAISING UP ORDINARY PEOPLE TO CHANGE THE WORLD’ Drawing on these biblical principles we believe it is possible to reset our twentyfirst century economy. We can continue to reduce extreme poverty, keep within safe environmental limits and prevent extreme inequality. ORDINARY HEROES This is not something we can just leave to politicians and business leaders. This has to involve all of us. Jesus chose fishermen and tax collectors to found his church and change the world, and Paul says of the early church ‘not many were influential… But God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.’ (1 Corinthians 1: 26 – 27). We believe God is still in the business of raising up ordinary people to change the world. That is why Tearfund has launched a new campaign, Ordinary Heroes, encouraging us to think differently, live simply and speak out to bring the change poor communities need. The way we are living is hurting neighbours of ours like Agnes, who farms a small plot in Malawi. She used to know exactly when the harvest would come but now the rains
are unreliable. ‘The climate has changed drastically,’ Agnes says. ‘In the past people would plant their maize crop on 15 October. And surely, on the same day or the next day, the rains would fall. Nowadays some of our children do not even know what a maize granary looks like.’ GET INVOLVED You can join Ordinary Heroes using the leaflet enclosed with Tear Times, or online at tearfund.org/campaigns – where you can find out more. One of the first things we focus on is the need for a global deal on climate change to keep us within safe environmental limits and provide climate finance for poor countries. On Wednesday 17 June, we’re joining a mass lobby of parliament in Westminster to tell MPs what we’re doing to tackle climate change, and put our requests to them. Then we will be going to Paris in December to call for change at the UN climate talks. Find out more about both events, and how to make your voice heard if you can’t be there in person, at tearfund.org/ campaigns We can all play our part to help our neighbours like Agnes. We can come together to create a more just and sustainable world.
Let’s live so that we help rather than hurt poor people like Agnes from Malawi
Photo: Marcus Perkins/Tearfund
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BLESS YOUR CHURCH WITH OUR NEW NO CHILD TAKEN RESOURCES Tearfund church resources are free, easy to use and intended to encourage and challenge your congregation. Here’s what you said about last year’s No Child Taken church pack…
‘The resources Tearfund produced this year are excellent’ Brenda Davies, St Andrews Church, Great Rollright
‘They helped us produce our biggest ever collection for Tearfund’ Sally Pidd, St Thomas’s Church, Lancaster
‘This is a very important campaign – no child should have to suffer this horror’ Stella Westmacott, Holy Cross Church, Pontyberem
NO CHILD TAKEN – NEW RESOURCES FOR 2015 Pack includes: DVD film, children’s resources, prayer focus, child trafficking fact sheet, promotional poster, response envelopes, five-minute talk and PowerPoint slides. We’re working to make sure thousands of the most vulnerable children are kept safe from trafficking, disease and disaster. Please show your support by ordering and using our new church resources. Please complete and return the pull-out form above. You can also order from tearfund.org/nochildtaken or email churches@tearfund.org or call 0208 943 7972 Please note: the new No Child Taken packs will be sent out in June
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We spoke to three people from Connected Churches around the UK to find out what it’s really like to be part of Tearfund’s unique scheme. Here’s what they said…
Graham from Brighton Road Baptist Church, Horsham Our relationship with the Cambodia Hope Organisation (CHO) is very much two-way. We’ve visited CHO twice now and one of their leaders has visited us.
When we visited, all of our trip members had different skills and giftings to share: we had a teacher helping at the local school, our pastor training church leaders and my wife, who’s a dentist, working closely with the health project! Back here in the UK, people in the church have contributed in many different ways – such as raising funds through table-top sales or by praying.
Following Jesus where the need is greatest
‘IT’S A REVOLUTIONARY WAY OF LOOKING AT THE BIBLE’ The wider impact of our relationship with CHO is amazing. We’ve learnt so much as a church. The first time we visited CHO, the church was meeting in its building once a week. But when we returned three years later, the church had started meeting across 15 to 20 different village sites, meaning people no longer had to travel miles to attend. This taught us a lot about thinking outside the box in order to meet the needs of local communities. It’s great: it’s a new way of seeing and showing what the church can do! Helen from Christ Church, Alsager Our trip to visit our partner, Warmis in Peru, has made Connected Church more real for us – not just for those who went but also for the whole church. We’re learning lots. The people we met were so humbling. They have such warm hearts and passionate faith, worshipping and praising God daily. The people we met depend on God totally, they pray about everything and thank him for every little thing. The church there knows those most in need in the community and helps Warmis to reach those people. That’s what the church should do – help people who need help the most – and that’s challenged us as a congregation. We’re also much more aware of development issues like climate change because our friends in Cajamarca live with the effects of these issues every day.
