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CHRISTIAN
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CHRISTIAN
NEWS |
FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED ....
Reporting on the ‘Week of Sharing’ held from 17 to 21 November 2003, Solomon Nkesiga said, “This is a fundamental witness through which Christians in Nelson Mandela Bay can share the joy and the blessing of generosity.”Although it was not as well supported as the Transformation Committee had hoped, he said, “Perhaps this will now be an annual event. It is the act of giving away something that is necessary and useful, a concept that calls for goods of a higher ‘value’ than the common jumble-sale items.”
Asked how these items will be shared out, he replied, “The main place of sharing is the local church and its immediate communities. Members of a given congregation bring the goods which they would like to give away. Among them, or in the neighbourhood, there may be needy people who will have indicated that they have particular needs. If the goods available in that local church include some indicated needs, then such needs are met from these goods. Surplus items as well as unmet needs are written down on two separate forms and forwarded to the Transformation office for future reference. We hope that in future the list of unmet needs will help in motivating what kind of goods people should give, while the surplus goods will be sent to other churches according to the list of people’s needs that they have submitted.”
On churches who participated in the outreach he said, “The Week of Sharing was a learning curve. At the beginning of the week only 16 congregations had indicated that they would participate in this event. We believe that the witness and experience gained by these churches will motivate others to join in the next event of sharing.”
Some of the principles behind the Sharing event are:
(1) People are to give out of love and not out of pity.
(2) Sharing what is good to have, but not what is bad and being thrown away.
(3) No Christian has nothing to give because everyone has something to share.
(4) As God has given us his beloved Son Jesus Christ, so are we to share out of love that which we believe will bring joy to others.
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