It's time to rest. Pick up your phone

On Saturday, I attended the Youthwork Summit in Manchester. The Youthwork Summit is a one day event that features many great youth workers and Christians speaking for just 10-15 minutes on a topic (very similar to the TED conferences in USA).

For me, the most inspiring and though provoking topic was on helping young people find rest in a hyper connected culture from Sarah Percival.

With all the new ways of internet usage, how do we encourage people to find the rest God gave us in the Bible (Shabbat)?

Should we put our phones down, turn our computers off, and hide from the internet?

No.

During her talk, Sarah challenged us that instead of telling our young people to put their phones away and switch them off, to ask them how we can use them as part of our rest.

She explained how she had done this with her youth group. They opened the Bible to see what it said about rest at Exodus 20:8-11

 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” 

(NLT)

This passage demands 3 things from the Sabbath:

1.       Stop work

2.       Do it together

3.       Honour God.

There is no reason we can not do these 3 things on our phones.

Its about how we use them.

We need to get creative.

Sarah challenged us to take up our phones and explore Shabbat with our young people in this way. What new and exciting things may we discover about ourselves and God as we do?

There will still be moments when it is useful to switch our phones off, but have we missed something by ignoring the possibilities they present?

Share your ideas and take up the challenge of rest with your phone through the comments or the ALOVE Anglia facebook and twitter accounts.

My week #belowtheline

Last week, I completed the Live Below the Line challenge.

Over 1.2 billion people in our world live on less than £1 per day, and the live below the line challenge is about raising awareness and funds for various charities that work with these people to end the poverty.

Let me give you a summary of my week.

For the challenge, I went to Aldi and spent £4.82 on my food. This bought me:

•             1 kg porridge

•             2 tins of rice pudding

•             Jelly crystals

•             500g penne pasta

•             1kg frozen mixed veg 

•             1 loaf of white bread

•             1 pack of chocolate cookies

•             1 tin of tomato soup

•             2 jars of tomato and herb pasta sauce

•             500g of spaghetti

Then, starting Tuesday 6th May, I began my challenge.

Day 1 was not too difficult. I started with a bowl of porridge made from water (disgusting) and this kept me going fairly well. I did get peckish about 11.30 for a biscuit, but I think that was habit rather than real hunger. My lunch was half the soup, two slices

of dry toast, and two of the cookies. This was actually rather nice and I enjoyed it, although I didn’t really feel satisfied. Dinner was a big bowl of pasta with veg and the sauce followed by rice pudding. I also had 2 cookies a while after as I was feeling hungry again.

Day 2 I was at home all day, and I had very little appetite, making the challenge slightly easier. I had my porridge again, and for lunch I had four slices of dry toast. Dinner was the same, and I had 2 cookies during the day. I made up the jelly ready for tomorrow.

Day 3 was tough. I had my porridge with a side bowl of jelly (for that sweet kick), and then went to Starbucks in Peterborough for a meeting about Summer School. Being in there wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I didn’t feel tempted by the coffee and didn’t look at the food so I couldn’t feel hungry. The problem came when the staff came round with samples of new sandwiches they have. Even though this wouldn’t ‘cost’ me anything, you cannot accept free food when living below the line. The smell was delicious and it took great effort to say ‘no thanks’. Those I was meeting with weren’t very supportive, and helped themselves! But I couldn’t really blame them. 

It was interesting to be in the city, passing café’s and shops, seeing the cost of things, and thinking how a sandwich would cost me a day or more’s worth of food. It was quite an eye-opener!

I kept focussing on eating my bread on the way home, and this got me through the meeting. When I got in, I hurriedly made my spaghetti, veg and sauce, and enjoyed this. I waited a while before having my rice pudding, but I still had a severe case of the munchies! I ended up devouring 8 (!) cookies before the end of the evening.

Day 4 began again with porridge and jelly. Lunch was the rest of the soup, two slices of toast, and two cookies, and dinner was spaghetti, veg and pasta again followed by the last of the rice pudding. A further 3 cookies were eaten.

Day 5 – I was so happy to have reached the last day! I couldn’t bear another bowl of watery, tasteless, gloop (porridge), so I started with a couple of cookies. I then had a further two cookies before lunch, which was pasta and veg, with no sauce as I was saving that for my dinner. Dinner was again pasta, veg, and sauce, followed by two cookies. I was craving fast food or a takeaway A LOT. But I had reached the end. And I was over the moon.

When Sunday dawned, I happily got up and made my first cup of tea for days and made my usual wheetabix with hot milk (MILK!).  It was bliss.

I am so grateful to have enough money to live and enjoy life, and Live Below the Line affected my thinking greatly over the 5 days.

My prayer now is that I remember the struggle, and that my thought process will remain the same when it comes to buying food.

I want to challenge you again to take the challenge for yourself. And if not, please sponsor me here.

Extravagant waste

I went to fill my car with petrol yesterday at the local Sainsburys petrol station. As normal, I presented my Nectar card to get my Nectar points.

I don’t know how much you know about ‘Nectar’ and Sainsburys, but when you swipe your Nectar card, you sometimes receive a voucher to use next time you visit the store which gives you extra points, or money off, etc.

Yesterday’s voucher promised me 200 bonus Nectar points if I spend more than £50 in Sainsburys by 7^th May.

Here are some facts for you:

·         I live alone
·         My average weekly shop costs less than £20
·         I’m away on The Big Adventure (Children’s Adventure camp ) this weekend
·         I start Live Below the Line on Tuesday (6^th May)

And yet, when I got the voucher, I immediately began thinking if I could possibly spend £50 before it ran out! It’s crazy! Never mind the fact I’m only meant to live off 10% of that next week for Live Below the Line.

And when I thought of that challenge, I was shocked at this behaviour.

How many people must spend more than they need to get extra ‘points’ or similar because they were given a voucher? 

How much additional ‘stuff’ do they buy that would otherwise not have been purchased? 

And how much of it ends up in the bin?

Although I have yet to start the Live Below the Line challenge, even signing up has made me reconsider my spending habits and realise how fortunate we are.

I do not need to spend £50 on a weekly shop, but I could manage it if I wanted to. I could spend it on clothes and games and chocolate and lots of other stuff I don’t need, and I could afford to do it too.

But there are 1.2 billion people who live on less than 10% of that.

God cares about each and every one of them.

And we can make a difference.

Once again, I ask you to join me for any 5 consecutive days before 30^th June and live below the line. You can sign up here and then search for ‘Anglia Division’ to join our team.

If you are unable to participate in the challenge, please donate here. Any donation, big or small, will make a difference.