BAGGAGE allowance has become a real issue for Canon Felicity Lawson, Vicar of St Peter's, Gildersome, and Priest-in-Charge of St Paul's, Drighlington, in the diocese of West Yorkshire & the Dales. She is going on holiday to Uganda, and will be visiting the Shalom School in Teso, north-east Uganda, which her churches support.

She wants to take the opportunity to help stock the workshops there, and, when she asked her congregations for sewing and woodwork materials, the response was so overwhelming that she could not see her sitting room floor for weeks (above).

"The response has been amazing," she says. "I've received three times as much as I can take. I've actually got 69kg of baggage allowance; so I can take saws, screwdrivers, and spanners, along with all the sewing materials; but, unfortunately, the wood-turning lathe I've been given is a step too far. I'm going with Dr Christina Baxter [the former Principal of St John's College, Nottingham, and former Lay Chair of the General Synod]; so she can fill her cases, too; and anything we can't take this time can be taken by someone else."

St Peter's has long supported the work of the Teso Educational Services, and Shalom School is their latest venture, she says. "It's such a worthwhile project: it will provide lifelong educational opportunities for people of all ages; so it's great to be able to help practically at this early stage of its development."