The Tearfund youth team had great fun working alongside the guys from TG to co-ordinate the Justice track of the OUT stream at TGUK2. Together we explored how the church can be catching God's vision for the poor, and demonstrating it to the world outside - through social action and campaigning!

All those bods who were fired up about digging deeper into justice issues chose from a menu of local, national and global actions... and here they are…

Local action: A Walk on the Wild Side!!

Those who wanted to explore and assess the needs of their local community got into small groups of 6-8 and went on a walk on the wild side around different areas in Sheffield!! Each group was taken on a tour of a different type of areas - some went to local housing estates - some stayed around the university area. They were equipped with a list of extensive questions which required them to take a closer look at the area - and notice indicators of poverty or wealth - by taking note of the buildings, housing, cars, shops, litter, vandalism, the presence of the homeless on the streets etc. The aim of the walk on the wild side is to assess what it might be like for a community to live in a particular area and explore what their needs might be. For example, in some areas there may be lots of children playing by the roadside - and it's clear that there is a lack of children's facilities and play areas there. Once a group has identified some of the perceived key needs of the area - they feedback with other groups - and then share the findings with the leaders in the church. This simple activity can help the church begin to assess the needs of the community - as a simple initial step for them to begin to take action to meet those needs in a practical way. A very simple tool - but one which may help the church to know better what to pray for and where to start in taking practical action in their community!! Interested in finding out more about how your church can use these and other simple tools to begin to reach out to the community - then look up the Tearfund website on www.tearfund.org

The national and global actions focussed on the important and topical issue of injustice in trade.

International action: Big Dress to address injustice!!

The international action focused on the effect of unfair trade rules on the rights of workers in the garment industry. Speak ,who have been running a very successful campaign on the tradejustice issue for the last year - brought their 'Big Dress to Ad:dress injustice' onto the streets of the city centre, as a creative petition for people to sign. The posse from TG asked shoppers to stop and fill in a square of the dress with a picture or message expressing their concern about how unfair trade rules are helping the rich and harming the poor - particularly the workers in the garment industry in the developing world. The aim is that the dress(hoped to break the world record for the largest garment ever!!) can be eventually paraded down Oxford street in London - and presented to the Department of Trade and Industry to show just how many people want to speak out against injustice in trade - and demand change!! A staggering 156 busy shoppers stopped to fill in a square of the dress - so WELL Done to all of you who helped out!! If you feel inspired to add more squares to the Big Dress, or find out more info about the Tradejustice campaign - then look up the Speak website on www.speak.org.uk

National action: 350 letters to Mr. GlaxoSmithKline!!!

The national action looked at how unfair trade rules being devised by the World Trade Organisation, are affecting the developing world's access to cheap life saving medicines. In poor countries 80% of people pay for their medicines out of their own pockets, and in Zambia, one episode of childhood pneumonia can cost a poor family as much as 40% of their monthly income. Many poorer people are dependent on a cheaper copies of drugs - called generics. However - the World trade rules which do not allow developing countries to produce or import these cheaper copies - are making medicines even more expensive for the world's poor! The world's largest pharmaceutical company - GlaxoSmithKline is based in the UK, and is one of many pharmaceutical companies who are lobbying the government for stricter enforcement of the world trade rules. We wrote a letter to the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline - handed out copies of it to shoppers in Sheffield City centre on Saturday afternoon - and 350 people signed them - to show they care about what is happening! AWESOME!! So a HUMONGOUS BIG WELL DONE AND THANK YOU!!! to the energetic team of Tgers - because of you the CEO of Glaxosmithkline will be wading through 350 personal letters on his desk any day now! Watch this space to check out his response…!

Hello all the millions of people on the list - I'm emailin to tell you about TGUK2 which was held just this last weekend in Sheffield, England. I'm not going to tell you everything, I couldn't possibly, but I'm going to tell you about the stuff I was involved in personally.

I was kind of involved in setting up some of the creative stuff that happened at the weekend, I say kind of involved because God did all of the work and took me along for the ride. As we prayed before the event I felt God saying that he was releasing the creative - like before He's always used it but now He was releasing it and it was going to be awesome and powerful.

I feel like one of the main themes of the conference was going for God whilst in your identity, and all of us being created beings that means we tend to be a little creative if not a lot, so there wasn't a specific creative focused event, people just did who they were and that was great.

On the Saturday afternoon there was a chance to get out there and do some evangelism/witness stuff. A small group (8 of about 500) went to do creative things. Plans were a little hampered when we though it was raining so we decided to go to a cafe and do it there. We went to one of the trendy cafe bars in town and they let us in armed with paints and paper and a large wheel-around blackboard. We set up and just started having fun, being God's children and creating pictures. On the blackboard we wrote 'If you like any of these pictures please take them' and left all the pictures we made with a card stapled to them saying 'This is a free gift, it demonstrates God's love to you...' and some contact details for the church.

People loved it - they were taking away pictures about God with things like 'He knows' and 'You know that empty feeling inside you've been trying to fill - You're searching for God and He's searching for you' and 'precious - you are'. People were taking home God without knowing.

God has opened doors at that cafe too - a jazz/funk band from church play there once every 4 weeks and they're open to us doing art there too - like painting on easels and everything. God's grace is flowing and His kingdom is growing!

So much more happened too, but there's no way I could tell you it all. Watch www.tribalgeneration.com if you want to find out more.

Bless you all
Jen (one of the English birds)

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