How does your country rate?

Marilyn and I are exhausted. We are thankful that we will be going on a short vacation at the end of this week.

This led me to thinking about the importance of taking time out.

Having a vacation is really very important for many different reasons.

It benefits your health, protects relationships, improves work productivity, and can even save lives. I will not cover these in detail as I have done that previously but have a look at the following if you need a reminder.

Science behind vacations 

Research that could save your job, family and life

Health benefits of a vacation

Why you need a vacation

CLICK ON PICTURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

So I looked at how countries around the world care for their workers.

I got my information from  Wikipedia   They list over 2000 countries annual leave details. I made very interesting reading.

Here is a very short extract showing the countries I believe most of our readers will live in or be interested in. For the full list visit the link above to the article.

With only one exception (more about that later) every country listed has a legal requirement to give workers paid leave every year plus paid leave on public holidays (although sometimes this is taken as extra work and an increased pay instead of a day off.

The one exception is not some backward 3^rd world country as one may have expected. Even 3^rd world countries have a legal requirement to give staff paid leave.

No, the only exception is the United States of America where there is no legal requirement to give staff any time off.

COUNTRY	PAID VACATION DAYS PER YEAR 5 day working week	PAID PUBLIC HOLIDAYS	TOTAL PAID DAYS LEAVE PER YEAR 5 day working week
Australia	20	10	30
Belgium	20	10	30
Canada	10 to 20 Varies	6 to 10 varies	16 to 26
France	25	11	36
Germany	20	10	30
New Zealand	20	11	31
Portugal	22	9	31
Spain	22	11	33
Sweden	25	9	34
Switzerland	20	7	27
United Kingdom	20	8	28
U.S.A	0	0	0

America No vacation Nation 

Wherever you live and however many of few days you get take them!

Use them!

Benefit from them it could transform your life.

Worried about the cost?

Worried about your pets?

Worried about leaving your home empty and in danger?

We can help!

If you are going away and concerned about leaving your home uninhabited and vulnerable, we can arrange for people to stay, free of charge, in your home while you are away. They will look after your home and your pets.

If you are finding it difficult to afford a vacation, we invite you to join as a sitter and we will keep you up to date with RENT FREE vacations all over the world

For details have a look at our website

REMEMBER. We are a Ministry NOT a business. 100% of all income goes through a UK Registered Charity to support vulnerable children at a Children’s Home we run in Kenya Full Details

God bless you,

Advertisement

How long do you need?

Reading the news this morning I came upon an article from Country Living asking the question.

How long do you need to go on holiday for to feel really relaxed?

I can’t reproduce the whole article but below are some of the key points and findings. If you want to read the original there is a link below.

NOTE: American readers the word holiday in this article is used with the UK meaning. In the USA you would replace it with vacation.

When you’re planning a holiday, one of the main points to consider is how long you’ll be going away for.

Do you go for a long weekend, a whole week, or perhaps even longer?

According to scientific research, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, there is a perfect length of holiday time which has the maximum beneficial effect on your health and wellbeing.

Researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, set out to explore the effects of holiday length on health and wellbeing, and its relationship to positive aftereffects.

So what’s the perfect length? Longer than eight days. But there’s an interesting point to be made about the frequency of our holidays, too. Here’s why…

The results
The experiment found that health and wellbeing increased rapidly during holiday time, peaking on the eighth day.

How long should you holiday for?

So, if you want to get the most from your holiday and feel truly rested and rejuvenated, try to have a break for longer than eight days, and fill your time with pleasurable and relaxing experiences to boost your health and wellbeing.

And, as the authors suggest, it may be more beneficial to take more frequent shorter breaks, rather than one long respite from work.

We can help you achieve this goal.

Through Christian House Sitters you can enjoy rent-free holidays all over the world.
We can also arrange for people to look after your home and if necessary your pets while you are away. Again free of charge.

If you are thinking of a holiday and want someone to look after your home please visit our website and register as an owner. It is FREE.

Register as soon as you know your holiday dates, don’t leave it to the last-minute, as that way you will have a much better range of sitters to choose from.

If you want to be a sitter and to enjoy a rent-free vacation then we can also help.

Have a look at the website for the details. CLICK HERE

God bless you,

Ray

We are part of the registered charity

TLC Children’s Trust

UK Charity number 1156786

www.tlc-childrenstrust.org  

The full article I read can be found at https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/travel/this-is-how-long-you-need-to-go-on-holiday-for-to-feel-completely-relaxed/ar-BBLiAth?ocid=spartandhp

 

 

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Frustrated …….but Trusting God

I was feeling frustrated when a friend sent me the following Christian poem by Bryan Miles.

Why was I frustrated?

I will tell you after you have read the poem. I trust it will bless you as it blessed me.

 

Frustrated by Bryan Miles

When the words don’t flow out smoothly
And I fumble for a line
When I tap my fingers on my desk
Like a rhymed pantomime
When I scratch my head till my scalp gets sore
Gnaw my pencil to the lead
I take another dose of Your Word
And nibble on daily bread
There’s so much gold on every page
But it takes some digging in
I find myself deep in thought
In scripture up to my chin
So much to learn, so much to chew
So much to peck and glean
From Your Word to my heart
From my heart to pen
And the treasure in between
In between each written word
There’s a bright and shiny gem
I try to convey the wisdom I’ve learned
And share it all with them

Sometimes it seems so easy
The words pour out so fast
And other times much like today
My brain is at half-mast
Frustrated, I come to Your throne
I bow my head and pray
I could never do this on my own
Without Your guidance there’s no way

Some people call it writer’s block
If so, it’s there for a reason
But nothing blocks Your presence from me
You’re here for every season
Every season of my life
Has taught me quite a bit
I can thump my pen again and again
But I’m never going to quit

Frustrated, so I seek Your face
It causes me to think
Your Word flows true
When I dwell on You
It fills my pen with ink…

So why was I frustrated?

Because of our work with the Children’s Home in Kenya.
These children rely on us for all their food, clothing, education, accommodation and medical expenses. These are children who would otherwise be homeless, living on the streets, stealing, begging and often starving to death.
We know God called us to this work.
We know He is in charge.
We give 100% of the income from Christian House Sitters to this work.
We give every spare penny of our own rather limited income to this work.
But there are simply never enough funds for the actual basic needs let alone the extra things we would like to do. Not lavish extra things just simple things like a new dormitory and some extra blankets for the children, etc. But before we can even look at those we need the basics such as money for food, school fees etc.

But as I said there is just never enough.

I feel frustrated when I look around and see people spending vast amounts on things that are really not essential. Often wasting money. Yet when we make an appeal hardly anyone seems able to afford to do anything to help.

We are blessed by having some wonderful people sponsoring a child at £20 per month.

We are blessed by 2 people who can’t afford that amount but regularly give £5 per month. God bless them.

We are blessed by occasional large gifts.

But the grind goes on and on. The home is at a critical point right now as we explained in our last newsletter (Click here) and we need God to touch hearts.

 Please join us in praying.

Please ask God if He wants you to give (No gift is ever too small) or if He wants you to ask your church, friends or family to help. All the details can be found on our website (Click Here)

I may be frustrated but I know God is in control and He will provide even though at times it seems many of His children are not willing to hear His prompting.

He will never fail?

God bless you,
Ray

Christian House Sitters is part of the registered charity

TLC Children’s Trust

UK Charity number 1156786

www.tlc-childrenstrust.org

 

 

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