Overweight and obesity are risk factors for many long-term health conditions and there are too many Northern Ireland people whose weight may contribute towards their ill health. On Monday Health Minister Simon Hamilton pledged to tackle obesity in Northern Ireland following the updated publication of 'A Fitter Future for All 2012-2022'. The steering group of the ten-year strategy for addressing obesity reviewed the outcomes after the first three years. Government departments, agencies, and partners will now promote the following: a) Child carers' attendance at ‘Nutrition Matters for the Early Years’ training will be a requirement for registration. b) Councils must have a play and leisure policy and action plans in place. c) Increased opportunities for play / physical activity for the young must be provided, particularly in deprived areas, and also workplace physical activity schemes.
Scotland’s Sunday school survey
09 Jul 2015
The Free Church of Scotland’s Youth Committee has published a report from the denomination’s largest-ever Sunday school survey. Entitled ‘Pointing to Jesus’, the committee wants to help Sunday schools and other youth groups point children to Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. The report intends to equip teachers with new ideas to connect the never-changing message of the Bible to the ever-changing world in which the children of this generation are growing up. Every Sunday there are over 1,100 children attending, with numbers virtually the same over the past five years (nominally up). The Mission Board chairman said, ‘Transitioning children from Sunday school attenders to those who are part of the worshipping congregation is absolutely vital. The last thing we want is for children to reach the end of their time in Sunday school with an inability, through lack of exposure, to sit through church services.’
The true number of young people who are homeless far exceeds government figures, according to a major new study by housing experts at Cambridge University being released on Monday. Some 83,000 homeless young people have had to rely on councils and charities for a roof over their heads during the past year - more than three times the 26,852 young people recorded in homeless figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government. There are 35,000 young people in homeless accommodation at any one time across Britain. The research said, ‘The worryingly high levels of young people using homelessness services across Britain is a minimum estimate, and it is likely that in reality there are more homeless young people accessing support across the UK’. The study was commissioned by Centrepoint and comes amid warnings that Britain is heading for a housing crisis.
Keeping Sunday special - back on the agenda
09 Jul 2015
George Osborne has announced an 'Enterprise bill' for the autumn which will include provisions for handing over decisions about Sunday trading rules to local mayors and councils. It's out for consultation. Our society still has one day when families can have more time together on a day that's theirs, instead of one of them having to work, and when law acknowledges ‘profit isn't everything’. Currently large stores can only open on Sundays for six hours (a concession won by campaigners against the liberalisation of Sunday trading laws in 1994). This means small family-run shops have some protection against the march of the megastores. It means that for those who have to work, days can be shorter. It means that communities in busy shopping districts have time to recover and to breathe before they're hit by waves of consumers again. See also THE MILL GATHERING STATEMENT at http://wpc.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/The-Mill-Statement-Apr-2015.pdf
Outreach to Muslims
09 Jul 2015
Horizons International, Frontiers, Mahabba and Marathana are just four of the many organisations God is using to develop Christian outreach initiatives into Muslim communities in the UK. God wants all the nations to know Christ, and He has brought thousands upon thousands of Muslims from a variety of nations to our doorstep in recent years. Now Christians are learning to interact and share their faith through friendship evangelism with these immigrants. Christians are learning through various teaching models how to empower their witness to Muslim neighbours, work colleagues, and fellow-students in schools. See also http://www.engagecourse.org/
IS has declared war on Britain
09 Jul 2015
On BBC Radio Four's Today programme David Cameron said that IS had declared war on us; we are being attacked at home and abroad whether we like it or not, and there are people in Iraq and Syria who are plotting to carry out terrible acts in Britain and elsewhere. He said it wasn't enough to ‘destroy them at source’ - we have to deal with the radical narrative taking over the minds of young people. Clifford Hill in Prophecy Today said we cannot defeat an ideology by weapons of war, it can only be successfully tackled with a more powerful and compelling counter-ideology. He reminds us that the Qu’ran 5:37 says that those who cause corruption in the land should be killed or crucified. However, Jesus said, ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’(Matthew 5:43). (See article 2 below)
Syed Choudhury, a Cardiff student whose family are from Bradford, trawled the internet for terrorist material and told friends he 'would do anything' to get to Syria. The 19-year-old researched flights to the IS-controlled region last February. Choudhury downloaded a video of a mass execution and had accessed websites called '10 reasons to join IS' and 'Turkey travel, Jihadist highway’. He was arrested last November after being spotted by a local anti-terror officer. When in custody, he spoke about bringing Sharia law to the UK and said he dreamed of dying fighting for IS. Choudhury pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism under section 5 of the Terrorism Act and was sentenced to three years and four months in a young offenders institution.
Brazilian Evangelical Christians have launched a new site that intends to be a ‘sin-free’ alternative to Facebook. The site, called Facegloria, attracted over 100,000 users in its first month of operation. The Christian Post reports that Facegloria will not allow curse words, nor about 600 other banned words. Violent content is prohibited, in addition to sexual content, whether gay or straight. Web designer Atilla Barros said, ‘On Facebook there is a lot of violence and pornography, so we thought we'd start a network where we could talk about God, love and share the word.’ Barros also said that the company aims to be ‘morally and technically better than Facebook. We want all Brazilian Evangelicals to shift to Facegloria.’ The creators of Facegloria hope to see ten million users on the site in the next two years. Facegloria offers Christian differences, including an ‘Amen’ button instead of ‘Like.’