I was walking out of a supermarket a few years ago with my two young daughters, both under ten at the time, I would guess, when a woman thrust a collecting tin in front of me and shook it in an intimidating way, she uttered some words about a local children’s charity, which I didn’t quite catch and shook the tin again. I attempted to walk past her and continue on my way, trying to ignore her, knowing that the big charities make it quite clear that collectors should not approach people and should display clearly who they are collecting for, this woman could have been collecting for a children’s hospice, a football team, a dance school, I really didn’t know, but I objected to the way that simply because I had children with me, she had decided that I ought to give her some money. She started complaining about me as I walked off “don’t you care about children?” I heard her shout. I felt uncomfortable, guilty and mean, I could have easily shoved a coin in her tin, to placate her, what would it have mattered, I could easily have parted with a pound at the time, but she didn’t know that and the situation has niggled me ever since.
Please don’t judge me, I try to be as generous with my money and time as I possibly can be. John Wesley, the father of Methodism said “earn as much as you can, save as much as you can, and give as much as you can” and for many years I have tried to live by that mantra. I can remember years ago when I was fresh to the ministry having a table groaning with carrier bags containing envelopes at the beginning of Christian Aid week and it was my job to pray for the folk of the Church as they trudged around the village streets shoving envelopes through each of the two and a half thousand letterboxes, then going back a couple of days later, to deal with the less enviable task of door knocking to retrieve said envelopes, hopefully stuffed with cash. The task during the following weekend was to count our spoils at a coffee morning on Saturday, carefully recording all the money collected and it was my job on Sunday to thank God for the generosity of the people of the village and pray for those who would benefit from our efforts.
The whole business of charitable giving is always a difficult issue and we are bombarded with campaigns making constant demands on spare our cash. I love going to village summer fair’s particularly when we are on holiday and I don’t mind paying a quid to guess the name of a teddy or estimate how many ping pong balls somebody has managed to get into a Smart car, or guess the weight of the rich fruit cake, no they are fine. The problem comes when somebody is passionate about the plight of Donkeys around the world who are being ill treated, in pain and being abused and almost demands my money off me “only two pounds a month” they will say “everybody can afford that” they tell me, suggesting that I don’t care if I don’t sign up. We were on holiday a few weeks ago and and just in the process of watching the breakfast time news, we were bombarded with adverts for sponsoring Elephants, Orangutans, Orca’s, Donkeys, cats, and dogs, and it wasn’t just the animals, it seemed as though every time we had a break from the days news, we were being made to feel that if we are not prepared to sign up to giving a couple of pounds a week to help any of these charitable causes, then we don’t care.
I do care! I am by no means living on the breadline myself and I do my best to help as much as I can. I understand that a TV campaign can reach thousands of people and if just one percent respond, it is worth doing. I also get it that people will spend time at shows and Fete’s where large crowds of people gather and it is worth their time if just a handful of people sign up. I will normally happily sponsor people, visit coffee mornings and garden parties and support a whole rang of needs, but I try really hard to not beat myself up if I walk past somebody collecting for charity in a supermarket. The fact that I walk by will never mean that I don’t value the work they are doing and admire them for putting in the effort, I applaud them for everything they do. The world is a better place because people like this care, and do something about it. Even the woman collecting for the children’s charity, whoever she was, good for her!