Talk by Paul Brookhouse
Derby Food4Thought Alliance (DF4TA)

Introduction

DF4TA has been going for 6.5 years now and supports with food, school uniform, furniture and electrical items, clothes for new arrivals to UK and other basic welfare support.

Moving from model of just giving away for free to everything requesting a small donation so help build dignity, resilience and make it sustainable. We are launching a food membership scheme very soon. Noe one will be turned away if they don’t have any money.

Statistics on the City of Derby

• 1 in 3 children living in poverty;
• 6 wards of city above national average and city as whole above national average for child poverty;
• Derby South Parliamentary Constituency is in top 3% of rates of child poverty for whole country YET Derby has companies whose pay to staff puts them in the top 3 highest salary paying companies outside of London;
• Average life expectancy between richest and poorest parts of Derby differs by a staggering 11 years.

A huge thank you to the churches in Mickleover for their consistent support of DF4TA over these past years.

Ruth 2 – What is gleaning?

The Hebrew word for “glean” is laqat, and it means “to collect, gather up, pick up.” Gleaning is the gathering of grain or other harvested material left behind by reapers. In the Bible, the Israelites were commanded to allow the poor to follow behind reapers and pick up leftover spears of grain and fallen grapes. In this way, the Law of Moses provided food for the poor, orphans, widows, and resident aliens. The law specified that landowners must leave some of the harvest for gleaners: “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19: 9 –10).

Amazing principle that I wonder if we applied to our lives and everyone applied if what we do not need, we gave away to those in need – what would the world look like today with all its wealth!?

Paul told a story of when he was a kid, he was invited to a party and ate too much and made himself ill – often we try to store too much for a rainy day and it can make us ‘unwell’.

Notice in the story, Boaz doesn’t just say Ruth ‘what do you need and I will give it to you.’ He says: ‘Ruth I have noticed what you have sacrificed to look after your mother-in-law Naomi – come glean in my fields and you will be safe’. Dignity is about helping someone build resilience and support themselves not just rely on handouts for ever – a model we are trying to follow at DF4TA

2 Corinthians 9: We should live generous lives being ‘cheerful givers’

Paul is talking here about our motives – what is our heart behind giving to others? He then told a story of giving away his last Rolo as a child – He didn’t want to give it away but gave because people were watching him. Was that the right motive?

Why do we give at Harvest? – is it because it is tradition? is it because it is duty? or are we compelled to feed the poor?

An offering is more than our tithe – giving a tithe is our duty, giving an offering is from our heart.

Paul has done lots work with Ukrainian refugees and recently did a campaign to help the school in Burundi that AS supports. He was told that 50p a week could give 108 children the stationery they need to go to school. He managed to raise all the funds for these 108!! Amazing to see the heart of Ukrainians to give – why are they generous? They know what it’s like to lose everything – they fled from war with just 1 bag each and left everything else behind. Because of this they don’t want anyone else to be left with nothing when they now have built home again. Often those with little give the most.

If we follow principle of gleaning and ask God to stir our heart – what difference can we make to those in need in our country and those in Burundi and beyond.