Whata lota water

This has been an extremely dry and hot summer in many parts of the world, including Britain.
Despite Britain’s water companies continuing to lose millions of gallons of water through leaks caused by under-investment in this country’s water infrastructure, we can do our bit to save water at home.  Here are a few water-related statistics:

Taking a bath uses 80 litres
Taking a shower uses 5 litres per minute
Flushing the toilet uses 9.5 litres
Washing machine users 80 litres
Dishwasher users 35 litres
Using a garden hose uses up to a 1,000 litres per hour
A dripping tap at one drop per second wastes 1,200 litres per year.

We can all make some savings.  For example, we should always fully load our washing machines and dishwashers; fix leaking taps, and put a water hippo or brick in our cisterns - or, even better, invest in a dual flush attachment which costs about £20 per toilet and saves a great deal of water.  And if we’re using a running tap to get hot water, we can put a dish under the tap and then use that excess to water our garden and house plants.
* By the way, we now have two bins for recycling cans and water/juice bottles.  One is in the Nash room and the other is in the kitchen.  Please use them.

By Valerie Stubbs.

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Green gifts for Christmas

The idea of ‘virtual’ Christmas gifts has taken off in the last few years and there are some great ideas to be had.
As a result of the first two editions of the Good Gift Catalogue - which specialises in virtual and ethical gifts - 2,000 Rwandan war widows have been given goats.  In Africa, 3,000 bee-keepers have been equipped and 2,000 subsistence farmers have planted seeds given through the scheme.
Around the developing world, 3,000 midwives have been given bikes.  And, in Britain, thousands of trees have been planted. Abroad, the Rainforest Reserve now covers five times the area of the City of London. For more gift ideas visit: www.goodgifts.org.

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Climate change rally

Those who Care about climate change are being encouraged to join ‘i count’, a major rally organised by ‘Stop Climate Chaos’, a coalition which includes BMS World Mission.  The rally takes place in Trafalgar Square from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday 4th November.
At the event, thousands of people will put pressure on the UK government to take urgent action on climate change, and call for a radical reduction of worldwide carbon emissions over the next decade.
The London rally will be one of several events taking place around the world on the eve of the next round of international talks on climate change in Nairobi, Kenya.
Later in November, the Queen's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament could include a landmark bill, which would commit the UK to a ‘Carbon Budget’ as a way of managing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Last month saw the UK opening of 'The inconvenient truth', Al Gore's film on the subject of climate change.
According to Gareth Wilde, BMS mission education co-ordinator: “As Christians, it’s our responsibility to join the campaign to stop climate chaos.
"BMS workers in some of the poorest countries in the world are seeing at first-hand, the catastrophic effects of climate change.  Crop failures, flooding and desertification are affecting poor communities that have few resources to deal with the devastating consequences of climate chaos,” he said.
"The BMS calls on its supporters to stand alongside other Christian charities, as well as environmental and political groups which are part of Stop Climate Chaos, in campaigning for international action.  Come and be counted, on 4th November, with thousands of people who want to make their voices heard," he added.
‘i count’ will include street bands, entertainment, film, performance and speakers.  A church service in St Martin-in the-Fields will also take place before the main event.

From BMS World News.

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Diptipur Hospital update

In the absence of Rajnish Samal, the hospital’s senior doctor, Dr Viru and Mrs Nancy Henry work with the junior doctor, Deeptiman James, to keep Diptipur Hospital going.
The Henrys spend two weeks each month at Diptipur.  Their home is in Tilda, which is several hours drive away.  Nancy is a well qualified American nurse.  Many years ago, Nancy and I were together in language school - and now we keep up a regular email friendship.
She writes: ‘We are completing our 15 days here tomorrow and plan to return on Friday, 1st September.  It has been raining day and night for the past week - except on Nua Khai.  We are supposed to drive back on Friday and we hope the road will be open.
‘You might remember Nua Khai.  It is a holiday to celebrate and give thanks for the new crop of rice.  It is celebrated heartily in this area and also Ganesh puja was the day before, on Sunday. 
‘From Monday evening, we have been having a lot of emergencies.  One child with intestinal obstruction came in too late and could not be saved.  We have had a number of admissions of others with fever, diarrhoea and other complaints - all coming late because they cannot interrupt the holiday to come to hospital!  We even had a child who ate so much on Nua Khai that he choked and aspirated rice pudding into his lungs.  We struggled for half a day but we could not save him.
‘An old man came with a wound full of maggots.  He came so late, saying that no one in the family was willing to bring him to hospital. 
We had two deliveries, both with the unborn baby in distress.  One of the mothers also was having fits, due to eclampsia.  They both just made it on time for an emergency C Section.  We are grateful that both mother and baby in the two cases are fine and recovering.  There were a quite a few really sick patients and Deeptiman James was glad that Dr Henry was here at this time.
Deeptiman is doing a great job here, but now he has to be the only doctor when we are not here - and that is hard. He gets night calls almost every night and then has to also attend rounds and the outpatient clinic, as well as all deliveries and procedures and so on.  It is a lot for one person - especially for a young doctor.  We praise God for sending Deeptiman to Diptipur.’

To be continued - and keep praying please.

By Aileen Hagen.