“Inspirational” is the word jazz musician James Morrison chooses to use to describe Gospel music, the subject of his latest album.

     “There’s a great energy to it and it’s uplifting and inspirational and I think we could use a bit more of that no matter who we are or where we are...” says the 42-year-old Sydney-sider.

     “I can think of some examples of even musicians I have worked with that have been drawn in unsuspecting to playing some Gospel music when we’re doing some secular music - doing another sort of concert or project - and I’ll pull out one of these songs and they’ll end up playing it."
      For the past 25 years jazz virtuoso James Morrison has been entertaining crowds around the world. DAVID ADAMS reports on his first Gospel album, Gospel Collection... | more...|

Known affectionately among his colleagues as the “cave man”, much of Dr Emil Silvestru’s life has been devoted to exploring and understanding the very depths of the earth.

      These days, however, his life is just as much about telling others what the subterranean world can tell us about the creation of life - and its Creator.

      In Australia for the past few weeks, Dr Silvestru has been giving seminars and presentations on his views about the origins of creation, caves and the “fundamental” importance of the Biblical book of Genesis on behalf of the Christian creationist group Answers in Genesis.
      Caves have fascinated Romanian-born Dr Emil Silvestru since his childhood. Here Dr Silvestru - a world authority on the geology of caves - tells DAVID ADAMS how God to lead him to work for Answers in Genesis... | more...|

While Dr Summer Williams admits having no natural inclination to go to the sub-continent, her willingness to serve God soon brought about an endearment for the country of Bangladesh. 

      Spending six months on a medical research project in Bangladesh, Dr Williams - now an intern with Ballarat Health Services in Victoria - worked in both schools and hospitals and recalls being shocked at medical facilities in the developing world, coming home profoundly affected.

      “I could not see medicine the same way. I could not see life the same way…I resolutely went into my final year of medicine determined to remember those I’d left behind…”.
       As a child, Dr Summer Williams always wanted to be a vet. But after three life changing trips to developing countries, the 26-year-old tells SALLY HOLT how God has called her to use her medical skills to help those living in developing countries... | more...|

This month's decision by G7 finance ministers to wipe-off the debt of 18 of the world's poorest countries is a welcome step to combat global poverty and means that around $US40 billion of debt should be cancelled immediately (pending approval of the proposal at the G8 meeting in Scotland in three week's time).

       The decision will have far reaching ramifications. As well as cancelling the debt of 18 countries (14 of which are located in Africa), a further nine countries should qualify for debt write-offs within the next 18 months.

      But, while acknowledging the move as a very positive step in the campaign to halve global poverty by 2015, further action is needed.

       National coordinator of the Micah Challenge, AMANDA JACKSON, takes a critical look at the recent decision of G7 finance ministers to wipe off the debts of some of the world's poorest nations... | more...|

Queensland clinical psychologist Dr Robi Sonderegger thought he was well-prepared to work in a warzone when he left for Uganda more than a month ago. After all, his work in Australia regularly brought him into contact with people who had experienced trauma and tragedy in their lives.

      Speaking after his recent return to his Sunshine Coast home, however, he says he now realises that nothing could have prepared him for what he found in the central African nation.

     “I thought I was well-prepared to work in the war zone with children who had been raped, forced to become child soldiers, sold into slavery in exchange for arms, and forced to commit horrendous atrocities themselves. But nothing could have prepared me to hear the stories of what these kids have been through.”

     JO HOPPING reports on a Queensland psychologist's bid to help children exposed to the horrors of war in Uganda... | more...|

Since war broke out in northern Uganda 18 years ago, thousands of children have been abducted and forced to work as soldiers or sex slaves. Here Dr ROBI SONDEREGGER relates the story of one of them... | more...|

Like many young Australian girls, Jessica Sanders used to dream of where she would go, and what she would do when she finally ‘grew up’.

      The youngest of three children - and the only girl (“always a bit of a special position” she admits) - Sanders would sit at the family dinner table and listen to her parents talk of their life in Papua New Guinea in the years before she was born.

