um I’m going to be telling you blocks of stories for about 10 minutes some of them will seem a little self-indulgent because I’ll bring myself to the storytelling because my story matters in it at the end of the 10 minute slots your story matters too I’m going to give us a chance to have a chat have a chat to your neighbor have a chat to someone you’ve not spoken before we’ll have some time then to get some feedback because stories really matter one of my greatest frustrations in Social care was you would have a an A4 Larch folder absolutely jam-packed and only two pages of that would be dedicated to the story of the person the rest of it is all about their body does that feel Fair does that feel just so so I want to make sure that I’m not going to be speaking for the whole all the way up to 1:00 I do want to give make sure we all have space um and there’s been a few people that have shown me stuff or talked about stuff that will absolutely apply to the stories I’m telling so do make sure you’re sitting comfortably if you want to go and grab a cup of tea I’ll only be telling another lovely little story and it it kind of matters but it also kind of doesn’t matter I’m not going to tell you what the interpretation is I might feed a little bit in and and and while on the one hand it’s not academic on the other hand it’s absolutely relying on you as human beings with all of the potential itial to find your own meaning so you might and one story might apply to you more than the other but all of it will lead back to why words matter so sit comfortably look after your spine suck in your core and occasionally do your pelvic flaw when when you think ah she’s going on you know I’ll see on your faces which which one you’re doing in the beginning before the heavens and the Earths existed lived a god and goddess absu the god of fresh water and Tiamat the goddess of saltwater before Meadowlands or Reed beds have been formed when there were no other deities no Destinies had yet been decreed these two mingled their Waters and from those Waters came younger Gods these younger Gods grew in strength and stature and became wise and mighty unfortunately as well as being strong and mighty the young Gods also became unruly and Troublesome in true fashion as young men they banded together as brother brothers and ran a muck amongst the gods dancing and partying loudly they did this so much they upset tiamat’s nerves Disturbed abu’s sleep and stopped his daytime’s rest absu decided enough was enough and he plotted to destroy the younger gods in order to get his peace back however one of them a heard about the plot and putting absu into a deep sleep killed him and created his own Dwelling Place out of apsu’s body TI was Furious about what he had done and she gathered around her a different set of gods and created demons including the Hydra the Scorpion man and the hairy hero in order to bring down a and his brothers one particular son was called Marduk the God of all gods so amazing and wondrous that he could scarce be looked at with her new husband kingu Tiamat ruled and introduced a rain of terror and Chaos when her a heard of Tat’s Fury and desire for revenge and about the Hideous Army she had drawn about her and a rule of chaos he sent various of the Gods to try and appease her but none of them had the courage even to approach her the gods met to discuss what could be done and finally Marduk agreed that he would fight her on condition they appointed him King this they did and so Marduk set out and in a mighty battle captured Tiamat the demon and her Divine allies having slain the gods and tied the demons to his feet he went back to tat and killed her two in a manner far too gruesome for Methodist women in Britain however I’ll give you some detail Marduk sliced tiamat’s dead body in two and formed the heavens from harur and the Earth from the other he created the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers to flow from her eyes and from her breasts created the mountains then from the blood of the defeated and slain kingu created humankind to serve the gods and set the gods free from having to do any work and thus the world was created and its habitants were created that sucks doesn’t it this was the creation story in Babylon where the Jews were held enslaved in Mesopotamia and right in the middle of it is an oral tradition that the Jews counterbalance that story with and we’re going to come to their story in the next bit if you want to explore why that creation story is so important for environmental justice because I’m not going to talk about it today there’s a book called get your pens out a book called say yes to life it’s by Ruth Valerio and it was the Archbishop of canterbury’s Lent book A couple of years ago and it’s really really good it breaks down that story that’s almost exactly as it’s written um but then looks at why our creation story is so important for how we engage with the planet our stories matter I had just finished my Master’s Degree oh come back oh oh there we go that’s not me um I had just finished my Master’s Degree so naturally I found a minimum wage job to the Delight to my parents my first day working in a care home I was told to go and get Pamela up and ready for breakfast don’t worry when she screams they said she always screams so just get it done quickly so in I went to see screaming Pamela in the bedroom were two single beds and in the first I was a little surprised to find were five babies all tucked into bed some of them with crusty food still inside their mouth eyes all closed as if they were sleeping I tipped in the other bed was Pamela a tiny little lady curled up on her side so I tipped toad around the bed to go and find the bathroom to help her with her personal care in it was a sink and a Lo which was unusual it was the only room in the whole building that only had a sink and a Lo the rest of them were all proper on suets and I turned the tap on to get the water warm and then went to find the towels and I waited it was an old repurposed Hotel so of course hot water would take some time to come and I waited and I waited some more and no water that was warm came to that tiny lady’s bedroom what does that tell you about the screaming so IND digant be her tiptoed until she got out of the room to find a bowl of warm water and I went in and I gently woke up this elderly lady who was really pleased to see me and I took her into the bathroom and I washed her feet and I dried her feet and I put on the fluffier socks and then I washed her legs and I dried her legs and we put on some leggings and we did the same all the way up until this lady who had been with the tiredness and Frailty bent over was standing up quite tall and had not screamed once and she looked at me and she said your teeth are lovely I said yes my mother says I must clean my teeth in the morning in the evening I bet your mother says the same too and without any prompting from me or any assistance Pamela for the first time and I don’t know how long long but the oral hygiene was not strong in that room um cleaned her own teeth and then walked to the um dining room with very little assistance by this point absolutely delighted and from then on Pamela with quite Advanced denture would always make a beine for the stranger who she didn’t know and could never name who I was or why I was there and she would come up to me and she would Pat my face and she would say you’re a good Soul she didn’t have any short-term memory she had no idea who I was but her heart really remembered I changed the story of what screaming Pamela was about I challenged it by being curious by not accepting their words and by finding another way I found a woman who absolutely loved babies those dolls were not dolls they were babies and we treated them accordingly she would make sure that we danced and we looked after