News

It was our final night as we were walking towards the Big Top at Spring Harvest. I recalled friends returning from this 10 years ago saying how everyone had been given £10 and asked to use it to raise £100 and send the money back to the charity. I had wondered how I would turn £10 into £100. However, this night, I thought if that happened now I would use it to kick-start the café and send the first £100 to the charity. When we arrived at the meeting, everyone was handed an envelope with the instruction not to open it until told to do so. The thought popped into my head ‘there’s going to be £10 in there’, but I just put the envelope in my bag and forgot about it.

Mid-way through the evening we were shown a DVD by Hope HIV, a charity which works with children in Africa orphaned and affected by AIDS. The founder of Hope HIV came on the stage and told us to open our envelopes. Inside was £10. This money had been borrowed and we reckon there may have been over 4000 people there that night! We were given 3 choices: 1) return the money, possibly with a little extra added 2) if our need was greater than the children in the DVD we could keep the money with their blessing 3) use the money to raise £100 and send it to Hope HIV.

For some time Derek and I have thought it would be a good idea to provide a café for Wing. During March I asked mums attending Church Mice and Pop In & Paint to fill in a simple questionnaire, where a café proved to be the most popular idea.

I turned to Derek and said the money was to kick-start the café, so Derek added his £10 to mine and said we’ll send the first £200 to Hope HIV. When they did this 10 years ago at Spring Harvest they raised £2,000,000

Thanks to the generosity of members of our congregation and friends at Wing Chapel, contributing towards the cost of a coffee maker and refreshments, by the time you are reading this, Café Oasis will have opened in All Saints Church on a Saturday morning.

Café Oasis—a place of refreshing for all the family— provides
Fairtrade tea/coffee or squash and homemade cake for £1 per person. Come along and try us out between 10am and 12 noon on Saturdays 19 & 26 June, 3 July or Fridays 9 & 16 July.

We have newspapers as well as toys for young children and a colouring table available, aiming to provide a relaxed meeting place for all ages.

Come along and help us raise £200 for the children in Africa!

Debbie Witchell

Crime has fallen by 4%* with significant decreases in Burglary and Theft of Vehicle. The recession didn’t adversely impact crime and disorder within Aylesbury Vale as had been anticipated.
Throughout 2009/2010 there were 520 recorded burglaries, that’s 53 lower than the previous year and 197 Thefts of a vehicle, 14 lower than the previous year. These key successes have been down to effective partnership work between the police, council and other agencies who work as part of the Community Safety Partnership. With projects such as the Hard Target & Home Service scheme which protect vulnerable residents by upgrading home security and Operation Accurist, our wintertime burglary campaign which gave out over 3500 home safety packs we’ve been able to keep the rate of burglary to one of the lowest across Thames Valley. To find out about other initiatives we’ve been delivering to keep crime low visit

http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/community-living/community-safety/
In neighbourhood areas such as Buckingham, Wendover and Waddesdon we have seen positive reductions in serious acquisitive crime, with overall reductions in Aylesbury Town. If you would like more information about crime statistics in your local area visit www.ionbucks.info
Serious acquisitive crime 2009/2010 against 2008/2009

Burglary: 9.2% reduction (53 offences)**

Theft from vehicles: 8.5% increase (63 offences)**

Theft of vehicles: 6.6% reduction (14 offences)**

Robbery: 14.1% Increase (10 offences)**
* Of 29.03.10 & subject to Home Office approval

** Of 31.03.10 & Subject to Home Office approval

Council and Police working together to reduce crime and disorder

Another: On the 1st day, God created the dog and said:
‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of 20 years.'
The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only 10 years and I'll give you back the other 10?'
So God agreed.
On the 2nd day, God created the monkey and said:
'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a 20 year life span.'
The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for 20 years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back 10 like the dog did?'
And God agreed.
On the 3rd day, God created the cow and said:
‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of 60 years.'
The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for 60 years. How about 20 and I'll give back the other forty?'
And God agreed again.
On the 4th day, God created humans and said:
'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you 20 years.'
But the human said: ‘Only 20 years? Could you possibly give me my 20, the 40 the cow gave back, the 10 the monkey gave back, and the 10 the dog gave back; that makes 80, okay?'
‘Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'
So that is why for our first 20 years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next 10 years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren and for the last 10 years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
Life has now been explained to you.
Funny… but it also raises a serious point – because if that’s all life can offer then God’s messing with us!
But it’s not…
God sent His Son Jesus into His creation to show us how we can live a life that is rich, satisfying, a blessing to others, full of hope and love and where death is not an end but a doorway to a new life. He offers a new life so good we’d be completely crazy to miss out on it!
So why do so many of us fail to accept the gift? Are we suspicious that something so good must be too good to be true?
God promises He will only give to His creation good things. God promises a taste of life in its fullness now and He promises the whole renewed world to be our playground, our ‘heaven’, when we die.
He promises all this to those who follow the Way shown to us by Jesus.
Do you know the Way?

Shalom
Revd Derek Witchell
01296 682320

There is a recognised shortage of 10,000 Foster Carers in the UK. PACT (Parents And Children Together), founded in 1911, is also known as the Oxford Diocesan Council for Social Work inc. We are a registered charity working to improve life chances for children. The focus of our work is within Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and aims to build and strengthen families.

We are an approved Adoption and Fostering Agency. We have a history of finding safe, loving families for children in care. Here are a few facts about Fostering:
1. Did you know you don’t have to be married to become a Foster Carer?
2. You don’t have to have children already although you do need to have experience of caring for children.
3. Did you know you get paid a Fostering Allowance of £335.70 a week to be a Foster Carer which is tax free and won’t affect any other benefits?
4. Most of the children who need fostering are known as ‘hard to place’ children, they will usually be 8+ years of age.

Fostering is a hard but very rewarding job. If you think you might have what it takes to become a Permanent Foster Carer or you want to find out more then contact PACT now on 0800 731 1845 e-mail or visit www.pactcharity.org