      Occasionally they would recollect their stories in Pidgon English, and while their young daughter may not have understood the strange amalgam of words, the motivation behind them was clear.

     “My parents shared a real passion for the people,” she says. “I would often flick through their photo album and dream about being old enough to live in the same place. I had no idea what they did when they were there, and I didn’t even know where PNG was, although I thought it must have been in Africa, because the people in the photos had dark skin!”

     Melburnian Jessica Sanders always dreamed one of day travelling overseas to help those less fortunate. In 2003 that dream became reality when she began working with the Indonesian-based NGO, ‘Bless Indonesia Today’ in the Maluku Islands. SALLY HOLT reports... | more...|

George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden agree on one thing. The Crusades still matter.

      The epic wars between Christianity and Islam took place more than 600 years ago.

      Yet today bin Laden and his imitators accuse Westerners in Iraq (including Australians) of being "crusaders".

     "I have no wish to defend or excuse the often atrocious behaviour of the crusaders," says a leading historical scholar, Prof Bernard Lewis, "but the imperialist parallel is highly misleading.

"The Crusades could more accurately be described as a limited, belated and, in the last analysis, ineffectual response to the jihad -- a failed attempt to recover by a Christian holy war what had been lost to a Muslim holy war."

      So they started it, and we finished it?

      History is seldom that simple, but Kingdom of Heaven - the new box-office-leading movie about the Crusades by Gladiator director Ridley Scott - over-simplifies history to a massive degree.

     PAUL GRAY argues that Ridley Scott's latest epic doesn't reflect history as it actually was... | more...|

REVIEW: DAVID ADAMS on Kingdom of Heaven... | more...|

In Sydney, the multicultural Christian community held a night to express their thanks to their adopted country of Australia while elsewhere in the city a church held a thankyou service to honor the volunteer and professional firefighters who worked in their area.

      In Mackay, Queensland, a festival was held at the showgrounds with activities stopped each hour so doctors, teachers and nurses could be publicly thanked.

      In Perth a church put on a morning tea for traffic wardens who help schoolchildren cross the road. Even as far away as Norfolk Island, government officials were honored in a public ceremony of thanks.

      Such was how this year’s National Day of Thanksgiving was celebrated in communities across Australia. Only the second time it has been held, the National Day of Thanksgiving is aimed at encouraging all Australians to take time out to give thanks, both to God and to each other.

    DAVID ADAMS reports on the second National Day of Thanksgiving... | more...|

It was the age of the SS guards that struck Dr Mark Tronson most during his recent trip to the former Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

     “Our Israeli guide was telling is that most of these SS guards at these death camps came out of the Hitler Youth movement; they were totally committed to the cause and were in most cases aged in their early 20s...” he says. “That is something that I had not understood before.”

      Dr Tronson says he later reflected that the lack of empathy and feeling felt by the guards was probably not surprising given their relatively youthful age.

     “The Corrie ten Boom book (The Hiding Place) speaks of them as teenagers and teenagers don’t have the maturity to develop a sense of empathy at all. Teenagers and young people feel that they are totally indestructible. But more than that, they were indoctrinated into this super-race ideology. So there was no quarter given.”

     Former chaplain to the Australian cricket team Dr Tronson and friend Peter Scotland recently went to Auschwitz as part of an international group invited to commemorate 60 years since the liberation of Europe’s Nazi death camps. DAVID ADAMS reports... | more...|

“We wanted to hold an Internet Evangelism Day to increase awareness of changing technology in our congregation. We launched our website on this day and the whole service focused on global and local evangelism, particularly on adapting the way we do evangelism to reach an appropriate audience.”

      So reads a message placed by Australia’s Ingle Farm Community Church on Internet Evangelism Day’s international website.

      Located in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide in South Australia, the baptist church is one of scores across the globe that took part in last month’s Internet Evangelism Day with organisers receiving reports from countries ranging from the United Kingdom and the United States to Canada, Uganda and Nigeria.

   DAVID ADAMS reports on this year's international Internet Evangelism Day... | more...|

For 17-year-old Melbourne student Chris Varney being a Christian is more than just going to church and reading his Bible.

