One of the greatest challenges for Somebody Cares came after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the US city of New Orleans and other communities along the Gulf Coast in August and September, 2005.

     “In New Orleans we had churches were were already related to - they were giving us quick assessments and the same thing happened when Rita hit south-east Texas - we already had a relationship...so immediately, even before the Red Cross or the government agencies were able to get their assessments, we were able to get the on-ground assessments from church leaders,” recalls Doug Stringer, the founder of Somebody Cares.

     “Church leaders know their community far better than a federal group or a state group coming in, they know their area better.”

    In the second of a two part story, DAVID ADAMS talks to Doug Stringer, founder of Somebody Cares, about the organisation's response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, revival, and his "Australian connection"...  | more...|

 In part one, DAVID ADAMS speaks to Doug Stringer, the founder of a US-based ministry with a global reach...  | more...|

It’s difficult to get a word in edgewise. Kutless drummer Jeffrey Gilbert is so pumped up about the band's music, message and mission that he seldom pauses to catch his breath as he talks about, among other things, the band’s desire to appeal to as broad an audience as possible.

    "We want kids to walk into a Wal-Mart or a Best Buy, pick up our record and say, 'This record is awesome!' We want those kids that don't know the Lord to pick up our record and say, 'This is a hot track.' We don't want to be limited to the Christian community in the sense that we are only going to play to Christians,” says Gilbert, who joined Kutless with bassist Dave Luetkenhoelter in 2005 after Kyle Mitchell and Kyle Zeigler left the band to pursue other interests in the recording industry.

     JOE MONTAGUE speaks with Kutless drummer Jeffrey Gilbert...  | more...|

"We wanted to launch the Global Day of Prayer in Australia at its centre. The prayer networks all came together and combined their desire to see us pray in a united way over this weekend. They came from the north, the south, the east, the west  - the Lord's Gideon-type army of 300 converged at the heart of our nation to celebrate, to pray, to worship, to glorify the Name of our precious Saviour, Jesus Christ...

     "On Saturday afternoon, 3rd June, the 300 gathered at Uluru dressed in red, symbolising the Blood of Jesus and, according to II Chronicles 7:14, prayed prayers of repentance and reconciliation, both personally and on behalf of the nation. At 3pm, the 300 had encircled the rock and stood for three minutes, dressed in white, in thanksgiving to God and declaring righteousness in our nation, before putting on yellow/gold to pray that God's glory would fall on our nation, and that He would be glorified in and through us, His children, as we continue in relationship with Him.

     DAVID ADAMS speaks to Reverend Sarah Plummer, national coordinator of the Global Day of Prayer in Australia...  | more...|

There are times when Doug Stringer - US-based evangelist, author, preacher and founder of Christian outreach organisation Somebody Cares - says he can relate to Forrest Gump, the unlikely hero of the 1994 film of the same name.

     “He’d always end up in these photographs with all these famous people...he just showed up in the picture,” he explains.

    “I realise, with me, from one moment I can be in a garbage dump in Surabaya with thousands of homeless people and an hour or so later I can be in the presidential palace praying with the president. I’ve been with some of the most famous and wealthiest people from different arenas - from sports through to politics - and I think to myself 'What am I doing here? I don’t have a clue what I’m doing’. But I’m like Forrest Gump, I just show up in the picture and I make myself available and God seems to use that.”

      The 49-year-old - who recently made the latest of his many trips to Australia where he spoke to churches and pastors in Victoria - has spent the past 25 years working among and for those who society shuns, sowing God’s word and life into their lives, initially in Houston, Texas, and, more recently, all around the globe.

    In part one of a two part series, DAVID ADAMS speaks to Doug Stringer, the founder of a US-based ministry with a global reach...  | more...|

UPDATE: Organisers report than more than 1,000 communities across Australia took part in the National Day of Thanksgiving with an estimated 250,000 people either participating directly or impacted by the day...  | more...|

“We’re known for being a nation of knockers...” notes Tasmanian Judy MacKenzie. “(But) one of the things that we hope will come out of this over a period of years is that people will appreciate what a great country we live in and the good things people do for us.”

