The guardian recently published this interview with five couples who have attempted to minimise the environmental impact of their wedding day:
The idea of exploiting others to enjoy the most special moment of your life seems entirely alien to me. An ethically sound wedding was the only option. Fairtrade was the name of the game – our roses, wine and wedding rings were all sourced with ethics in mind.
Communities in Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Brazil, are being robbed of their sustainability by the practices of large scale Soap, Toilet Paper and Tyre manufacturers:
In the case of Nigeria, in 2007, the French tire maker Michelin came in to the Iguóbazuwa Forest Reserve, a biologically diverse region supplying food for around 20,000 people. Michelin bulldozed the forest and local farm lands to convert them into rubber plantations. Women living there lost their subsistence farms and the local forest which provided medicinal herbs and plants.
At last dreams are coming true! The Big Boys are joining in the fun. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk is becoming Fairly Traded:
100 years ago William Cadbury chose beans from Ghana. A year ago we founded the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. And from Autumn 2009 Cadbury Dairy Milk will be Fairtrade certified. Welcome aboard.
Click here for more (Thanks, @nomesbaker)
An article in The Times about the importance of a change of worldview to the transformation of Africa:
Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers – in some ways less so – but more open.
(Thanks Ashley & Rosemary)
It’s been almost a week since we baptised Joseph in the Indian Ocean. I thought I’d let you in on how we arrived at this point…
Our journey with Joseph began just two months ago. We were walking and praying that Jesus would lead us to people who would like to follow him, and, as we rounded the first corner, there he stood.
That particular day he was out looking for someone who would lend him 100 Rand (£7) so that he could pay a visit to his doctor. He had a worsening back condition from a road accident that happened when he was cycling to work ten years ago. The doctor had told him that he would need a wheel chair.
When we met Joseph he told us about his back pain, how he had metal rods in his back, plates in his head and had been in a coma for 15 days when it first happened.
So we offered to pray for him.
When we were done, he showed us where he lived and we agreed to come and visit him the next day.
On our return he was smiling as he told us, “I feel fine”.
The next time we went we had Walter with us, and he was able to determine (through conversing in Xhosa) that Joseph was feeling considerably better, and was walking around comfortably. For the first time in years he was sleeping all through the night. He asked that we would come back every day and tell him something about Jesus.
Since then we’ve returned two or three times each week to encourage, pray and read scripture with Joseph and his wife Lulama. They are excited that they can gather their family and friends in their home and learn together about the life of Jesus.