      Varney, who says he had his eyes opened when he attended one of World Vision’s Global Leadership Conventions a couple of years ago, says being a Christian is also about taking action to combat global issues such as poverty and hunger.

     “If you’ve got relationship with God it’s not just going to church and thinking ‘I’m a good person if I abide by the Gospel and everything’,” he says.

     “It’s got to be living the love that He’s given us and that He sacrificed His life for. It’s got to be taking it out there, it’s got to be action...it’s getting out of our comfort zone.”

    DAVID ADAMS reports on a World Vision initiative to educate and encourage young people to stand up and be counted on issues like hunger and poverty... | more...|

Nikki Fletcher never wanted to be a worship leader.

      Now lead singer and one of key songwriters with Sydney-based band Christian City Youth, the twenty-something says her experience of growing up in a family where her parents were both pastors at the Christian City Church in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood had led to her deciding that was the one thing she definitely - definitely - didn’t want to do.

     “My parents were in ministry and I saw all the unglamorous side of ministry - the hard work and all that sort of stuff - and I just really desperately didn’t want to be part of it,” she says.

     “It sounds funny but I think a lot of pastor’s kids are like that. But then when I started worship leading, I just knew it was the call of God on my life and knew that that’s what I was supposed to be doing.

    Christian City Youth (formerly known as CCC Youth) are working hard at putting God first. DAVID ADAMS talks to them about their latest release, No Longer I... | more...|

"The damage done to families is beyond comprehension. I have before me the statistics for one village. Of the 68 families on the list, 48 heads of families, 48 wives and 64 children aged under 15  were killed, plus a number of children whose ages were not given. Twenty-two of the 68 families were totally wiped out.
      "The survivors have lost most of their families, their homes, their clothing and possessions, fresh water, toilet facilities, power and, in many cases, their means of livelihood.  Yet, amazingly, they are cheerful and they are getting on with reconstruction, doing whatever they can."

    Relief worker DAVID FREEMAN writes of his recent visit to the Indonesia province of Aceh... | more...|

A GALLIPOLI REFLECTION

When the Turkish leg of our 'Seven Churches of The Revelation' itinerary was in the planning stages, as a group of Australians, Gallipoli was insisted upon.

      It so happened that an American evangelical was part of this process who could not fathom the integral importance to us of including Gallipoli. But there was something in my soul pushing me to discover why Gallipoli was so strangely important to me.

    Dr MARK TRONSON reflects on his 1999 visit to Gallipoli... | more...|

REMEMBERING SIMPSON AND HIS DONKEY

In many ways he sums up what the Anzac spirit is all about. Facing overwhelming danger without thought for himself, John Simpson Kirkpatrick - known simply as “Simpson” - is celebrated across Australia for his efforts in leading wounded soldiers to safety on the back of a donkey amid fierce fighting on the shores of Gallipoli.

      Yet despite the fact that he is credited with saving the lives of up to 300 Anzacs, the English-born private was never awarded the Victoria Cross.

      Last month - almost 90 years after he was killed at Gallipoli at only 22-years-old - a petition was tabled in Federal Parliament aimed at changing that.

     DAVID ADAMS reports on moves to celebrate an Australian icon, Simpson and his donkey... | more...|

For some, it is a secret yet to be discovered. For others, it has simply always been there: where else would you spend your Easter and Christmas holidays?
      Tucked into eight leafy hectares in the foothills of Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges, the Belgrave Heights Convention (BHC) is somewhat of an institution for many Australian Christians. And until recently, it never seemed to change.
      But take the picturesque drive to the BHC Centre today and you just might notice some changes. The auditorium - sometimes fondly remembered as ‘the old shed’ – has recently undergone a facelift as part of a multi-stage property re-development that began in 2003.
     SALLY HOLT takes a look at a Melbourne institution... | more...|

ESSAY: POPE BENEDICT XVI - A 'UNIQUELY GIFTED' MAN

"The previous Benedict XV (1914-1922) was a Pope who sought to be a figure of unity and reconciliation drawing people together. His choice of the name Benedict also suggests that he seeks to embrace the whole Catholic tradition of prayer, study and two thousand years of theological reflection and teaching. He can be expected to emphasise the dignity of the human person and the principles, which underpin our understanding of humanity, of the nature of marriage, and of the sense of God, which is essential to the faith."