       MacKenzie is one of thousands of people who are taking part in the National Day of Thanksgiving being held across the nation this coming Saturday.
       The convenor of National Day of Thanksgiving celebrations in Launceston, she says the city will be holding a thankyou breakfast that morning to honor those who serve the community in uniform, such as police, ambulance officers and firemen as well as those serving in the military, or who care for those who can’t care for themselves, such the poor or the marginalised. More than 360 people are expected to attend.

     “They just come along, get blessed and hopefully go away feeling blessed and appreciated,” she says.

     DAVID ADAMS speaks to some of those who are preparing to celebrate the country's third National Day of Thanksgiving...  | more...|

SAINTS OF PAST AGES: WHO WAS THE REAL MARY MAGDALENE?

Mary Magdalene is one of a number of Marys who are attested to following and supporting Jesus in His ministry, as recorded in the New Testament. The name “Magdalene” seems to find its origin from the town Magdala (meaning “Tower”) located in the region of Galilee.

      Scriptural references

      There about nine references made about Mary by the four Gospel writers with the majority of these references centring around both the crucifixion and resurrection accounts (see Matthew 27:55-56, Mark 15:40, Luke 24:10, John 20:10-18).

      Luke is the only author to make mention of her outside the context of these significant events in where reference is made to her being delivered from demonic possession (see Luke 8:1-3).

     TONY TOWNSEND takes a look at what we know of the real Mary Magdalene... | more...|

REVIEW: THE DA VINCI CODE

     Yes, I’ve seen it. And no, I haven’t abandoned my faith as a result.       The Da Vinci Code is a fast-paced thriller which - in line with Dan Brown’s book of the same name - strings together a wide range of bizarre and largely discredited esoterica in a bid to create what is ultimately an unbelievable conspiracy theory surrounding the beliefs of the Christian church.

     DAVID ADAMS takes a look at the Ron Howard-directed movie...  | more...|

ESSAY: THE DA VINCI CODE - CHALLENGE, THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY?

The Da Vinci Code. Everyone has heard of it; without doubt it causes a reaction. For many Christians there is a sense of fear. Many refuse to read the book because it is heresy, and, for the same reason, they won’t see the movie. They know that the book undermines the Christian faith and yet can’t engage with the issues it raises through ignorance of its contents.

      Certainly The Da Vinci Code presents a challenge. A work of fiction presented in a subtle way as historical fact, a novel which seriously attacks the foundations of the Christian faith. The challenge lies in our response, the way in which we view the whole issue, and consequently, the manner in which we react. If we see it as a threat the tendency is to withdraw, to avoid anything to do with it, and to refuse to engage with the issues it raises. Maybe we don’t want to spend money on either the book or the film, as doing so would merely make Dan Brown richer and possibly be seen as condoning the whole thing. Alternatively, we can embrace the unique opportunity The Da Vinci Code presents, the possibility that we as Christians can intentionally engage with our culture, providing meaningful and accurate dialogue with those who may blindly accept the “teachings” and propositions of the book (and subsequently, the movie). But, to take up this opportunity we need to be prepared.

   RUSSELL STUBBINGS argues that Christians should be making the most of the opportunity to talk about the Gospel that The Da Vinci Code represents...  | more...|

WAS JESUS MARRIED?
Dan Brown is not the first person to speculate that Jesus was married and had children. The Mormon Church have always taught that Jesus was married, to Mary Magdalene and to two other women as well - the sisters Mary and Martha of Luke 10 and John 11- (thus justifying polygamy). They go on to say that the wedding at Cana was Jesus' own wedding day!

    Others have claimed to be descendants of Jesus from time to time, and even some Christian theologians have speculated on the possibility that Jesus was married. Stephen Twycross argued for a married Jesus, for example. He postulated that Jesus was married - to just one women - but not Mary Magdalene, rather Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha.

     In the fifth of a series of articles which challenge some of the key claims and assumptions made in The Da Vinci Code, JIM REIHER examines the argument that Jesus was married...  | more...|

 In the fourth of a series of articles which challenge some of the key claims and assumptions made in The Da Vinci Code, JIM REIHER addresses the issue of the other Gospels...  | more...|

  In the third of a series of articles which challenge some of the key claims and assumptions made in The Da Vinci Code, JIM REIHER tackles the question of whether the Roman Emperor Constantine was a Christian...  | more...|

  In the second of a series of articles which challenge some of the key claims and assumptions made in The Da Vinci Code, JIM REIHER takes a look at the origins of the Bible...  | more...|

In the first in the series, JIM REIHER examines the claim that Jesus was first declared divine at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD...  | more...|

RESOURCES

Click here to go to a page containing links to Christian resources and events...