them and she would not eat until she felt they had been looked after first she was not screaming Pamela she was a deeply compassionate loving woman after two years of working for all we can last month I had the privilege to go to Uganda I was overly excited uh if I come across as a labador puppy I often am um Uganda is a lush green com country with the abundance of water that tumbles into the source of the Nile before it flows into Egypt and pinces with the source of the other bit of the Nile from Sudan did you know that the name the source of the Nile the Nile started in Uganda when European um adventurers went in and they asked local people what is this river called and they gave a sentence that ended nyay later translated we do not understand what you are saying it’s also a country with a large percentage of its population living below the poverty line where access to Education Health Care government support is limited and the people most vulnerable to that are children women and people living with disabilities and that limits and puts obstacles in the way of their huge potential we met a group um and I was instantly nicknamed I’d never met so much energy that matched mine in a room and they nicknamed me um buntu which just means people because Becca Loves people and they have set up um what they’re calling a Beekeepers Association do I have a picture for this you think that would be a picture there we go there’s Patrick a beekeepers Association and it gathers together groups of people interested in beekeeping beekeeping is a a a low energy job you can you can set up a hive with the support of bouer um and it it’s then non- labor intensive versus other agricultural practices which is great for value added income now our host and chair of the group this is Patrick when he was a child he had botched malaria vaccine scene so that Patrick walks around on his hands and feet he has flipflops on his hands shoes on his feet because his his body did just did not develop because of this vaccine that he received and that is that is not unfamiliar throughout um that bit of Uganda and yet I have never met a more upright man he introduced to us a modeled in EDI in a way no online training course could ever do because he sat there and he introduced every single person and named their disability in this group of gathered people with different disabilities he taught us how to speak and modeled it with such deep Grace that you stopped seeing the disability immediately and saw the people that he was in interacting and engaging us with I cannot fully describe what it felt like in the whole group when one person received the honey that bouer had processed from their bees they got these little canisters there were about eight canisters from a beehive they’d been processed before us um the night before and we’d watch the honey and we’ve got some beautiful slow motion video clips of Honey undulating out of the tank and then before this group this one man received and the whole group celebrated in his Harvest with the incredible help of the team at berer who provide equipment for beekeeping and training and then process the honey so they will process it and sell it and they’ll give the market value to the farmer they’re changing The Narrative of what it is to be someone living with a disability in Uganda better yet Joseph who’s just a delicious human being I don’t know how else to describe him he has this beautiful dream because if in in the area of um bukari um it used to be an Ancient Forest but with development houses being built wood needing to be burned in order to cook your food the trees aren’t there anymore but for every beehive you must plant a tree because the bees won’t live without a tree so he has this Vision not just of enabling people to increase their householding income but doing something more and greater that slowly this Ancient Forest will be restored because of individuals planting trees words have the power to lift us up or hold us down to create an environment in which we live for good or bad to give dignity and respect or to dishonor the person with talking about words can set the par high of our expectation about how we treat someone and the way we see the world in which we live from suffering and demented or SEI scile to living with dementia from natural resources to be squandered and exploited to a living ecosystem on which we are all dependent from attention seeking or difficult to having additional needs I’ve heard people living with dementia described as badly behaved naughty or unable it makes me mad and then creative and inventive and to do lots of wonderful things there are words that we’ve used to talk about people who don’t have money vulnerable hopeless desperate uneducated or when some in the media have talked about refugees a plague a swarm an infiltration used to make us feel something and often something negative to prey on our fear of what is going on the unsettledness of our times and make the people already vulnerable to homelessness to Poverty the ones to blame rather than the ones to help the inconvenient screamers at best a nuisance a chore that we need to get rid of quickly at worst a threat to our peace and security the power of our words words have the power to paint a picture because of how they’ve been used before I went to see a doctor about an MRI this week I said I’d Shar my story there’s a lump in my head pressing against my optic nerve making my vision fuzzy Specsavers were decidedly unhelpful have you had that moment where you’re waiting for a result that feeling and what the doctor is going to say next is absolutely going to impact how you feel what you’re hoping for he said it’s very unlikely that it’s anything Sinister a lurking praying threatening words that speaks of monsters in the cupboard and criminals linering on shadowy street corners so I’m glad it’s unlikely at worst are the words that are very closest to ourselves the words that echo in our heads maybe words we’ve picked up maybe words other people have said to us have you ever said I am something I am so stupid I am so fat old ugly I am lazy I am worthless I am past it those words that linger and chip way that’s our confidence and who we are and our perceived value those words curled around me when I was in the very depths of depression knocking out any spark of hope that dared to flare up the I am of it that defines me that becomes the truth and measure of my worth and giving body and realness with the weight of the words this is the painfullest bit there’s other stories that are painful but this is the one where I’m really inviting you to name those words and to have a chat with the people beside you people have already come up to me and talked about the words that press in that start to Define that start to limit can you imagine if Pamela has started to call herself the screamer what that had defined her how she felt when she left her bedroom to know that was how she was being described we’ll all have those deep in the darkest corners and we’re just going to sit with that discomfort I know Jenny said she was going to make us uncomfortable I’m going to make you go personal um and do pelvic floor simultaneously so uh meaningful eye contact that’s the really important bit um so what I want you to do is turn to the people next to you and be brave name the words that have been hurt I used to say to the children if you name something and look it in the eye you have already taken out most of its power you’ve already said it’s not there lurking in the background chipping away when you you’re most vulnerable what you’ve done is bring it right to the surface and you say not in my head so what I want you to do is try and name it what are the words that you might say to yourself it might be I am too tired and there will be truth in that but it’s also not an I am we’re not