 The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is Lorraine McMahon, head of community outreach England, Scotland and Wales, Aid to the Church in Need. Presiding Officer, I'm honoured to be invited here to address Parliament, our Scottish Parliament today, thank you. Aid to the Church in Need's mission is to support Christians where they are persecuted or in pastoral need. My teams in the UK work with schools, parishes and volunteers to help raise awareness and funds for communities throughout the world where it can be life threatening to have a faith. As individuals, we fight hardest for the causes that we witness, such as family members suffering from cancer. I became such a witness in 2016 and 2018. I visited countries in the Middle East to interview victims of daies more commonly known as ISIS, and there I saw for myself the devastation, the trauma and the poverty suffered by Christians, Yazidis and other minority faith groups. ACN were there to give a voice to the voiceless and to listen to the groups that felt invisible and alone in their persecution. It's important for all of us to tell their stories, but first we need to know their stories. In Lebanon, I met a young Syrian family who witnessed their 11-year-old neighbour, butchered, and his remains were placed in a bin bag and offered to his parents for $20,000. Why? Because they refused to join the ranks of daies. I witnessed Yazidis sleeping by the roadside in tents, Christians living five families to one room, living also in tents and in containers. In Iraq, I entered a town called Teleskof in the Nine of a Plains and experienced the eeriness of a deserted town where people had had to abandon their homes and their belongings when daies had invaded. Sewing machines, chairs and tables broken in the streets, buildings destroyed and churches and graves desecrated. No one present except the Peshmerga guarding the town against another invasion. The evil there felt like a physical entity, and with the battle not yet ended, I stood in the front line and spoke with soldiers about how isolated they felt from their families, about the pride in defending their border and the frustration at not stopping daies soon enough. Then I came home to our beautiful peaceful country, determined to pay witness to my time there, but I was not prepared for the emotion and attachment that I felt towards the people I had met. I realised that every person's words and the way they made me feel will stay with me for life. Emotion is what makes us human, and when displayed effectively it can lead to audiences taking notice and often leads to engagement and understanding. I'm sure that all of you here today in our Scottish Parliament can relate to that as you do what you feel is best for your country. ACN has been able to support refugees and displace people around the world through helping to rebuild homes, churches and provide shelter, clothing and food to those in need. We live our life and our work through our faith. Ukraine is another country that we've worked in since the 1980s and continue working in today during their present hardships. Our aim is always to support the community and keep Christianity alive in our world. In each country, I visit, I'm humbled by the strength of their faith. The people are astounded that through ACN and other charities that their plight is known and they always ask for you to pray for them and they always promise to pray for you. A Jewish writer and survivor of Auschwitz Eli Weisel used the phrase, the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. He added that we should awaken our conscience because if we remain indifferent we become part of that evil, but through love and prayer we can fight all that is evil. Thank you for listening.