2003 ADRA-UK Appeal will respond to the - BUC News

2003 ADRA-UK Appeal willrespond to the childrenContinued from page 1bring relief to disenfranchised, disadvantagedand vulnerable children in2002. The membership now is approximately22,000. Based on these figures,The bitter endHave you ever sunk your teeth into somethingappetising, anticipating a delicious responseonly to find that your teeth are set on edge,your hair curls and your skin breaks out in‘goose-flesh’? The taste is unexpectedly bitter.An American biotech company is rushing toyour aid. The New-York-based Linguagen scientistshave developed an additive that can mask thebitter taste of a variety of substances. Normallywhen we taste something bitter, such as thecompound naringin found in caffeine, grapefruitand some painkillers, the taste receptors of themouth produce a protein called gustducin whichtriggers a more complex series of reactionsculminating in nerve impulses to the brain wherewe are made conscious of the bitterness of theitem.The researchers have found a way to switch off2just think what 15,000 members cancollect – a staggering £1,000,000 plus!‘Let’s go for a Million’This year, beloved, let us ‘go one million’.The prospect excites me! Listen to thisword: ‘God has an abundance in ourworld, and He has placed His goods inIf my people prayThank you for the many prayer requests now coming in.When writing, please continue to specify whose names andcircumstances you would like to be printed in order to effectspecific prayers from our members and what you would prefer I keepconfidential. I have been very general about what people have askedme to pray about, where it has not been clear whether the requesterrequires confidentiality or not. Ask Jesus to be with Adventist families whohave youngsters within them who are turning to drugs rather than the Lord.Pray that the parents of such youngsters will be loving and full of the fruitsof the Spirit, thereby enabling their children to see first hand what God coulddo for them if only they would let him.Pray for the starving in Brazil and wherever famine is a problem in the world.Pray for Adventist families where marriage relationships are breaking down.Pray that our entire membership will become contagiously Christian through anoutpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. Pray specifically for the Sutton-in-Ashfieldchurch, the London SE9 church and the Stafford church, who ask specifically for agrowing ability to witness effectively in their communities, homes and workplaces. The Corby Small Group and the Prayer Band at Bethel church in Londonalso ask that you remember them in prayer. Pray that we will hold on to our faiththat in asking God to help us, in our need and pain, he will hear and answer usbecause he loves us (John 14:13, 14). Many of our members feel isolated andalone in their struggles and emotional pain. Please pray for such people. Pray thatour membership will be particularly effective in reaching family members whomthey love with the message of redemption. Ask that close relatives who have notmade a decision for Christ, will do so soon, according to God’s will. Prayparticularly in this regard for Darren Glyne Thompson from Thornton Heath, Surrey.Ask that God will help our Sabbath School teachers and church leaders to leadwisely and effectively for Christ. Pray particularly for Pastor Howson in London andAlva Gallaher and his Sabbath School team in Weston-super-Mare.Send prayer requests to: Tracy E. Dixon, 83 Penygroes Road, Caebryn,Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, S. Wales, SA18 3BZ.TRACY DIXONthe hands of all, both the obedient andthe disobedient. He is ready to moveupon the hearts of worldly men, evenidolaters, to give of their abundance forthe support of His work; and He will dothis as soon as His people learn toapproach these men wisely and to calltheir attention to that which it is theirprivilege to do.’ Christian Service, page167.the initial production of gustducin so that foods,drinks and medicines need no longer be perceivedas bitter. They are hoping to extend the technologyto help consumers avoid the effects of sugars,salts and fats, so reducing the unhealthy conditionsassociated with excess use of these foodcomponents.It seems that adding the bitter-blockers will notaffect our ability to detect food that is sour or goingoff. The mechanism for detecting these uses a differentreaction circuit to the brain. Food scientistsare optimistic that foods that children traditionallyhave aversion to such as cabbage and spinachmight be debitterised and have increasedacceptability.Blocking bitter taste will also have clinical usesas drugs from simple painkillers to those used tocontrol HIV will be made more palatable andThe 2003 ADRA-UK Annual Appealwill answer to the cries of thousandsof vulnerable, disenfranchised anddisadvantaged children. For the sakeof these crying children, let’s increasemembership involvement and go for acool £1,000,000!increase the likelihood thatpeople will stick to their prescriptions.Patents have beengranted to develop further therange or ‘family’ of blockersdiscovered. Only tiny amounts of the blockers arerequired to have the desired effect. Currently amajor food group and a leading pharmaceuticalcompany are testing the blockers across a widerange of products. Independent research hasconfirmed that the science behind the innovationis good.So for the future, we won’t need a spoonfulof sugar to help the medicine go down – andhopefully parents will not have to have mealtimetantrums over beneficial but ill-liked foods. If theblockers are used widely we won’t have any bitterregrets!‘‘I was going downand you helpedme up!’Abandon ship!’ was the only order DonVairin needed to hear before he sliced thewater. He was part of the Americaninvasion of Guam – and his boat had torninto a coral reef.Don sank like a stone, his gun, medicalpack, canteen and big boots dragging himdown. Once he forced himself to the surface togasp for air, only to sink again. That was whenhe knew he wasn’t going to make it.Just then Don saw a man thrashing about inthe water beside him. Don grabbed the man,hoisted himself onto the reef – and was rescued.But he felt bad about grabbing a drowningman to save himself. So bad, in fact, that hedidn’t tell a soul about what had happened.Six months later Don was enjoying R and Rin San Francisco. As he entered a restaurant asailor, pointing to him, announced to his friends,‘This is my buddy. He saved my life!’Confused, Don asked, ‘What do you mean?’