YOUR SAY

Click here to go to the Sight forums where you can have your say on The Da Vinci Code...

In the Bantul district, south of Yogyakarta, aid workers have reported that as many as 90 per cent of homes and buildings have been destroyed.

      Families are sleeping out in the open - in streets, fields and rice paddies - while hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of injured.

      More than 5,000 people are now believed to have died after the 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean south of the ancient Indonesian city of Yogyakarta on Saturday.

      The United Nations have estimated some 20,000 more people were injured and 200,000 have been left homeless after the quake with 40 per cent of them children.

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

We've all heard of talking, even walking, in your sleep. But singing?

     "It's funny how I get melodies in my head while I am sleeping so I keep a little digital recorder at my bedside,” explains American jazz vocalists, Lori Perry.

     “When I do hear these melodies I just put them on tape. (The next morning) I will listen to what I have recorded in the middle of the night.”

      It’s an unorthodox way of writing songs, perhaps, but it clearly works. Perry spent many years touring with her three sisters - Carol, Darlene and Sharon - and has performed with such well known artists ranging from Anita Baker, Al Jarreau and Roberta Flack through to George Benson and Seal. Her blend of jazz and R&B tunes have attracted a solid base of appreciative fans with the style and quality of her voice often been compared to the likes of Anita Baker and Patti Labelle. Listening to her most recent CD, I Found It In You, the comparisons are understandable.

     I Found It In You marks a return to Perry’s Gospel heritage.

     JOE MONTAGUE speaks with an artist who's playing across the intersection of jazz and Gospel...  | more...|

“I was stood down, and rightfully so, and what I thought was a long sentence in my life was actually something that saved my neck and really got me on track spiritually. The process of restoration was, of course, standing down, and just learning to be a Christian rather than a ‘preacher’...There was a process of counselling - and I can tell people now I never believed in counselling until I needed it. And having good friends - there was not a lot of friends that I could talk to about it because I don’t believe you should talk to everybody about your situation but to good leaders...I kept going to church week in, week out - that was very hard sometimes and very embarrassing at times. But I kept going to the house of God because I knew the church was where I would get healing...”

     By late 2001, Sydney's Pat Mesiti was one of Australia’s most well-known evangelists and a high-profile corporate speaker. Then came a very public moral fall and Mesiti stepped down from ministry. In February, after an absence of four-and-a-half years, the 46-year-old started preaching once again. He spoke with DAVID ADAMS about what led to him stepping down and his return to public ministry... | more...|

The Solomon Islands recently made headlines around the world when hundreds of people went on a destructive rampage through the capital of Honiara in a two-day orgy of burning and looting in mid-April.

      What generally doesn’t make headlines is the ongoing struggle residents of the South Pacific island nation - made up of about 1,000 islands - have against diseases like malaria as well as in getting access to basic essentials like fresh water.

      Now comes a new bid to help turn the struggle around with a campaign to raise awareness about health issues and increase practical assistance to the country of more than 500,000 people.

      Simply Sharing Week, a joint initiative of Christian World Service - an arm of the National Council of Churches in Australia, and the Catholic aid agency Caritas Australia, is being from the 14th to 21st May. Held annually, the week takes on a different issue within a different country. Last year, it focused on human trafficking in Nepal and Thailand. This year it’s looking at health in the Solomon Islands.

     DAVID ADAMS reports on this year's Simply Sharing Week...  | more...|

The picture shows a couple of guys sitting on a park bench, one of them surrounded by pigeons as he holds a bucket of chips.

     “Next time you see some pigeons snacking on some scraps, remember that food comes from God,” one tells his mate. “And God loves you more than pigeons. So don’t worry about what you’ll eat. And don’t worry about what you’ll wear.”

      There’s no biff! or zap! and no masked superhero, but the images represent one of the latest examples in a tradition of using comics to spread God’s word.

      Their creator, Australian Dean Rankine - who has been creating comics for the past 17 years, explains why he thinks comics are such an effective means of communicating the Bible.

