It’s far easier than you’d expect to find a great local cause, and so worth it – this day has some amazing opportunities for you to connect in to your community in a way that sticks. Find out how generosity is already breaking out in your neighbourhood and get involved. You’re already where you need to be.
Choose how you’ll complete today’s act:
Green:
Acts435 is a genius initiative that directly connects you with people who are in need, local to you. Give to those people here.
Amber:
The Do It Trust connects you on the spot with a volunteer opportunity near you. Find a way to instantly bless your community here.
Red:
The vInspired project helps you source money for your dream. Thinking up a way to bring life to your community, but can’t find a way forwards? Pitch it and find funding here.
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“There were no needy ones among them, because those who owned lands or houses would sell their property, bring the proceeds from the sales, and lay them at the apostles’ feet for distribution to anyone as he had need.”
(Acts 4:34–35 BSB)
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Your thought for today:
We can quickly feel overwhelmed when we look around at all the people struggling to make ends meet: the homeless, children in poverty and isolated individuals without support around them when they need it most. It would be easy to look away.
Mother Theresa invited us to think differently. She said, ‘If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.’
Like the lady who came into the Acts 435 project in Shildon, County Durham, extremely distressed, having been given notice at work with only a couple of days left to her six month probation. She didn’t qualify for any housing costs due to her circumstances and was in dispute about receiving her pay from the employer. The following week she would have no food in the cupboards and no way of paying for her daughter to travel to college. How would she cope? The project stepped in and helped towards her living costs. Her sense of relief was written all over her face.
In Truro, Avril, an Advocate at the All Saints Acts 435 project, recalls ‘an elderly gentleman who had no heating except a small electric fire. His cottage was damp and he was struggling financially, so didn’t turn the fire on very often. Through Acts 435 we were able to give him money for his electric key meter. When I visited to give him the donation he was suffering from bronchitis. He was so cold and damp, it had made him ill. He cried with relief and gratitude for the donor and for himself.’
What would happen if we stopped being overwhelmed by the big issues and concentrated on what’s in front of us? Look at what’s happening on our own doorstep and how might we respond to those needs? What if there was one person for whom we could make all the difference? After all, isn’t that how Jesus treated the people He met?
Written by Archbishop Sentamu
Dr John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu is the 97th Archbishop of York. He was born in Uganda in 1949, the sixth of thirteen children. Dr Sentamu was nominated Bishop for Stepney in 1996, Bishop for Birmingham in 2002 and Archbishop of York in 2005. He is Primate of England and Metropolitan, a member of the House of Lords and a Privy Councillor.
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