“You must have a designated area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. Each of you must have a spade as part of your equipment. Whenever you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the spade and cover the excrement. The camp must be holy, for the Lord your God moves around in your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies. He must not see any shameful thing among you, or he will turn away from you" Deuteronomy 23:12-14
The Bible is a surprising book. Sometime people say its irrelevant, out of date, only involved with the "spiritual" parts of our lives. But I disagree, the God who made us in the first place knows all about us, he created the digestive system after all! The Bible has a lot to say about practical things,how we are to live safely and securely, how to relate to others as well as worship Him.
This passage illustrates to me that God cares for the welfare of those he has created. Sanitation and water are essential for life, just witness the recent cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe to see how many suffered and died because of the lack of fresh water. In case we get too heavenly minded God reminds us that he is interested in all people, all of life, and that he cares about justice.
Justice for those deprived of basic needs like water and toilets. Someone quoted a figure of £17 billion to make sure everyone in the world had access to these basic needs. How little is this, compared to what we spend on so many other things?
Lets stand up for those who have so little, and so vulnerable, God cares, and so should we
World Toilet Day
ReplyDelete19 November is World Toilet Day – a day to celebrate the humble, yet vitally important, toilet and to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis.
Imagine life without a toilet. No toilets in your home or at work, no public toilets, no toilets anywhere. Imagine the mess. Imagine the disease.
WaterAid is working hard to change this, using simple and low cost solutions, and there are many easy and fun ways you can get involved.
I just posted the comment about World toilet day. Let's plan to celebrate this year!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your blog Andy. Toilets are SO vital and good to know it was God's idea in the first place! Imagine life without a decent bog/ loo/ netty! I remember the long drops at Greenbelt in the 70's with a bit of canvas flapping around in the breeze! Yes, let's keep this on the agenda and we can always talk about clean water without upsetting any nice people! Mark Bagott