    Catholic Archibishop of Melbourne, DENIS J. HART, reflects on the election of Pope Benedict XVI... | more...|

VATICAN ELECTION: BENEDICT XVI GREETS WORLD

“After the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.

      "The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with inadequate instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.

      "Let us move forward in the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help. The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.”

      Such were the first words addressed to the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics by German Joseph Ratzinger following his election as Pope Benedict XVI early Wednesday morning Australian time.

     DAVID ADAMS reports... | more...|

Lance Wilder, a top designer on the hit animation show, The Simpsons, has appealed to Christians not to “abandon Hollywood".

     “I can't imagine what would happen if Christians and people with a sense of morality and responsibility abandoned Hollywood," he says.

     “Fortunately we're not called to abandon these things, but we're called to be a light and an example to do our best and to hold firm to what’s right.”

      Responding to comments that some critics say The Simpsons is anti-Christian, Wilder says: “I know that there has often been criticism about the show and I think sometimes it's justified, but most of the time I don't think it is. The Simpsons is not anti-Christian, nor is it Christian. It's an animated television comedy that is supposed to entertain you for 30 minutes."

     In a report from Assist News Service, DAN WOODING speaks with Simpsons designer Lance Wilder about the show, his life and his walk with Jesus Christ... | more...|

"In a political prison camp in North Korea, one must forget that he or she is a human being. I had to do many things to survive. I carefully watched a dog so that I could steal its food. I ate snakes, frogs, rats, and anything that could be a source of nutrition.

      I met many people in the prison camp. There were people who cut off their own finger or pretended to be insane, because the brutality of forced labour was unbearable. Someone was beaten with a shovel and later had to have one of his arms cut off because it had grown rotten with toxin due to tetanus. There were numerous people who spent 20 to 30 years in the prison camp simply because of some ludicrous crime their grandfather allegedly committed."

     Two North Korean Christians recently spoke to the United Nation's Commission on Human Rights about their experiences inside one of the country's prison camps for political prisoners. Here 49-year-old KIM TAE JIN tells his story... | more...|

"Young people of Australia: I ask you - does God have a part in your hopes and ambitions for the Australia of tomorrow? Do you dream of an Australia in which the poor and the downtrodden, the disadvantaged and the lonely, the spiritually blind and those struggling to make sense out of their lives will be sustained by the hands of a loving God? And do you realise that God has no other hands but yours to stretch out to those in need?"

- Pope John Paul II Mass at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, 1986. For more of Pope John Paul II's comments during his Australian visits in 1986 and 1995, click here...

POPE JOHN PAUL II: A MAN OF "GREAT VISION"

"I well remember my first meeting with Pope John Paul. It was before he became pope. I was travelling in Poland, a guest of the priests of the Society of Christ. In Krakow we were invited to dine with the Archbishop, Archbishop Karol Wojtyla. What impressed me immediately was the quiet strength that emanated from him. Here was a man physically powerful, not particularly tall, but broad of shoulder, whose clear blue eyes looked directly into ones own and suggested other strengths as well. Little did either of us know then that within a few months he would be elected pope. The years that followed would demonstrate just how true my first impressions were."

   With the Pope's funeral due to be held later today, the former Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal EDWARD CLANCY reflects on the life of a man he admired... | more...|

JOHN PAUL II: AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE

No previous pope travelled as widely or as frequently as John Paul II. The world was literally his parish. He visited 129 countries, although not Russia or China. Nor did any previous pope understand the nature and power of mass media, or exploit it to such advantage. Where earlier popes had merely dabbled in secular politics - or had standing armies - this pope walked the world stage as an eminent statesman as well as a spiritual leader.

      As a young man John Paul watched his country overrun first by the German armies and then by Stalin’s Red Army. More than three decades later, in June 1979, as newly inaugurated pontiff, he preached to more than a million people in Victory Square, Warsaw, in the heart of communist Poland. "Come, Holy Spirit," he called, "fill the hearts of the faithful and renew the face of the earth."

