It’s good to be with you all again. Last weekend Wayne and I were attending the Baptist Union assembly in Plymouth. Over 2000 were present and it was a real celebration as well as a time of challenge. A Minister from Wakefield Glen Marshall led 3 brilliant Bible studies from Revelation. The last was from Revelation 21 & 22 and it describes God coming down to earth to be with His people and an amazing time is to be had with God.

God is the giver of life and life as a gift is to be celebrated. So often celebrations include meals and as you read through the scriptures you will find many occasions when people are eating together. Our theme today is the Feast of Life. A feast that is intended for all yet sadly there are not always equal shares and so some have much and others have little.

As a Church we have agreed the mission statement of

In essence it is the two great commands put together. Firstly to love God and secondly to love our neighbour Deut 6.4, Lev 19.18.

Jesus when asked who is my neighbour told the story of the Good Samaritan Luke 10.25-37. The story illustrates that our neighbour is a person who is in need. In telling this story he was dealing with issues of prejudice, and of radical love.

One of the ways in which we can do this is to Trade for Life.

This passage encapsulates what fair-trading is all about and it cites 2 examples.

1. Dishonest Scales. – v5

What you see is not what you get. In short it’s a way of stealing from others.

The scales of the wealthy nations are certainly weighted in their favour.

The picture of the fishermen is also a Christian Aid Poster and has the caption

"International trade. Where’s the catch?". His fishing has gone downhill in terms of the size of catch and believes the reason is foreign trawlers that fish further out to sea.

Structural Sin – the sin that happens as being part of a nation or company. We as individuals may not want to exploit others but we can find that we are bound up with larger organisations that do.

2. A Good Deal?

Buying a persons labour for the price of a pair of shoes.

A good deal on the part of the buyer because labour is very cheap and giving a pair of shoes in exchange – well what a bargain.

Economics the law of supply and demand.

eg of Water. Cost of purchasing water - 30p a day. The same as in London and Ghana. Sounds good to me - but when that is the amount a person will earn in a day in Ghana – not so hot! Hawa Amadu a Ghanian lady in her seventies spends that amount and says " Sometimes I will go without food so my grandchildren have water". The water industry in Ghan has been privatised in Ghan and is bringing real hardships.

"Water is the petroleum of the 21^st Century".

Buy clothes or other items at a good price - a good deal. Yet what about the sweat shops where some of these things are made, what about the use of child labour? Nike the symbol on the man’s baseball cap, (picture on the OHP) some of their products are made by people kept in poverty by being paid low wages and having atrocious working conditions.

Paying a fair price for what something is worth. As a Church we have used Café Direct for a while now. It’s good coffee at a good price.

Recently there was a fair trade fortnight which supermarkets supported.

For the first time in 22 years Traidcraft has topped the 10 million-pound mark in sales.

Products came from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

One lady Waranat is able to support her two children through making jewellery, in Chile a wine co-operative El Corazon which is situated in one of the poorest areas in Chile. Through their co-operative they have been able to buy land for houses.

Things can change.

Being a Christian means caring about the poor. What is so good about fair trade is that it is not charity but working to bring a fair trading place to the world.

A Feast for Life means that we seek to enable every person to be able to share in the feast. God is a missionary God who cares for all peoples and just as the prophet Amos spoke out against injustice so we too are called not only to oppose injustice but also to work for justice.

Often we can find we that the ingredients in foods or drinks are checked to see what are the additives, lets also seek to be involved in fait trading, it may cost a little more but for others it can be their lifeline.

* £1 a week is a typical loan to allow one of Ghana’s poorest people to start a business.

• £3 can buy two new fruit trees every month in Ghana
• £5 produces 150 postcards to be used in campaigning for changes to trade

As a follow up to this Sunday, will you during this Christian Aid Week help by praying? Will you help by getting into fairtrade? Will you help by calling on doors to collect money that many people are willing and in certain cases eager to give; so that the plight of the world’s poor can be helped?

By doing this you can make a difference!