Time for tea

England , 4 o'clock in the afternoon and traditionally it's a moment to stop and relax . In the  1980's, as a medical student, I was introduced to a  euphemistic  'Mrs Brown' who was said to require attention, and so out patients stopped for 10 minutes and a cup of tea was shared. At the same time Test Cricket shows its quintessentially English origins,  the outcome of the Test match may be balanced on a knife edge, but it's time for tea. Apparently it's  an ancient tradition going back to the time of the Romans. Asterix the Gaul fought alongside the English against an invading Julius Caesar, and is mystified when his allies  take a tea break  mid afternoon/ battle with the Romans. Ten minutes later the revived  force of Celts trounce the legions, the magic potion this time being tea.

Such rituals and  traditions are probably on the wane, I prefer watching  football  and in Chad  I drink coffee in outpatients any time of day, even if it does make me sweat more. However even for me , there are some occasions on which only tea will do.  A cup of tea with fish and chips and Cornish cream tea. I realise the latter on the Isles of Scilly, just before coming back to Chad, I nearly made the mistake  of ordering a  scone with clotted cream to go with a botanically brewed ginger beer at the last moment I changed my mind and  ordered tea instead.

Over the course of our visits to churches this summer you may have experienced Chadian tea. Concentrated and not so much brewed as stewed and drunk without milk heavily sweetened in a small glass.  It's called 'Chahi' which is where I guess the word Char comes from in char lady, I think the Arabic tradition is probably older than ours. The picture shows gathering for tea on our veranda in Guinebor II. Local village leaders and imams had come to a meeting and it's usual to have a drink and share a snack of a small (unsweetened) donut. We were actually meeting back in June to discuss the next big phase in the development of the hospital. As you may know maternal mortality is a major health problem in Chad. About 1% of pregnant women die, over 100 times more than the UK. We are going to have a 3 year community outreach program sponsored by the Government of Guernesy  with meetings ( at which tea will be drunk) to encourage women  to attend for antenatal care and to deliver at the hospital. There will also be training for midwives, both our employees and others. Our services are already well used, and in order to meet the increased demand we will need  a new maternity centre. BMS have been fund raising for this and thank you to all of you who have already contributed. We have currently raised  £71000 towards the initial  building target of £100 000.  ( plans show an idea of what it might look like ) If you haven't done so already you could mull over the idea of helping whilst drinking a cup of tea, a  gift towards the building  could be a catalyst for changing the life story of young women  and families in Chad .

PS: Just before leaving the UK we were challenged to think again by some of the speakers at the Greenbelt festival, you missed out if you weren't there. However you do have the opportunity to be challenged on issues relating to mission and faith in the near future at next month's BMS  Catalyst live events in Sheffield and Reading. Perhaps you could go and let us know what we missed. http://www.bmscatalystlive.com/about/media/