Latest news
from BibleLands
Issue
4, November 2006
BibleLands’ Projects on the Telly:
Tune in (or set your video) to BBC1 on Sunday 3 December and Christmas Eve
at 10am to see two of BibleLands’
projects – The Nazareth School of Nursing and The Sheepfold Centre for
Disabled Children – featured on What the World Needs Now.
Presented by Canon Lucy Winkett of St Paul’s Cathedral, the programmes
will highlight the vital work of these projects. See our
Project Profile for more on The Sheepfold.
Building
Hope for Egypt’s Poor:
The first BibleLands/Habitat
for Humanity volunteer team has now returned from a gruelling ten-day
visit to Upper Egypt, where they helped families from the villages El
Kom El Akhdar and El Sakakrya to rebuild their homes.
The 13-strong team worked for around five hours each day, in temperatures
of up to 30°C, on a huge variety of
tasks including roofing, plastering, digging foundations, sieving desert
sand and carrying hundreds of limestone bricks.
The volunteers were struck by the
levels of abject poverty in rural Egypt and by the challenges faced by
the inhabitants in trying to break
this cycle. All were humbled and inspired by the villagers’ cheerfulness
and enthusiasm, and the strong sense of community between neighbours of
both Christian and Muslim faith.
BibleLands will be sending
another team to Egypt to work on the new houses from 23 March -1 April
2007. It might seem like a long time away, but if you are interested,
get in quick as the places are fast filling up!
For more info on any of the volunteer projects mentioned, see
Volunteers reunite!
On 11th November, the volunteer teams that travelled with BibleLands
and Highway Projects (www.highway-projects.org)
to Israel and the Occupied Territories this summer, had a reunion.
It was a day of reminiscing over the good things that we had been
a part of; laughing as we remembered the craziness of the Middle East;
and with a special poignancy as we held a minute’s silence in
remembrance of those killed in war, when this summer’s conflict between
Israel and Lebanon had had such an impact on our time abroad.
We shared photos, food and friendship during the day, reflecting upon a
very successful summer of mission
to: the Princess Basma Centre, helping to run the Little Hands Summer
Camp for physically disabled and non-disabled children; the Spafford
Children’s Centre, undertaking practical work and painting a fantastic
mural (see photos); and the Helen Keller Centre, helping to run a summer
camp for visually impaired and sighted children.
As Ian White, Highway Projects’ Development Co-ordinator, said:
“What a fun privilege we have - to be
part of God's mission in the Middle East!”
The Sheepfold Day Care Centre, situated in the Palestinian Christian
village of Beit Sahour, near
Bethlehem, provides care for children whose disabilities are so severe
that other institutions cannot help them. In the Middle East, there is
not much provision for children with disability, and they are often
considered a burden on their families. Around 11 years ago, its founder
saw this great need and opened up her own home as a place of refuge for
these children.
The Sheepfold currently has around 10-12 children
who attend regularly for day care,
plus a further 3 who live there permanently. All are given the chance to
play and learn with other children their own age, and to develop a sense
of self-worth through knowing that they are loved, valued and accepted
by God.
Many of the children live in the remote villages surrounding Bethlehem, so
BibleLands has helped to fund
transport costs, enabling them to get to the Centre each day. With an
increasing demand for its special care, the Sheepfold is rapidly
outgrowing its premises, but hopefully it will be possible to expand
into new premises and help more children in the future.
Beit Sahour is known locally as the place where the shepherds were tending
their flocks at the time of Christ’s
birth. The Sheepfold will feature on a special BBC1 programme, What
the World Needs Now at 10am on Christmas Eve. Please tune in to find
out more about the work of this project.
The A-Z of
Fundraising Ideas:
E is for…
Eating Out – Take over a
local restaurant on a quiet night – arrange a bargain price per head
then charge more for tickets and donate the profit to BibleLands.
The restaurant will benefit from people buying drinks and – if the
food’s any good, from return business.
eBay – BibleLands
is now signed up as part of eBay For Charity, so it’s easy to sell your
old stuff and donate a percentage of what you make. Visit
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/charity to find out how.
Elvis Competition – hold
an Elvis-themed talent show for all ages. Charge the audience to watch
the aspiring ‘Elvi’ take part, and get local businesses to donate prizes
for Best Costume, Best Singer, Best Hair etc.
Exchange Jobs – persuade
your company to auction off people’s jobs – whoever bids the highest
gets to do that job for one day. Bid to become the boss and you
too could spend all day surfing the web!
Everyclick – here’s a
fundraising idea that doesn’t require any skill, energy, organisational
ability or even the need to get out of your chair. Sign up for the
charity search engine
Mobile
Phone Recycling:
Don’t forget to send in your unwanted or broken mobile phone to help raise
money for BibleLands.
Send it to: Freepost RLSE-RCBY-XEKX, Aurom Limited, Kidderminster Road,
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B61 7JZ.
Don’t forget to mark the envelope ‘BibleLands’ so they know who
to give the money to.
If you can get your church or youth group to collect more than ten, give
Aurom a call on 08707 10 20 80 and they will arrange to pick them up.
Wishing all our readers a Happy Christmas and lots of blessings for
the New Year!