Share Magazine: Issue 24 - A journey of small steps

share the stewardship magazine | issue 2 4

transforming generosity

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about us We are Stewardship, a charity that effectively releases resources to support individuals, charities and organisations worldwide. Our mission is to enable you to live and give generously, advancing God’s Kingdom.

We believe that generosity is transformational, for the giver and for the receiver. Our work inspires and supports a generous resourcing community, with transformational results.

We are delighted to partner with you in your journey of generosity.

contact us PO Box 99, Loughton, Essex, IG10 3QJ 020 8502 5600 enquiries@stewardship.org.uk stewardship.org.uk You can contact the editor by emailing editor@stewardship.org.uk Editor: Craig Borlase Design: adeptdesign.co.uk Stewardship is the operating name of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited, a registered charity in England and Wales no. 234714 and a company limited by guarantee no. 90305

editorial generosity in unexpected places I hear more and more people talking about generosity.

As a conversation, it’s trendy, but is generosity, in practice, quite so common?

For some, generosity is limited to money. At a stretch, it may also be time. But do we realise generosity is also expressed through our relationships and talents? And, for believers, we can be generous with the truth of the Word.

In this issue we explore generosity in unexpected places. As a child I grew up in an area where many of my New York neighbours were holocaust survivors. I’ll never forget the elderly woman in Flat 2N. When she saw you, her face exploded into a smile. The lady in Flat 2P, directly below me, routinely exploded too, but rarely with a smile – thanks to me being a particularly active child.

But the lady in 2N was different, she always made time for me and for others. She always had that smile. I still recall the day, when I was about nine years of age, when she showed me her tattoo – Hitler’s tattoo. The number had meant to tell the world that she wasn’t a person, that she wasn’t worthy of life. The number had destined

her to death in a concentration camp, but somehow she had survived. I recall quite clearly when she said, “You are too young to understand this number, but never forget you saw it. Never forget.”

I never have. But whilst the tattoo has long since faded in memory, the smile remains quite clear. This woman overcame inexplicable adversity, and emerged... generous. Perhaps she learned that generosity changes everything and that everything needed changing. Perhaps she knew first-hand that she had much to be grateful for. I’ve often wondered if she came to know Jesus, and if He was the source of her joy. Perhaps that was why she was so full of smiles.

I may never know the answer, but I know I found generosity in a most unexpected place, and it changed me.

I trust you will find inspiration in the pages of this issue as we explore the stories of those living generously in unexpected places.

Michael O’Neill, CEO Stewardship

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news in brief rich man, poor man The Uruguayan President, José Mujica, has an imposing official residence at his disposal. However, he chooses to live on a run-down farm belonging to his wife and gives away about 90% of his monthly salary, equating to around £7,500.

Photo by Frente a Aratiri

The President has revolutionary views on wealth and poverty: “I’m called the poorest president, but I don’t feel poor.

Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.

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features

16-21 grace notes

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Sent to prison at the age of 12 for violent crime, John Finlinson was sentenced to 11 years. His life was transformed when he experienced the grace and love of Jesus in his cell at the age of 19. John is now a worship leader at his church and travels the country with his group, Finnymusic, sharing their testimonies in prisons. You can hear his story and that of others at his website, finnymusic.co.uk

Stewardship in action

the lawyer and the law

16-21

An American lawyer, Tony Tolbert, visited a charity for homeless families and asked them to connect him with a family who needed a home. Modelling selfless generosity, Tony went on to give a family of five his fully furnished house to live in for a year, rentfree. Tony is modest about his kindness: “You don’t have to be Bill Gates. Generosity creates generosity.”

clean hearts and dirty hands

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cycle for freedom

10-11

head to head

12-15

home for good

a journey of small steps

22-23 24-27

flesh and blood

28-29

legal and financial roundup

30-31 ask Steve

The magazine is printed on paper from farmed forests: for each tree felled, another is planted. The paper is ­­­­chlorine-free and environmentally friendly.

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ction Stewardship in a

a better future Ruth Leigh investigates the rise and rise of Share Jesus International.

How’s this for a vision of the future?

“Everywhere I went the streets were full of life and colour and action and sound. If we put aside our theological squabbles, leave behind our different brands of churchmanship and all do something together, what a sound we could make and what fun we could have!”

These words were spoken by the late Reverend Rob Frost, founder of Share Jesus International. Feeling that God had told him to bring his celebrated Easter People Conference to an end, in 2007 Rob launched the Pentecost Festival. He died while the festival was still in its planning stages.

