Use NOT abuse!

While I am not a vegetarian, I believe that Factory Farming is abhorrent. I was at the Pilsdon Community yesterday, and while there, members were building a run for their pigs. It was a large section of a field and they are going to put 3 or 4 animals in it. They will live free range in good conditions and be fed decent food for all their lives. Compare this to what Factory farmed pigs have to put up with, tiny crates and not seeing sunlight or touching the earth.

After much public concern, interest and attention, the UK pig breeding standards were raised and are now the highest in the EU... sadly the public that were so concerned found out that high standards costs more, and so many UK pork breeders went out of business as the public went for the cheaper imports.

Above is a film trailer about a company called Smithfield. This relates to the United States market as well as the UK and EU as they are Factory farming pork in Poland to flood our markets with pork reared using antibiotics in conditions that are, in my opinion, quite frankly tortured.

We would, I am sure, quite rightly call our animal welfare organisations if a neighbour kept their pet in such a way, so why should we tolerate our food chain animals being so treated?

In Matthew 22:4 - Jesus told a parable of a king who killed oxen and fatted cattle for a wedding feast. Meat eating is a symbol of partaking of the blessings of God's kingdom so I do not believe that Jesus would use something immoral to symbolize the blessings of the kingdom, but I do not believe for one moment that he would approve of His creation being abused in the way the film above shows.

Thy will, is sadly not being done on earth, or in Heaven...

Cosmos 954 was a Soviet Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite (RORSAT) which was powered by a nuclear reactor. Cosmos 954 had a special problem however; on January 24, 1978 it went out of control.

Cosmos 954 fell out of orbit and came crashing into the Great Slave Lake area of the Northwest Territories in Canada, disintegrated during re-entry into a shower of radioactive debris which spread over some 124,000 square kilometres. A massive search was begun to locate the debris that was made up of over 200 troops from both the Canadian Air Force and the US military and lasted until October. After the clean-up, the Canadian Government sent a $15 million bill to the Soviets. The Soviets paid less than half of this amount and agreed not to take back the spacecraft. The Canadians were happy with the amount they received and were happier still that the Soviets had acknowledged the spacecraft's existence.

Of the thousands of radioactive fragments that reached the earth's surface, some were potentially lethal however, less than 1% of radioactive material was recovered so 99% of the radioactive parts of this satellite are still out there in NW Canada.

Fast forward to Feb. 11, 2009 and two big communications satellites collided nearly 500 miles over Siberia. The crash produced a pair of massive debris clouds, and the magnitude of the situation will not be known for weeks at least, said Nasa spokesman Kelly Humphries.

"We knew this was going to happen eventually," said Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at Johnson Space Centre in Houston. The collision involved a commercial satellite, launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be non-functioning. The commercial satellite weighed 1,235 pounds and the Russian one nearly a ton. No one has any idea yet how many pieces were generated or how big they might be."Right now, they're definitely counting dozens," Matney said. "I would suspect that they'll be counting hundreds when the counting is done." As for pieces the size of micrometers, the count will likely be in the thousands, he added.

At the beginning of this year there were roughly 17,000 pieces of man-made debris orbiting Earth, Johnson said. The items, at least 4 inches in size, are being tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, which is operated by the military. The network detected the two debris clouds created Tuesday.

So not only does mankind pollute the God’s earth, we now pollute His space and I only hope and pray that when that debris does fall to earth, as its orbit finally decays, then it will not be radioactive or fall on an inhabited area.

There are times when simplicity rules over sophistication.

The Zeer pot could not be simpler or easier to make or operate and yet as a refrigeration device it is truly an example of just how simplicity can work when sophistication cannot. It is a simple fridge made of local materials, clay and sand, consisting of one earthenware pot set inside another, with a layer of wet sand in between. As the moisture evaporates outwards from the wet sand through the outer earthenware pot it cools the inner pot, keeping up 12kg of produce fresh for up to three weeks. The shelf life of Tomatoes and Guavas are extended from 2 to 20 days, carrots from 4 to 20 days and Rocket from 1 to 5 days.

