tEAm news #77 | 16.3.22
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
I’m giving a talk at St Johns church on Saturday and I asked some friends to sponsor our bracelets as a giveaway and invited them to write a short message. One shared this quote. They said it seems apt to remind ourselves of this.
We couldn’t agree more… that the darkness has not overcome us despite what we hear and read.
Dates
MOMENT OF PRAYER - Mondays 9-9:15: a moment to pause and pray for our work & team. All welcome!
Link here (Meeting ID: 708 452 7633 Passcode: empathy)
We need help for this very busy week in June/July:
26-27th June: Wally Hall, Sevenoaks The Poverty Trap (TPT) day programme (also 0.5 day of Empathy Exercises)
28-29th June: Canford School, Wimbourne TPT (overnight)
30th June: Empathy Exercises, Sevenoaks School
30th June - 4th July: Desperate Journeys (2 room version), Sevenoaks School
IF YOU ARE AVAILABLE - PLEASE LET US KNOW. Sign Up Sheets will be live in the coming weeks but an early indication would be (very!) gratefully appreciated! We’re looking to assemble 3 delivery teams.
OTHER
St Johns Primary School: Empathy Exercises (TBC)
Sept 2022: TPT: Activate Learning (TBC)
Michaelmas Term: Sevenoaks School, TPT for Year 8s (TBC)
Peace Day (around 21st Sept) Handicrafts campaign
Climate Justice Week (Nov, TBC)
From our partners
We love it when we hear: “We have an exciting new venture in the city: We are teaming up with a teacher called Vicky who wants to provide homeless children with the chance to learn basic maths and English.” This is what Annie shared as good news from Zimbabwe (One Hope make our beaded animals and the angels for us) among all the harvest they are reaping from their small holding ventures.
We met with Dalit Goods, who make our candles for a repeat order and they shared: “we’ve just put 10 Dalit women through a 10 week sewing programme and will be giving them a sewing machine!”. We’re also exploring some other connections with them
Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees are wrapping up the Veggie Syrian Cookbook. They said: “Happy Friday! I just thought I'd send you a "first look" at the new cookbook! I've just sent it off for final proof so hopefully, early next week it'll go to print, and then we should have 4 or 5 days until it's in our hands…I hope you find it as fantastic as we all do!”. We hope to get this onto The Empathy Store at the earliest!
Other Updates
We met last week with All Nations College (where Vanya now is - we miss her!) and they have told us of students placements for an academic year of 70 hours could be available and the opportunity to run some recruiting simulations with them.
TWCF have offered us the use of space to run some of our programmes in the south side of TW and they also last week purchased 60 items to give away for Mothering Sunday - thank you! We would like to run some events for ‘recruiting volunteers for sims’ there soon. Watch this space!
Do you know any potential facilitators that would be available & willing to help us out deliver simulations? If so, please get in touch.
Supporting Ukraine
Last week Heather W shared about the Sanctuary Foundation: https://sanctuaryfoundation.org.uk/ (UPDATE: they have an info event TONIGHT between 7.30-9 pm, you can register for this here.)
This week we’re hearing of various groups that are assembling. Here’s a few helpful pieces of intel:
BBC’s How can I offer a UK home to Ukrainian refugees? & The Homes For Ukraine (government website & FAQs)
Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees are in touch with local authorities and MPs and have stated: “All of us at Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees will do what we can to help refugees and asylum seekers from Ukraine – and from all other places of conflict - resettle in the Sevenoaks District.”
Local NGO RefugEase are operational in Hungary with Aid distribution. They have a digital aid shop where you can purchase aid. EA are supporting them with the Celebrating Women campaign. They were live on BBC South East Today here.
A time to pray in Sevenoaks. Open Air Prayer for Ukraine | Vine Gardens 4pm Sunday 20th March 2022. On Sunday, churches across Sevenoaks are gathering on the Vine to pray for Ukraine. All welcome.
Tunbridge Wells Churches Together (led by our friend Cliff Allen) today met to pray and assess where they can be supportive. One area we have advised them is support networks for the people and community sponsors to gather and support each other better.
‘Meeting Need’ (Tunbridge Wells community who used to go monthly to Calais with supplies) are in touch with groups on the Moldovan/Ukraine boarder and monitoring the needs. There is growing concern that Moldova will be next. The first wave of refugees coming across will need a connection to the community sponsor (relative/friend). It is also being observed that the people (mainly women & children) coming across don’t want to be too far from their husbands and home.
Practical support and calls for help will be coming. We’ll keep this space updated with intel.
Heather P forwarded this note that is going around:
Prayer is stronger than the strongest enemy!
With love and hope in the Lord from your brothers and sisters from Ukraine
During World War II, an adviser to Prime Minister Winston Churchill organized a group of people to stop whatever they were doing at a certain time each night to work in the community for the peace, safety and security of the (resident) people in England to pray.
They did this every day and it was as if the city stood still, such was the power of prayer.
The result was so overwhelming that the bombing was stopped after a short time!
Now we are organizing again, a group of people of different nationalities, to spend a minute praying for the security of our countries, for an end to the problems that oppress and oppress us, and for God to guide the decisions of our rulers.
We will meet at the following times:
Germany 4 p.m
Austria 4 p.m
Poland 4 p.m
U.K 3 p.m
Spain 4:00 p.m
Portugal 3:00 p.m
Canary Islands 3:00 p.m
Costa Rica 8 p.m
Colombia 7:00 p.m
Nicaragua 8:00 p.m
Ecuador 7:00 p.m
Guatemala 8:00 p.m
Mexico 8 p.m
Panama 7 p.m
Honduras 6 p.m
El Salvador 8:00 p.m
Venezuela 6 p.m
Uruguay 5 p.m
Paraguay 5 p.m
Brazil 6 p.m
Argentina 5 p.m
Chile 5 p.m
Italy 4 p.m
Please support us in this initiative. We will pause for a minute each day at the appointed time to pray for world peace, for an end to conflict and for the restoration of tranquility to all peoples on the earth, and for families to look to God for their safety and see their salvation.
If we understood the tremendous power of prayer, we would be amazed.
If you can forward this request to your contacts, we can work a miracle with our prayer.
Set the alarm on your phone every day at the time set for your country and pray for one minute for peace.
Trevor and Ben dropped Vanya to All Nations College last week.
Ways to support Empathy Action
Volunteering -watch out for opportunities in Team News for simulations or ongoing work. We’ll host meet ups with updates over the coming year
Share the news - please forward, share any social media items to help boost our reach
Introduce us - please introduce us to any prospective volunteers, customers or clients… we’d value your help in these introductions. We’re only as good as our team!
Regular giving - if you would like, we could really use some help as we rebuild the operation coming out of the pandemic. A little goes such a long way!
Via smile.amazon - link beneath