There can be few in the West who have not heard terrible stories, and seen distressing photos, of the devastation wrought in recent weeks by the floods in Pakistan following torrential rain over the last few weeks.  Although deaths so far have been relatively few, some 25% of the country is, or has been under water.  Latest estimates suggest that 20 million people have been affected, with entire communities being evacuated.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described it as a ‘tsunami in slow motion’, meaning that the destruction is as great as the 2004 tsunami, though there is no cataclysmic loss of life – yet.  An even greater humanitarian crisis is round the corner, as the floods have destroyed crops, polluted water supplies, and displaced key medical personnel.  Millions of refugees are at risk of dying of hunger, thirst and disease.

Yet despite extensive media coverage, there has been an initially disappointing response to appeals for aid from governments, aid agencies and individuals alike.  It has been suggested that following a number of other disasters, there is significant donor fatigue.  Many agencies budget for one disaster a year, and have already committed a lot of their reserves in Haiti.  And governments, particularly western ones faced with the need to cut costs, can be reluctant to spend on aid while they are reducing services to their own electorate.  Fear that funds for emergency aid can be lost through incompetence or corruption can curb people’s generosity.

In such circumstances it is even more important that Christians give generously.  But how do we give wisely?  Here are some suggestions.

Give prayerfully. Don’t just give your money, intercede for the victims, the relief workers, and the government agencies involved.  Seek God’s guidance as you make decisions.

Give to people who have agents in the locality. Many UK aid agencies work through local partners.  They know the people and the customs and can often get access where outsiders can’t.   This also provides local employment and it’s easier to get a local to the scene than to fly someone out from Europe.  If you know people who work in that community, ask if you can give money directly to them.

Give to reputable organisations. The big names are audited and are liable to scrutiny.  That helps to keep them accountable.  An ad hoc organisation which has sprung up to deal with a particular crisis may be enthusiastic but might not have the level of expertise and transparency that an established organisation has.

Give to overtly Christian organisations. The Christian charities vary on a spectrum from those who overtly link aid with their Christian identity to ones which are run by Christians without making a public display of their beliefs.  Whichever you choose, they are likely to share your personal ethos of giving help because Jesus cares about the suffering.

Give to agencies with a lower percentage of admin costs. UK law requires funds designated to a particular disaster to go 100% to that appeal.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that all your money will buy clean water or high-energy biscuits, as there are inevitably transport, financial and personnel costs in delivering these.  But the most efficient agencies will manage down those costs and make the percentage available to you if you ask.

Whatever decision you make, please give to the Pakistan appeal as you would like people to give to you if such a disaster took place in your country (Luke 6:31).

If you are African, you can rely on your family.  In Africa, you know that your family is always there for you.  You’re part of a community much more than you are an individual.  You’re never left on your own.  Your parents, uncles and aunties, brothers and sisters will always help you.

Until you get AIDS.  One of the most disorientating aspects of having this terrible illness is that many people find their family turn their backs on them.  It’s a situation unprecedented in African culture, but partly out of shame, partly out of fear, AIDS patients are often rejected by their families, sometimes just left to die in squalor in a corner of a yard.  They are often denied care, compassion, company, and even food.  Some families think that when food is short, why waste it on someone who’s going to die anyway?

Lifeline in Zambia works to motivate churches to meet this desperate need for community and to extend the love of Christ to those who are in dire need of a new family.  LIZ trains and equips teams of volunteers from across different denominations to support and care for those who have no hope left in this life.  They feed, clothe, bath, comfort and pray with the needy.  They arrange hospital visits and facilitate the delivery of medicines.  In six locations in different parts of Zambia, over 700 AIDS patients receive home-based care from 160 volunteers.

Many of the adults who have died of AIDS have left behind children.  With nobody to care for them, many of these now form child-headed households, or are fostered by grannies who no longer have the capacity to care for them.  These families too are supported by LIZ.  Provision of food and schooling, and mentoring for the older children caring for their younger siblings, are all part of LIZ’s ministry.

