I just realised that I haven’t posted since last thursday, I’ven been meaning to, just haven’t got around to it. I will continue me Cities I Like posts either tomorrow or at the weekend…

I’ve had a really busy week, with lots going on… Last weekend I spent up at the Uni of Ulster in Coleraine, for MAD10, a youth weekend run by PCI, I was helping out with the technical side of things for the weekend, its my 3rd year doing it and I love it, its always a great weekend with lots of yound people coming from all over Ireland to meet together, it was also cool to meet paul and ruth in the real world for a change.

After MAD I was lucky enough to catch Snow Patrol at an intimate gig of a few hunderd people in The Empire in Belfast. Having heard ‘Take back the city’ ad not really liking it I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I have to say the new material sounds pretty good, I haven’t got the album yet though, will get it this week. They played both new and older songs, it was a pretty good night…

I actually saw Lorraine quite a bit this week, which was really nice, normally I will only see her once during the week, but it was her 21st birthday yesterday, so we were out for a meal with friends on Monday night, then out for a meal with her family last night… both meals were pretty nice, and ti was great to celebrate with her… Happy 21st Birthday (for yesterday) Lorraine!!

I’m gonna be pretty busy the next few days, with uni, work, photoshoots and gigs, so either expect a lot of posts, or not very many at all…

I’m just back from my church weekend away. About 50 of us spent the weekend in Castlewellan…

I had a great weekend, as did everyone else. Came back and went to Youth Fellowship, its the first time I’ve been, but not as a leader in 3 years ( I’m not a leader anymore because I’ve moved house and it’s not really possible to be involved anymore, which I’m a little gutted about). I had a great weekend in all.

I really love my church, it might not have the most modern or best praise, and I might not necesarrily agree with everything, but it’s a community of believers who love and care about each other, and who love Christ, and is part of the wider body of Christ… I’m so thankful…

I know pretty much everyone who is reading this will be aware of the soaring cost of living, with food costs going up, the price of fuel going through the roof. I heard on the news tonight that the average UK family’s food bills have risen by nearly 40% since this time last year. Its not just the UK that is suffering either, it’s a worldwide issue.

For the most of us this is merely an inconvenience, it means we have to spend more on food, and less on the little luxuries we like, but as with all problems of this nature its always the same, the poor are hit the hardest.

There a loads of people in the world who are living on about $1 a day, that’s 50p, that’s how much I spend on a can of Coca Cola. These people are being forced to spend 80% of that on food. Nearly all the families that Compassion International works with in Bangladesh are being affected by this, and as the crisis continues it grip gets tighter and tighter, on places like Haiti, where all the children that are involved with Compassion projects have been affected.

The crisis is being caused mainly by the soaring fuels costs, this combined with natural disasters destroying crops, and the higher demand for food from countries like India and China

You might be wondering why I am blogging about this, well I guess to help raise awareness of the issue on behalf of Compassion International, and to suggest a couple of things that we can do to help.

First of all, something that we all can do, Fast and Pray. Compassion have designated June 25th 2008, that’s next Wednesday, a day of prayer and fasting for those most adversely affected by the crisis. So please, whether it be praying for half an hour instead of heading to Subway for lunch, or fasting for a full day, please get on board with this. I fully intend to spend some time in prayer on June 25th, and will give up a least one meal to pray for those struggling.

For those of you with a little more expendable income, consider donating to Compassion’s Global Food Crisis Fund, your money will go to provide food vouchers for families, as well as seeds and farming tools, and nutritional services provide at Compassion centres worldwide, donate HERE

For some more reading…
http://www.compassion.com/sponsordonor/global-food-crisis/default.htm
http://blog.compassion.com/tag/global-food-crisis/

This phrase has been coming back to me again and again recently…

what does it mean to live simply? what should it look like in my life

what can i do? how can i live simply?

These questions have been in my head recently. I guess I’ve been looking at all the ‘stuff’ i have, then looking at the world and seeing how obsessed with material stuff we are, and yet hearing about 13 and 14 year old homeless kids (no not in africa or south america, but in the ‘western, civilized’ world, and by seeing the need thats all around…

I have to stop buying meaningless crap… I have plenty of clothes, more than i wear, I have a laptop and a PC, i have an iPod, a mobile phone, a car…

Why a couple weeks of weeks ago was i determined to buy a new games console (i didnt in the end, and im glad i didnt), why would i like a nice fancy HDTV? because I clearly struggle with being materialistic…

Would the money I would spend on this stuff not be better used to give somebody who needs something, what the need.

Would it not be better to invest the time that would be wasted playing games, investing in relationships with people.

The verse in Matthew 25, whatever you did to the least of these my brothers… you did to me…

its often misquoted, and there is a small word that is often overlooked

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

did you spot the word… one… now im not suggesting that i only help one person, what i mean is, reaching people with the love of Christ is so often about the one on one relationships, those one time, one off encounters, the small things not the big things…

So i guess what I’m thinking about is how/what does it mean to live simply, how far do I go with it, do i sell my laptop and car, and how can i change my way of life to help the ones who are in need.

So far i have made a few decisions…

• Only buy new clothes when I actually need them, not when I just want new clothes
• Either stop or cut down on the number of dvd’s and cd’s I buy

please leave some comments or email me if you have any thoughts about this kinda stuff, about living simpler, so that some one else can live better… sorry if this post was a bit waffley and not very coherent, i am not a writer… but i really wanted to post these thoughts…