Fruit, vegetables and water are all kept fresher for longer – providing much needed help to starving families and can mean the difference between potential starvation and having enough food.

The Zeer pot is cheap, easy to make (see the video) environmentally friendly and works on Solar Energy. Now didn't Paul say something in Phillipians 4:19 about God meeting our needs?

You can find more about Practical Action's work in the Third World here

An answer to UK's energy security?

Bio Gas is already used in the Third World but in the West has little take up. However this could soon change, as a report from Ernst & Young, commissioned by The National Grid reports that if the UK’s various waste streams were harnessed to produce biogas, half of the nation’s homes could be heated from it. The biogas would be generated from sewage, animal manure, and other waste, and be connected to the existing natural gas grid.

While there are no technical or safety barriers in generating this much biogas, the UK government will need to enacted to develop a waste management policy to ensure each waste stream is directed to the appropriate biogas technology and an incentive scheme to encourage biogas producers to send their gas to the natural gas grid, rather than generate electricity from it as is currently promoted in the Renewable Energy Obligation scheme.

All it needs is the money... about £10 Billion should do it and make the UK far less dependent on imports of gas from unstable regions of the world.

We have all these God given resources so, UK government, how about it? The banks were given £37 Billion last year and reliable reports say that this will rise to £75 billion in 2009, it's a gift at £10 billion surely?

AT LAST I KNOW WHERE I HAVE BEEN GOING WRONG!

All these years and I didn't realise it... amazing... it's just clicked, you see I live in a Parallel world!

In my world there is pollution caused by, for example, aircraft, but in the other world all you need to do is buy Carbon Credits and that high level pollution is immediately removed from the sky. It's incredible... However you pollute Carbon Credits make it immediately better, why doesn’t it happen in my world?

In my world there has just been a financial collapse in the banking industry and there is a recession. There is a huge amount of debt, an increase in the jobless figures and a lack of trust and confidence in governments. In this other world governments are giving the banks money and encouraging the banks to lend to people so they can take out debt and go out and buy things, why is it different in my world?

In my world resources are scarce, peak oil has been reached and pollution is huge problem yet in this other World while they have these problems they don’t have to plan for them or worry about them. Where have I gone wrong?

In my world feeding the hungry in Africa and other countries is a pressing need but in this other world what really matters is the holiday destination and the latest sports results. The fact that food is used to make fuel is also OK so why is it different in my world?

I could go on but I need to find this other World ASAP.

A Dream Comes True

On December 1st 1955 Rosa Parks sat and would not budge so Martin Luther King could dream, arise and march. On August 28th 1963 Martin Luther King marched so Barack Obama could stand and run in the 2008 Presidential race. America judged Barak Obama to have won the that Race and on 20th January 2009 he was sworn in as the United States 44th president.

The world can change for the better, but it does need people of courage to make that change.

Have you ever prayed for money? Lydia George did. Her prayers were answered and just look what happened...

Before she went to Oxford University, Lydia had a Gap Year and worked six months for CCD (Christian Care Foundation for Children with Disabilities) in Thailand. CCD provides care and support to abandoned children with disabilities, regardless of gender, nationality, creed or religion.

When Lydia left CCD they were very short of money, and were struggling to finance the finishing of the new Rainbow Rehabilitation centre. Wasan, the Thai director, had even spent all his own life savings in an attempt to finish the project - such was his level of commitment, Lydia though had nothing to give them.

Lydia was back in the UK and working part time as a waitress in an Oxford bar and restaurant, when the producer of 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' approached her to appear on a 'freshers and professors' special.

In her own words... “I was auditioned on camera, and thought nothing more of it, until I had a phone call a few weeks later saying I had been successful, and that filming was in a week! The wonderful thing about it all was that I had been praying about a way of raising some money for CCD before this opportunity came up. When the opening came along I knew, therefore, that it was a gift from God, and that if I was to win any money, I should give it all away.

