It ain't about the money, money, money

...or maybe it is?

There's bound to be someone else in the world who can't go to WYD11 for entirely money-related reasons. Of course, the fabulous WYD committee have thought about that one already: check out this article to see how other people in the world have changed that - and, perhaps, how you can change it too.

This is a really beautiful manifestation of Christianity - not just talking about unselfish deeds, but doing it. Pass that article on to anyone you think may be able to help. In the words of the article: it might be an even greater gift to God as well as another to stay at home and pay for someone else to go.

Of course, the WYD team in Spain are already working monetary miracles in that whole-hearted way the Spanish have. I don't pretend to be well-up enough in my financial knowledge to say how and why this works, but each country - so far as I understand it - is allocated a registration fee depending on how much they can afford. Poorer countries are charged less than richer countries.

And even then, 210 Euros is an astonishingly small sum, considering what Spain are doing: pulling out all the stops for their soon-to-be visitors... but those details are for another blog-post. (This may or may not be a subtle hint to follow the blog :]).

And yet - somehow I think it's the story of the widow's mite all over again, 2000-and-something years later: we give what we can, as much as God is asking for - and that's as much as anyone can do, like the widow who gave God her only pennies. Perhaps for those of us who can - it is about the money (money, mon- stop, Chris); equally, for the majority of us who've just about scraped our own plane tickets to Madrid, it's more about the inside: what can we give Him on this pilgrimage to Madrid that may cost us just as much? But, like the widow, the cost isn't so important - it's the value of generosity. It's not valuable if it doesn't cost.

So, to continue with the appropriate words of Jessie J: It ain't about the money, money, money / we just wanna make the world dance / forget about the price tag 


(I'll refrain from doing the cha-ching ba-bling bit. I can never get it right).

Having said that, we're not getting to Madrid with just our charm and superior hitch-hiking skills: here at Tamezin we're buzzing with ideas for fund-raising: from cake-selling (one of the club-girls makes a wickedly tempting lemon cake) to car-boot sales (more successful than we ever imagined), from  sponsored study sessions (we're talking 8 or 9 hours a day) to car-washing sprees.

Less than 130 days to WYD11 - can you say excited!?