1. “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
That sounds like a challenge doesn’t it!
Known as Wesley’s rule, these words echo down our Methodist tradition and continue to speak to us today – to challenge and inspire us.

2. YOUR NAME (Volunteer Speaker)
My name is ___________________ and I am here as part of your harvest festival for this year, to talk about an organisation that takes it’s inspiration from that quotation, and does all it can to live up to it today. I’m here to talk about All We Can – the Methodist relief and development partner, which has been responding to for over 70 years to support people who are in need in some of the world’s poorest communities.
‘All We Can’, the new(ish) name adopted by this organisation (formerly the Methodist Relief and Development Fund - MRDF) in April 2014, is taken from this Wesley quote, which is designed to boldly inspire and represent the work of this very special organisation, and also to be an invitation to you...to every Methodist around the country, to be part of the story of doing all we can to combat global poverty and injustice.
The ‘you’ of Wesley’s quote was quite deliberately changed to a ‘we’, because All We Can is not just about a handful of employees or volunteers, it is about every one of us, responding to the call of the gospel to love our neighbour and the challenge of Wesley’s words, to be part of building a better, fairer, more equal world.
YOUR NAME (Volunteer Speaker)

3. All We Can remains the Methodist relief and development charity, and its subtitle explains what they do:
Methodist: this is a Methodist organisation, born out of the Methodist church. It was started by compassionate Methodists wanting to respond to the needs of people in the world over 70 years go, and the same compassion drives thousands of Methodist supporters today. All We Can continues to seek to serve the Methodist church in its mission to respond practically in loving our global neighbours
Relief: A significant part of what All We Can does is to respond quickly to humanitarian disasters around the world. For example, they responded to the urgent needs of those people affected by earthquakes such as in Nepal (2015), and have been, and are currently responding to the refugee crisis in the Middle East, ensuring families have basic provisions, such as food, shelter and health care to ensure they survive the ordeal of such displacement. So, where there is urgent human need effecting some of the world’s poorest people, All We Can seeks to respond.
Mohammad Al-shama (13)
A Syrian refugee gaining emotional support and friendship from one of the child forums supported by All We Can.

4. Another Significant part of their work is longer-term development
Another Significant part of their work is longer-term development. It is not enough just to respond to crises as they happen, so All We Can works in some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the world, providing support to local people to find personal, relevant and local solutions to poverty.
I am a volunteer speaker for All We Can, because I want to share information about their work and how we, as local Methodists, can get involved and support them.
Here there is an opportunity for you to talk about why you choose to volunteer with All We Can, what it is that makes it an important organisation for you, why you love All We Can’s work, or similar...

5. Thank you!
All We Can was born out of the Methodist church and is still supported by Methodist people from around the Connexion. So I want to say, on behalf of everyone involved in the All We Can story thank you!
Together you are helping to bring transformation to people’s live and communities.

6. Today, we are joining in with All We Can’s Harvest theme, where we have been invited to ‘Make a splash!’
At this Harvest celebration we are celebrating God’s gift of water - how it is essential for harvest, to enable the plants to grow, and how it sustains the life God has created. Water is something that is essential to life, so it is not surprising that we see it as an image used throughout Scripture, from the Spirit that hovers over the water in Genesis, to the River of Life in the book of Revelation. Water refreshes and revitalizes us, it meets a need when we become thirsty, similarly, so the bible communicates, does our experience of God in our lives – he sustains us, strengthens us and meets our deepest needs. [you may wish to reference Psalm 42]
Make a splash!

7. It is easy in our context to take water for granted
It is easy in our context to take water for granted. We just turn on a tap and clean, clear running water falls into our glass.
But this is not the experience for everyone in the world, today one in ten people do not have access to clean water.
Through a short film, we will be visiting a school in a poor rural area in Uganda, and we will hear of the story of the damage unclean water can cause to the lives of people there. Thankfully, that’s not the full story for that community, because All We Can’s support has meant that the children can now access clean water in their school compound, which means they benefit from better health and more time in school, instead of walking long distance to collect dirty water.

8. Film
Play the harvest ‘Make a splash’ film

9. There are many Prossy’s, children around the world who are being held back by issues that can be easily fixed, like access to clean water. As the film said £18 could help a child like Prossy access clean water, a small amount to us, but life changing to them.

10. Do all you can. Join us. Tim Baker t. baker@allwecan. org
Do all you can. Join us. Tim Baker
I would like to leave you with a final invitation, to join together with thousands of others in the All We Can story. Simply fill out the response postcard (or gift aid envelope) and you will be kept up to date with all of the different ways you can be involved and will be updated on what impact your support is having. I also have some resources with me which you can take away – please come and see me.
If you’d like to find out more about All We Can, or how you can get involved, do speak to me – or contact Tim Baker, whose address and phone number are on the screen, and I will just leave that there for a moment in case you want to write to down, whilst I hand out these response card...
[hand out the response cards and collect them once people have filled it in, this is also a good opportunity to hold a collection].

11. We choose to do all the good we can. We serve a God who is good to us
We choose to do all the good we can. We serve a God who is good to us. We choose to use all the means we can. We serve a God who has done his all for us. We choose to use all the ways we can. We serve a God who has given us The Way.
If appropriate and if there is time, you might want to invite people to say the prayer on this slide together (with you saying the light type and them responding with the bold).
Alternatively, you might like to use one of the two prayers below:
Prayer of Confession (from the harvest service)
Loving God, pour out your living water on the areas in our lives that have become dry and barren. Forgive us for when we have chosen to do things our own way and in our own strength. May your love well up in us so that we may demonstrate it to our broken world.
Loving God, we acknowledge our need for you. Forgive us for when we have looked to other sources to fulfil us, for it is only you who can satisfy our deepest needs.
Loving God, thank you for the gifts you have given us. Forgive us for when we have used our skills and knowledge only to benefit ourselves, failing to respond to the needs of others. Use us to make a difference in our world, to help those who lack the most basic resources. Help us not to take your precious gifts for granted.
Loving God, thank you for being concerned for our physical and spiritual needs. Forgive us for when we have neglected our own needs and wandered from you. We come to you now, knowing that you are our great carer and offer us living water.
Amen.
VAD’s prayer from Uganda:
Faithful God, grant VAD and the people it works with, the inspiration, motivation, direction, and resources they need to help bring improvement to more vulnerable communities in Uganda.
Thank you for VAD’s strong vision which is helping to bring clean water and better sanitation to people in desperate need. God, we pray you grant us your strength and kind assistance as we seek to give people a healthier and better quality of life. Amen.

12. We choose to go to all the places we can
We choose to go to all the places we can. We serve a God who made his place with us. We choose to give all the time we can. We serve a God beyond all time. We choose to go to all the people we can. We serve a God who took on flesh. We choose to do this as long as ever we can. We serve a God who has given us life. We do all we can for the honour and glory of God. Amen.

13. So let’s close where we began, returning to the challenge of Wesley to do all the good we can. As we are called to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world, so let us reflect on how we can play our part.
Thank you for listening, and for your support. Let’s be a people who together, do all we can!