     “Comics are just so 'user friendly',” he says. “Information can be presented quickly and easily with visual imagery to back it up. Generally speaking, comics aren't hard to make and not overly expensive to print...(and) as far as communicating the message of Jesus is concerned, though people might feel a bit intimidated picking up a Bible for the first time, they would generally feel pretty comfortable reading a comic.”

     DAVID ADAMS reports on how Christian artists are using comics to tell of God's truths...  | more...|

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends."

       Have you ever wondered why there is a huge resurgence of interest in the ‘Anzac Spirit’? I believe it is because it touches the heart of every red-blooded Aussie. When I speak at schools, churches and so on, I ask the young people what could we learn from these young men (and women) who lay down their lives for us. Two things come to mind immediately, the first is courage, the next is their wonderful unselfish spirit of mateship, both of which are Christian virtues.

      It’s sad to say but most Australians are completely unaware of how courageous and effective our soldiers were. It was our Light Horsemen who were largely responsible for the liberation of Jerusalem from centuries of Muslim rule. The first defeat of the mighty ‘Desert Fox’ - Erwin Rommel in World War II was by ‘The Rats of Tobruk’ - comprised mainly of Aussie Diggers.

     COL STRINGER goes in search of the 'Anzac Spirit'...  | more...|

In another time, at another place, he might have been a minstrel - perhaps a contemporary of Chaucer, Milton or Christopher Marlowe. Kevin Max, however, was born centuries later in the United States and instead uses his brilliant musical mind to pen poetic lyrics for contemporary songs that challenge you to think about your faith, life and how you are going to improve both.

      Weighing up whether he would rather be a poet or a songwriter, Max says he would rather be "by far, a poet because poetry is all about being in the moment and to me it is most exciting when you are in the moment”.

     “Poetry is about creating and it seems to me to be a lost art,” he says. “Poetry really inspired me as a writer. As a young kid I used to read the poems of Walter Whitman and Oscar Wilde and E.E. Cummings. Without that I wouldn't be interested in songwriting.”

     JOE MONTAGUE speaks to Kevin Max...  | more...|

Well, here we are. All over the world in this Easter season, our Jesus family come together in the awesome reality of a perfectly holy and wonderfully powerful Creator King who stepped into His Creation as a flesh and blood human and brought together a rescue plan. The Divine Rescue - for a cosmos stained and staggering under the sin of man's turning from God.

      Easter is truly a season for Christ's people - to focus on and speak of His love, His life, His death, and ultimately His plan to pull all things back together in His hands and 'reverse the curse'. But saying that, Jesus came for all people. It is so important that from Him, our gaze and action turn outward to the millions who do not yet know of His love for them.

      When He walked the earth and showed us God's character, when He wielded love and justice with such conviction and graceful strength, when He moved so naturally in the spiritual, He showed us our Divine Origin, the One who is and always has been Our Father. Jesus reconnected people with God's true personality and as He died by the hands of men, He held the weight of the world in His broken body - full of a vision streaming from the throne of His Father, of a cosmos regained, of a people once again moving in the will, heart and hands of their Creator.

     ANN WOJCZUK reflects on the eternal message of Easter...  | more...|

YOUR SAY
How will you be celebrating Easter and what does it mean to you?
Click here to go to our forums to make your comment...

It wasn’t until Australian teacher Michelle Shaw started talking to people in Rwanda about what had happened in the 1994 genocide and its aftermath that she realised how different the African nation was.

      The 38-year-old says that while in other places where genocide has occurred - whether it be during World War II or in Cambodia - the perpetrators had usually either fled, been killed or tried in courts, in Rwanda “perpetrator and victim live next door to one another and exist side-by-side with each other now”.

     “I remember one pastor’s wife sharing with me that she was buried alive with her family as a child in her early teens during the genocide,” she says. “Her whole family died except herself - everyone else was killed. She then went on to become a Christian and was beaten daily by an uncle who looked after her because of her Christian faith. She then married a man who became a pastor of one of the largest churches in Kigali. Then, about 12 months ago, the family that murdered her family walked in the door of the church and one of them was wearing her brother’s clothes.”