defined by our body’s limitations so please be a little uncomfortable we are women together there is Magic in when women sit and talk to each other because someone might be able to turn to you and say yes me too or I hear you that flipping hurts so be compassionate listen to each other um I’m going to give you five minutes depends on the sound of the room and and then if you’re brave tell us tell us in this big safe space of women uh and share your story because there’ll be someone else in the room that says me too the number of bosom hugs I had after yesterday are people saying either me too or yes I see your pain it’s healing so let’s heal together Lance the boil does anyone have any questions about what I’m asking you to do I love naming names that I can’t remember we flew into inabi we then drove to the bit right by the source of the Nile anyone it was Ginger thank you Vic this is why I love you so much Ginger put your hand up thank you it was Ginger we stayed in ginger which uh is right on Lake Victoria so it’s right in the bottom bit of Uganda uganda’s huge and we stayed kind of across the bottom and then went up that way uh we were in the peda district where the beekeepers are and that was the furthest that we went up we did not go and see the gorillas much to my despair but we did sit literally on top of the springs that are the source of the Nile and that’s just the the rage in that water it’s just so much um is that helpful that was that was a semi impressive feat of Becca remembering names um so five minutes name the words that knock you down and take some of the power out of them try and be honest and open it is uncomfortable and painful um chap can you just give us a wave I recognize for some people this stirs up the Muddy Bottom of your pond that is you and if it is if it becomes a bubbling wave that you need to talk to something about um please do go and see the chaplain um because that is exactly why she is here thank you right about 5 minutes might be a bit longer depending on how chattery you are off we go I see you Girl Guides I see where you are I see you in the room Vic and Jenny are going to WAND around we are recording um and it’ll go on YouTube if you do not want to share a story on the internet which is absolutely fine just give a wave like I’m making it up on the spot can you tell not even choreographed um yeah if you could just indicate to mat at the back you’re happy to share in this private space but you don’t want it to go on the internet that’s all it’ll take and we it will be cut out afterwards you will not feature on what goes on YouTube okay okay so so please feel safe to share in this group it’s a confidential space unless you don’t do that and then it will go on YouTube did I just confuse myself not going on YouTube okay so so what came up you you had a great chat you talked about stuff what has bubbled to the surface for you who’s going to be brave language you here we go I’m one at the back J just going to say the use of a word last week I was told that uh care companies refer to people um who they in ver of commers care for as units they’re going to have a raging Methodist women in Britain Army on on their cases can I say my story about Pamela was not mha it was a completely different care home just to be very clear I never saw anything like that in mha thank you yes please I’m going to use the word assume assumption okay if the the definition of assume is make an ass of you and me yes I’m a minister’s wife and people have that expectations of ministers wives what they can cannot do how they dress and that’s so wrong that had put me down and I actually walked away from my church for about five weeks um it took courage to go back because some people saw me outside of church and said are you coming back and I eventually did um so yeah so don’t assume assumptions thank you sort of following on from that um as another Minister’s Wife thank you Stephanie um you know you were saying about not not saying I am as being a way of defining who you are and I think my experience has been that I’ve wanted to say I am because I’ve always I spent my entire life sort of being an appendage to somebody else being defined by other people and particularly um as a Minister’s Wife you know when I expected a desire to do a particular Ministry um and the first comment I got back was you’ll be such an asset to your husband that I I I never again exercise that particular Ministry and I wanted to say but I am me more thank you thank you wow we can take a round of applause yes please oh um my my father always called me a quitter I never stuck at anything I try my hand but I give up if I didn’t like it um and I’ve had to give up lots of things because I live with fibromyalgia I’m always thinking I don’t start something new because I’m going to have to give it up yeah and I went to see the psychologist with the pain clinic and she got me to write down all the things I’ve achieved with fibromyalgia I oh my goodness and so yes I’m not a quitter I try new things um I’m a goer yes you are hello thank you I’m liking this for the people that didn’t get of applaud can we just give those Applause cuz we’re developing our own language of appreciation that that as it developed some people got missed out Vick hello following on from a minister’s wife that’s me as well and very often no Minister yeah that’s right very often they would say I SP brze told you yes that’s things that he shouldn’t tell me and he never ever shared anything with me yes but also do a lot of voluntary work at Rochester Cathedral and we were there for a con a concert the other evening and talking to a couple in the audience and he said you’re lucky you get to see this for free and I said I’m not because I give up my time to do this yes and and that hurts a bit Yeah cuz they don’t and I think a lot of people think because I’ve I’ve done the bookings for this weekend perhaps I get paid for it but I don’t I’m a volunteer yeah well we do yes but but we’re all volunteers who’ve organized this weekend one there and then one there thank you this is a message from Irene on Zoom hi Irene on Zoom to continue it means so much when we have good friends and Christ’s Abiding Love for me that keeps reminding me that Christ loves me for me I have had to discover strategies to prioritize what is okay for me at 81 years of age and what is all right to let go it is a very real ongoing Journey yes and that is wisdom thank you Irene um I’d like oh I’d like to invite people to join me in a onew woman campaign against the word illegitimate um I am not not legitimate yes um You can call me a bastard um though probably not to my face um but I really dislike the implication that some people are legal or above board or uh proper and that some people aren’t more over in the current world I don’t think you’d find many children these days actually who to whom that that derogatory term would not apply so please join my one-woman campaign to Outlaw the word illegitimate thank you thank you and you can see there’s so much work we do I’m a trainer for mental health first aid and one of the things that we really do around stigma is the words that me things in reality when we say someone has committed suicide the only other time we say committed is committed a felony committed a bank robbery what does that say about suicide so just just noticing the words that just knock us down it stigmatizes something that is so fragile so so painful one two more I get emtional about this please get emotional that’s what we’re here for my love is this is it working all right yeah yes yeah um I the love of my life and I are separated by Miles I haven’t seen him for many years and for very good reasons we cannot be together I have we have a son who’s now 30 um I live um my son obviously moved out and I’m on my own again yeah quite recently somebody