Hello Faith Pals,
This image is a positive one, that reminds me that although we are going through tough times, we must still dance, still hope!
Welcome to Monday, after some very exciting news! Appointing a new minister is like getting a wonderful package/gift: the minister is what is in the wrapped box, but the congregation is the wrapping and the ribbon, so you are a gift to each other! Sparkly too! Perhaps the box is the church building? Perhaps I am getting too carried away?
Anyway, today I thought I would forward you a picture of a sea turtle, to continue the theme of hope. I have included the letter as well, because it gives interesting information about the hatchlings (and because it is a pdf and I can’t delete parts of it!) One of our neighbour’s daughters was working as a volunteer at this organization in Malaysia, so that is how I learned about this work. They buy up eggs, saving them from the food industry, and incubate them, and then release them into the ocean, to freedom. They are near a resort, so tourists have been involved as well, but this involvement has been down because of covid. Last year we adopted a nest. We had to give it a name, so we named it ‘Hope.’ This year, as you will see from the photo, that theme continues! I have copied some information from the website:
‘The Organisation
After Founder, Hayati Mokhtar, sought help from friends, WWF conservation specialists and Terengganu state government officials, the Lang Tengah Turtle Watch was born. With enthusiastic interest from local Malaysian volunteers and students from the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham and University College London, by April 2013 the project was underway. Since the project began it has grown steadily; to date saving over 46,500 turtle eggs from being sold to the market and hosting in excess of 460 volunteers from 23 different nationalities.
Volunteers on the beaches of Lang Tengah – an island off the East Coast of Malaysia – monitor turtle landings and save their eggs from poachers. We are striving to protect what is evidently threatened, and to discover what other conservation issues lie hidden on the island.
Our satellite programmes are bringing the local community to Turtle Bay, so they too can experience our project first-hand. Improvement of waste management on the island is now another key focus area for us.’
http://www.langtengahturtlewatch.org
I find it interesting how and why people set up organizations/charities; isn’t it wonderful that people all over the world see a need and then work out what to do about it? That is what we do in the church all the time, within our communities, and within the wider world. We call it mission. We call ourselves Christians…we could also call ourselves ‘the hopeful!’ We live, facing the light of the resurrection.
This was my first ‘feel good’ story for today.
The second is about a young toddler, named Eleanor. She has a rare life threatening illness called SMA (spinal muscular atrophy). I met her aunt when she was putting leaflets in letterboxes. They were raising funds to get a miracle drug, only available in America. The good new this weekend is that they have been approved for special medical help in Sydney, so she has a chance of eventually leading a normal life. I thought of this special loving aunt, doing the letterbox drop (I saw her on a number of days) doing what she could for little Eleanor-and, like the turtle story, it is a story of hope, of hearts being filled with hope, not giving up.
‘…so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints’-Ephesians 1: 18
 |
Virus-free. www.avg.com |