     Rev ROD BENSON recalls the life of John Paul II... | more...|

WORLD MOURNS PASSING OF THE POPE

“Our Holy Father John Paul has returned to the house of the Father.”

       With those words, the death of one of the towering figures of the 20th century - Pope John Paul II - was announced to the world at the Vatican early on Sunday morning (Australian time).

      The death of the Pope brings to an end a 26-year pontificate which transformed the office of the papacy and saw him play a key role in such world-shaping events as the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

      The 84-year-old gave his final message to the world on Saturday morning when he mouthed the words - “I have looked for you, now you have come, and I thank you”, a statement interpreted as referring to the thousands who had kept vigil in St Peter’s Square.

    DAVID ADAMS reports... | more...|

TRIBUTE: Cardinal GEORGE PELL's statement... | more...|

YOUR SAY: Leave your comments on the life of Pope John Paul II and his legacy here... | more...|

When Hugh Evans surveyed the debris of a tsunami-devastated school in Banda Aceh recently, it somehow reminded him of his own school. It seems like an incongruous comparison.

      Carey Grammar, where Evans spent his secondary school years, is tucked securely in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Kew - it’s a solid, safe, and somewhat privileged place of education.

      In contrast, the Aceh school was literally torn to shreds. Buses and trucks had been hurled into classrooms; books were strewn across the road, and in a stench-filled playground lay a pile of bodies.

      While there was nothing safe or solid about this school, it reminded Hugh Evans - once again - of where he’d come from and how fortunate his life had been.

     SALLY HOLT speaks with a young man determined to make a difference... | more...|

FOR PREVIOUS ARTICLES ON HUGH EVANS:

THE INTERVIEW: Twenty-one year old Melbourne university student Hugh Evans was recently awarded the title of Young Person of the World for 2004. Evans, the founder of youth-oriented humanitarian organisation the Oaktree Foundation, spoke with DAVID ADAMS... | more...|

Up to four times as many females as males may have died in the Boxing Day tsunami, according to a new report from Oxfam Community Aid Abroad.... | more...|

More than a thousand people are feared dead after an earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale struck off the west coast of Sumatra yesterday.

      An aid agency official working in Gunung Sitoli - the capital of Nias, the island which seems to have borne the brunt of the earthquake - has estimated that as much as 80 per cent of the town has been flattened.

     “People left the dead and injured under buildings as they fled to higher ground,” said the official from Yayasan Tanggul Bencana, a partner organisation of Lutheran World Relief which had been working with survivors of the Boxing Day tsunami disaster.

     DAVID ADAMS reports... | more...|

Now in his 11th year with Hillsong Church where, as a pastor, he has played a key role in the world-renowned worship team, Reuben Morgan is one of the most prominent Christian song-writers on the face of the earth today, having written a swag of songs including My Redeemer Lives, I Give You My Heart, You Said and Touching Heaven, Changing Earth.

      Yet change is in the air for the 29-year-old. He’s recently been travelling to churches around the country and performing at worship nights with a stripped-down four piece band. While he’s been performing at conferences and other events for some years now, Morgan says that this time it’s a slightly different approach.

     DAVID ADAMS and JUSTIN MICHAEL spoke with musician and song-writer Reuben Morgan... | more...|

"Did anyone notice what quietly slipped onto supermarket shelves just after Boxing Day? Surrounded by the debris of Christmas bargains and discount decorations were packets of plump, doughy, hot cross buns. With Easter only three months away, it was apparently time for the next instalment of retail religion.

      It’s easy to become nostalgic with age, but a few decades ago Easter felt more like Easter. Not something that was tacked onto the Boxing Day sales.

     SALLY HOLT reflects on the true meaning of Christianity's most significant celebration... | more...|

"Nothing can prepare one for the emotional roller-coaster that is South African life. Perhaps the hardest-hitting moment was when an eight-year-old boy at an orphan village in a valley called Kanushaw asked me if I could be his father. This was a heart-wrenching question which seemed to have no good or 'nice' answer. Seeing numerous households where the head of the family was between eight and 12-years-old (as a result of both parents dying of AIDS) - I found that, until you get to know those individuals touched by such grief and sadness, it is very difficult to begin to comprehend the enormity of their struggle and attitude to life."

