This year's Free To Believe National Conference will be held 8-10 November at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire.

The theme for this year's conference is ‘Grounded and Grateful’ and the main speaker is Diana Butler Bass. Diana is an award-winning author and internationally known public speaker and thought leader on issues of spirituality, religion, culture, and politics. She has preached and taught in hundreds of church, college, and conference venues in North America and beyond. Her lectures will explore the surprising complexity of thanksgiving, how we understand gratitude, how we practice it, and why it is so important in these difficult days.

Bible Studies will be led by Trevor Dennis. Trevor is passionate about the Bible and its extraordinary artistry, about opening up the world of biblical scholarship to a wider audience, and about being honest about it all. He has written extensively on the Old Testament and the Gospels, and has six collections published of sermons written in story form or in blank verse.

For more information and to download the booking form, go to: www.freetobelieve.org.uk/conferences

 Come with or without kids for coffee, chat and cake.  Fridays term time 9-11am.

Roban Biswas, his wife Shelia Biswas, and their three children live in Mitradanga village, in Bangladesh. The area is waterlogged so there are very few ways to make an income. Duck rearing is one of the best livelihoods. However, because of climate change, the water has become more saline and the local ducks are not resilient to this and get diseases and die.
 
Thanks to Christian Aid partner Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), they have been provided with Campbell ducks, which are more resistant to saline water. CCDB trained Roban and others to make the most of this new type of duck. These new ducks have changed his and his family’s lives.
 
Roban says, ‘Now I can send my children to school. I can buy their school books and their exercise books, because I can sell eggs. For example, today my son went to a school exam. So I sold five eggs and gave him the money so that he could get the bus to school. I felt really proud.’  As the ducks get older he will sell them for people to eat and buy ducklings to continue the egg laying.
 
His wife, Shelia, is part of the Golden Dream Forum, which is also run by CCDB. This women’s forum is a place where they learn to improve their lives through training, learning new skills and encouraging each other.