in church came by and said to me well it’s all right for you you live on your own yeah in fact that’s the last thing I want to do thank you it feels strange clapping but that’s piling on for a hug right now would be really weird and damaging but the clap is we love you we see you um I found it difficult but I think now can cope with it cuz when I first came to this country 21 years ago uh I came from back home as a local preacher in the church and I came with my letter of transfer from my Minister and I gave it to my local Minister where I attended I’m not going to mention the church thank you and uh he was good they welcomed me they put me on the preaching plan and each time I took a preaching plan in the church there was this man who used to stand by the door and wanted to correct me in terms of oh your accent your volume isn’t good and it was preaching plan after preaching plan until one day I thought okay I’m going to answer this man and uh he did the same uh you would stand outside greet you talk start correcting you what you haveen what he thought you have not done well so I said to him oh thank you so much if you are really this good why aren’t you a local [Applause] preacher thank you so we we do sit in this place of pain with’ been hurt I don’t think it’s winging it’s naming we have Jenny we have one more and I don’t want to ignore that oh two more you know what this is our space I I just want to continue the conversation of the last speaker and barbaras who is asking us to join other women fight against being stigmatized because of their background I find it very offensive when people judge me without knowing my story and having worked my journey I have been in England for over 20 years and I’m still waiting to be allowed to contribute but then people judge me and many others without knowing our stories and that happens even in the church [Applause] church sometimes it’s the nonword that can hurt even more for instance you may be in a group within your church wanting to enjoy conversation and the body language keeps you out so sometimes it’s not just words it’s we forget a lot of times that body language also plays that important role you know I’m not having conversation with you but it’s not being said and what I would urge us to do is to try to be a bit more understanding especially when we’re within our groups to all so have the ability to open the groups a bit more and let others in it’s the only way we can grow and especially as women we’ve all got such stories I can tell you 100 stories today yes and it’s nice to be able to share it not just in our group the ones we like and the Cozy ones but also be prepared to be challenge we can agree to disagree we can disagree to agree thank you thank [Applause] you that that felt really important it feels important you know when you’ve got a splinter and it feel and it’s sitting there and it’s tiny but you know it’s there um so if that has brought up things for you please do have a chat with the champet I’m around I’m a mental health first aider is anyone else a mental health trained Mental Health First aider in the room there are two at the back um do have a chat uh we’ll I’ll have a chat afterwards don’t let that go don’t let the Splinter Fester sometimes we can get it out and then we can heal and that would be amazing okay have a wiggle we’re going to go into our next story oh hang on wrong thing in the beginning God created Creed the heavens and earth all you see all you don’t see Earth was a soup of nothingness a bottomless emptiness an Inky Blackness God’s spirit brooded like a bird over the watery Abyss God spoke light and light appeared God saw that the light was good and separated light from dark god named the the light day he named the dark night it was evening it was morning day one fast forward six days because we don’t have that much time God spoke Earth generate life every sort of Life cattle and reptiles wild animals all the kinds and there it was wild animal of every kind cattle of all the kinds every sort of reptile and Bug God saw that it was good God spoke let us make human beings in our image make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea the birds in the air the cattle and yes Earth itself and every animal that moves on the face of Earth God created human beings he created them Godlike reflecting God’s nature he created them male and female God bless them Prosper reproduce fill the Earth take charge be responsible for the fish in the sea the birds in the air for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth then God said I’ve given you every sort of seed bearing plant on Earth and every kind of fruit bearing tree given them to you for food to all the animals and all the birds everything that moves and breathes I give whatever grows out of the ground for food and there it was God looked over everything he had made it was so good so very good it was evening it was morning day six can you imagine an enslaved group of people surrounded by that original Narrative of God’s tearing bodies apart and making breasts into mountains and in the middle of that they are Whispering the creation story of something different not human beings created to be the slaves of the Gods so they didn’t need to do work but human beings where the bar is set that we are godik can you imagine the strength of that whispered story of in people to a different way of thinking they could have succumbed to it they may have succumbed to it there’s lots of periods in the um Old Testament where we do not hear the story of the Jews right after um Joseph and his 11 brothers and one sister called Dina who’s forgotten all the time um right after that story do you know how many years it is it’s about 500 years it’s a heck of a lot of story isn’t it right at the end of the Old Testament before Jesus turns up and John’s walking around eating all the honey um is that winie the Poo I’m mixing my stories um but but in that Gap it’s about 500 years that’s a thousand years we’re missing from the story they may have succumbed at times to the different narratives about their place and purpose and yet that story stood firm and brought them and elevated them to hoping for something more prophetic people within a community who told of a god whose Spirit first hovered over that pregnant water soupy full of potential it’s funny what happens when story shapes us um one of one of the many places I’ve lived in the UK was England not England I’ve lived in England for all of my life except for six months in Zimbabwe um I used to live in stevenage and for those that have ever been on a geography field trip to look at the planning of New Towns God bless you um stevenage was the first New Town built after the war so many people who lost their T houses during the blitz were relocated to stevenage um and in the census stevenage was identified to have the highest number of atheists in the United Kingdom people who for Generations had had the ties with baptisms funerals and weddings with the local Parish Church severed and didn’t pick it up with the new concrete Church which wasn’t as pretty uh in stage and with the ties cut they did not Auto write down Town Church of England which is what quite a lot of non-believers still do today so it wasn’t default and instead they just said I don’t believe in God I’m not Church of England because that was Generations ago I don’t believe there was a local charity that was concerned not because their lack of faith but because people in stevenage seemed to be unusually unhappy as a community and there seem to be lower levels of self-confidence and pride in the area they lived and higher levels of depression the greatest claim to fame is Lewis Hamilton and he got out of stevenage so fast that he’s won a record seven um formula ones and is often the case with social unease there was a higher representation