ITS THAT TIME AGAIN There is a kind of ritual in our house on Saturday mornings. It begins when Irene walks down to our red mailbox and collects the local newspapers while I make breakfast... .. Toasted 'everything' bagel with two year old Black River cheese and Pat's Jams hot pepper jelly underneath. All that accompanied with a freshly brewed coffee, usually The Been Counter's Peruvian or Nicaraguan "fair trade" coffee. Mmmmmm , if you have never tried it you are missing a treat. We settle down with our zero calorie breakfast (well it's only once a week) and work our way through the news- papers, having sifted out the flyers which seem to breed like rabbits in our mailbox. Now we don't like unsolicited mail any more than you do, so you can imagine our thoughts when a Christmas Gift Catalogue arrived among the newspapers last Saturday morning. To be fair, it was mailed to us, and came from an organization that we are proud to say we support..... that is WORLD VISION. Now here is the good news folks! This is no ordinary Christmas Gift Catalogue. If it had been, it would have been consigned to file 13 within min- utes of its arrival. No, make that the re-cycling bin! This Christmas Gift Catalogue has to be the most interesting one I have ever seen, because it gives my wife and myself (and anyone else who might get excited by this article) the op- portunity to provide a Christmas Gift of a very special kind, to an individual/family/village in a 'third world' country. I hope you are saying and thinking, "tell me more ENVIRONMENTAL SEPTIC DESIGN Kim S. Pererson C.P.H.1{C) ResiDeENTIAL + COMMERCIAL On-Site Sewage System » Consultation ® Site Evaluation o Permit Application Prepared Cerrified & MM. AH. Licensed (613) 476-1875 RR#2 MiLFORD Pastor Ian ....." O.K., Iwill. The World Vision Christ- " mas Catalogue does not list among its gifts things like sox, ties, crackers, candles, chocolates, Barbie dolls, video games etc. Its gift list includes practical things like... wait for it... 2 Hens and a Rooster 3 pigs A Donkey (or share of a Donkey) A Goat An Ox or an Ox and Plough or share of same A Dairy cow or share of same A Sheep 2 to 6 Rabbits A Fish Farm to feed 4 families all year, or share of same © © @o © © © © 0 o Do you want me to go on......? eo New school supplies for a whole classroom of needy children, or indeed a complete school Warm clothing for 25 or 50 children. eo How about stocking a Medical Clinic. Your Dollar will be multiplied 15 times enabling $100 to stock an entire Community Medical Clinic. That's right, one hundred dollars!!! How about FEEDING 30 children for 30 days! A group of people like a service club, family or church could come together to feed these same 30 children for a WHOLE YEAR. IMPOSSIBLE! you might think... and I would tell you, No, it is very POSSIBLE, and affordable. Oh, I could go on, there is so much good to be done, all made possible through this World Vision Christmas Catalogue. Would you like to provide 4 harvest packs, each of which include drought resistant seeds and tools, suffi- cient to feed four families for a season? Government grants allow your $1 to be multiplied 4 times. so that this gift for 4 families costs only $35. Finally, I have left the big Kahuna to the end. Those of us who read the South Marysburg Mirror all know someone who has water problems in the County. Their water is too hard; has too much iron; smells of sul- phur or the flow rate is too small in summer. But at least there is a readily available treatment, 'fix,' to provide po- table water, leaving no fear of deadly diseases such as Cholera and Typhoid emanating from our water supply. Sadly, there are many places in the world where this happens on a daily basis... .. all for the want of a good well. Now, thanks to World Vision, it is possible to provide that GOOD well to a community which will benefit from it for years and years. Their children will Continued on page 18