#Advent 7 "ruthless in all the tasks they imposed"

It was a lovely evening tonight. The ADLER Entrepreneurship Awards, run by the African Youth Foundation, celebrate the work of young and not-so-young African people in the Diaspora. The AYF website describes itself as, "a non-profit development organization based in Bonn, Germany... established to aid young African people in the Diaspora and in Africa, as well as Europeans with African descent, to undertake projects which will enable them obtain skills necessary for their future livelihoods."

It was therefore a great honour for Samson to win the first award of the evening, in the Authors category.

The Jesse tree story of the day reminds us particularly of the slavery of the Israelites, and more generally challenges us to think of the injustices faced by many people today. Tonight we particularly remembered those who have died trying to reach Lampedusa. We also had a minute's silence for Nelson Mandela, who also spent his life working for justice and reconciliation.

"The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labour. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them."
Exodus 1:8-14