The Very Rev Albert Bogle highlights the importance of a safe home – and the deeper impact of providing a home for others.

LAST month I was talking about the longing in all of our hearts at diferent times in our lives to go home, even when we can’t. Most of us reading this article will have known at least the warmth and security of a properly built house. For the majority of children in our world, home is a makeshift shelter, a temporary building that could be swept away at any moment. While people live and grow up in these circumstances, we who have plenty have a responsibility to reach out and try to change the life chances of children born into these conditions.

This month I want to relect upon the diference a home can make in the life of a child, and how the Vine Trust is inspiring literally hundreds of people in Scotland and beyond to become proactive homebuilders in Tanzania. At the tail end of 1985 when I first founded the Vine Trust little did I think that in 2018 I’d be visiting Tanzania to open the 100th home built by volunteers from the UK. These are homes gifted to children who have often lost parents due to the AIDS virus. Children in this situation usually find themselves being cared for by an elderly relative living in dire poverty. Having a proper home is the first step on the journey to reaching their potential and seeing the love of God in action.

Much of what has happened over these years has come about because of the freedom and trust that the Church of Scotland afords to their parish ministers as they exercise their ministries. More needs to be said about this in another issue, but it was the eventual collaboration and friendship that was built up between three ministers and their congregations in the town of Bo’ness that brought about the initial foundation upon which the Vine Trust now builds.

The call to ‘lift our eyes and look on the ields that are white and ready for harvest’ is still as relevant today as it was in biblical times. Just as Jesus often took people on a physical journey in order to discover the presence of the living God, so we too need to devise ways to take people on physical journeys that will allow them to discover ways in which they can respond to a needy world and findeed their own personal spiritual growth. Perhaps I can share with you one journey that I took recently.

It was a hot June afternoon, just a few weeks back, when I led a group of weary Scots on a journey to Kazunzu. This is a remote community on the edge of Lake Victoria, where Vine Trust, in partnership with the African Inland Mission Church and the local government, plan to build a new community to welcome orphaned children and create a village of hope. The vision is to create a community around ten small homes, with a garden, a cow and some chickens to sustain each family. Each home will house six children and a Mama. Then there will be a school, a medical centre, a water puriication plant, a farm and a special holiday camp for children living with the AIDs virus.

This camp will seek to learn lessons from the Sentebale Trust based in Lesotho, which has been providing psychosocial support to children and adolescents living with HIV over the last decade. This support takes the form of monthly Saturday clubs and residential weeklong camps, which help children to accept their HIV status amongst peers in a safe environment, addressing their mental health and wellbeing, improving their adherence to medication and allowing them to lead healthy, happy lives.

The building of the village has come about through the generosity of Mid Calder Church of Scotland. This congregation wanted to mark the positive aspects of the Reformation, as they approached the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis back in 2017.

The Rev John Povey, minister of Mid Calder, was part of our group of pilgrims. John had the honour of marking the commencement of the building works by gifting a picture of Mid Calder Church to the community at Kazunzu.

So now we start a new journey. Over the next three years hundreds of people unknown to me will find themselves being called to go on a journey of compassion and mercy.

They will no doubt carry the red clay of the African soil on their shoes as they return home, but something deeper will have happened to them. The journey will have changed their world view and for some that change of view will have involved a crossroads and a change of direction.

The truth is that Jesus is still calling all sorts of people to follow him as he moves around his world bringing in the harvest. So what of us? Well we can pray for workers and pilgrims to go on such a journey. Perhaps this could be the journey you need to take in order to find your road home. ¤

The Very Rev Albert Bogle is a Pioneer Minister of Sanctuary Ffirst Church Online at www.sanctuary/first.org.uk