Children's Address

Heavenly Father may my words reflect your word and may our ears be always ready to hear your call. Amen

One of my favourite things to do when I travel is to go to a supermarket and find foods that I can’t get at home. Some people don’t understand why, when I am on holidays I would want to go around a supermarket but my trip out of the country would not be complete without it. Any one else do that? I know I’m not the only one.

On my recent trips I have found a wide variety of crisps) and in Europe have enjoyed toffee filled Oreo cookies (definitely all gone), very large bags of Lays salted crisps, blackberry mustard, Chocolate sprinkles for toast, and moose jerky. From the US Peanut butter M&Ms etc.
In our house I collected up freeze dried crickets from Bosnia etc-
All the countries I have travelled to had one thing in common – full shelves.
I remember when I was small and growing up in the country we had to go to lots of harvest services as my Dad was rector of 5 churches and often got asked to preach at other churches. We called them home and away matches, and every year would ask how many of each there were, and more importantly how many we were expected to go to. I have to say of all the sermons I heard I only remember the one about the pooky man because it made me my brother and sister laugh so much my Mum glared at us and threatened to take us out of the church – I don’t remember what was even in the pooky man sermon.

I don’t remember the sermons but I do remember the tea after the services. In the country at that time anyway the ladies went all out. I think there was a competition to see which church could do the best spread. The sandwiches always had butter not margarine on them, there was no one paying attention to the number of homemade biscuits or slices of cake we ate, it was great.

One of the other things I remember from when I was small and I think if we are honest, from when most of us were small is having a tantrum and shouting “Its not fair! Or That’s no good” I know I stamped my feet on occasion when I did it. Would you like to join me in remembering - stand up and try! I think there won’t be many occasions when we are encouraged to act like we are having a tantrum in church so I think we’d better make the most of it.
Its not fair
That’s no good.

The world we live in has a lot of occasions when we scream and stamp and say it’s not fair and that’s no good! It seems to me that we say it when someone else has something we want, something that we feel that we should have.
Harvest is a time of year that we need to be reminded to say it on behalf of those who don’t have what we have.
We are going to try a little tantrum on behalf of those people to make this point a little more strongly. For each of the following statements I want you to shout -
Its not fair. That’s no good. (you can stamp as well)
23 million people in East Africa are at risk of starving because there hasn’t been any rain for a long time to help food to grow………
Cheap clothes for sale in some of our shops may have been made in poor countries by women and children working long hours for very little pay………
In some countries boy babies are thought to be better to have than girl babies……...
Some of the vegetables for sale in our shops have travelled more air miles than we did for our holidays from countries where people don’t have enough to eat……...
These are only a few examples, I expect that you can think of many more ways that we are lucky and others are not.

Now we are going to do it again and say it differently in a way that makes us think about what we can do about it because it is not simply enough to shout about it, God wants us to realise that it is the responsibility of all of us here to act for those who find themselves unable to be heard when they cry out for help. This time we will say
Its not fair. That’s no good.
23 million people in East Africa are at risk of starving because there hasn’t been any rain for a long time to help food to grow.
Cheap clothes for sale in some of our shops may have been produced in poor countries by women and children working long hours for very little pay.
In some countries boy babies are thought to be better to have than girl babies.
Some of the fruit and vegetables for sale in our shops have travelled more air miles than we did for our holidays from countries where people don’t have enough to eat.

We sit quietly close our eyes and pray -
May we who have much remember those who have little.
May we who are full remember those who are hungry.
May we who are loved remember those who are lonely.
May we who are safe remember those who are in danger.May we who have so much learn how to share. Amen