Water, water everywhere

I keep thinking that the floods in Britain must be coming to an end - and they carry on. I know that in Asia and other places around the world worse floods are happening and many lives are being lost and these are not even hitting our radar. We need to be aware of that and do what we can to help. However, it is still a shock to see hospitals in Britain having to receive bottled water and to watch families have to tear up other items of linen to make cot sheets where their small children have soiled the bed and they daren't use their bottled water to wash them. Where is the good news in this?

It is certainly in the responses that people are making. Particularly the emergency services and agencies like the Red Cross - who are putting out appeals for funds in major newspapers today, community organisations including churches and mosques. But also neighbours rallying round to look out for the elderly, disabled people and those with young families. It is good to see communities rallying round. But what do we say as people of faith when peoples homes are being flooded again having just been cleared up and babies born prematurely in their flooded home die before they reach hospital? God is alongside in every situation, but finding the right words to say this without sounding pious or ridiculous can be hard.

It is important to reach out and care in the midst of these difficulties and show the love of God to not only those who need us, but those who need us most. At Conference the President and I signed letters of greeting and support to ministers in areas of flooding as their communities struggled with the day to day difficulties and also reached out to those around them. Those messages go out further now as two weeks on more communities are affected. As we encourage Methodists to give support in whatever ways they can, those affected remain in our thoughts and prayers.