Giving Christmas
Back to Christ Campaign
Campaign
Message Two
...and
the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. Isaiah
65:25
As
part of the Give Christmas Back to Christ Campaign we’re
keen to offer a popular charity book as a quality but inexpensive
gift for children. It's hoped this can provide an alternative
to 'made-in-china' toys that can quickly end up broken and on
their way to landfill dumps.
The book is called Shanti the Grass-eating Lion and
it’s for both children and adults. It is mostly based
on Jesus's Sermon of the Mount teachings and it brings the full
power of Jesus's message of forgiveness and non-violence to
life in a simple and exciting way that captures the hearts of
young and old alike. For instance, it teaches people (especially
children and young people) to forgive others who wrong them
by first separating people from their actions. It was also written
to inspire and motivate children and young people to volunteer
in groups which are facilitated through a free website resource
(it lists hundreds of group projects they can get involved in
to make the world a better place). |
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In our experience
many children and young people today lack real role models. They
have many heroes like Spiderman and Harry Potter and so on, but
they are heroes of the mind. What youngsters often seem to lack
are heroes of the heart, which is what the main character in the
book Shanti, the grass-eating lion, is. He comes from the Holy Scriptures
(Isaiah 65:25) and in many ways he symbolizes the qualities of Jesus.
In the famous children’s classic The Lion the Witch and
the Wardrobe CS Lewis’s also used a lion to symbolize
Jesus but the differences between Shanti and his lion Aslan are
quite significant. Shanti
is non-violent and uses love to turn his enemies into friends where
as Aslan leads an army into battle and
attacks and kills his enemy the evil witch. In the book Shanti uses
words of wisdom to prevent a battle and leads two opposing tribes
in reconciliation talks successfully.
All profits made from the books sale will go toward orphanages and
other child welfare work. The book's full reviews can be seen here.
The book can be purchased here.
Warmest regards,
Paul Sinclair
Update on group volunteering for
children through Action Clubs:
If ever there were a time to give youngsters real
purpose to guide their lives and empower their sense of belonging
to their community by positively contributing to it; it is now.
With all the modern pressures placed on today’s children and
young people it would help them greatly to forget about their own
problems temporarily by directing their attention to the needs of
others. It’s much easier to find oneself by losing oneself
in the service of others; likewise it is also much easier to receive
Christ into our hearts when our heart has been opened wide by learning
to serve selflessly.
Action
clubs should also help revitalise the world because apathy
amongst adults is presently a real problem, especially when
it comes to tackling some of the world’s major problems.
For instance, according to the United Nations climate-change-caused
disasters are now thought to be killing around 300,000 people
a year and causing about $125 billion in economic losses,
mainly from agriculture. Global warming obviously threatens
the future welfare of today’s children as well as generations
to come. Yet even the world’s leaders presently can’t
seem to agree amongst themselves on the minimum required to
avert further potentially catastrophic consequences. If children
and young people all over the world were to take up small
projects to help reduce global warming then it will likely
motivate their parents to make more effort to do their part
too. Many don’t like politicians and campaigners telling
them how to live but when their own children call on them
to change their ways, that’s a different matter. In
this way a significant spiritual revolution based on unselfish
service can be started.
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We’ve done a great deal of
research to make it a simple step-by-step process for parents,
guardians and
older teenagers to start the action clubs up and organise them
well – easy to follow instructions and tools
are provided throughout. The projects are also very practical
and that’s why they should really make
a difference. The projects range from very simple, fun projects
for children aged five and up to very
challenging projects for older teenagers. Some examples of projects
include befriending and visiting people in care homes; helping
elderly people with their gardens; tree planting; spreading information
within local populations and communities to protect rainforests,
coral reefs, wetlands; collecting litter from natural environments;
cleaning the local community; advocacy; writing letters of support
and encouragement for those in need; writing to help free political
prisoners and promote human rights; raising money for good causes;
putting on plays to raise community spirits; helping refugees,
disaster victims, homeless people, elderly people, disabled people,
sick and hungry people, animals; the list goes on and on. Basically,
there are projects that should interest youngsters with all different
interests and capabilities.
To highlight the spiritual benefit to children and young people
of group volunteering we recently received an email from a group
of ladies who had just finished running a summer camp for children
using our charity children's book Shanti the Grass-eating
Lion to start an action club.
Here's a brief extract from their
feedback:
'Jo read from Shanti to the children on our first afternoon together.
We started the day with our opening circle in which each child
lights a candle for our circle and we sing to greet each other.
We made a wishing tree for our yurt in that time too. Then after
lunch Jo led her session. She read to the children and talked
with them about Action Clubs. They decided to go 'love raiding'
to give appreciation to some of the adults who give a great deal
to make our camp work for everyone. I can't tell you much about
this because I ended up going off with one of the 5 year olds
to follow him a-wandering. I met the group with water melon and
apple when they returned, all very excited and full of their adventures.
They wanted to hear more of Shanti's story and I think Jo might
have ended up reading the whole book if I had not rescued her
at the end of a chapter and suggested that we close our session
now. She looked pretty tired to me from holding the space but
she was also lit up with joy and delight. Later in the camp she
finished reading the story, and though I don't think we made any
more 'official' excursions as an Action Club, many of the children
continued with random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
Some of the young boys cooked breakfast on the last day to help
the cooks. We are talking about feeding about 250 people. The
gas canister ran out while they were working and they had to fry
dozens of eggs on an open fire. They were magnificent. This was
done by young boys between 10 and 14.'
Please
click here for a free
website resource on starting Action clubs:
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