      Shaw says it was stories like that - “they speak very quietly of very traumatic things” - that helped to underline to her the importance of the task that Hope: Rwanda is all about - instilling a sense hope into the people of a nation which 12 years ago saw more than 800,000 people killed in 100 days of genocide.
     DAVID ADAMS reports on how Australian teachers are training Rwandans as part of the global Hope: Rwanda initiative...  | more...|

FOR MORE ON HOPE RWANDA:

   DAVID ADAMS reports on a new global initiative to bring hope into the African nation...  | more...|

"Poverty is the new slavery...With Charles Finney in the US and John Wesley and Wilberforce in the UK, the altar call (meant) coming to faith and commit oneself to the movement to abolish slavery. That’s happening now again. I think poverty is becoming perceived now as the new slavery: that extreme, absolute poverty is intolerable, that it’s not necessary, it’s not inevitable, that it’s something we could change and change relatively easily if we ever decided to. And a whole generation now are saying it’s time we make that decision...

     “I think the politicians are listening. They had better listen because people of faith are an important constituency and they impact other people - people of faith or not - and I think that if we begin to be outspoken on the issues the Bible speaks clearly about, we could be a very powerful force for change.

    Internationally renowned author, preacher, faith-based activist and social commentator, Jim Wallis, has consulted with the likes of George Bush, Hilary Clinton, Tony Blair and Bono on issues such as global poverty and the Iraq war. In Australia to launch his latest book, God’s Politics: Why the American Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, the 57-year-old spoke to DAVID ADAMS...  | more...|

It was a dark moment in world history. A hundred days of unbridled evil when more than 800,000 Rwandans died in a systematic slaughter that took place between April and June, 1994.

      Described as one of the bloodiest chapters in Africa’s history, the world watched as the majority ethnic group - the Hutus - mutilated, tortured and killed those of the minority Tutsi ethnicity and moderate Hutus in a calculated genocide that saw women raped in sight of their own families and parents killed in front of their children before the children themselves were mercilessly murdered.

      Now, 12 years on, a new initiative has been launched to help bring hope back into the country as it rebuilds itself.
      Called, appropriately, Hope: Rwanda, the 100 day initiative, which runs from 7th April until 15th July, will see thousands of people from across the world travel to the central African nation to work on a myriad of different projects - from humanitarian work to evangelistic outreaches to providing training for professionals - all with the aim of showing Rwandans that the global Christian community cares about the future of them and their nation.

    DAVID ADAMS reports on a new global initiative to bring hope into the African nation...  | more...|

In the mountainous coffee growing region of southern Oaxaca, Mexico, the campesinos say you get so close to God you can hear him breathing.

      These rugged slopes are filled with coffee plants somewhat hidden amid the lush foliage. The coffee farmers - ‘campesinos’ as they call themselves - traverse the steep terrain harvesting the shiny red berries that will end up in frothy cappuccinos and other coffee drinks.

      The smaller farmers in this mountain village are descendants of Mixe and Zapotec Indians. For the most part, they will earn about a US dollar a day, barely enough to provide the basic necessities of life. Because of economic pressures, many families will break apart as the young and restless trudge north toward the land of promise. Many will end up as farm workers in California and other states of the US.

     “The hardships they live with are incredible,” says Dave Day, founder of Growers First, a ministry doing the work of the Gospel among small family coffee farmers in these mountains. “Many live in huts made from sticks and mud,” he notes. “Many don’t have running water.”

    MARK ELLIS of Assist News Service reports...  | more...|

How many blokes have gone through school with a huge crush on girl that kept you awake at night fantasising about her saying yes when you asked her out on a date? How many high school girls blessed with incredible looks have wanted geeky high school guys to just stop gawking at them and appreciate them for who they are inside?

      Such are the themes explored in the US band Roads to Rome’s single Beauty Queen, song number five on their debut album, Love Rain Down.

      Roads to Rome frontman Michael Musick explains that the basis for the single is partially made-up and partially drawn from real life experience.

     "I came to Christ through a girl in high school,” he says. “I just thought she was pretty and I wanted to date her. She wound up sharing the Gospel with me and that is how I wound up becoming a Christian. To me it (the song) is a story about authentic beauty or even inner beauty."

    JOE MONTAGUE speaks with Michael Musick about the band's debut album...  | more...|

The crowds stretched for as far as the eye could see. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered together in the warm night air in rapt attention as the saving message of Jesus Christ was preached to them.

      Such were the scenes near Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, in the middle of last month - the most populous African nation with 128 million residents - when globally renowned German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke and a team from Christ for all Nations International - the organisation he founded in 1974 - held a series of crusades.