LIZ’s founder and chief executive, Lene Pedersen, will be on a short visit to the UK at the beginning of September.  If you would like to meet her, or attend one of the briefings she will be giving about the work of LIZ, please email info@syzygy.org.uk for further details.

For more information about Lifeline in Zambia, visit www.lifelineinzambia.dk

I wonder what you think when you see the word ‘stress’.  Does it make you tense up?  Do you feel you have already experienced all you need to know about stress?  Does it make you want to stop reading straight away?  If so, you’re probably suffering from too much stress.

Stress is something with which we are all familiar.  It’s part of the territory for missions workers.  We expect to have it.  But we don’t always realise the long-term impact of it in our lives, or know how to unload it.  So I am going to publish a series of articles about stress on this website: what it is, how to recognise it, how to deal with it, where to get help, and what happens if you don’t get help.

Much has been written about stress, and we don’t claim to be the experts.  There are many other websites where you can find experienced counsellors or detailed descriptions of the psychological impact of stress.  Most of the missionaries I meet suffer from some level of stress, often resulting from  over-work, the strain of living in an alien culture, or working in cross-cultural teams that often cause more problems than they bring solutions.  Many of them are ill as a result of stress.  It concerns me, because mismanaged stress can lead to burnout, which is a major cause of dysfunction and attrition in missions workers.

I’m sure we’ve all seen a small vehicle that’s overloaded with too many passengers.  35 people balanced precariously on the back of a Hilux.  You think it’s going to be fine, and perhaps it is at first, but it puts an unseen strain on all sorts of hidden but essential parts like tyres, brakes and suspension.  So it can easily overheat, or struggle to go uphill, or even worse, it will fail to take a corner and end up having a bad accident.

Stress is just like that.  We think we can cope, but underneath, it’s taking its toll on our heart, blood-pressure and brain.  All it takes is one extra demanding event and there’s a breakdown.  So if you’re thinking you’ll be fine, you’re nearly there and nothing’s gone wrong yet, stop right now and throw off a couple of passengers.  Get rid of one or two burdens.  Lighten the load.  It’s better to leave one or two by the side of the road than to have the whole lot crash.  You can always come back and pick them up later if necessary.

It’s important that we talk about this issue.  It’s a personal issue, so I’m not asking for comments on the website, except of a generic nature, but anyone who’d like to discuss their stress is welcome to email me confidentially on tim@syzygy.org.uk.  Alternatively, talk to a friend, a pastor, a colleague.  Talking to someone is the first step in resolving the problem, so do it today.

Any time a computer component stops working, or just becomes unstable — as we all know will happen from time to time — we have to decide whether to replace it, have it repaired, or just get by as is with perhaps a temporary fix. Repair or just getting by will nearly always be the cheapest solution, at least in the short run. Replacement, however, will usually provide a good opportunity to upgrade. In fact, given the rate at which the various technologies behind computer hardware are advancing, unless you replace something a week after you buy it, you may almost be forced to upgrade.

Following are five items which, if replaced (and generally upgraded), can provide excellent benefits, from an enhanced user experience to additional compatibility, greater longevity, and stability for the whole system.

#1: Power supply

One of the most overlooked pieces of computer hardware is the power supply unit (PSU). Computer enthusiasts often brag about their blazing fast processors, top-of-the- line video cards, and gigs upon gigs of RAM, but rarely about their great PSUs.

The truth is, the power supply is the last thing we should skimp on when choosing components for our system. If a computer’s brain is its processor, its heart is the power supply. And having one that is worn out, underpowered, unstable, or just generally cheap can be a major cause of hardware failure.

Every computer’s power requirements are different, but a good minimum for a modern PC is 450 watts. Some systems, especially those with multiple high-end video cards or lots of add-on cards and peripherals may require a PSU rated at 800 watts or more. Replacing a failing or inadequate power supply can make a previously unstable system stable.

