Christian Aid week address

Sunday 13th March 2007 - St Mary's Holmbury

Thank you for your warm welcome.

I am delighted to be here – especially at the beginning of Christian Aid Week. My wife Nicky and five month son Cohen are here today. This is the first time Cohen has heard his father public speaking – I’ve asked him to pay close attention in the hope that next time he it will be him up here instead of me!

I am passionate about Christian Aid week for two reasons: it has the power to inspire us and it has the power change lives. I want to take this opportunity to talk about both these aspects .

Before I do, perhaps I’ll give you a little of my background: I was raised in Rwanda by missionary parents. As a result, I saw from a young age what it meant for communities to struggle under the weight of poverty and I think it it planted a desire in me to want to work for a equitable world. Since graduating I have had the privilege of visiting countries such as Kenya, Sudan, Brazil and Rwanda - working with poor communities to strengthen the ability to meet the challenges they face. Last year my wife and I went work on the Thai/Burma burma border to get our hands dirty in the process of grass root community action.

Sometimes we feel like the boy in Robert Louis Stevenson novel, who said the world is so big and I am so small, I do not like it at all, at all. The statistics are frightening. When 30,000 children are dying every day of preventable diseases and as I heard this week that 27million people are still trapped in slavery – it is easy to despair.

CAW is about reviving our faint hearts. It is about re-committing ourselves to the battle for justice and affirming our faith that we can do something to change the world.

Does anyone know how many ordinary people leave the comfort of their own home to collect money during CAW? Incredibly, the figure is 300,000.

Does anyone know how much is raised in Christian Aid Week? £15million is raised - the biggest community fundraiser in the country.

That is an incredible achievement and should be a source of great encouragement to us. Although it is 50 years old, it is more important today than ever. A recent poll by the Sunday Times indicated that 8 out of 10 people under the age of 35 have no links with their community whatsoever. It labelled my generation as the ‘can’t be bothered’ generation. Arguably, CAW has never been more counter-cultural and therefore essential to challenging cynicism and promoting active compassion.

So CAW is inspires us but it also changes lives.

I realised this when working in Burma. Christian Aid does a lot of work in Burma – providing emergency supplies to ethnic groups in Burma who have been forced from their homes by the Burma Army. It the world’s longest running civil war and over 500,000 have been forced from their homes and are living in temporary shelters or just under cover of the jungle. It is a desperate situation. The communities I visited were clinging to hope. After brutal attacks from the Burma Army, many had lost everything: from those whose legs had been blown off by a landmine to those who had lost family members or their homes. And yet they had not lost the courage to keep going.

Last week one of the relief workers who worked with the Free Burma Rangers that I worked with was executed by the Burma Army. It was a reminder of the sacrifice and courage that people are taking to provide hope, help and love to people in trouble.


I want to finish with a story of one of the bravest woman I have met. I learnt from Bertrude Mutandigo that good can come from even the worse situations.

A few years ago I returned to Rwanda with my father on a work trip. We met many survivors of the Rwandan genocide – we heard many horrific stories Bertrude’s story stood out.

During the genocide that killed 800,000 in 100 days, Bertrude was raped many times by several soldiers. As a result she contracted HIV and had a child who also had HIV. When we met bertrude, she needed a home away from her town because some of the soldiers were continuing to threaten her.

As I watched this elegant woman tell me her story, I was struck by her resilience and total lack of self pity. It would cost only £2500 to build a new home. I returned to the UK and together with a youth group, we put on a special fundraising night. We raised enough to build her a home and some milk so that she could sell the milk. Bertrude sent us this pot to say thank you. On the side of the pot she had woven the words ‘Dieu est Amor’ – God is Love.

Christian Aid week is about demonstrating that God is Love.