      The organisation first held a crusade in the west African nation as far back as October 1999 and since then, they have usually taken place during the country’s ‘dry’ season, generally between August and March. According to Christ for all Nations, around 42 million people have signed “decision cards” at the crusades including more than a million people at the latest crusade.

     DAVID ADAMS speaks with Christ for all Nations about their recent Gospel Crusade in Nigeria...  | more...|

Eight albums on, Christian music chart-topper Nathan Tasker says prayer remains the key element in his songwriting.

     “I spend a lot of time praying that God would give me the songs to sing,” says the 30-year-old Sydneysider. “I’ve found that the songs he gives me are usually better than the ones I force.”

      Tasker, who cites artists such as Keith Green, Randy Stonehill, Michael Card and Rich Mullins as among those who inspire him, is currently on an Australian tour having released his latest album - Must Be More - late last year.

      Musing on how God communicates to him about his songs, he says that reading the Scriptures plays a major role in inspiring him as does reading theology books.

     DAVID ADAMS recently caught up with Nathan Tasker in the midst of his latest tour of Australia...  | more...|

Has Melbourne missed a gold medal opportunity at these Commonwealth Games to really grab the world's attention - to make a real difference, launch something memorable, achieve something remarkable?

      Well and good the flying tram, the breathtaking pyrotechnics and the metallic fish floating in the Yarra, not to mention Delta and Dame Kiri and the 12-day festival program that amplifies Moomba's perennial pledge to "get together and have fun".

      As for the goodwill of the thousands of volunteers, it's worth bottling. And, despite the sniggers of sports purists who lament the absence of so many world champions, the prospect of competition between elite athletes at any time is something to relish.

      But what Melbourne could have done was roll back the ever-escalating pressure to "outdo" the previous Games with increasingly lavish celebrations. It could have made a stand and acknowledged the gross inequities in the Commonwealth itself, put humanity ahead of hubris and challenged convention, just as it did during the 1956 Olympics. Then, Melbourne's simple gesture of allowing athletes to mingle with one another during the closing ceremony established a standard for the modern Olympics.

     In a opinion piece first published in The Age newspaper in Melbourne, SIMON MANN asks whether the city missed a chance to make a bigger statement to the world...  | more...|

SIGHT FORUMS: THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

What are your favorite moments from the Commonwealth Games?

Click here to go to the forums...

Success seems to have been part of Greg Long's life for a long time now.

       The silky smooth American crooner enjoyed six number one hit songs and two Dove nominations prior to joining the internationally renowned pop ensemble Avalon in 2003. Since then, the Nashville-based group has sold more than three million records, had twenty number one hits and had a three year run as group of the year (2002-04) as named by CCM Magazine.

      One might be forgiven for thinking such success has resulted in Long becoming a little nonchalant about his career. Speak to the talented and affable singer for just a few moments, however, and you'll soon learn that such assumptions couldn't be further from the truth.

     "I am thrilled that I get to make records and I am thrilled that people come to our concerts. I am a very grateful human being," says Long.

     JOE MONTAGUE reports from North America...  | more...|

Four hundred years ago, in 1606, Guy Fawkes was executed in England for his role in the ‘Gunpowder Plot’, a Dutch painter by the name of Rembrandt was born and the so-called ‘Long War’ between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires came to an end in Hungary.

      Perhaps lesser known is that 1606 was also the year that a Portuguese explorer stood on a beach on the island of Espiritu Santo - one of the outer islands of what is now Vanuatu - and proclaimed that he had found Terra Australis de Espiritu Santo, the “Great Southland of the Holy Spirit”.

      Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who was acting of behalf of the Spanish Government, was on a mission to discover the Great Southland when he landed on one of the northern islands of Vanuatu on Pentecost Sunday, 14th May, 1606, and took possession of all the lands as far south as the South Pole in the name of, among others, Jesus Christ.

    DAVID ADAMS reports on plans to celebrate 400 years since Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros landed in Vanuatu...  | more...|

Thousands of people in the war-ravaged land of the Democratic Republic of Congo have found spiritual healing in the form of love and miracles from a group of Korean Christians.

      Some 700,000 Congolese crowded into a venue in the capital city of Kinshasa from 16th to 18th February for the “2006 DRC Miracle Healing Festival” led by Dr Lee Jae-Rock, senior pastor of the 100,000-member Manmin Joong-Ang Church based in Seoul.

