Audiomission podcast

This month we have made it onto the CMS Audiomission podcast.

Issue 16 – April 2007 is called ‘Dare to be salt and light’ and is based on an interview we did at CMS whilst in the UK in January. Despite many of the programme details we talk about having changed – and the fact that we were exhausted when we did the interview and didn’t think they’d be able to use it at all – they have mixed it well and, though we sound tired, the end result seems alright!

If you have good connection you can listen to it using the player below – just click on the play button below – or you can download the MP3 file here.

Micah Challenge Zambia website

We launched a website for Micah Challenge in Zambia yesterday – you can see it at: www.micahchallenge.org/zambia

It is a simple site that we’ve set up using WordPress.com, the same system that this website uses, and it hasn’t cost a penny so far – another example of what you can do for free on the web! There is not much content on it on at the moment but that will change as things develop.

Lent resources

I stumbled across some Lent resources last week by Christine Sine. We’ve mentioned Tom & Christine Sine in the past – their books have been really insightful in our journey over recent years, particularly Living on Purpose and Sacred Rhythms. They run Mustard Seed Associates – which has a great website with lots of resources – and have just started the Mustard Seed Journey blog. They have also just formed an intentional community in Seattle US (something that Polly and I have been dreaming of for many years, and will be watching with interest) which is called Mustard Seed House.

Anyway the Lent resources…Christine Sine has produced a guide for Lent called A Journey Into Wholeness – which you can freely download here. It is designed to take us “each week on a journey into a different aspect of the brokenness of god’s world”, using the time of Lent as preparation for, “being instruments of God’s healing and restoration.” We will be using the guide over the coming weeks – there will be additional resources added at the Mustard Seed Journey blog and also at Christine Sine’s blog GodSpace.

Lent invites us to re-enter the school of life and be disciplined in the endless possibilities of growth Christine Sine – A Journey Into Wholeness

Another great resource for Lent is 40 by Revive. Forty illustrations depicting Jesus in the Wilderness (as described in Matthew 4: 1-11) making one image for each day of Lent. The images have been made into PowerPoint and movie presentations with a soundtrack – which you can order from CMS or Proost.

 

Stand up… sit back?

We are currently in the UK, preparing to return to Zambia next week. Whilst in the UK we have been doing lots of talks about our work with Jubilee Centre and CMS. As we’ve been doing our talks it has been great to meet lots of new people and catch-up with old friends – and we’d love to carry on the conversations started on our visits through our blog. In our talks we’ve used a number of resources and mentioned a number of responses we can all make to fighting poverty. I have promised a few people that I’d put links to those resources and responses on our blog – so here are those links:

Supporting Jubilee Centre: If you would like to support the work of Jubilee Centre in Zambia financially or through prayer the following two leaflets explain how to do this – Jubilee Centre Leaflet and Jubilee Centre UK Giving Form.

Supporting Matt & Polly: We produce a regular newsletter and prayer letter which you can sign up to by contacting us – you can also subscribe to receive updates from this blog website by email. If you would like to support us financially in our work with CMS for Jubilee Centre click here.

Micah Challenge campaign and video: We have been using a video in our talks by Micah Challenge in the UK – you can get a copy of this video here or find out more about the Micah Challenge campaign in the UK at www.micahchallenge.org.uk

CMS: For further information on the work of CMS visit: www.cms-uk.org

We have also mentioned two books in our talks – both of which are really useful resources for exploring the kingdom of God and our role as part of it. We have blogged about Colossians Re:mixed by Brian J Walsh & Sylvia C Keesmaat before and will try to blog about The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren in the coming weeks.

Unafraid of change

We recently wrote a case study for a new book from Lonely Planet – the International Volunteering Handbook, which is due to be published around July 2007 – and CMS have just covered it on the news section of their website – Unafraid of change article. So if you can’t wait for the publication of the book you can now read it there! Or if you want a soundbite…

“CMS has over one hundred years of experience in building links with churches around the world — but we were probably attracted more by the fact that it is an organisation not afraid of change, open to experimenting with the new and drawing on the past.

We are supporting a national organisation in Zambia to fight poverty… [and] that is really important for us — we are not entering a country and just doing our own thing; we are working for a Zambian organisation, run and governed by Zambians, in which we can offer support and help but which exists without us or a foreign organisation telling it what to do.”