1. Jonathan is 8. this is his code for being naughty
What do you think is interesting about Jonathan’s code?

2. Joanna is 9 this is her code for being naughty
What do you think is interesting about Joanna’s code?

4. Copyright 2013 www.retoday.org.uk

8. Copyright 2013 www.retoday.org.uk

9. Lat Blaylock RE Today
The civil war in Mozambique lasted 16 years. It finished in 1992 but its legacy lives on. (story of Too many people are still armed to the teeth and more than three quarters of the population live on less than £2 a day. It’s a bad combination and there’s an ever-present risk that these guns will be used by desperate people.

10. Mozambique, Capital Maputo

11. Lat Blaylock RE Today
The war in Mozambique lasted 16 years. It finished in the 1990s. Lots of people were frightened it would start again. They kept their guns. It made everyone feel safe, but it made things dangerous really.
Many children have played with a gun, and suffered a dreadful accident.
The civil war in Mozambique lasted 16 years. It finished in 1992 but its legacy lives on. (story of Too many people are still armed to the teeth and more than three quarters of the population live on less than £2 a day. It’s a bad combination and there’s an ever-present risk that these guns will be used by desperate people.

12. The Bishop of Maputo’s young friend Desantos lost his leg in a land mine accident. The Bishop got him a plastic leg, but he was so upset.

13. Next Sunday in Church Bishop Dinis of Maputo began to cry during the Bible reading.
He had seen children with land mine injuries ~ one foot blown off, one hand only.
He knew there were still about 2 million guns in people’s hoses. All of them were dangerous

14. The Bishop cried because of the Bible reading
The Bishop cried because of the Bible reading. It was vision the Prophet Isaiah had 2700 years ago. The prophet saw people turning swords and spears into tools, and leaving war behind, making peace.

15. Bishop Dinis heard the bible reading of the 2700 year old vision of peace from a Jewish prophet: ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughs. They shall study war no more.’ It made him cry because he thought ‘It’s not happening here.’
He cried, then he prayed, then he had an idea. He asked Christian Aid to help. He asked for £ to spend on second hand bicycles, garden tools and sewing machines.

16. An envelope through every letterbox in Britain and Ireland, and donations from a few pence to many pounds add up to £ raised in a week.
So Christian Aid sent £ to Maputo to buy second hand sewing machines, garden tools and and bicycles.

17. Lat Blaylock RE Today
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

18. Lat Blaylock RE Today
Delivery day (Christian Aid/David Rose/Insight-Visual)
Transforming Arms into Tools is like a supercharged gun amnesty. People hand in their guns, and in return they receive things they and their community can actually benefit from. As well as tools, they receive bikes, sewing machines and building materials. One village traded in 500 shooters for a tractor. Bargain!
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

19. Lat Blaylock RE Today
There are literally millions of firearms, and associated ammunition, in circulation in Mozambique. Through exchanges like the one pictured here, the Transforming Arms into Tools project is putting these lethal weapons of war to good use, in more ways than one.
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

22. Lat Blaylock RE Today
Raw material (Christian Aid/David Rose/Insight-Visual)
But what next for the discarded guns? So far 600,000 have, like this one, been gathered and chopped up at the Transforming Arms into Tools HQ in the capital city of Maputo. Then, having already been “transformed” into tools, the bits are handed over to artists who transform them into something else entirely.
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

23. Lat Blaylock RE Today
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

24. Lat Blaylock RE Today
On a limb (Christian Aid/David Rose/Insight-Visual)
Artist-cum-engineers Kester and Adelino Mathé get to work on the branches of the Tree of Life, which was commissioned by Christian Aid and the British Museum. ‘We all know what a tree looks like,’ says Adelino, matter-of-factly. ‘But we had to work out how to construct it. For the foliage, we had to find light pieces. Then we found the part of the AK47 that sits above the barrel.’
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

25. The Lizard that used to be a gun
Lat Blaylock RE Today
The Lizard that used to be a gun
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

26. “The bird will not kill you!”
Lat Blaylock RE Today
“The bird will not kill you!”
One he made earlier (Christian Aid/David Rose/Insight-Visual)
Artists like Fiel dos Santos, here. He and other creative types have utterly redefined these symbols of death and violence. They turn them into sculptures that are, like Fiel’s bird, often bizarre, and occasionally even beautiful – but always works of the utmost imagination and craftsmanship.
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

27. The Duck of Peace Lat Blaylock RE Today
Lat Blaylock RE Today Copyright Christian Aid

28. Fiel dos Santos made this flute playing dancer from a Kalashnikov.
May the music of peace play for Maputo to silence the clash of arms.

29. Goncalo Mabunda turned a rifle into an artistic saxaphone.
“May the creative powers of her people make peace in Maputo”

30. The tree of life
Symbol of faith
Fulfilment of the Prophet’s
Vision from 2700 years ago
And the Bishops’ vision
from 10 years ago

31. The Bishop sent over 50 of the art works back to Britain for an exhibition on London’s South Bank. An auctioneer, who supports Christian Aid, gives his time freely to the art exhibition. The funds amount to more than the original grant. The images retell the story. The money buys more sewing machines.

32. Lat Blaylock RE Today
Artist Kester created these AK47 Chairs. “No –one’s getting shot with these weapons; rest instead of fighting.”

33. Jesus said: ‘Blessed are the peace makers
Jesus said: ‘Blessed are the peace makers. They well be called God’s children.’ Who followed Jesus well in this story? How?

34. The Tree of life for Mozambique
Lat Blaylock RE Today
The Tree of life for Mozambique
Just the start (Christian Aid/David Rose/Insight-Visual)
Fiel and Kester admire their work. The finished tree, made entirely out of guns such as AK47s, Walther 42s and British 4.85mm pistols, stands three metres high and weighs around half a tonne

35. The Tree of Life is the latest piece of art from the project, made entirely out of guns such as AK47s, Walther 42s and British 4.85mm pistols. It stands three metres high and weighs around half a tonne
Adelino, Fiel, Hilario Nhatugueja and Kester with their peacemaking art
Lat Blaylock RE Today
And relax (Christian Aid/David Rose/Insight-Visual)
After three months of hard graft and application, Adelino, Fiel, Hilario Nhatugueja and Kester can finally take a step back. It is their biggest project to date, but with 300,000 weapons “donated” in the last two years alone, there’s still plenty more where this came from

36. Who followed Jesus here? How?
Lat Blaylock RE Today
Who followed Jesus here? How?
Bishop Dinis?
Isaiah the Prophet?
The Auctioneer?
Kester the sculptor?
Everyone who took in a gun?
The Christian Aid Collectors?
Every person who put £1 in the red envelope?

38. Tracey (8) says: “Make a difference like the camel, slow but tireless

39. Jessie (9) has made a peaceful icon
Jessie (9) has made a peaceful icon. Anyone can turn swords into ploughs, icons of war into images of peace

42. Sam, 13:
“Life is not a game. Your duty might be making peace.”

44. “The Phoenix of Peace comes from the hand grenade of war”
Tom ,12.

47. Global aid charities from different religions
Lat Blaylock RE Today
Global aid charities from different religions
Muslim Aid Islamic Relief   Hindu Food Relief Sewa International   Tzedek - Jewish action for a just world   Christian Aid Tear Fund: Christian   Buddhist: The Rahula Trust Rokpa UK: Buddhist   Sikh: Khalsa Aid
All images reproduced by kind permission of Christian Aid