St Thomas' Brampton and St Peter's Holymoorside, Chesterfield Tear Fund Our vision statement: Sharing the love of Jesus

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Home Church Magazine

Tear Fund is one of the UK’s leading relief and development charities - a movement of Christians standing with people in poverty. It is committed to offering hope, providing a meaningful future and speaking out against injustice. These are updates on the work of Tear Fund and St Thomas' involvement. Taken from the Church Magazine. 2007 Tear Fund Sunday Tear Fund Sunday (June 2007 edition of magazine) And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6v8 March 4 2007 was a Mission Sunday at St Thomas’ for Tearfund. Stan Jenkins, from Tearfund came and spoke at all three of our services. Stan has a great concern for those entrapped by modern day slavery and exploitation. He demonstrated in his talk to the children how much people who make trainers are paid. From a purchase price of £60 about 50p goes to the people who make them. Stan’s background Stan is a trained chemical engineer who travels all around the world in the course of his work. As he stayed in four star hotels he began to notice the plight of the locals living in poverty. People sleeping in ditches, waiting beside the road hoping to get a job for a day, all be it for a measly wage. Although he went to church, looking back he realised he was not really a Christian. It was when on holiday with his wife in the Sudan and experiencing wonderful hospitality from people who had nothing that he felt God speaking to him. By now he had become self-employed and found he had more money and, importantly, more free time. He had often given money to the poor, and was amazed that he always seemed to have more money, but now he felt God wanted him to use his time. He decided to join Tearfund as a speaker for them. He chose Tearfund because it is a Christian organisation, works with only Christian partners but helps anyone and has very low administration overheads (about 1%). At the evening service Stan told us about modern day slavery around Isaiah 58 vv6-12. Stan’s challenge “I was in a restaurant in Lahore with two Malaysian businessmen. A young teenage girl was following an older woman around waiting at the tables. One of the business men said to me ‘She is a slave’. “What would you have done? To my shame I did nothing. I was in a foreign country with a culture I was not familiar with and I did not speak the language. However it has now made me determined to do what I can, through Tearfund, to help eliminate slavery.” Slavery today Stan told us briefly about slavery today. William Wilberforce had tried for 30 years to abolish slavery in Britain. In 1807 Parliament finally voted for abolition and sixteen years later to free all slaves employed by Britain. Two hundred years later there are still slaves in the world including Britain. In 1807 there were 4 million slaves in the world. It is estimated that there are at least 20 million slaves today. Slaves include those in debt bondage. Examples of these included the cocklers drowned in Morecombe bay recently and fruit pickers employed on our farms. They are brought over to Britain in the expectation of a better life but are then exploited by the gang masters who arranged for them to come. Others are slaves of war, forced to fight by rebels in countries such as Uganda and Sudan. In the Sudan, Tearfund runs a project called Noah’s Ark. It provides shelter for up to 7000 children a night to protect them from being abducted into rebel armies. Others are sold as slaves for labour or sex. 1 billion people earn less than a dollar a day. The International Labour Organisation estimate that up to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. 80% are female and 50% are children. Human trafficking is the third largest source of criminal income after drugs and arms. So what can we do as a church and individuals? Stan suggests we can do three things: 1. Pray. 2. Give to agencies trying to abolish modern day slavery. 3. Campaign and petition. Tearfund produces packs containing lots of information and includes a petition to send to the Prime Minister, which many of us completed in March. Tearfund is also part of Micah Challenge, a global movement of Christians that seek to speak out, with a common voice, against the injustices of poverty. It unites countries as they call their leaders to account on the promise made in the Millennium Development Goals: to halve poverty by 2015. Sue and Tim Wheeler are our Tearfund reps at St Thomas and they have more information. Stan emphasised to us that doing nothing in God’s eyes is unacceptable. We must all take action. The text at the top of this article, which was our Church Motto a few years ago should spur us on. You can find out more about Tearfund, the Micah Challenge and listen to Stan’s talking at our services here.