      Earlier this year youth-run aid and development agency, the Oaktree Foundation, took a group of 11 young Australians to South Africa for an intensive three-week study tour during which they visited Oaktree projects in a bid to show them how communities can be empowered through education. DAVID ADAMS speaks to Steve Wallace, 17, about the trip... | more...|

"I feel like I've learnt so much...However, perhaps a very important lesson is that people overseas, who live in constant poverty, are people just like you and me. They have the same hopes, dreams and goals as we do and deal with similar personal and relationship problems. I also learnt a lot about development and that in order to address issues of poverty, we must do so through partnership. I believe that through working alongside one another great things can happen. "

      Nineteen-year-old singer/songwriter Freya Morgan reflects on her South African experience... | more...|

"I took a class of approximately 30 students for an hour's lesson...It was so inspiring and encouraging to know that the children had gained a sense of their own abilities to (enable them to) strive toward their future dreams."

Eighteen-year-old film-maker Michael Nelson talks about the trip and the impact its had on his life... | more...|

 VIEW FROM THE STANDS:  "'You're not coming to Franklin Graham - I can't save you, but Jesus Christ can.'

      I shut my eyes for a moment as Graham prayed, then looked up and wondered: would anyone respond?

      Then they came. Eleven hundred people, streaming forward from the 17,000-strong ocean of people like, as Jesus said, a great catch."

     GAVIN BOX was among the more than 90,000 people who attended one of the Franklin Graham rallies in Melbourne last weekend... | more...|

The Gospel and nothing but the Gospel. That, according to Franklin Graham - the son of renowned US evangelist Billy Graham - is the entirety of the message he has brought to Australia.

     “That’s what the churches want - they don’t want some specific message, they want God’s message and they want God’s message for today,” says the 52-year-old evangelist.

      That message, says Graham, is the same as that his father delivered when he was in Melbourne preaching to record grounds at the MCG in 1959. “The Gospel message is the same and the power of the Gospel is the same.”

     DAVID ADAMS reports on Franklin Graham's latest trip to Australia... | more...|

"Patrick’s Gospel was one that transcended the political divides of his day. It was a Gospel that promoted the unity and oneness that Jesus called for in John 17. On a still-divided island, this saint cannot be exclusively ‘owned’ by today’s so-called ‘Protestants’ or ‘Catholics’; he predates our modern divisions. Although it is highly unlikely that Patrick used the shamrock to illustrate the Trinity, the Celtic tradition in which he walked managed to engage with the culture of its day, rather than despising and criticising it. It was a theology that emphasised redemption as opposed to judgement, and looked for the image of God in people who could be restored through relationship with the Creator. In a world that’s crying out to be engaged with spiritually, Patrick’s methodology has much teach us.”

     RICHARD TREACY, founder of the website Pray for St Patrick's Day, recalls an inspirational life... | more...|

"Billy Graham’s achievements have been, to say the least, quite extraordinary...

      One of the most outstanding rallies took place in New York in 1957, where it was said a third of the city heard the Gospel, with 60,000 people responding to his message.

      In 1959 Graham visited Australia and New Zealand drawing record crowds. About 130,000 people attended Graham’s rally at the MCG in Melbourne - a crowd record that still holds at the stadium today. He returned to Melbourne again ten years later."

     Ahead of US evangelist Franklin Graham's visit to Australia this month, TONY TOWNSEND takes a look at the extraordinary life of his father... | more...|

Recalling Melbourne: share your memories of the Billy Graham Crusades... | more...|

Merryl, a 46-year-old Sydneysider, had never really thought about using the internet to meet other Christians - much less using the world wide web to find someone to spend the rest of her life with. After taking part in a speed dating night last year organised through website Christians Online however, she’s now gradually becoming a convert.

      Merryl is one of thousands of Christian Australians who are using the internet as a tool in their quest for friends and, just maybe, that someone special.

