Food for thought

I know just now lots of friends (those who 'do' Lent) are looking forward to the cakes, biscuits, chocolate etc they gave up for the season. I'm not a Lent giver upper as such myself, and if I do give up something, it's to take up something else. So chocolate has remained faithfully by my side and in my tummy all through Lent!

We did, however, decide to choose some weeks during Lent to live on £1 a day Monday to Friday. It wasn't, as some suggested, yet another wacky diet! It wasn't to save money, though of course we did. It was to identify in some small way with those for whom £1 a day is a lot of money, and daily makes the difference between eating and going hungry. As we did this I was conscious almost moment by moment of one young Rwandan friend who earns £1 selling tomatoes - and that's on a good day. 

So, how did it go? Lesson number 1 was a lesson in thankfulness and appreciation. I am more thankful than ever for what I have day by day. I got hungry occasionally over the few weeks, but always knew I would be eating again soon. It wasn't as bad as a few occasions in my past when I have been very hungry and didn't know when I would next eat - but the experience this time around gave me time to think even more of those I know for whom finding food is a daily stress and takes up much of the day.

Lesson 2 was all about how much of our lives centres around food. there is a good side to that of course - eating even in Bible times was a fellowship thing - and eating together - especially for an 'occasion' is very special. But I couldn't help noticing the huge amount of eating out is done if fb posts are anything to go by. We eat and waste a colossal amount of food. In other parts of the world lives also centre around food, but more on simply finding enough.

Lesson 3 taught me I can do on much less that I think, but I now enjoy my treats so much more. Tied up with this is the thought that what I do directly affects others. I remember my niece, when very small, being reminded by my mum of all the children in Peru, where I worked at the time, who would be glad of the dinner she was refusing to eat. Her response was the classic suggestion of packing her dinner up and sending it to those hungry children! Totally impractical I know, but I can see to it on my small level, that because I do on less, someone can eat today.

There are many more lessons, but finally - a bit like what I've said - it made me think of the whole 'need v greed' thing. I don't want to sound like some kind of killjoy who never has treats, enjoys food or parties occasionally - just now planning where to go for my upcoming birthday treat! But we are greedy and our greed, in one way or another, has an effect on another's need. It is all food for thought.

This experience has changed me, but the Easter eggs are waiting in the cupboard! I even managed to have a choc digestive with my cuppa during my £1 a day weeks and I very much appreciate all God gives me - actually even more than ever.

Never Again

Today is Rwanda's Genocide Memorial Day. It is 20 years since one of the world's most awful atrocities. I'm old enough to remember the news reports of the time; the horror and the not quite understanding what exactly was happening in a small country so far away. Little did I know that one day that small country would win my heart. I had no idea then that I would even go there, let alone serve God there, have friends and 'family' there and grow to love the country and its people so much.

Today I think of all the people whose stories have touched and broken my heart. I think of a mother forced to watch as her children were killed before her eyes and then left to remember. I think of a boy found beneath his mother's body - too young to really understand, but left with the trauma nonetheless. And I think of a young girl with a baby strapped to her back - a grenade killing the baby and leaving her with the lasting memory, and shrapnel still lodged in her head. And so so many more.

However, as many of my Rwandan friends would remind me, that is not all today is about. It is about 'celebrating hope' as one of them said earlier. It is

about the courage to forgive and rebuild. It is about 'a hope and a future' as the Bible would say. Rwanda has moved on from 1994 in ways no one could have foreseen - not the perfect country; not without its challenges and no doubt faults - but the healing and restoration in my beloved Rwanda is amazing.

So we celebrate and look to the future, and we say with Rwandans today 'never again'. But today is the day you will hear about 'kwibuka' - remembering. To forgive does not mean to forget and all those who died, those orphaned, widowed and left childless, and those left with unimaginable physical, emotional and mental scars deserve to be remembered today. Forgive might not mean forget, but Rwanda has reminded me that forgiveness changes how we remember - and that changes everything.