Create a peaceful space to pause, and allow yourself to feel God’s presence alongside you, as near to you as your own breath. In following the reflection below, as a church we will draw closer to God and to one another as we grow in faith and deepen our sense of belonging to God.
James 2:14-17 ‘Faith Without Works is Dead’
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Covid 19 has spread worldwide. It is no respecter of wealth or poverty, of religious faith or political ideology, of national or geographical barriers. One of the agreed procedures for people to protect themselves against the virus is hand washing – frequently. If you have piped water in your home this is not a problem but if you have to collect your water from a communal stand pipe or from a natural – usually polluted – water source, it is not straightforward. If James was writing today, he might say ‘Suppose a brother or sister has very little precious water and you just say “Protect yourself and your family by washing your hands frequently”, what good is it?’
A Tearfund-inspired ‘Tippy Tap’ in Burundi
But this is where Tippy Taps come in. Many Relief Agencies including Tearfund are teaching people how to make Tippy Taps from sticks, string and a water container. The sticks can be built into a frame on which the water container, perhaps a bottle, is hooked, a measured piece of string joins it to a piece of wood on the ground which acts as a pedal, so that when you stand on the wood the “bottle” tips and with soap suspended on a string from the frame, you can wash your hands safely and without wasting precious water. James would have approved!
Tearfund, through local partner churches, has been helping people in more than 35 countries from Haiti to the Democratic Republic of Congo to learn how to make their own Tippy Taps and so help protect their families from this global pandemic.
Tippy Taps, a simple solution for a One World problem. If you would like to know more, look up Tippy Taps on the internet or telephone Tearfund on 0203 906 3906.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, we thank you for our ready access to water –
please let us not take it for granted or waste it.
We pray for our neighbours throughout the world
for whom water is a rare and precious resource – difficult to obtain and to store safely.
May the use of Tippy Taps and other water saving devices
help them to protect themselves and their families from the virus. Amen.
Reflection & Prayer © 2020 Gillian Wood.
Image of Tippy Tap is © Tom Price/Tearfund and is from the Resource Library at www.tearfund.org.
Other image freely available online.
A printable version of this Daily Devotional can be downloaded from here
All material within this order of worship is reproduced by permission under CCL 1226356