of I think every right-wing political group it was thought that with the absence of story to hold on to to that people to make sense of people’s life experience develop an emotional language to say who I am what I need um how I identify that traditionally had actually been part of the lurgical life of the local church of Christmas and Easter and funerals and weddings that people lacked a as a firm sense of belonging and cultural identity and so instead of in that place of disas instead of saying this is who we are defined by the stories that made them and shaped them they started to say this is who does not belong this is who isn’t I can say quickly who isn’t like me who isn’t of me to Define where they ended and the other began these are the groups of people that are causing the problem they’re the nuisance the plague in our area so if believing that shared story is essential for belonging and self- understanding the charity started going into local schools to share fun interactive Bible stories not to prti Not to cause or create a sense of Faith but in order to better understand our emotions so they’d use something like Jonah in the whale and tell the story and say have you ever wanted to run away from something because you were scared said what does that feel like what do you think Jonah was feeling what do you think it felt like when he was sitting in the belly of a whale can you imagine i’ imagine it was quite SM fishy and smelly but it to gives that that langu shared language really matters because it isn’t just about how we communicate but it’s how we feel about oursel and the places where we belong I want to tell you a story about a girl I met in Uganda and it is a horrible story and I want you to care about her because without your support the charity supporting her wouldn’t have any funds and so her story would become just another statistic and I could do the Temptation would be to really overemphasize the bad so you feel how urgent it is so you pity her and before I go on this is Zahara she gave us permission to use her photograph and we are very very clear how we will use someone’s photograph her mother was there she also gave consent as were the charity that work with her it was all done in Sahara’s language so she understood this isn’t UNC carefully used because I’m wary about using a picture of an underage um girl to talk about her story but it’s with her permission understand understanding how important awareness is and she wants you to know so there is that temptation to overemphasize because I could have picked the other picture where she is not looking as happy I could pick a picture that develops pity and sympathy and that’s not the story I want you to go away with the urgency is hope not despair I’m going to keep her but soah Hara was violated and became pregnant at 14 and I have a 14-year-old daughter and it really upsets me this was the day that I sobbed and she’s looked after and she’s safe relatively speaking but she doesn’t yet have enough money to go back to school and she does desperately need intervention and therefore your money because without it her potential as the good student she had been is lost she could just be another powerless victim lost in the statistics of uganda’s poverty rates used as a warning and a plea for funds I could do that I’ve sort of done that but that’s not what I want you to remember this little girl is more than a single teenage mother living in isolation she’s a Survivor you can see that she was so proud to have her photo taken Sahara came to the attention of kov carway which stands for concern for child and women’s empowerment am I right roughly no that sounds about right doesn’t it through a pilot they’re running in the local community by listening by being embedded by being there they’ve recognized that women and children are more often impacted by poverty and all of the complicated messy painfulness of that because of cultural attitudes about their rights and their place and their worth and they wanted to challenge that through education and as an outside organization wildly inappropriate for us to do that kof carway even recognize it’s not appropriate for them they don’t live in that Village they’re not it’s not their people so what they’re piloting is a safeguarding committee who wear t-shirts like this and when they first went into the communities people were Furious you want to change our way of life you want to ruin our fun you want to change how we are behaving and now slowly bit by bit the culture is changing and the community is starting report to report things they’re giving information about what a child needs to thrive what children need to flourish what they need for nutrition what they need in terms of school what they need in terms of hygiene they’re doing the talking explaining in areas in a language that is understood it was the safeguarding committee that arrested the man and took him to the police a few years ago that would not have been possible the community would have protected him he was one of us we don’t take him to an outside force like the police but they’ve changed it they’ve Ed him it’s going through courts so Sahara is more than a little girl on her own with a baby she’s a girl living with her mother surrounded by neighbors who are asking her every day when you’re going back to school they changing the views and the culture of the people and there a visible presence in the the other safeguarding committee I was very jealous of it they’ve got Wellington Boots with kof carway and all we can on and now I have a cap that has Fabio on which is first African bike Association but they had Wellington Boots just this visible pres that took a baby and made sure that he lived where his sibling had died and took a little girl and they’ve adopted her because there was no one else just a small group of people making a huge difference they’ve also got the kof carway team themselves advocating for her in court representing her holding the man to account for his actions he’s not done it this isn’t the first time he’s done it but it’s this going to be the last time and there was a magical moment and forgive me for those that object to the word magical sometimes I don’t know as a 5-year-old how to describe something that I can’t describe and I and it was a spiritual moment um under the shade of this tree when Sahara’s mother in yellow M CJ um in the white and the red flowers sat together in a circle with Sahara and um Sarah and Maria now MJ has rubbed shoulders with Desmond Tutu she’s from Uganda lives in Uganda but she’s an employee of all we can because I don’t speak the many languages of Uganda but MJ speaks some of them okay some of them really well um and and then acts as an in between because she knows far better than we do and then kof carway know even better and then zahara’s Mom knows even better she’s surrounded by these people sitting and talking and it isn’t a money moment I mean Sarah and Maria their Sarah is the head of kof carway in is that blue gray Maria’s in red they’re they’re they’re um salary comes from all we can but this isn’t a grant moment this is women sitting together under the shade of the tree listening to the painful stories and how difficult it’s been and then they started coaching Sahara and a mom reminding them where they had been and what they have achieved you know that moment with the nurse of all you’ve achieved with fibromyalgia incredible moments but it just took presents for them to do that they weren’t offering to fix the problems they were reminding um the mother how good her farming had been and how much she’s already managed to save and pay for that it is possible to do that with the neighbors raising the bar not just oh your life’s over now that you’ve got a baby but when are you going back to school holding that expectation that hope for her future