News Round Up
Don’t dial and drive
Using a hand-held mobile phone while driving could now cost you £1000 as well as three penalty points on your driving licence, as it became illegal in December.
Transport Minister David Jamieson says: “Any driver will be distracted by a phone call or text message. It affects the ability to concentrate and anticipate the road ahead, putting the driver and other road users at risk. Missing a call won’t kill you – an accident quite possibly could”. Research shows that people using a mobile while driving are four times more likely to have an accident.
Praying at the wheel
What do you do when you’re stuck in a traffic jam? Nearly 3 out of 4 of us pray, it seems, according to research carried out by the RAC Foundation. A nationwide survey of 898 motorists found that nearly three in four drivers admit to saying the odd prayer while behind the wheel, and 22 per cent say they pray regularly.
While some motorists were praying: ‘Get me out of this’, others asked, ‘Please make sure the speed camera didn’t have film’. However, not all prayers were selfish. More than half of those who admitted praying said their prayers were for other people suffering in some way.
A church minister, commenting on the survey said, “Prayer is a great stress buster. God doesn’t fix speed cameras or traffic lights but He can fix people, whether they are driving or not”.
Mission’s phone card can be used on ships
The Mission to Seafarers has developed a new phone card that can be used on shore and on ships.
Until this development, calling from a ship required a different kind of card often not easily available to seafarers.
Ken Cornforth, the Mission’s North Tees chaplain responsible for the
breakthrough, says the new generation of The Mission to Seafarers phone card
will enable seafarers to call home from both land lines on shore and via
satellite from ships.
“This is a fantastic new development and I believe it is a world first”, said Ken. “Our existing international card is very popular and enables seafarers to call home from any shore line while in port, but the technology is quite different when using ship satellite systems.”
To combine both technologies on one dual-purpose card, the Mission cooperated with Millennium Communications, which produces the existing Mission to Seafarers card, and Xantic, a premier satellite communication provider.
“It has taken a lot of technical research and negotiation”, said Ken, “but it is a giant step towards easy communication for seafarers. It will mean a great deal to know they are no longer quite so isolated. A lot of seafarers already use the Mission card and they will now have the means in their pocket to call home from their ship”.
More European Evangelicals
The European Evangelical Alliance has expanded with the recent admission of
Sweden and Kazakhstan as members. The number of member alliances is now 32,
representing approximately 10 million evangelicals.
Feeding the Karen
The Christian charity, Jubilee Action, has launched a project aimed at helping hundreds of internally displaced Karen families inside Burma.
The charity has established an agricultural and animal husbandry centre on a 100 acre piece of land in Thailand near the Thai/Burma border. The project will provide a regular supply of milk and fresh food for six villages inside Burma. The military genocidal policies have forced men, women and children to hide in the jungles, and if caught, they are shot on sight. A spokesman for Jubilee Action says, “Just feeding their families and surviving from day to day is their biggest challenge. That is why we are delighted to have found a sustainable way of assisting them.”
Cannabis protests
Campaigners are urging MP’s to reject the Government’s proposed reclassification of cannabis, because, they say, scientific evidence shows it to be a dangerous drug. The campaigners, who have formed a national coalition, include the Police Federation of England and Wales, scientists, doctors and a cross-party group of MP’s. The Narcotics Board of the United Nations has also expressed concern over the Home Office proposals to reclassify the drug.
A better mousetrap
If you need to catch any mice this winter, use chocolate rather than cheese as your bait. Rodents find chocolate irresistible, according to recent research.
Christian credit
Christian Aid has launched a credit card affinity scheme with The Co-operative Bank. The charity will receive £15 for every account opened, a further £2.50 if the card is used within the first six months, and 25p for every £100 spent.
Co-op pledges to ban all GM ingredients
Genetically-modified (GM) food and ingredients are to be banned throughout all businesses owned by the Co-op.