St Mary's takes the wooden spoon
St Andrew's Church in Mvumi, Tanzania, and the churches of St Illogan
Parish have been drawn even closer together - thanks to 476 spoons!
The folk at St Andrew's need to
raise £500 to finish work on their
new church. Instead of simply
hoping that the money would be
given, they decided to do
something practical themselves.
Every member of the church was
invited to buy a spoon, which
would then be brought back to
this parish by Jan and David
Townend, and sold for £1.
David writes: "The spoons are a
great challenge to our faith. The
response of the Mvumi congregation
has been magnificent, with average
individual giving equivalent to
£120, in order to receive much
more back when the spoons are
sold. Of course, because they are
so poor (most live on less than
50p per day) their actual
contribution was much less,
about 85p each, but that is
equivalent to £120 for us - truly
sacrificial giving!
"Now the challenge for us - tiny
in comparison - is to raise at least
£500 by selling the 476 spoons
that St Andrew's have bought for
at least £1 each, and to commit to pray
for the person whose name is written on
each spoon."
These lovely people thought only poor
people used wooden spoons. They
wantedto give us and to God the very
best, so they bought stainless steel rice serving spoons.The rich in Tanzania eat rice rather thanmaize porridge,so surely
we do too!
However, one wooden spoon has
found its way from Mvumi to St
Illogan Parish. A large one was
presented to Jan by Pastor Lister
at St Andrew's Church and has
now been gratefully received by
the congregation at St Mary's.