Headlined The Church Has Left The Building, the 2008 Festival ran 150 events in 60 venues and attracted 10,000 people. Highlights included a Bollywood musical, the Christian Aid Swing Dance and Tough Talk on a huge stage in Leicester Square. The next year, 20,000 people came along. The growth trend continued with over 30,000 attending last year.

With its trademark mix of live music, dance, lectures, workshops and worship, the festival has become a hot ticket.

The fun predicted by Rob Frost certainly had an impact on Naomi Yearwood, Events Assistant at SJI. “A friend told me about it so I went along to an event in Leicester Square. It was amazing to see so many happy, relaxed people out in the sunshine in Central London, worshipping and having fun.”

Naomi had such a good time that she started working for SJI as an intern, and two years later is still there.

Joy Da Costa, Local Festivals Co-ordinator at SJI has had a similar experience of the festival effect. “I love seeing the way churches work together to express their love of God. One of my favourite moments of the Festival was an event HTB, Jesus House and Hillsong delivered together. Then in 2012, the Latin American Community Church ran a six-hour non-stop

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event on the bandstand at Victoria Embankment. They were incredibly lively and passionate. Passers-by were drawn to them and they shared their faith in God so naturally.”

Pentecost Festival is not afraid to tackle the tough subjects. Joy Da Costa again: “Our young people are mobilised to address justice issues. They have fun and celebrate, but they also tackle the issues that really matter and don’t shy away from them.”

This year, Stewardship are proudly partnering with SJI for the 2013 Festival headlined The Biggest Birthday Party Ever. Running from 10th-19th May, the focus is shifting away from Londononly events. “We’re encouraging local churches to take the Festival out into their own communities,” explains Joy. “While it’s great to reach thousands of people in central London, when the event is over, we never see them again.

When a local church runs events in the community, church members meet people who they also see at the school gates, in the supermarket and on the street. That’s how relationships are built.”

So what difference can the church make when it leaves the building and spills out onto the streets? How about this comment, passed on to SJI by someone who caught a glimpse of Rob’s vision: “I am a 36-year-old that has never had any faith or religion in my life. I have just finished watching your live broadcast on television and found myself thoroughly captivated.”

As The Biggest Birthday Party Ever prepares to launch, that original vision of life, colour, action and sound seems to be becoming a reality.

Find out more at: pentecostfestival.co.uk

Everywhere I went the streets were full of life and colour and action and sound.

SJI

20025989 7

head to

Two people involved in fostering

Cecil Richards

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Cecil Richards is a Local Authority Foster Carer.

Why did you get involved in fostering/ adoption?

Cecil Richards: My wife and I decided to respond to a TV advert which featured children in care. We had always enjoyed looking after children of friends and family, so when challenged with the question “Do you think you have what it takes to give these children a home?” we thought “Yes, absolutely”! There was a great need for foster carers and we genuinely felt that we had something to offer.

How has fostering/adoption changed you?

Cecil: Fostering has taught me to be more tolerant and nonjudgmental of other people regardless of their background or circumstances. Before we started fostering I used to think people make their own problems and deserve what they get, but I am no longer of that opinion. Fostering children has changed my whole outlook on life in a way that allows me to understand that you can’t change the world, but if you can help one child to have a better life then it’s all worth it.

Why don’t more people volunteer to foster or adopt?

Cecil: Fostering is a huge responsibility and often a thankless task. You have to make sacrifices to care for someone else’s child in your own home 24/7 and there are so many dos and don’ts which can make it all seem quite scary. I think people don’t always fully understand the process and what it actually involves and I wonder if some rule themselves out without even taking the step to find out more.

What makes for a good foster/ adoptive family?

Cecil: A good foster family needs to be someone who cares enough to be able to see the child for who they are and not the problem or behaviour they pose. Someone who listens when the child wants to talk and knows how to recognise and respond to the child’s individual needs.

Most of all, someone who lets the child know that they are valued and loved no matter what.

What’s the myth about fostering/ adoption that needs to be dispelled?

Cecil: Children come into care for all sorts of different reasons – we have cared for children of all ages and not one of them has ever been the same. Anyone can foster or adopt and I think the biggest myth which still exists is that you have to be a certain age or type of family. Anyone can do it as long as the motivation in one’s heart is right.

o head

and adoption, discuss its merits Sheila Kempster is Senior Practitioner with a Local Authority Adoption and Fostering Service.