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Bringing our giving and praying alive in this way is really helpful, as we can see both the need and the impact so clearly. People in our church and people in Peru are part of each other’s lives now: we support each other in prayer and this two-way connection is having a profound impact. I’d encourage other churches to do this, even if you’re small. It makes a difference to everyone involved! Ros from Rothley Parish Church, Leicester Our relationship with our partner ADSMKE in Kenya has shown us how well Tearfund and their partners work together. It’s also shown us first hand the power of church and community mobilisation that Tearfund talks so much about! When our group visited Kenya, each of the five villages we visited was doing church mobilisation, and each was experiencing enormous impact as a result. I met a tiny 80-year-old lady called Rebecca. She was so proud and happy because she was making a living herself for the first time ever by breeding goats, all thanks to the church. For people there, church mobilisation provides a revolutionary way of looking at the Bible. They have complete faith in God and in what they learn: they just go out and start doing it! People at home are impressed by this way of working too, and the updates and the detail we get from Tearfund means we can communicate this with them. Even non-Christians are interested: it’s a different view of aid.
GET CONNECTED Get in touch with Tim, Liz or Ben to talk about how your church can build an inspiring relationship with a church in another country.Call 0208 943 7972 or email churches@tearfund.org
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FEEDING 20,000 OF THE
Q&A WITH TIM JUPP FROM THE BIG CHURCH DAY OUT Interview by Peter Shaw
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For 17 years, Tim Jupp was keyboard player with Delirious? – one of the most successful and lauded British Christian bands of all time. Tim now oversees the Big Church Day Out, which has grown since 2009 into a two-day worship and music event – one of the largest gatherings of the church in the UK. What’s the significance of bringing churches together to worship at the Big Church Day Out? A lot of what we did in Delirious? was to facilitate people’s vision of bringing the church together around the world. The wonderful thing about music and worship is its ability to gather people together. Music can be inclusive in a way that a speaker or preacher can’t. We see that in the Big Church Day Out – we don’t have a teaching programme. We want to offer something that is inclusive to everyone, both those inside and outside the church. It’s exciting for us to see how it has grown into an event people are confident to bring their non-Christian friends to. Do many people bring along friends and family who are not part of their church? Yes, we hear many stories like wives who go to church bringing their husbands along – men who don’t go to church. And they are happy to come because it’s like a music festival where you can get lost in the big crowd. When we were in Delirious? we had this utter conviction that, through the music and worship, the presence of God would come and touch people’s’
lives. That’s really what I am continuing with through the Big Church Day Out. We want God to touch people’s lives, both people who have a relationship with Jesus and people who don’t. And it’s great to hear stories afterwards like children asking their fathers, ‘Dad, is this what heaven is going to be like?’ Delirious?’s last studio album, Kingdom of Comfort, addressed inequality, poverty and justice. What brought the band’s attention to those issues? It’s an amazing privilege to be involved in music where you have an opportunity to have a platform in all sorts of arenas, like we had in Delirious?, playing in many countries around the world. But in the last few years in particular, we increasingly had opportunities to go to places like India and Cambodia. We always saw music as carrying a message that gets to the heart of people. And it has to be authentic. When we started to experience more of poverty, we wanted to write songs about it. One of the things we all struggle with is how you live in the tension of it all. Songs about poverty are not necessarily about answers but asking questions.
Why has the Big Church Day Out chosen to partner with Tearfund? We always had a vision for something big – it’s in the name: the Big Church Day Out. We wanted to gather as many people as possible. Because we want to encourage churches that they are part of something bigger. The media tells a story that the church is dying but we know it isn’t: it’s an exciting, thriving, living place to be. And it’s encouraging for a small church to be in a field with 20,000 people. But we also wanted to use that platform to talk about issues like poverty and injustice. And Tearfund and the Big Church Day Out have the same heart: we believe the hope of the world is in the local church. The irony for me is that I don’t believe in big events that much, but I do believe in the local church. That’s where the hope of the world lies.