‘Don’t you remember?’ asked the man. ‘Wewere in the water at Guam. You grabbed on tome. I was going down, and you helped me up!’ 1‘I was going down, and you helped me up!’Could anyone ever say that of you?Jim Burns once said, ‘For every criticalcomment we hear, it takes ten affirming commentsto even out its effect on our life.’ I’ma bit doubtful about his arithmetic (and hisgrammar), but I add, ‘Hear, hear!’ to the pointhe’s making. A wise man once wrote, ‘Manyeveryday conversations are actually mutualcounselling sessions in which we exchangethe reassurance and advice that help us dealwith life’s routine stresses.’So how many have you held up – or pushedunder – so far today?When The Guardian was relaunched thirtyfiveyears ago, Alistair Cooke wrote, ‘The newpaper is going to tell it short and fast and like itis.’ 2 And I, for one, wish reporters for this magazinehad similar aims; but accurate reportingand the economy of words is not everything.Words can sink and save.Why are so many words we hear calculatedto tear down, rather than build up? I’ll tell you.Because too many are chronically insecure andthey have decided that the only way to makethemselves look good is to make others lookbad. Of course, they do not even succeed intheir primary objectives; because in the ‘mutualcounselling session’ that is conversation theyhave given the signal, ‘Destruction is good’ –and the person at the other end of the exchangewill hear and respond accordingly.Be big enough to build, rather than destroy!Be generous enough to give, to affirm, to dishout praise (in place of blame)! God will use youto make your congregation, family, work group,whatever, a so much better environment.Darwin did get it wrong, didn’t he? Society isn’treally about the survival of the fittest. Right?Right? So prove it by the way you behave!‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold insettings of silver.’ (Proverbs 25:11, NKJV.)What a picture! The word translated ‘apples’could just as easily have been rendered‘apricots’ or ‘oranges’. And, ‘settings ofsilver’ means ‘silver baskets’. 3 The overallimpression is the attractiveness of the(appropriate) spoken word.The way we use words is important.Wordsmith Mark Twain once wrote: ‘The differencebetween the right word and almost theright word is the difference between lightningand a lightning bug.’ Some words jab at the jaw,others float like thistledown, still others threatenlike the cold, steel barrel of a .38 Smith andWesson. Words can purify our thoughts, transportingus, if only for an instant, to heavenlyplaces; and words can incite lust, bitternessand alienation. Flowers fade. Shorelines erode.Temples crumble. Empires fall. But ‘a word fitlyspoken’ endures. Who has not found relief in awell-timed word spoken at the precise momentof need? Who has not been crushed beneath theweight of an ill-chosen word? And who has notgathered fresh courage because a word of hopepenetrated the fog of self-doubt?Too many people take Peter as their rolemodel: they want to lead. Others pattern onPaul: they want to pontificate on points theological.Some want to be visionaries, like John:you’d be amazed what they read into thekaleidoscope of disorder that is their dreams.I commend to you the example of Barnabas:Barnabas was ‘the Son of Encouragement’(Acts 4:36, NKJV). That is a name worth having!The indication is that it was a name given tohim by the apostles and that his proper namewas Joseph. The writer Malcolm Muggeridgewanted the epitaph, ‘He used words well.’ Andthat’s a good one. Better still, though, is to beknown in life as a son or daughter of encouragement.That is a nickname worth having!You go and be a Peter if you must, a Paul ifyou have to, and a visionary if you really wantto try my patience. I’ll be a Barnabas! There’llalways be room for any number of Barnabases(Barnabi?) for their stock in trade is encouragement.Over the years I’ve written about twentybooks. Some have taken years in the writing.Others only months. I have no idea which onessold the best. But I do know which one generatedthe most appreciative mailbag. It was atiny book written after much thought and prayer– in two long afternoons: God’s Little Book ofEncouragement. It represented 126 pages ofBible quotes and pithy comments – youguessed it – on the theme of encouragement! Ihad been asked to write a book by a near deadlineto use up a quantity of paper that otherwisewould have been wasted.Letters of thanks – sometimes embarrassinglyeffusive – followed hard on the heels ofpublication. They came as a total surprise. Onecame from a Christian woman who, after a hardlife featuring divorce and isolation, was in ahospice in the final stages of cancer. One camefrom an unemployed man. Another came fromsomeone with a long-term illness. Most camefrom ordinary people who felt that they hadbeen given ‘a leg up’. Having poured years ofeffort into other books – for which little thankshad been received – I was tempted to be a tadirritated by this ‘bumper bundle’. After all, whatwas it? A collection of 126 encouraging Bibleverses. Clearly the operative word wasencouraging. In the majority of livesencouragement is a commodity in short supply.That’s a lesson I’ve decided not to miss.After all, God filled his book with words ofencouragement. So let’s take a leaf out of God’sbook! Let’s use words of encouragement andbuild up; not wound, alienate, embitter ordeflate.Covet the nickname of Joseph of Cyprus, the‘Son of Encouragement’. (Acts 4:36.)References:1 Donald Vairin, ‘His Mysterious Ways’, Guideposts, September 1999.2 Nick Clarke, Alistair Cooke: the Biography (Orion, 1999), page 479.3 Enid B. Mellor, The People’s Bible Commentary: Proverbs (BibleReading Fellowship, 1999), pages 188-189.3