Sheila Kempster

Sheila Kempster: Since becoming a Christian in my early 20s, I have always felt challenged to work with the vulnerable and the poor. I felt a real call to be a foster carer when my children were younger, and we did this as a family for several years. This eventually led to me training as a social worker. This calling continued and after several years in child protection work I wanted to use my skills and knowledge to support foster carers, the people who are doing the hard work 24 hours a day, seven days a week with some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Sheila: I hope that seeing things from other people’s perspectives has made me a more patient and understanding person. I feel more able to make sense of why people sometimes behave the way they do because of how they may have been treated in the past. I am more able to understand why they may not have the necessary skills to cope with life’s challenges. Overall, I think I am a much more compassionate person.

Sheila: I think it’s something lots of people think about doing, but perhaps think they couldn’t do it because they are too young/too old, or they haven’t been parents, or they’re single. Maybe they think that their faith will count ‘against’ them. Social workers often recognise the value and importance of Christianity in helping people to manage stress and access a good support network.

Some people are put off by the assessment process, but once they understand that this is about keeping children safe, they see the value of this being completed so thoroughly.

Sheila: The ability to laugh, to love and to forgive. Having a good support network like a local church is so important to help people keep a good balance in their lives, as well as being able to draw on the wisdom and experience of others. Having a welcoming and hospitable approach to others helps too as it’s not just the children who need TLC, but sometimes the social workers may need a cup of tea and a bit of encouragement.

Sheila: People tend to disqualify themselves before they’ve even spoken to a fostering organisation. They think that they need to have the perfect life, with the perfect family and have worked out all the answers to life. Fostering is about ordinary people who do something extraordinary by making a difference to one child, one day at a time. It’s an exciting and rewarding adventure, and one I feel privileged to be on.

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Krish Kandiah The number of children waiting for adoption is at an all-time high. Thousands of foster carers are needed.

What are we going to do about it? Krish Kandiah told Craig Borlase about a new initiative to address the crisis.

When it comes to adoption and fostering, there are certain myths that the movies would have us believe. We’re taught that we will be opening our homes to an uber-talented prodigy (Matilda and The Blind Side) whose temperamental quirks will be outmatched by their cuteness (Despicable Me and Paddington Bear) as well as their potential to be highly useful around the house (Spiderman and Superman).

Yet real life has so very little in common with the movies. Just ask any parent of an adopted or fostered child – like Krish Kandiah. He’ll tell you even getting accepted to adopt or foster required numerous applications, multiple rejections and prayerful tenacity that lasted for years.

With three children of their own already, why go to such lengths?

“We felt as though we had a whole bunch of skills having been parents three times already, plus we love kids and felt as though there was enough room in our hearts and enough room in our home for another one. We felt as though we had something to give.”

Faith also played a significant part, leading Krish and his wife to foster 11 children over the last seven years. Krish explains that, “a key part of our understanding of what it means to be a Christian is that we’re adopted into God’s family. God adopted us in spite of all the things that are wrong with us.

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There are children out there who need homes, who need loving families and unconditional, gracious investment in their lives. It’s a metaphor for what the whole Christian life is about.”

We all know – or, at least we all suspect – that none of this is easy. Opening your home to welcome a stranger as your own child requires love, patience and support in prodigious quantities. And the stakes are high – for everyone.

If we could just get one family per church who could be supported, encouraged, wrapped around and given all the help they need to foster or adopt we could meet the current need.

“We wondered whether we would love these children as much as our birth children. Very quickly we saw that we do – we come to love them as much as our own kids and they become as much a part of the family as anyone else.”

Where there is great love, there is also pain, particularly when it comes to fostering. Having recently said goodbye to a boy they had fostered for nine months, Krish is well aware of the cost of this particular expression of generosity. Yet he is also aware of God’s grace: “In times like this we get closer to understanding more of what God feels about us. There’s that bit in Hosea where God says, ‘I taught you to walk, I held my hand out to you but you turned away from me.’ It presents God as a grieving parent longing for lost children.

I feel like we’ve encountered a little bit of that through our own experience of fostering.”

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As well as his birth children becoming more emotionally sensitive and caring towards others, Krish is convinced that when church families choose to adopt or foster, it presents a great opportunity for other members of the community to get involved. “Fostering and adoption isn’t for everyone, but everyone in the church has a role to play.” From cooked meals to donations of clothes, lifts around town to simply befriending the new members of the community, there are countless ways in which churches can unite behind a family that has chosen to open its doors in this way.