Aside from supplying enough power, that power must be supplied stably. A common cause of “unexplained” lockups and system crashes is a drop in voltage supplied to the system when under load, caused by a poorly manufactured PSU. The easiest way to find a quality PSU is to stick to the consistently top brands such as Antec, EnerMax, and PC Power & Cooling.

#2: Fans

As computers have gotten more powerful over the last decades, they have also gotten hotter. Gone are the days of a passively cooled Pentium 100; now we have fans on our massive CPU heatsinks, on our monster video cards, and on intake and outtake vents to our computer cases. All of these fans are playing important roles by keeping our computers safely cooled, and we should try to ensure that they continue doing so.

Fans are one of the few parts that when replaced will not usually be replaced with something better. But they deserve mention because:

• As one of the few moving parts in our system, they are one of the most likely to actually break.
• When they break, it’s likely to pass unnoticed or not cause much concern.

Also, fans are cheap and easy to replace. It generally takes about £10-£15, 15 minutes, and a screwdriver to install a new one, so there’s really no good excuse for not doing so.

#3: Surge protector / UPS

This is another item that keeps our computers safe and should not be neglected. A surge protector can be a stand-alone power strip, but one is also built into virtually every uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The surge protector guards our devices against spikes in energy that occur in our circuits at the home or office, usually due to lightning or the powering up of high-powered devices, such as hair dryers or refrigerators. Repairing a surge protector would be difficult and expensive at best; replacement is almost always the best option.

It can be tricky to know when it’s time to replace a surge protector, because the component inside that diverts excess power from surges to the ground simply wears out with repeated use. However, there is often no interruption of power or other indication that it’s done. You may still have juice but not be protected. The cheapest protectors may wear out after fewer than 10 small surges, while the better ones can last through hundreds. The safest thing to do is to get higher quality protectors but still replace them occasionally.

#4: Video card

The video card is one of the most important elements in the performance of your system and overall user experience. Even though it is also one of the priciest components, there are two good reasons to replace it should your old one bite the dust.

First, video cards are one of the components that are being improved upon seemingly every day. Just like with CPUs, a video card that’s two years old simply isn’t as fast as a current one and won’t have the newest features (such as support for DirectX 10).

Also, the video card is the number one hardware stopgap as we migrate to Vista. Manufacturers just aren’t providing new Vista-compatible drivers for lots of their old video cards. This means that many of us will have to replace our video cards whether they are broken or not, if we plan to switch to Vista.

#5: Hard drives

The computer component we all least want to fail is the hard drive. It’s easier to cope with the loss of the much more expensive processor or video card as long as we still have our precious data, so your first instinct is to try to repair it. But if you’ve been practicing good backup habits, you can actually come out of the situation better off when you replace the old drive with something bigger and faster. Generally you want to look for the largest drive you can find, Maxtor, and Seagate are good brands to look for.

Adam Brown, technical advisor

This month I thought you’d like to read this very ordinary and down to earth progress report from an evangelist in India.  He doesn’t waste time embellishing it, he just tells it like it is:

REPORT FOR JANUARY – JUNE 2010

1. How many new House Churches were planted?   109

2. Training Seminars – how many? 33

How many participants? 1132

3. How many Baptisms:  2639

Little Stories:

• Sister Y accepted the Lord last year and has been reunited with her husband after 7 years of separation.
• BS’s young daughter who suffered from chronic asthma was healed as God’s people prayed for her in April 2010 at a Conference.
• HS wept with joy as he was given 60 Bibles for distribution in his House Churches. He reports that Children in his House Churches are reading Stories from the Bible to their illiterate Parents and Grand Parents.
• M who suffered a stroke and could not walk was healed as God’s people prayed. Today one can hardly tell if she had a stroke at all.

GOALS FOR JULY – DECEMBER 2010

(1) New Believers: 8000

(2) Baptisms: 8000

(3) New House Churches : 800

Please pray for the safety of this dynamic man as he ministers.

Pray for those who hear his message, and for the safety of those who respond.

Pray that others would be inspired to spread the gospel.

Pray that he’ll exceed his target for the current six months!