Media Coverage
As articles appear in the press we will reproduce them here.
This is an extract from an article in CHURCH TIMES dated 27th April 2007
Swap your way to a holiday
For an affordable holiday offering all the comforts of home, consider Christian house-swapping, suggests Rachel Harden
LAST YEAR, Ray White and his wife, Marilyn, decided they wanted to take an extended break from work. Financially, however, they were not in a position to fund a long holiday. House-sitting seemed an ideal solution.
"We had heard a lot about it. Looking on the internet, we found a whole range of sites. We picked an American website we liked the look of and signed up. We chose a house in France, where the owners were looking for sitters for a couple of months to care for the plants and various pets, including dogs and a cat. It was 45 minutes inland from La Rochelle, an area we wanted to explore. We contacted the owners, they liked the sound of us, and it was all set up."
Apart from the fact that the dogs needed more exercise than they had been warned, the Whites enjoyed their two months on the Continent.
But they came away thinking it could have been so different. "The owners knew absolutely nothing about us, we gave no references and no one checked if our personal details were correct. We could easily have rolled up with a van and taken every-thing. We were also conscious, on the other hand, that we might have arrived to an entirely different set-up to the one described. In a sense, both parties were open to an abuse of trust."
On their return, the Whites decided to investigate whether there were any Christian house-sitting agencies. There weren't. "I am a psychologist, and my wife and I work in stress management, but we were no longer working full-time so we thought: why not set one up?"
This month, then, saw the launch of their Christian House Sitters. The site received 500 hits in the first week.
The attraction of any house-sitting service, explains Ray, is that no money exchanges hands, and the use of the house and running expenses are free (apart from the telephone) in return for certain chores like pet-sitting or watering the plants.
The new service, overseen by the Whites, charges £20 per year for administration: once registered, clients - whether they are looking for a sitter or offering their services - have access to all the others on the list. A minimum of ten per cent of any income will go to support Unsung Heroes, a Christian charity in South Africa.
Apart from adding obvious safeguards - like not giving out email addresses until references have been checked - no one is accepted on the site without being a church member.
"We feel strongly that if people swap, they will also get a chance to swap a new church family while on holiday if they want to."
The couple are aware of the new Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs), which came into force this month, making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of sexuality. They do not ask invasive questions, but stress that after registration each client sorts out their own house-sitting arrangements. This is left to the discretion of the individual. Users are also encouraged to set up their own contract of agreement (the website contains suggestions), as the Whites make it clear that they are not liable if things go wrong
Ray White believes that house swapping and sitting will become increasingly popular with Christians, because of its lifestyle challenge. "Not only is the concept of sharing very biblical, but there is also that degree of trust that you may not have with other agencies. Of course, it, has the added attraction of freeing up funds which can be used for other things - maybe even giving some to charity."