reminding her that she is more than what’s happened to her to survive and to thrive and to flourish it’s soft and it is really immeasurable the data people would find it hard to show on a graph what that felt like but that felt like the most important moment it wasn’t look at what they’re doing in court it was look how they are present and listening there are not quick fixes in these complicated stories education alone isn’t going to solve the problems that that little girl faces investing in that ongoing relationship so that Maria and Maria is just another magical human being who goes in and you know that she has spent time in that Community when they flock around her it’s like learning to make reusable pads it’s not a direct educational outcome but it means that girls aren’t missing one week a month from their education to avoid the humiliation of bleeding in school now I vaguely remember that fear when you get up out of your chair and do the quick look to make sure but if you can’t afford the Disposable pads now you can make your own not only that but starting to sell it and trademark it a little social Enterprise where kof carway are then going to make more money with social income so they are eventually independent and they don’t need us anymore but for now they do so please give us your money just to be very clear words have the ability to hold us up and lift us up just like that creation story was able to break through what the Jews believed about their purpose in life and what we need to grow towards if our potential is God it’s a high bar isn’t it but that’s our potential our blueprint our spiritual DNA it gives us somewhere to grow into somewhere we can measure against and hope towards I need you to understand the urgency that our partners do and I could do that by emphasizing the lack of freedom and choice and security that people face that’s all very real the stat statistics are there if that’s the message you want I could do that sort of delivery it would betray portray the heartbreaking pain and how important it is to act and give but what if we acted and give gave from a place of hope rather than Despair and panic would we sit and listen for longer would it stay on knee-jerk reaction of going well what she needs must be education what if it is the under the Shadow with the tree first and people like Sarah and Maria at kof carway it was the only day I sobbed and I did it silently at the back of the van instead of in front of all of these people there is an upness when it comes to okay here is here is one obstacle in the life of this little girl here’s another one here’s another one but isn’t that also the same for anyone reaching their potential there’s so much more yet of her story to come but what is Sinister is when our words start to imply that people experiencing malnutrition or homelessness or unjust treatment is that they are powerless or voiceless or that with our comparative wealth and privilege we must be the ones to offer intervention or be the ones that prioritizes what needs to be done next we want to offer that different story to have safe pads to have the continued support of Maria because they all have so much potential right up there and we can be part of supporting and abling that following their lead sitting under the shadow of their tree in their story so we’re going to have a few more minutes together and this is hopefully going to have a slightly different tone and energy but who has lifted you up what words have lifted you up imagine that person we’ve all got it was an atie Johnson for me she lived next door and for some reason she always thought I like the heart of an iceberg glasses when I went around to collect JMA she also gave me the bone for the dog he got one thing and I got the other thing and I still love chewing bones to this day um so what I’d like you to do turn to a different person turn to the same group whatever you like to do um a bone is an activity it is not a snack um I’d love you to have a chat what words have you lifted you up what words have changed your trajectory what stories have shaped who you are that’s where we’re going now this is this is holding on to the Auntie Johnson’s however misguided they might have been but she always gave me a pound for the JMA box um about five minutes and then we’re going to come back all this bit together finishing your sentence es or your stories nearly there there’s something really beautiful about the slow sinking of that sound I’m trying to work out with this is this a pencil case it’s a multi-purpose bag take pride in how far you have come and have faith in how far you have to go well that’s going in my pocket fits um does anyone want to share two glamorous assistants who shouted Becca just then I hello got colored cards in it colored emotion cards and it’s got a fidget in it and it’s got yeah all sorts of things like that put your hand up if you want to play with that bag later you could find find this young lady yes please who wants to share their story Jenny at the back uh this is from Liz on Zoom Liz marot well known to many people this is what she says what gave me a boost at our world day of prayer service this year I had read the part of one of the leaders reading in German The Minister’s Wife said to me afterwards I admire you for doing that thank you [Applause] thank you got a little Gaggle at the back how do you feel about being called a gaggle do we like Gaggle some sometimes it fits sometimes it feels I like the word knowledge and it’s taken from 2 Peter chapter 1 verse three his divine power has given us everything we need for a Godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness and I use um my gift from God in in art to create words of inspiration can we show that to the ladies on zoom and then we’ll hold it up at the front that’s it can they can you see ladies on Zoom we got some thumbs up is it close enough yeah and we’ll just have a look at it at the front while someone else a clear Le just Hello thank you I just want to share it’s when someone believes in you when you want to do something and they back you yes that that’s been one of the biggest things but a lot of the stuff I carry I carry from childhood have been told you weren’t good enough or you’re not going to manage it and you keep you keep that if a 100 people 99 said I did something good and one said not yeah I know I’ll I’ll dwell on the not and it’s changing the mindset that needs to change yes and that’s that’s a huge thing therefore do not conform to the patterns of this world but be by the renewing of your mind that is what the the gospel is supposed to do it’s supposed to liberate us from those childhood just the single tiny splinters of pain that we allow to Define us why are we doing it could we change it can we change the narrative oh Hallelujah ladies amen oh I’ve got a hand up there and a microphone there thank you very much hello my my name’s Jan and Mary has given me permission to tell you a little bit about her story um because she said her English isn’t good enough but Mary grew up in India where uh in Hyderabad and she could relate to the the last story because Mary had an arranged marriage at 14 but equally Mary was pleased to see the story and listen to the story today because things have changed it was very different for her then um so uh we give thanks that Mary is now here and that she’s with us this weekend thank you I went to Cod and shared a story about um people who had in Malawi when the floods had swept through and and dumped 2 MERS of sand on otherwise fertile top soil um and it was it I choke up as you can tell because it matters to me U and I’m passionate about it and I felt embarrassed that I had in front of sinard and all those not just beautiful women but all sorts of different men there as well who sometimes have told me that I’m over emotional