      DAVID ADAMS reports on an online trend... | more...|

"When Dr. Matthews asked us the question of organ donation we could see how hard it was for him too. We knew we had to donate our daughter's organs, not for us but for her. Rachael would have wanted us to. Our Christian belief has taught us to love, trust and have faith in God; that when we die, we are made whole again with no blemishes whatsoever. Rachael could give her organs to help others live. We know she has gone to Heaven absolutely whole and renewed."

    With this week declared Australian Organ Donor Awareness Week, South Australian mother JAN THORN writes of her family's decision to donate the organs of her 11-year-old daughter Rachael... | more...|

It was late November, 1986. It had been a hot day and over Blatherskite Park, just outside Alice Springs Gap, there was a storm brewing with lightning flickering across the sky.

      There was an air of expectancy as the thousands who had gathered at the park heard Pope John Paul II deliver a speech which resonates in the ears of many Christians - and indigenous Australian Christians in particular - to this very day.

      Indigenous issues seemed to have slipped off the national agenda of late. DAVID ADAMS reports on a new move to reignite the debate.... | more...|

THE INTERVIEW: CONNY LENNEBERG
“You just cannot comprehend the scale of what’s happened until you’re standing amongst it. Just the incredible power of nature to come in something like eight kilometres into the city and wipe out everything in its path: whole communities completely obliterated. There is nothing left standing, the only evidence that people were there are the floor slabs and tiles on the houses that were more substantial. The rest is just wreckage and wreckage full of the bodies of people and all sorts of belongings. It just beggars belief - you just can’t believe it until you see it.”

     World Vision’s Conny Lenneberg recently returned from four weeks in Banda Aceh where she was responsible for framing the organisation’s Australian response in both the immediate and long-term future. She spoke with DAVID ADAMS... | more...|

LIDYA'S STORY
"Five-year-old Lidya Sofianda sits thoughtfully on the clean tarpaulin floor of the World Vision ‘Child Friendly Space’ in the tsunami-ravaged city of Banda Aceh. Her eyes drift as if she is distracted, or perhaps looking for someone...

      Is it possible for a five-year-old to comprehend such utter loss? “We have talked with Lidya and told her that her mummy and daddy and baby brother won’t be coming back,” says her aunt, Mutia. “But she doesn’t believe us. She thinks that they are just away on a trip, and will come back again.”

      Mutia looks at Lidya with concern. “Now, Lidya often cries for her mother.”

      All Mutia can do is hold her and comfort her as best she can. 

     Compiled by World Vision staff working in Banda Aceh, Lidya's story is one of tragedy - but also one of hope... | more...|

CLICK HERE FOR SIGHT'S FULL COVERAGE OF THE TSUNAMI DISASTER INCLUDING WHAT TO PRAY FOR, WHERE TO DONATE, EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS, STORIES OF HOPE, REFLECTIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD AND THE HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE...

In a decision which may have ramifications across the globe, the world’s seven richest nations have agreed in principle that up to $100 billion in debts owed by 37 of the world’s poorest countries should be cancelled.

      A final communiqué issued by the finance ministers from the G7 countries - which includes - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada - said they were “agreed on a case-by-case analysis of highly indebted poor countries, based on our willingness to provide as much as 100 per cent debt relief”.

      The position was hailed by outspoken campaigner against poverty British Chancellor Gordon Brown - who chaired the weekend meeting - as “the rich countries hearing the voices of the poor”.

     DAVID ADAMS reports on new efforts to tackle the issue of global poverty... | more...|

Abortion is back on the national agenda this week after a group of the country’s religious leaders released a statement calling on federal, state and territory governments to restrict late term abortions and provide accurate statistics on how many are currently being performed.

      The statement was drawn up and signed by representatives of the Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Assemblies of God and Greek Orthodox Churches, the Salvation Army, Wesley Mission and Seventh Day Adventists along with those from the Mormon, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and Sikh faiths at a meeting held at the Salvation Army headquarters in Sydney on Monday night.