     “It was an amazing sight each night when Dr. Lee prayed for the sick and we saw many miracles including the blind receiving their sight, including a little boy who was able to see for the first in his life,” said Johnny Kim, director of Manmin TV.

     “We saw deaf mutes hear and speak for the first time and also paralytics who were brought in wheelchairs stood and were able to walk by themselves.”

    DAN WOODING of Assist News Service reports...  | more...|

How do we as Christians answer the challenge to identify ourselves? We carry the name of Christ. We are the people who are known for their loyalty to, their affiliation with, the historical person who was given the title of ‘anointed monarch’ by his followers - Jesus, the Jew of Nazareth. Every time we say ‘Christian’, we take for granted a story and a place in history, the story and place of those people with whom God made an alliance in the distant past, the people whom He called so that in their life together He might show His glory. We are already in the realm of work and relations. We are involved with that history of God’s covenant. As those who are loyal to an ‘anointed monarch’ in the Jewish tradition, our lives are supposed to be living testimony to the faithfulness of God to his commitments. There is no way of spelling out our identity that does not get us involved in this story and this context. Explaining the very word ‘Christ’ means explaining what it is to be a people who exist because God has promised to be with them and whom God has commanded to show what he is like.
     In a speech given to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Archbishop of Canterbury ROWAN WILLIAMS looks at what it means to be a Christian living in a world of "plural perspectives"...  | more...|

They’re a growing proportion of the Australian community yet in many churches they’re still a largely overlooked group.

     Data from Australia’s last census in 2001 shows that the number of lone parents had risen to 762,600, up 38 per cent from the 1991 figure while the number of men and women living alone increased to 1.6 million, a rise of 43 per cent on the 1991 figure.

      Yet, according to Jenny Reed, single people have been a “very overlooked” group in many churches in the past when it comes to recognising them through dedicated ministries.

     “I think anybody can get their needs met in God and we all do - but as far as targeting that group as far as other ministries go in the church, (they’ve been) very overlooked,” she says.

     “A lot of people in that category don’t feel it’s an understood group. It’s still a group with a stigma over it - it’s not as bad as it used to be, but it’s still there.”
     DAVID ADAMS spoke with Jenny Reed, a single parent who is writing a book about the issues affecting the growing number of single Australians...  | more...|

RU486 is not the same as the 'morning after' pill (Postinor-2). RU486 is the generic term for mifepristone, an artificial steroid that blocks progesterone, a vital nutrient hormone. It causes the nutrient lining of the mother’s uterus to disintegrate, and the embryo withers and dies. A second drug, misoprostol, a prostaglandin developed to treat ulcers, is used 48 hours later to induce uterine contractions that detach and expel the embryo and uterine contents.

      More than one million women worldwide have used RU486 to end their pregnancy. RU486 is effective from the fifth to the seventh week following the last menstrual period, with decreasing effectiveness up to the ninth week. Used alone, RU486 has an abortion rate of 60 to 80 per cent. Used with misoprostol, this rises to 95 per cent. Mifepristone is also used to treat certain rare forms of cancer, and may have other therapeutic applications. Mifepristone was developed by Roussel-Uclaf, a French pharmaceutical company.
     ROD BENSON, director of the Centre for Christian Ethics at Morling College in Sydney, gives an overview of the controversial debate and states why he believes RU486 should remain banned...  | more...|

“When I started reading Bonhoeffer back in high school I saw a man who was courageous. He was willing to offer himself as a martyr for God," says Martin Bonhoeffer, director and producer of the film Bonhoeffer.

     “As I have gone back to tell the story now that I am a middle-aged man who has struggled to find his own spirituality, what I saw this time in Bonhoeffer is a man who didn't follow a straight line. He had to make decisions every step of the way. Some of which he regretted. He was constantly analysing what he was doing and what the consequences of those actions were. He was praying that he would make the right move.

     “I think that is the example for all of us to try and understand the will of God. It means a constant alertness to what God is calling you to do. (It requires) openness to the signs of how God is speaking to you. It means awareness of scripture and prayer. All of these components come together to decipher what really is a complicated question."

