On Thursday 29 April, I held a brunch at my house in aid of CMS as part of the Dinner4Good scheme, writes Helen Harwood
I was delighted that there were 12 of us ladies in total – very biblical – and our gathering included a number of children.
Ruth Biddulph, CMS fundraising assistant, had joined us, to share her experiences of going on a visit to DR Congo with CMS (and also to enjoy my delicious brunch).
I was really pleased that we were able to raise just over £120 (including Gift Aid) for CMS as part of the Revolution cycle tour.
Simple food, easy to prepare - and all for a great cause!
Why Brunch?
Brunch is a really simple meal, a mix of breakfast and lunch so you can include cold things like fruit and yoghurt, hot things like eggs and beans, and warm things like croissants and pains au chocolat. Now who can resist chocolate as part of a meal?
For my friends, all ladies of about my age with either pre-school children or children at school, this was a good meal as it can start quite early – we started at 11.30 – and can include lots of things that are easy for young children to eat.
People with young kids nearly always eat early and by making it the middle of the day it also avoids all those nap times that people with young babies have to fit in.
Yes, we had a young baby present too and she was very well behaved. In fact all the ladies were very well behaved!
They listened as Ruth spoke about her visit to DR Congo, and I chipped in with things that I know about CMS.
I think the stories of our brave mission partners, who sometimes live in very tough areas and do some amazing work, were genuinely interesting. It may seem a million miles away from rural Oxfordshire but I think we can all appreciate the sacrifice and hard work that goes into living and working abroad in some of the world’s toughest places.
By our willingness to give and support CMS financially, we can also be part of that amazing work. Rachael Rowson was very surprised to hear that CMS had been going for over 200 years; so maybe part of the Dinner4Good initiative can be about publicising what CMS does, as well as raising money to enable CMS to do it!
Why a ‘Revolution’?
Because on 9 May, our CMS team of cyclists rolled out from Hull to begin their 13-city tour, raising money for CMS and SAMS mission work around the world.
As I write they are covering over 700 miles, crossing the Pennines twice, climbing the infamous Snake Pass, plotting a way through Sherwood Forest, traversing the Severn Road bridge into Wales and taking their lives in their hands by cycling across London.
By the time you read this they may well have finished because on the 22 May they will end by joining the CMS Day 50 celebrations.
However, you can still find out more by visiting
www.cms-uk.org and you can still support them. We ate brunch for them – what are you going to do?
Why Dinner4Good?
Because it was a really useful way of facilitating the meal and fundraising. It offered people who could not attend an easy way of contributing.
Dinner4Good is the brain child of Bryan Sergeant. There years ago he ran the Bath half Marathon for a local charity that had helped his Dad when he was suffering from cancer. However, two years ago he hurt his knee and couldn't run. He decided to have the people who'd previously supported him round for dinner in 'batches' of six or eight, cook a nice meal for them and get money as they came to the door.
This soon proved, in Bryan’s own words, “... to be a hassle (handling the cash)... and mildly embarrassing from time to time.”
Bryan used his experience of running IT / web businesses to create a system for inviting people for charity dinners. Although it cost a lot more than he had expected, and took longer, there are now well over 300 charities signed-up who are starting to tell their supporters about it.
If you would like to use the Dinner4Good system to host a dinner for CMS, or a lunch or brunch, go to
www.dinner4good.com to find out more and sign up. You can cook whatever you like, I enjoy brunch, but I also love gourmet dinners, so if you are planning one of those, please do send me an invitation.
Bon Appetit!