     DAVID ADAMS reports on a new push to examine the issue of abortion in Australia... | more...|

Paul Colman sits on the balcony of his suite at Woodlands Manor in Melbourne.

      With a halo of bright sunshine blurring his profile, the image of this enigmatic Christian “pop star” seems perfect. That is, until he makes a comment about the local weather.

      But contrasts are part of Paul Colman. There’s aloofness and directness. Shyness and contemplation. There’s posing when the camera is clicking and slinking back into the lounge when it isn’t.   

     WES JAY catches up with Paul Colman... | more...|

Chiang Mai, Thailand, wasn’t the first place that sprang to mind when Melbourne couple Heather Smith and her husband, Dr Trevor Smith, thought about travelling overseas as missionaries.

      It wasn’t even on the list. But 35 years after first setting foot in the South East Asian country, they’re still there helping people with leprosy and disabilities to live a productive and fulfilling life.

      "After we become Christians ourselves, we both felt individually God was calling us, leading us into mission work,” explains Heather Smith in Chiang Mai recently.

      DAVID ADAMS reports on the life-reclaiming work of the McKean Rehabilitation Institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand... | more...|

PHOTO ESSAY: World renowned photographer KEN DUNCAN

shares some of his stunning images of Australia... | more...|

Have you taken a photo that captures the essence of Australia? Send it in to Sight with a brief description of the circumstances in which it was taken and we'll publish the best of them. Send all photos and descriptions to editor@sightmagazine.com.au

QUIZ: Test your knowledge of Australia with our quick trivia quiz... | more...|

PHOTO ESSAY: Porselvi, 20, who was left widowed with two young children - Nishan, 5, and Niveda, 3, when the tsunami hit, is one of the thousands of people receiving aid from funds donated to World Vision. To see more photos from World Vision's relief efforts in Sri Lanka and India, click here...

"There are huge sums of money which have been allocated to agencies seeking to assist survivors of the tsunami. The challenge will be to allocate these in ways which encourage sustainability rather than dependence; support those which are also affected in less direct ways; and which do not lead to financial management, nepotism and corruption.

      The challenge of financial transparency, management and accountability will be of paramount importance in order to maintain the goodwill generated by the public globally. Finance has been raised from a variety of sources, this including national trust funds, and contributions to NGOs and bilateral/multilateral donors. The task of first tracking actual donations against pledges, and then reconciling donations against expenditure will prove testing."

     CHRIS PIPER, chief executive of Australian overseas aid consultancy TorqAid, provides an updated assessment of the challenges for relief efforts in tsunami-affected areas... | more...|

CLICK HERE FOR SIGHT'S FULL COVERAGE OF THE TSUNAMI DISASTER INCLUDING WHAT TO PRAY FOR, WHERE TO DONATE, EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS, STORIES OF HOPE, REFLECTIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD AND THE HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE...

"The judgement against Catch the Fire Ministries in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has ignited a debate about free speech in Australia. I’m not competent to comment on the historical and legal dimensions of the issue. But I do have some experience of speaking about Christian faith in public places.
      The notions of tolerance, which the legislation is intended to promote, and of vilification, which it is intended to proscribe, are manifestly slippery concepts. Such legislation might be high-minded, but it is not clear to this lay person that it is well-founded. The fact that people in high places are asserting some sort of ‘right’ not to be offended illustrates the potential for fuzziness, utopianism and spurious litigation in such matters. And the fact that Catch the Fire Ministries have, by implication at least, been vilified freely in newspaper editorials and other statements since the judgement was brought down illustrates just how problematic the whole thing is. The irony of this seems to be completely lost on such commentators."

      TOM SLATER, national director of the Australian Evangelical Alliance Inc., takes a look at some of the issues raised by the recent tribunal decision against Catch the Fire Ministries... | more...|

"So many times I've heard loved ones say they had no idea what was behind such a self-destructive act.

      It was more than likely an issue which, within that man's heart, had paramount importance to him.

      The heartache is that no one had any inkling of what that unsurpassable problem was. It was bound up in the unspoken."

       Former Australian cricket chaplain, Rev Dr MARK TRONSON encourages men to talk more... | more...|