     Inspiring audiences around the world since 2003, JOE MONTAGUE takes a look behind the scenes of the film Bonhoeffer...  | more...|

Naomi Toole was still studying at university when the tsunami swept across parts of southern Asia on Boxing Day, 2004. Only a few months later the 23-year-old from Geelong, south of Melbourne, was in Aceh, Indonesia, helping to direct the rebuilding and relief efforts.

       Toole first arrived in Aceh, Indonesia, in late March last year and, but for two short breaks spent back in Australia, has been continuously working there. Originally employed under a contract with UK-based Christian humanitarian organisation Tearfund, she was then seconded to another Christian humanitarian organisation, World Relief, which is working in alliance with Tearfund.

     In the second of our series on Australians working in tsunami relief, DAVID ADAMS reports on Naomi Toole's work in Meulaboh, Indonesia...  | more...|

Southern Gospel music lost a friend and talented musician and vocalist on 7th January when Canada's Warren Parker was struck and killed by a truck outside the Church of the Nazarene in Goose Creek, North Carolina, in the Southern United States.

      Parker, orginally from Ontario Canada, his wife Shannan, from Ohio in the midwest United States, and Angie White from Newfoundland on Canada's east coast formed a dynamic trio that hit their stride with the release of their Live In Havana album in 2005.

     "It's a big void," Shannan told a local television station. "It's a big hole, and it's going to take a long time (to heal). But I know with God's help He'll get me through. He promised."

     JOE MONTAGUE mourns the loss of a musical talent and a friend...  | more...|

For more than 40 years, Britain’s Selwyn Hughes has been guiding the daily reading of Christians - initially providing written notes on blank postcards for friends and, more recently, delivering his thoughts to almost a million people across the world through his Every Day with Jesus devotionals.

      That all came to an end last week when Hughes, 77, passed away, leaving behind a legacy which will continue to transform lives for Christ. Hughes, who died of cancer, spent his last few days in a hospice.

      Born in 1928 during the depression, Hughes - whose family had been influenced by the Welsh Revival of 1904 - professed his own faith at the age of 16. Ordained an Assemblies of God minister, he served at churches in Cornwall, South Wales, Yorkshire, Essex and central London.

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

Brad Hopkins stands amid the ruins of brick house in one of Colombo’s worst slums. At his feet a gaunt mongrel snaps at fat flies and yards away, hungry black crows peck at the huge mounds of rotting rubbish. His smart shoes are spattered with mud and his shirt damp with sweat, but Hopkins is looking upwards. And is grinning.

     “That’s one of our new roofs,” he says pointing. “Any painted red, or green. Those are ours. We’re also putting running water into the houses here and repairing the toilets that were damaged in the tsunami. In this area, there are currently only seven or eight toilets - people don’t have their own toilets, they have communal ones. I’m not sure how many people live here, but we’ve repaired about 70 houses.”

     In the first of a series of how Australians have been helping in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami which claimed more than 200,000 lives when it swept across South Asia on Boxing Day, 2004, JAN BUTLER takes a look at how a 26-year-old Queenslander is helping to put roofs over people's heads in Sri Lanka...  | more...|

Just three years after the Australian Parliament passed legislation banning cloning human embryos, a new report has called for the cloning of human embryos for research.
      The fact that nothing has changed since the idea of cloning was rejected three years ago counts for nothing.

      Nor does the fact that research from Swinburne University revealed that 63 per cent of "...the Australian public do not feel comfortable with scientists cloning human embryos for research purposes".

      Victorian Family First Senator Steve Fielding argues against cloning human embryos whether for research or reproductive purposes...  | more...|

The 31st December marked the end of an era in more than one way. New Year's Eve is normally associated with reflecting upon the last year's happenings and ushering in a new year. In the town of Murphy, North Carolina, in the southern United States, the legendary rock band Petra were performing their last concert.

      What makes this event special is that Petra were one of the very first bands to begin playing rock music within a Christian context. Through their 25 albums (plus two special edition farewell CDs) and many memorable concert moments, this Illinois-based band revolutionised the way we think of Christian music.

      As rock bands go, only the Rolling Stones surpass their continuous and lengthy career. In fact Petra has been making good music for so many years that it led founder and primary songwriter Bob Hartman to comment at a recent concert: "Fans yell out the names of their favourite tunes as if we would actually remember them”.

      JOE MONTAGUE speaks to Bob Hartman and John Schlitt, two of the key figures behind the band that helped to pave the way for Christian music today...  | more...|