And these days, with 4,000 children on the UK adoption register – the highest it has ever been – and 8,000 more foster placements needed, the need for caring, generous, loving families is greater than ever.

“They sound like insurmountable numbers,” says Krish, “yet between them the Evangelical Alliance, Care for the Family and the Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service are in touch with over 15,000 churches. Suddenly it’s not so big a number. If we could just get one family per church who could be supported, encouraged, wrapped around and given all the help they need to foster or adopt we could meet the current need.”

That’s why Krish and the organisations listed above are launching Home For Good – a bold, simple and profoundly exciting project encouraging churches to respond to the adoption and fostering crisis.

“Think of the witness to the nation we could be having if we were known as gracious, compassionate people who would step up and care for the children that nobody else seems to want.” eauk.org/homeforgood

breaking down the barriers

on adoption…

People say they’re too busy or don’t have space for another child, but isn’t love about meeting another person’s needs more than our own? Rather than have these 12,000 children measure up to a shopping list of what we want them to be like, let’s remember that what they need most is loving families.

on fostering...

People need to know that they can do it. The government, social services and local fostering agencies are all here to help. They are here to be co-partners with us to help make a difference in people’s lives.

Would you be willing to consider what these kids need and see how the church can help? eauk.org/homeforgood

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a journey of small steps One couple’s reflections on a lifetime’s lessons in giving Keith and Juliet Johnson live in Britain’s Happiest Place. In 2004 – about the time that the Johnsons and their four sons moved to Chorleywood – the commuter-belt village was deemed by government statisticians to have the highest quality of life of any neighbourhood in the country.

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Photo by Wes Oakland, oakland-images.com

It is not about us, it’s about God. We are just stewards and these are His riches.

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Photo by Wes Oakland, oakland-images.com

Yet location matters little in this story.

Pleasant as it is, the suburb at the end of the Metropolitan line can’t really lay claim to being the source of Keith and Juliet’s happiness. For that, we have to look elsewhere.

up to support a child named Teresa, setting up a monthly direct debit, receiving occasional letters and sticking her photo on their wall.

“Life went on...” says Keith, “until quite a few years later when we had a letter saying that the charity was bringing a coach load of these Newly married and with a faith that was children over, and asking whether we would like equally full of youthful optimism, Keith and to meet Teresa. It seemed like fun so we went Juliet (who are Stewardship account holders) along, and I can still remember turning up and started their life together with a strong sense being introduced to Teresa – now about 18. of the importance of generosity. Their local And it hit me how for less than it costs me to church taught them well, reminding them of take my family to McDonald’s we had invested the ways in which, like marriage, a new life in a person. She wasn’t a nameless, faceless devoted to following Christ should be marked baby in a country far away, but a real person, by a desire to hold nothing back and consider someone now with hopes and plans and all it all that we have as a potential resource to be had taken to profoundly change used by God. her life was a trivial amount of “When we started off we didn’t money. It was a turning point have any money,” explains It set us on a new for us in realising that you really Juliet, “but a bit like marriage, could make a difference. It set you get better at giving as you journey, giving us on a new journey, giving go on. And it gets more fun!” more and exploring more and exploring new ways Church teaching proved to be of changing lives.” new ways of particularly important for the Juliet continues, explaining that changing lives.

Johnsons. Keith explains: “it made us more sensitive to “We did not realise it at the those times when you come time, but a Bible teacher said something across situations where something needs to be which made a significant impact. He said that put right. We took the Jackie Pullinger idea that many people think that giving is God’s plan when you come across a need you should ask for raising money, when it fact it is God’s plan the Lord what you should do about it, and in for raising children. We have come to see doing this we became more considered in our more than anything how – while it has been a approach. So we would come across things blessing and changed some of the people we that stirred us, talk to each other and ask ‘is have given to – giving has also affected us. We this something we feel the Holy Spirit saying we have a clear sense that by being intentional should give to?’ There are some things we do and sacrificial – and in a sense devotional – we not give to, things that do not particularly touch have been changed.” us, but the causes that we feel God say to us that we should support, we do. In preference Perhaps the first realisation of the we would always give anonymously because transformative power of generosity came after it is not about us, it’s about God. We are just years of regular giving. As the old regime stewards and these are His riches.” crumbled in Romania, the Johnsons were moved – like so many others – by the scenes If we believe that God’s view of finance is likely of children abandoned to state orphanages. to be broader than our own, then it stands to Through a small UK-based charity they signed reason that our use of money has the potential 19

to see both our assets – and ourselves – used

by God himself. While we may have been taught that money is at the end of the rainbow or the top of the pyramid, with God it becomes a tool for nothing less than transformation.

