Festival Time at the Urdd, Cardiff Bay

Eistedfford time has come around again and because the Urdd (Young people's organization in Wales - we think it may be the largest youth movement in Europe)is currently situated in Cardiff Bay we were able to go down and enjoy being surrounded by Welsh culture. The sun shone brightly down as we made our way around the various stalls and we stopped by various places to see what was on offer. We went into the Millenium Centre to see the young people perform and were very impressed by the high standard of the various perfomances we saw. It was so good to see so many young people taking a pride in their heritage and we came out thinking that the TV talent show, Britain's Got Talent is nothing compared to the talent of our young people.

Visit to Logos Hope, Cardiff Bay

This week is half term, so we are enjoying a bit of a rest. Some of us have been out and about a bit and yesterday we made our way down to Cardiff Bay. We were joined by our friend, Elyse, who was a volunteer here about 5 or 6 years ago. Elyse is currently working aboard 'Logos Hope,' the enormous vessel in the picture. Logos Hope is part of an initiative set up by Christians in Germany to spread Knowledge, Help and Hope.
Elyse took us aboard to show us around. We had lunch together and then toured the ship. The Galley (where Elyse works) is very like the kitchen you may find in any large hotel. Gleaming stainless steel everywhere and large, computerized ovens! The galley supplies around 450 meals 3 times a day, so a lot of hard work work goes on there. We finished our tour in the Book Fair. The ship carries around 6,000 titles all very reasonably priced - so reasonable that at least one of us gave in to temptation and bought some (no names mind). The ship is staffed by volunteers from all over the world, some of whom join for a few weeks, others for longer. Elyse has been on board for 2 years, we met someone else who's been there for 17 years and has raised his family on board too! Mampionona, in particular was very taken with the visit and is interested in joining the ship later on. If you're in Cardiff Bay sometime between now and the 7th June, do have a look for yourself - it's well worth a visit.

Bible Study on Theology 31

I apologize for not keeping up with the Bible Study postings but, finally I'm catching up. This week's passage is from St. John 14:15-27, The Promise of the Holy Spirit. Below are the questions we will be considering this evening. If you have any comments, then please feel free to join in - we would welcome your input!

1. Jesus' connection with his disciples is based on love. Thinking of the past two Bible Studies that have considered God as love, do you think that Jesus is offering unconditional or conditional love in this passage?

2. Why is the Advocate sent to be with us 'forever' when Jesus was with us for a comparatively short time? What might this really mean?

3. The world is spoken of as being very different from the disciples. What does that mean for us as disciples who have to live in the world?

4. What does this passage mean for those who do not'love Jesus?'

5. How do you think the Holy Spirit has worked in you to teach you and remind you of what Jesus taught?

6. How does the Holy Spirit work in us today, if indeed you agree that it does?

Rich/Poor Supper

Our annual Rich/Poor supper took place this evening and I'm pleased to be able to tell you that the event raised £87.30!! For those of you new to this blog, or for those who have never heard of it before the Rich/Poor supper is as follows. Everyone buys a ticket for the event and everyone pays the same price (in this case £3). The evening begins with a brief talk to consider the work of Christian Aid. This year we were lucky enough to have a special guest speaker, Aled from the CA office in Cardiff. Aled visited South Africa earlier this year and showed us pictures that he took when he visited CA's Partners there.
After the talk, the group is each given a raffle ticket and a draw takes place. Six lucky people are chosen to be the 'rich' people. They sit down to a four course meal of melon, roast beef with trimmings, gateaux and cheese and biscuits. The rest of us (the majority) get to be the 'poor' people and we sit down to single bowl of rice.
The object of the excercise is to show the injustice of the current world situation. The majority of people in the world have less resources than the richer parts of the world. As one Iona liturgy puts it, "half the world starves whilst the other half diets.."
However, we do cheat slightly because after everyone's finished eating we auction off the leftovers and all the yummy stuff goes to those who bid for it.
So, all in all it's an awareness raising event as well as a fund-raising one. We had the services of our wonderfully gifted friend Myra to cook for us and she was ably assisted by Deborah. Cilla and Jodie. Thanks to all who worked on this event and to everyone who supported it.
Special thanks are due to Sharon who is the unsung heroine of all our Christian Aid efforts!

Fun Walk

The dawned bright and sunny.... oh no it didn't! No, sure enough we had the usual cold, damp, overcast day that we usually do for our foray into 'Pandy to collect for Christian Aid. Each year we use this occasion to indulge our eccentricities and dress up in unlikely garb.
As you will see from the picture, this year we had an Egyptian (I know, go figure), a Knight, 2 'unknowns,' and (the star of the show) a sumo wrestler. We also had a nun and a princess, but they were more camera shy. We began with worship at 9am, with prayers with the world church and then made our way to town. After a couple of hours we returned for lunch and the grand count began. We collected the sum of £166.03 so a big 'THANK YOU!' to all who donated and a very big 'THANK YOU AND WELL DONE!' to our wonderful volunteers who weren't afraid to look so strange for Christian Aid.

Congratulations!

These smiling, happy faces belong to our very talented volunteers, Heritiana, Rema and Mampionona. They are proudly displaying their certificates to show that they have passed the level 2 Food Safety in Catering course.
Way back in February, they attended the course as part of The Winter Skillz (sic) initiative in the Rhondda Fach.
This evening we all attended the celebration event at Canolfan Rhys to see everyone get the recognition they so richly deserve.
The courses covered such diverse areas as catering, childcare, dry-stone walling, carpentry and play work (amongst others) and the participants ranged in age from 14 - 60 or so.
Winter Skillz is an event that has grown from the first Summer Skillz, held two years ago. Local community members are encouraged to participate in order to gain skills and experience that will help build confidence and self-esteem as well helping to show prosepective employers marketable skills.
Our local Assembly Member, Leighton Andrews was there to award the certificates and show his support as were several other local luminaries.
The Penrhys Partnership is the driving force behind the success of this programme and congratulations are due to Wayne, Julie, Debbie and Melissa for all their hard work on this.

So, a very big, WELL DONE to Heritiana, Rema and Mampionona, Rena, Paul and Ray who all took up this challenge and succeded! Our cafe is the better for having well-trained staff to serve our customers.

Christian Aid Events

Christian Aid Week, (or more accurately, month in Penrhys) is under way. We have already begun the celebrations with a Children's Auction – that is, an auction of toys and things that the children bid for rather than actually auctioning the children which, tempting though that may be, would probably not be allowed. I say celebrations because; really you could be mistaken for thinking that it is some kind of holiday. Every possible spare inch of Llanfair is adorned with bunting, banners and posters and other decorations. I'm sure we've used as much blu-tack as we do at Christmas! As well as the events of previous years, auctions; rich/poor supper; fun walk; pilgrimage etc, this year we have had the privilidge of welcoming some special guests.

Yesterday we were joined at school by Eirian from Christian Aid and Jacob from Malawi (pictured above), who came to school to talk to years 5 and 6 about the work Christian Aid does and to share stories of life in Malawi. Anyone who has met our young friends will realize that they are not short of questions and, sure enough, these flowed fast and free. Some of the questions made more sense than others, (at least to me), but I'm sure this very interactive exchange means that plenty will be remembered from Jacob's visit. I, for one, can now point confidently to Malawi on a map of Africa and, if pressed, can tell you all sorts of things about life there – just ask.