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by Bert Smit, ADRA-UK executive director thiopia. Paul Smart, then Will you help ADRA provide clean, couple of hours to collect ADRA country director, was pure water systems? this year, when every driving through a remote part Clean water is a building block of pound counts even more Eof the country. Watching the life. It is a basic requirement of liv- than before? Or partici- emaciated cattle and the people, ing. Access to a plentiful supply of pate in the many other who were barely more than skin and fresh, clean water is fundamental to fundraising activities that bones, caused his heart to ache. health and growth. That’s why ADRA are organised? You can Getting out of his vehicle and has been actively developing water share the blessings of walking into a village, he greeted a resources for more than twenty also bringing water to small boy standing by the path. After years. Water is life, and we know it. those whom God has they had said a few friendly words to In the communities that we serve promised not to forget. one another, Paul asked the boy, around the world, no need is more ADRA is keeping individu- ‘Would you like a drink of water?’ urgent than the need for good, clean als alive and bringing It was a simple offer – nothing water. hope to their communities. that would excite most children. Your financial support will help Your help represents the However, Paul knew that this village us provide water to many more love and support that was experiencing a severe famine families and villages. encourages and enables and water shortages. Families must have water to sur- our staff to carry on their ‘No. No thank you,’ the little boy vive. When there is no clean water in work. replied. ‘Today is not my turn to the village, it becomes the duty of Providing people and drink water.’ young girls to spend their day their communities with Paul was taken aback by this searching for and carrying water to access to clean water is answer. However, he knew what it their homes. Many times they are fundamental to easing the meant. In this drought-devastated forced to walk great distances, bondage of poverty. Please area, children get a drink of water which puts them at risk of physical help this year with the every second day – if they’re lucky. danger and usually closes the door Annual Appeal and enable The rest of the time they must live to an education. ADRA to provide essential, with the dryness in their mouth and The needy are desperate for life-giving water. their whole body. water, and in Isaiah 41:17, 18 (NIV) Unfortunately, when children in we find that God has indeed prom- P.S. Providing pure, arid areas do get water to drink, it’s ised them water. ‘The poor and clean, life-giving water often muddy. Most likely it’s con- needy search for water, but there is is the single initiative taminated with bacteria, which can none; their tongues are parched with with the greatest cause life-threatening diarrhoea to thirst. But I the Lord will answer impact. The benefits of someone who is already dehydrated. them; I, the God of Israel, will not clean water impact Children are the first to get sick and forsake them. I will make rivers flow every aspect of life in a die from water-related diseases. In on barren heights, and springs with- community. Your help fact, dirty water kills nearly 5,000 in the valleys. I will turn the desert will make it possible for children each day. ADRA is commit- into pools of water, and the parched ADRA to give a glimpse ted to changing this disturbing fact. ground into springs.’ of God’s mercy and And your generosity to give becomes Through the Annual Appeal you grace to individuals who the cup of water that keeps a child have the opportunity to bring God’s are literally dying for a alive. Word into action. Why not donate a drop of clean water. Ingathering dates 2009 METROPOLITAN AREA: 28 March - 19 April PROVINCES: 28 March - 12 April Follow the Bible in 2009 end, insofar as I am concerned. The revelation of God in Scripture is in ‘end’ is not simply satisfaction at Jesus Christ. Jesus makes the unity discovering some new take on the between the two testaments. In the truth or grip on the Gospel. It is not New Testament he fulfils hundreds ‘That I may know him’ just (to paraphrase A. T. Pierson) of Old Testament prophecies. All When will it end? that ‘The Bible is the study of the sixty-six books enshrine him. The by David Marshall evidences of Christianity [of which] chief characters, institutions and David Marshall the Bible itself is the greatest evi- histories prefigure him. The best What would you say to someone than when I discover some new dence of all.’ That is not to dismiss ‘windows’ on Jesus are the four who accused you of bibliolatry? insight into a Bible biography, a the extraordinary way in which the gospels. That is why any study of The first thing you could say parable of Jesus, a prophetic book, books of the two testaments vali- the Bible must begin there. would be, ‘What does that mean?’ the gospel story or the letters of dated themselves and came to be Christ is the central figure of Most of the mysteries of Christianity are root- are ‘alive and remain’ when Jesus comes,5 At all events, that’s what I did Paul. included in the ‘canon’. Nor is it to Scripture and the Cross is its central ed in events that lie far away in the past. One Scripture contains any number of injunctions when it happened to me. When the That evidence would all seem to detract from the astounding manu- symbol. The very shape of the cross major Christian event, and one only, lies in to ‘Watch, for you do not know the hour’ and reply came, ‘excessive passion for point to a Guilty verdict. scripts and archaeological discover- suggests the length, breadth and the Bible’, I could recall being A final piece of evidence – the ies of the last two centuries which height of the love of God. Men may the future. states that, not only will there be a fiery dis- accused of worse things! one that had prompted the charge in have proved the accuracy of the reject an angry God, but how can All Christian creeds with which I am famil- play when Jesus returns, but he will come M 6 In common with the late the first place – was that, with the Bible. they reject a God who, even at iar proclaim that Jesus, who is now at the ‘like a thief in the night’. Rumpole of the Bailey I rarely, if help of a friend, I have recently The Bible is not just an accurate the point of their rejection, leans right hand of the Father, will return at some Did outreach go out of fashion? When was ever, plead ‘Guilty as charged’. But completed the construction of a log book: there are many. It is not just a forward in entreaty? unexpected moment in the future. Only the the last time you did any? Or was it one of the the evidence against me was con- cabin at the end of my garden. It is powerful book: there are others. It is Only one day in every 350 in the Father knows precisely when.1 things you sacrificed in order to ‘blend in’ and siderable. I own most of the English insulated, carpeted, heated (my wife not just that it is an inspiring book: life of Jesus is referred to in the Christians believe that the world is coming be ‘politically correct’? A female pastor of a versions of the Bible currently in calls it ‘GCHQ’) and exists so that, books about the Bible can also be accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke to an end which is also a beginning. A begin- black majority church in London said in a print. One or other of these versions when I so choose, my studies can inspiring. and John. But the record of the ning, in fact, of the reign of Christ, in which debate on outreach at the Church of been in this much trouble before. Is God try- is invariably close to hand. I habitu- be uninterrupted! The Bible is a book with a Voice: events of the last seven days takes things will be as they were always meant to England’s General Synod that it is more ing to say something? Could it be, ‘Heaven it speaks to me. Above all things the up one third of the accounts. ally walk around with a copy about Nevertheless, I enter a plea of be, as they always should have been. But important to be ‘Christ-correct’ than ‘politi- and earth will pass away, but my words will my person. Nothing gives me Not Guilty to the bibliolatry charge! Bible is the supreme revelation of Why? Because the Cross is the 7 10 greater, deep-down satisfaction And not just because of my God. The central focus of the Bible clearest depiction of the heart and more than that even. For in the ‘great multi- cally correct’. And I think she was right. never pass away’? Is it, ‘Work . [for the] 11 these days than studying the Word. Rumpole of the Bailey instincts! is on a Person, and it is a Person the mind of the God I study the Bible tude that no one could count, from every What do you think? Isn’t it strange to believe night is coming, when no one can work’? In That satisfaction is never greater Bible study is a means to an whose ‘voice’ I hear.

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