Among the many needs that Keith and Juliet encounter, they see that for many affluent young people, their lack of exposure to poverty has limited their understanding of the value of generosity. Yet wealth and comfort are not insurmountable barriers: “There is nothing as heartbreaking as meeting need,” says Keith, “and it is right that we have our hearts broken. We live in Chorleywood, I’ve had a great career and lived a blessed and prosperous life, and our children have lived a blessed and prosperous life too. But we have intentionally gone out of our way to try and create opportunities for our children to connect with people who are in different circumstances.

Taking our son Chris to Thailand and Burma when he was sixteen to visit a group working in refugee camps literally changed his life.”

This attitude of deliberate, prayerful, Spirit-led giving has led Keith and Juliet to inspire not just their own children, but many others. They are involved with The Bread Tin, a fledgling charity designed to encourage philanthropy among twenty-something city professionals.

Over the course of a year – and with the help of an older couple – groups of about eight city professionals meet monthly to give away their money.

Keith and Juliet tell of their first Bread Tin group, who were made up of Goldman Sachs and KPMG employees. They recognised the importance that education had played in their career path, and through their year-long discussion, the young professionals felt inspired to channel their money into a project that would help young people on the margins of their local community. By the time their year was up, each of the eight people had not only 20

pledged to give £1,000 of their own money, but they had researched the needs of their local area, found a project that was meeting them, and built up relationships with all involved to the point where they were also committed to lending their time to the project as well. Keith’s passion and optimism is irrepressible: “These bankers have been changed – absolutely changed – by this experience. They will never be the same again. They will give away some money and some disadvantaged young people in London will benefit, but far more than that they have changed themselves.”

Given that the state of bankers’ hearts is just as prominent an issue as the state of their finances, what barriers did Keith and Juliet have to overcome in order to persuade them of the value of philanthropy? Was it a colossal struggle? Was deep emotional and ethical surgery required?

“None of the people in our group were cold-hearted or callous; they were just busy.

They were getting on with doing their thing, living in a community made up largely of people like themselves, working 60 or 70 hours a week. Stepping outside of that and encountering real need never got to the top of their agenda. Yet once they got connected with the idea, in general for most of them it wasn’t a terribly hard sell at all.”

And that’s the rub. The urge to give is as fundamental to our humanity as the urge to connect with people. As Keith and Juliet – as well as countless others – have found, charity does not have to be a hard sell; we just need to be clear about the possibilities and allow people to experience for themselves the true benefits.

thebreadtin.org

20124066

They are involved with The Bread Tin, a fledgling charity designed to encourage philanthropy among twenty-something city professionals.

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clean hearts and dirty hands Once a Christian worker among his local community, Gavin Shuker MP’s faith has led him all the way to Westminster.

“We live in interesting times,” says Gavin Shuker MP (Labour, Luton South).

“There are big disagreements that we cannot paper over – disagreements about the economy, about tax and benefits. But while so many people only see what happens on the green benches here at Westminster – with people being boorish,

shouting and screaming at each other – outside I have been inspired by how generous people of all parties are – with their time, with their words, even just by being friendly. I wish I could show others what this job involves and show that it really is possible for politicians to serve in a way that follows Jesus’ example to us.”

That approach is easily traced through Gavin’s biography.

Gavin Shuker MP

Born in Luton, raised in Luton, educated in Luton, Gavin chose not to relocate to London after graduating from Cambridge. Instead he made the decision to return home. Why? “I think there’s something about choosing a place and serving and investing there. So when I moved back to Luton it was to work for a church we had planted. On the same day I moved back I joined the Labour Party, because I think it’s important to be a part of the institutions that make changes. I think it’s important to serve.”

That was in 2006, a time when the sitting MP had what everyone thought was an iron grip on the seat.

But then came the expenses scandal, a very public fall from grace and the seat was thrown wide open.

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“I chose to stand because, again, I felt it would be disingenuous for me to stand up in church on a Sunday and say that Christians are called to lead and to serve and not offer to do so myself.”

Five months later – having felt that it was increasingly important to have someone genuinely local run for office – Gavin was elected to parliament.

Three years in, there is much to be thankful for.

“It is incredibly rewarding.