and I got to the end of it feeling a bit exhausted and um over lunch had a conversation with the two women that followed one of them was from Bangladesh and her family were all being swept um through and their houses destroyed by the flood and she said I’ve been diagnosed with throat cancer this year and I’m finding it difficult to talk and I thought I wasn’t going to until you showed how much you cared by sharing the story of other people facing a flood that’s why we share stories because they matter so much and they give someone else permission to share their story what I like to say is that I like being here and I find it so uplifting I don’t mind we love you no it’s the positivity and actually seeing women in the Methodist Church and actually women being seen in the Methodist Church as individuals and important and respected individuals and you know what this has been happening for so many years in the Methodist Church you don’t get it in other churches there is this hierarchy and in a lot of um very popular Church ches but women are still you know there’s the man and then there’s the women in the Methodist Church as a whole we are people together and I find that so positive and uplifting and I think it’s how God intended male he male and female yes he does um right thank you hi Vic it’s it’s just a little thing um my brother is six years younger than me and he’s 18 I’ve just turned 18 last month and my nickname for him what I call him is pickle um we all mom calls him lamb I call him pickle and I said to him uh last year I said to him is it okay that I call you pickle and he said will always be your baby brother and that really lifted me up I love that boy yeah oh little pickup uh I’ve been a Christian 23 years this June uh in a Baptist Church for 10 years and I’ve been a Methodist for three years and I am now technically a Minister’s Wife although he’s retired but doing Services every Sunday that’s another story story but I have a question who here has heard of the uh solidarity circles I’ve heard the two words spoken separately I’ve only been a Methodist three years but Allison who’s in the room where Alison where are you she behind you yeah oh no she’s not there she is I met Allison very early on in my Methodist Journey um and and she I can only describe it has sucked me into Methodist women in Britain thank you thank you Alison we we appreciate that within weeks I was on the communications task group because apparently I’m quite a good communicator um and now I’m on the solidarity Circle for women because I have lived experience as a woman oh as does every single person in this room from M anyway we’re recruiting we have 15 people on the that we can have on the circle we only have seven or eight at the moment I think so we’re recruiting so every single person in this room is a candidate so can you stand up so everyone can see you so for the tingles that I’m the one who likes the dungre moment cuz I’m a bit chilly um but we need new people on the solidarity Circle for women and the person who just spoke about women’s LIF lived experience in the church and in the Methodist church and we need to change it and we’re having some fabulous discussions every six weeks or so in Zoom about women in the church and women in the Methodist Church and how we change how women work in the church perceived in the church we talk about inclusive language we’re doing all sorts of things so if you feel and you you you have something to say cuz you’re all women you don’t have to be a good communicator you just have to have lived experience and feel that you want to make a change then talk to me talk to Maggie Maggie was yeah is that okay Maggie yes thank you um pedy where’s pedy there she is she’s she’s another one on the solidarity Circle there are other circles which some of you in this room will have lived experience of there’s disability there’s lgtb plus there’s care and there’s there’s another new one coming I can’t remember anyway Community that’s the one thank you it come from we we we need we need you on the solidarity Circle for women and there are other ones as well so I was I’m sorry I that’s why I wanted to share because I just I felt from that conversation that I needed to plug it stories matter thank you very much um two more so the two Jenny’s passing a microphone someone else has got a microphone yeah um hello um so the words that lift me up is kind and um I’ve had mental health before and um at the time um I had a community nurse and a Patric come to my home and there was a time I couldn’t speak I froze and um I didn’t like people to speak for me so I I wanted to Voice by myself but the time I was froze and they showed me another way to communicate which is writing and I wrote what what I wanted to say on a piece of paper and that actually opened the door for me because I now write books as well so and I’m free from Mental Health house thank you and last one please well this comes a bit out of context because it’s really to ask the lady who spoke last well last but one about solidarity circles given that the number of hands that went up knowing about it looked like about half a dozen to can they come and find you straight afterwards I only knew from reading the Methodist Church newslet this Thursday okay could you just say a little bit more about where do fit in and and how to apply what the length of commitment can we can we do that afterwards yeah yeah I think people are asking what what what is this yeah no thank you very much we’ll make sure that there’s time to explain solidarity circles or you can Lynch it afterwards I am going to move on Purely because there’s a story video that I want to make sure we have time for because it’s someone else’s else’s voice um so please do share your stories if you want to share it with me I’d absolutely love to hear those last Last Story section in the beginning was the word the word was first the word present to God God present to the words the Word was God in Readiness for God from day one everything was created through him nothing not one thing came into being without him what came in into existence was life and the life was light to live by the LIF light blazed out of the darkness the darkness couldn’t put it out like the Jews telling the story of a God who spoke and hovered and walked in the evening air of Eden in contrast to that Babylonian story of war and conflict John is telling a story at the beginning of the Gospel El and it is um possibly when John is about 90 years old so right towards the end of his ministry so near the end of the first century long after Matthew Mark and Luke have been written and it’s in a context fought with unease to do this he has introduced a new word into the storytelling about God and his people and it’s the word logos and it’s not appeared anywhere in the Old Testament and when it’s used in the New Testament it’s because John used it in this opening creation story now I’m not going to do a magic Jenny translation um directly logos can just mean word but it also holds the weight of reason and rational knowledge so at the time the Gnostic philosophers had separated and demoted Yahweh the Jewish God to being less than Jesus at this point and because um go Yahweh was seen to be Spirit um that could couldn’t have had all that to do with um the the material creation um and certainly didn’t have anything to do with the rational and scientific processes and there was a malevolence then in the creation of the world we’ve seen that right at the beginning that ill inent Ed purpose of human beings to be slaves to the gods versus the Hebrew understanding of purpose that with that allowed evil to be part of an in heaven part of creation and with this opening story John is setting in stone that’s not true John unifies Yahweh and Jesus is one and the same God and reason God and Jesus God in the