Tearfund is partnering with the Big Church Day Out again this year, 23 24 May, West Sussex. To find out more about the Big Church Day Out, visit bigchurchdayout.com
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DON’T JUST TELL YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT POVERTY, TAKE THEM TO SEE IT Written by Lucy Pieterse from Tearfund’s Global Volunteering Team
Did you know Tearfund offers Family Trips – two weeks overseas, where you and your children can gain a fresh perspective and inspiring experiences by meeting people living in poverty. Last year at Summer Madness, the biggest Christian youth festival in Northern Ireland, I met with Rev Steve and Janice Stockman. Steve, minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian in Belfast, told me this story of how his family trip proved a major inspiration to his two daughters. ‘We were taking our daughters on regular visits to Cape Town townships from the age of four and 18 months until they were ten and seven. It was a natural part of their faith development – seeing the world as it really was. It was the only foreign ‘holiday’ they knew! ‘It’s been six years since we last went and my wife and I discovered that both our daughters had used these experiences regularly in essays in school this past year. ‘These are their most vivid memories of childhood, shaping their values and
Photo: Virginia Lattul/Tearfund
inspiring them to God’s calling. Back then we wrestled with taking young kids into such challenging places. But they ended up being the most inspiring places. Those trips were some of the best decisions we ever made as parents.’ We live in an age when children and young people are bombarded with the most intense forms of advertising and their fear of missing out online is increasing their levels of depression.
‘THESE ARE MY DAUGHTERS MOST VIVID MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD’ With the speed of the digital age only set to accelerate, this is the time when our children need a deep understanding of the reality of life for poor communities around the world. That’s exactly what Tearfund Family Trips offer. Visit tearfund.org/familytrips to see the range of trips on offer.
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HOW THE DOUGHNUT IS MIGHTIER THAN THE YOKE (of slavery)
In last September’s Tear Times, we gave you the recipe for celebrity baker Tom Herbert’s sweet and easyto-make snack, Sticky Sticks, which he shared with young villagers on a Tearfund trip to Laos. What Tom didn’t know was that his recipe was about to help prevent a young girl from being trafficked... I felt nervous travelling to the village in Laos to demonstrate Sticky Sticks. I wanted to help these girls and leave them with something positive. I didn’t want to just turn up, observe and go home. As my son Milo and I knelt on the ground over a small charcoal stove, armed with local ingredients and utensils, I could tell the young girls were enjoying the workshop. They watched intently, laughing sometimes, soaking up every detail. But could a cookery presentation help prevent trafficking? When I left, I prayed that we’d inspired some of the people we met. So, 11 months later, it was amazing to learn that my prayer had been answered. Tearfund sent me an email about Ler, one of the girls at the cooking workshop. She’d practised making Sticky Sticks and now successfully sells them in her village.
Ler looked happy and confident in the photo. I went straight to Milo to tell him: we practically danced around the kitchen in celebration! Surprisingly, teaching snack-making is one of the ways Tearfund’s partner is helping young Lao girls to become less vulnerable to traffickers. Because, if the girls can sell snacks, they can earn a safe income. This gives them confidence and means they are less likely to fall for the tempting offers of traffickers. And they won’t end up across the border in a Thai brothel. Now I pray that Ler can stay safe and develop her business, just like I did with my brothers. I pray that she’ll have the support and determination she’ll need to make it a success, and that she’ll inspire others to do the same. Let’s lift up young people who are vulnerable to trafficking because of poverty and thank God for this great news about Ler!
Photos: Tom Price, Ralph Hodgson/Tearfund
14 YEARS OLD. 21 HOURS’ WORK A DAY. NO PAY. MODERN-DAY SLAVERY MUST END. Nazeeb could have been protected if his family had received an income. Read his story on page 8 or visit tearfund.org/nazeeb £12 A MONTH COULD PROTECT CHILDREN LIKE NAZEEB FROM TRAFFICKING
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