I get well paid to do a job I love. And although some people have a limited understanding of what MPs do – and we often have a bad reputation – I’ve found people in my own constituency have been incredibly kind to me. Where my predecessor was caught up in the expenses scandal people have still allowed me to stand as my own person and make a judgement based on my actions not hers. There’s a lot of grace in that which is fantastic.”

And what of faith: is the term Christian politician an oxymoron?

“I absolutely think it is possible to be someone of faith and

I felt it would be disingenuous for me to stand up in church on a Sunday and say that Christians are called to lead and to serve and not offer to do so myself someone engaged in politics. God calls us to live with clean hearts and dirty hands, to get engaged, to have an open mind on things.

“Having been a Christian worker – in partnership with organisations like Stewardship – I feel like I have a good understanding of the challenges people are facing.

“And while these challenges are real, people are really generous. In my constituency I’ve met loads of churches, charities and third sector organisations that exhibit a genuinely inspirational level of commitment and professionalism.”

Gavin Shuker MP is Member of Parliament for Luton South and Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. gavinshuker.org 23

What if the church saw

blood and organ

donation as part of its giving?

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When ENT Nurse Lecturer and Practitioner Angela Griggs experienced complications during the delivery of her first child, she knew instinctively that she needed blood.

“I remember trying to walk to the toilet but was just so completely wiped out I could hardly walk across the room to get there. As a nurse I was immediately thinking that my haemoglobin level could be low, as how I was feeling was definitely not how I expected to feel after giving birth.”

Her medical team arranged for her to have two units of blood that afternoon and the effects were profound.

“The blood made a big difference straight away and by the following day I had energy and was able to walk around properly.” And the impact of that gift went beyond just the physical transformation, as Angela explains.

“I’ve been putting blood up for patients for over 16 years in my job and I knew a lot about having a blood transfusion and the checks involved but when you have blood yourself you finally realise the impact it has on the patient.”

For Angela, that impact was a quick recovery which gave her the energy to care for her newborn baby straight away.

“To think that somebody, at some point, made a decision to donate blood and I received it was a real gift. Sometimes you can almost take it for granted that there will be blood when you need it.”

With 7,000 units of blood needed every day just to meet hospital demand and 1,000 people dying each year waiting for an organ transplant, there is clearly room for the Church in the UK to respond. fleshandblood is a new campaign calling on the Church to recognise a need and respond with an act of generosity. Founded as a partnership between creative agency Kore and NHS Blood and Transplant, the campaign aims to raise awareness within the Church, encourage donation as a personal gift and equip churches and individuals to spread the word.

Why we’re pleased to support fleshandblood We believe generosity is transformational, for both giver and receiver. Jesus lived a life of radical generosity that inspired Christians in the first century to expressions of generosity that went far beyond money.

They gave their most precious possession – themselves. That’s why we are so pleased give.net is supporting fleshandblood, a campaign that reminds us to think through what it means to live a life marked by generosity.

Michael O’Neill 25

An advocate of the campaign, The Rt Rev James Newcome, Lead Bishop on Healthcare for the Church of England explains: “fleshandblood is an exciting opportunity for the church. Christians have a mandate to heal, motivated by compassion, mercy, knowledge and ability. Extending our understanding of the central Christian themes of generosity and stewardship to include blood and organ donation has the potential to tangibly transform the giver and the receiver.

The benefit to others is not only life enhancing but can mean the difference between life and death.� fleshandblood is proudly sponsored by give.net and is being delivered in association with many different denominations, organisations and Christian festivals, each of whom share a simple, common goal: to increase the number of blood and organ donors in the UK.

Extending our understanding of the central Christian themes of generosity and stewardship to include blood and organ donation has the potential to tangibly transform the giver and the receiver.

To find out more visit:

take action:

1. Register

2. Make a date to donate

3. Be an advocate

Sign up to give blood or join the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Book a date to give blood at a venue near you.

Find out how you and your church can be involved.

Do all of this and more at 26

7000

units of blood are needed every day to meet hospital demand with approximately 225,000 extra blood donors needed per year

people die each year waiting for a transplant

the Church is made up of millions of people, who share in a rich tradition of giving, practise a rhythm of generosity and say YES to a life lived generously 27

organise all your charitable giving in one online account:

stewardship.org.uk/givingaccount

Stewardship is a registered charity 234714.

transforming generosity

Soul Survivor // Stewardship recipient 20032886 Image courtesy of Soul Survivor 2009

charity: water // Stewardship recipient 20122503 Photo by Esther Havens. Property of charity: water