To my surprise, I ended up on the hot seat after winning 'Fastest finger first'. I won £32,000 along with the professor, which worked out as £16,000 each. I said on air that I would give it away, and that’s what I did. CCD was able to complete the building project, and the first ever purpose-built rehabilitation centre for disabled children was officially opened.

As a result of this, the Daily Telegraph did an article on my story, and then many more of the press became interested. Sky News approached me to make a documentary called 'Giving it away', which was filmed during my Christmas Holidays from university. Through these and various other media sources, about £30,000 was donated to CCD. I was absolutely blown away by the generosity of the public and the number of people who were genuinely moved when they saw the conditions of the orphanage on television.

My expectations were blown once again when Starfish Trust, a Bristol-based charity, contacted me to say they would like to donate to CCD, which enabled them to buy some land adjacent to the rainbow centre. Their donation was in total about £100,000, the largest donation to CCD ever!”

Following this Lydia was nominated for and won a 'Pride of Britain' Special award. Again, something amazing also came out of this.

In Thailand Lydia grew very close to a little girl called Ornanong, which means ‘Scrawny’. Scrawny was a malnourished and unstimulated 3 years old weighing just under a stone. Her parents, who were unable to care for her, were a seventy year-old man and a 30 year-old woman, who was an alcoholic. Lydia spent a lot of time with Scrawny at the weekends when in Thailand, taking her swimming, shopping, to the playground – all those things that normal children love to do so much, but which we all take for granted.

At the Pride of Britain awards Lydia had been talking to an American couple called Bill and Cindy Sasser the previous night, and they mentioned that they had it on their hearts to adopt a little girl. On the night of the awards the Daily Mirror flew Scrawny to London to surprise Lydia on stage. Scrawny meet the Sassers, who were very touched by her, and decided to try to adopt her. As a result Scrawny is now settled in with her new family in their home in Mobile, Alabama.

Lydia has continued to work for abandoned children in Thailand and has now has now raised hundreds of thousands of pounds, an amazing return on her heart-felt teenage prayers. If you would like to know more about CCD, and the ongoing story, please see HERE.

Angola's Miss Landmine 2008.

On the right is Miss landmine 2008 Maria Restino Manuel a 26 year old who had her leg blown off in 1998 when she ran across a mined field to escape a gang of soldiers who had threatened to rape her. When she said that she wanted to promote world peace she really meant it.

On the left is Mum-of-four Filomena Da Costa who has married a fellow amputee.

Anita Pedro in the centre has three year old twins.

Civil war broke out in Angola after independence from Portugal in 1975. More than 500,000 were killed in 27 years of fighting and all sides used landmines. 43,000 have been removed so far but it will take 10 or more years to remove the remaining millions. Every year, 400 Angolan locals step on mines.

Approximately every thirty minutes someone, somewhere in the world is injured or killed by an encounter with them. In southeast Asia, an accident happens every day, shattering lives, hopes and dreams.

So, where did these vile weapons come from?

Apart from the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, the most mine-affected countries in the world received all of their mines from sources outside of their borders.

Major producers of anti-personnel landmines in the last 25 years include Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, the former Soviet Union, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam and the former Yugoslavia. The most commonly found mines around the world were from China, Italy and the former Soviet Union.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) says 13 countries have not banned anti-personnel landmine production: Burma, China, Cuba, India, Iran, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, United States and Vietnam. Some of these countries have not actually made AP mines in recent years, but refuse to ban production officially.

The tragedy is that those that profited by the manufacture of these items are not the ones that are having to pay for them, and I don't mean in financial terms.

If you would like to know more and add your support to those who face danger daily in order to rid God's World from the pollution of these evil items then see HERE

The one who throws the stone forgets, the one who is hit remembers forever... An Angolan Proverb.