We were delighted to be together again after the Summer holidays and we talked about the wonderful places we had been and the lovely things we had seen. Someone had visited an enormous chocolate shop; someone had seen an alpaca and someone had caught crabs. One of the leaders had caught crabs- 10 of them- using a line, for the first time in her life. She returned them to the sea!
We realised how much there is to enjoy everything that God has created in nature. Also, now is the time when farmers are busy gathering in their crops- Zoe knew this was called the harvest. This will be the food we need in fthe future.

We talked about how much our future world depends on what we do today- including the futures of all our brothers and sisters in other countries.

If we spend our time buying lots of things, thinking we need to own more and more, we build more and more factories to make goods. These factories produce lots of waste gasses- mostly carbon, which damage the atmosphere- the air- around us. The earth has a layer high above us called the ozone layer, which acts like a sun-shield, protecting us from the sun's rays. When this layer is damaged by the gasses which manufacturing processes create, the world gets hotter and the weather patterns all begin to change.

In this country, we don't always notice straight away. If we have a poor harvest, we are able to buy food from elsewhere. We import food from all around the world, using up the earth's resources in fuel for aeroplanes and boats to bring it here. In poorer countries, a bad crop spells disaster. We remembered the children at Mother of Peace Community in Zimbabwe. There, the food which is eaten is grown nearby. If it doesn't grow, there can be no slipping out to a supermarket to buy from elsewhere.

In any case, having lots of possessions does not make us happy. We are happiest when we are sharing our lives with others and when we are enjoying God-given beauty in our world and in our wildlife.

Sometimes churches hold Harvest Festivals at this time of the year, to thank God for all that is given to us. People take food they have grown in baskets to place on the altars in the churches. We thought we would do something a little different. We would draw our parish baskets, but would put in them the actions we are taking in order to take care of God's world and to protect it for everyone else, including the people who will come after us.