Bread and Cheese Lunch

A Bread and Cheese lunch was held on 6 February to raise funds towards the Asian Tsunami Disaster Appeal. Rae Warnock, one of our elders, proposed the idea and co-ordinated arrangements.

A larger than anticipated response to the invitation to lunch on bread and cheese caused the organisers the welcome problem of not having laid out enough tables. With all the informality of a continental pizzeria, tables were shuffled about and, eventually, enough places were found to seat all who had turned up.

In about an hour, approximately £740 was donated as folk enjoyed bread and cheese (with a little salad and pickles). The money is to be sent to the Barnabas Fund which operates in Sri Lanka. After the dust settled, a further £60 was donated, bringing the total to £800.

A thank-you letter has been received from Rosemary Sookhdeo, director of the Barnabas Fund. She writes:

As well as basic relief and aid, we have been able to assist with a variety of other needs. For example: helping to re-start a little shop which supported a pastor and his extended family in India; funding teams of Sri Lankan Christian counsellors to visit the affected areas in their country and provide trauma counselling; funding a team of Sri Lankan mechanics to repair outboard motors of fishing boats; helping churches to replace the Bibles and hymnbooks which have been destroyed; helping Indonesian Christians to clean up seven churches in Banda Aceh where tsunami debris might otherwise have provided a temptation to arson.

Ms Sookhdeo ends by asking for our prayers for all who were affected by the tsunami and for those who are helping them recover.

Further details can be read on the Barnabas Fund Website: www.barnabasfund.org