Easter e-card – New Life*

As I was thinking about Easter… the pain and suffering of the events of Holy week as Jesus was condemned to death – and then the new life we celebrate in the resurrection of Jesus – I reflected on what that ‘new life’ really means… and so I thought of Alex in the photo above.

I met Alex last week – he lives in a rural part of north western Zambia and is HIV+. He has known great suffering. Having discovered he was HIV+ 8 years ago… he was condemned to death… but then four years ago he was able to start taking Anti-Retroviral drugs that would transform his life…

Alex knows what new life is… he lives and breathes it every new day.

This Easter may you know the joy of new life

Matt & Polly

If you can’t see the image above clearly – click here.

Photo: Alex is happy for us to identify him as HIV+ and is pictured here holding his Anti-Retroviral drugs. He is married with one daughter and lives in a rural community where health facilities are still very limited – he is the chairperson for the constituency committee for action on HIV created at a Jubilee Centre led workshop last week. The words are those of Jesus from John 10:10.

 

the slave tree – action trick 3

I have mentioned Freedom Day before. Recently, anticipating that this day to mark the end of slavery is just around the corner (25th March), we went in search for the famous slave tree in Ndola town and a local history lesson.

Swahili slave-traders used to frequent the area around the tree – meeting under the shade of the tree to sell and trade their slaves. Today it is in an almost forgotten part of town and in a decaying state, but I felt it had a story to tell. I took some photographs and walked up and down the quiet street – and decided to make a short film about it’s story.

I purposefully didn’t use images of people but rather focussed on the environment and local history to get across the complex reality of the area today. It is far from being a great video (it is my first effort at this sort of thing) but I liked the creative process more than anything. I am making it action trick 3 – to mark the importance of getting creative and using the local environment and history to get active. You are welcome to use the film if you like – use the above player or at YouTube (if you want to download it you can for free by using keepvid.com and then use VLC media player to play it).

Action Trick no 1: Freedom Day – 25th March

The 25th of March 2007 is Freedom Day, which this year will mark the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Today twenty-seven million men, women, and children are still enslaved around the globe, so I am kicking off the Action Tricks series with a look at the things planned to commemorate the tireless work of William Wilberforce and Olaudah Equiano, amongst others, who were central to the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.

Perhaps the biggest is the release of Amazing Grace the film – based on the life of William Wilberforce, whose mentor was John Newton, the slave-trader -turned-song-writer, who wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace – the film website – has lots of resources, including film clips, discussion guides and church study guides on the issues raised in the film and modern day slavery.

In conjunction with the film there are plans for Amazing Grace Sunday – when churches around the world are invited to sing Amazing Grace and in praying for the end of slavery once and for all on Freedom day – 25th March. Again the website has lots of resources.

‘After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly before God’? Olaudah Equiano

Stop the Traffik, a global coalition, has lots of resourse on organising an event for the day, including an organiser’s pack, to help raise awareness of the problems of people trafficking today, with practical ways in which you can mark Freedom Day.

The bicentenary has a special connection for CMS, as William Wilberforce was one of the founders of CMS. They have lots of resources to help mark the event and focus on fighting slavery today: the current CMS Yes magazine is devoted to slavery; the CMS Lent Guide focuses on it; Free For All – unique events in schools across the UK run by CMS; African Snow play – a play sponsored by CMS to mark the anniversary and inspire new acts of abolition today. The play is based on the meeting of John Newton, the converted slave-trader who wrote Amazing Grace, and Olaudah Equiano, the former slave turned abolitionist whose extraordinary story has often been confined to a footnote or totally ignored.

Other websites with resources: Tearfund Freedom day resources, Amazing Change campaign; Set All Free – Act to End Slavery website; The Truth Isn’t Sexy campaign – exposing the truth between human trafficking and prostitution.

*Update* Also see the related slave tree video post