Seeing Christ – Seeing us!

Podcast

A short Easter service on Christ seeing us from the least.

Can you ever forget this story?

This is one of the most memorable stories  I have ever heard! It comes in Katheleen O’Sullivan’s superb book Light out of Darkness in a chapter on A listening experience:

When I began to write about ‘listening’ I felt urged in prayer to go out among the people and listen. I went into a fish-and-chip shop. The space was very limited. It was a bitterly cold day. Perhaps the cold made us a pretty soulless group of people. I was trying to listen. There seemed to be little communication between us. I smiled at a little girl who was splashing vinegar on her chips. For a moment, her mother half looked and half smiled at me. We were there seemingly for one purpose only, to get our food, to get home and be comfortable. I felt depressed as I listened.

Suddenly I became aware of a change in the atmosphere.

What is a ‘suspended’ coffee?

I came across this story on a friend’s Facebook page; it warms like coffee on a cold day!

We enter a little coffeehouse with a friend of mine and give our order. While we’re approaching our table two people come in and they went to the counter:
‘Five coffees, please. Two of them for us and three suspended’ They pay for their order, take the two and leave.

I ask my friend: “What are those ‘suspended’ coffees?”
My friend: “Wait for it and you will see.”

Tourism as Direct Trade

 

Yesterday I preached a sermon basically saying that we should do good without thought of reward. Specifically when we give a few coins to a beggar we should also not worry about what she/he will do with the money. And the reason is simple – we have that choice of what we pick in life, why shouldn’t they?

That’s why I think this blog on Fairtrade coffee is very thought provoking….

If you would like to know more about Fairtrade, then here is their link

Fairtrade Foundation

 

 

When Coffee Speaks

Smart locals. These are the ones who spent their childhoods sweating on the family farm, but realized that their land could give them something more. Smart locals are the ones whose families have spent their lives being ripped off by North Americans and Europeans buying their products at prices below the cost of production; they’re the ones who saw tourists on the horizon and realized it was time to make back all that money.

Smart locals see that agriculture is a good way to stay broke. They see that as much as those North Americans and Europeans like to eat bananas and chocolate and buy so many tropical products, they like to come to the tropics. And if they’re coming, they’re coming with money to burn.

Smart locals are the ones who turn their aunt’s vacant house into a bed and breakfast, who don’t try to cut corners but who…

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