Perfection of creation and I am so glad that he bothered to do it because if I had to live in a world meant and intended for evil it would be much harder to get out of bed in the morning living in a world meant and intended for good where the bar is Godlike created by a loving Creator feels very different to living in one created by a malevolent force can you imagine a world that is intentionally evil wasps take on a much more Sinister presence than they ever have done before when we talk about the people we help it’s also always with the belief that they have the potential as human beings and people have the potential of God the image of God Wesley talked about our ability to know deep down in our souls of what our meanness was made in the image of God it’s what when Jenny says we’re going to do some Bible study and some Greek interpretation in the morning it’s what absolutely reassures me that I am here to know to feel it deep into my bones that I am loved and wondered over and glorified in and the song of God is sung over me I can know that because in the beginning was the word the word that was reason and knowledge and understanding it is wisdom which is why I’m wearing if you if you’d hadn’t recognized owls to channel my wisdom our role in that wisdom is to sit on the back seat as passengers of the tandem bike of other people’s stories genuine Partners bringing what’s appropriate for us to bring in to not be backseat P drivers which everyone knows is very annoying but to bring the power of our legs essentially our money to bring some of our wisdom if we already know the road and um then to trust the knowledge and experience people bring we really try not to talk about being the voice of the voiceless because everyone has a voice even those people that don’t have the ability to use their mouth as body language you only have to sit next to the bed of someone who is no longer able to speak to realize they’re able to communicate Patrick showed us the importance of that that not one member of his group with the diverse disabilities was voiceless we just needed different ways to communicate my uncle always says if you take a healthy dolphin and you put it there what have you done to the dolphin disabled it yeah you’ve killed it um but you’ve disabled it it was otherwise healthy but the environment disabled it so the next story is Cynthia and she’s going to tell her own story this is our video for this year and it felt important that she spoke it herself with Jeremiah I was already giving up gu children you have to go telling people no food to eat so the best thing I could do is to die because I got tired of my children everybody is looking up to me getting in my aun told me school for with me I said I want to go to school she said that she don’t have the hand because that time my father was dead and I saw hatred rising from all anger which caus me to leave home and get to the street in the context of liia majority of our people are illiterate after the Civil War the whole generation have missed out on education mothers around here are single mothers you know and upbringing of a child just a single person and then more you can read like in the dark I about this school through a little girl who call me let’s start withy so you can be able to write your name literacy is a Bedrock for our organization I see other literacy as the threat that holds everything together help them to be able to find uh some to do maybe a job it builds self-confident and self-esteem for those who can read and write some of them have very brilliant ideas but they don’t see themselves as people who are waed of any contribution they don’t think that they have anything to offer and then when people are making decisions they don’t count on them so most of the uh benefit that they should have gotten even from uh government or other sources it doesn’t reach them for woman to get ELC skill it’s important me my it’s good to know what you want to be and what you want to do so it’s good for woman to Lear to your most of what we’re hearing from the lers you know we completing is that to read and write is good you know but after that what next we are led by the community and the issues impacting them if they have more ideas better than us they know exactly their issues the community has so much you just need somebody to help them to see clearly what they have and how best to Value what they have and make use of [Music] it I gr from here 2017 I got the mission I start practicing on my own and I started getting customers small small I start getting strength kids who have vocational skills they can they they quickly become independent generating some funding to help themselves they able to Advocate fors to make their own decisions job mean l to me because I said now I able to Fe myself help my with you can see me now I I can s my clothes I have one PL One Way PL with a shower St up and I wor this to service for 3 years people who saw it only feel it were from not the only clothes that I have to wear and today I can change clo any hour anytime I got friend now yes me I’m giving up you don’t give what you don’t have the significant of the partnership with all we can one of the good thing is they said to us we’re not here to tell you do this or do that we see them as a true partner true Partners will work with you in a way that when they are gone you much more better than they met you sh have caus me today that in I was a beer but today I’m not a giver because I’m not only eating my own I’m also string yeah we invite you to join shift today to help communities to tailor their Journey and fulfill their [Music] [Music] potential it’s felt really important to make space to listen to the stories it has felt that listening matters something um healing happens in that space um so I’m going to cut um the end of my thing but just imagine if Cynthia’s story had finished with I just want to die and instead it took someone walking up to her to hear her and help her retell her story so now she’s a giver and not a beggar a woman who can change her clothes as often as she wants to and my favorite moment with her and this is where the Soft Stuff of development really matters it was not all we can an International Development organization that changed the path for her nor was it shift did anyone notice who helped her find a new story it was it was a little girl who called her auntie reh honored her and said you’ve got a different story to tell that is our work that is our story as you go over lunch I just want you to think of the question I’m going to have to click through a few there Cynthia that was a leaf that’s my own personal story ignore that that is aglet if you want an update on aglet I can give you that but you’re not getting that today now that is a a really helpful story but you’re not getting that either now you’re interested that was returning to Pamela hang on let me tell you about Pamela I want us to get to lunch so we’re not queuing for ages and ages um but we will if if there is a moment to give a quick update on AB aglet but we need to go for lunch um then we will do um but but the [Music] um I’m not I’m skipping pamelo as well um this is how important your stories have been at the expense of me telling mine last one so that is bber shift which is in Liberia BBA and Uganda and then kof carway in Uganda you remember their stories what words have set you free L lunch what words have set you free so that is your lunchtime homework um because otherwise we’re going to be in a queue for a very long time um thank you very much please come and talk to me and Vic if you have been motivated to work with all we can that does not mean that you need to not work with action for children or fund for human need because together we’re working for a more beautiful world thank
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