"IF THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED, LIVES SHOULD BE CHANGED"

“Most people will never know what it is really like on the field,” said Carl Musch, of Indigenous Ministry Links Australia (IMLA) describing his life as a missionary to the Northern Territory.

     “On summer nights I sleep on the roof of my truck and in winter I put my swag down on the ground close to the car as it is warmer there. I am not always thrilled with my accommodation options and there are very few luxuries in the places I visit,” he said.

     Carl and his wife Gail have served the Lord in remote regions of Australia’s Northern Territory for many years now and have seen Him transform lives and communities through their consistent witness and work.

     Carl is a firm believer in measurable outcomes in missionary activity. “If the Gospel is preached,” he says, “then there must be responses and lives should be changed.” He trains those who follow him with an understanding of this need for accountability where successes are clear for all to see and the fruit of their work is evident. They have planted churches, seen much Kingdom growth and have raised new leaders who can take the work further into needy indigenous communities.

     BEV-HOLMES BROWN reports...  | more...|

PROVIDING HOPE TO THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CENTRAL LA

When you think of living the good life in Los Angeles, California, you picture living in areas like Beverly Hills, the Hollywood Hills or even Brentwood, where Marilyn Monroe lived and died on 5th August, 1962.

     For most wealthy people, the last place you would ever think of living is South Central Los Angeles, often abbreviated as South LA. In 2003, the city of Los Angeles changed the area’s official name from South Central Los Angeles to South Los Angeles as the name “South Central” had become almost synonymous with urban decay and street crime.

     South Los Angeles is considered to be the forefront for gang warfare and poverty in the “City of Angels,” with so much gang violence and crime. It was the birthplace of many gangs famous for their notoriety such as the “South Side Florence 13”, “18st”, the “Bloods”, and the “Crips”.

     So why on earth would Doug and Cathy Kelley, who moved to California from Montana in 1998, make this area their home?

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

SEEING CHILDREN EMPOWERED FOR BETTER LIVES IN INDIA

I am amazed when I hear about communities that are being transformed; the positive changes and progress made among challenges and hardships. It is difficult to imagine what it’s really like until you see, hear, smell and touch it first hand. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to three cities in India to see how the world is being changed, one person and one community at a time.

     Under a partnership between World Vision Australia and the Black Stump Music Festival (held on the October long weekend each year in Sydney), I was one of 14 people from the Australian east coast who went on the trip. I was blown away by the commitment and dedication that it takes to create a sustainable change in communities. Issues which plague the areas I visited are wide and varied, ranging from lack of access to housing, jobs and health care to community attitudes to education, child labour, the family unit and the importance of proper nutrition.

     JILL CAVENAGH writes about her passion for India... | more... |

WORLD'S COLLIDE - A TRIP TO UNOH IN BANGKOK

I just spent a month in Thailand with Urban Neighbours of Hope (UNOH). I am back at my desk. I am trying to plan work for my students who are doing a year with UNOH full time. But I am distracted by my wandering thoughts.

     How can two places on the same planet be so radically different from each other at the same time? How can we have so much of everything that we have large houses full of things, a garage bulging with excess possessions, and back shed full as well while the people I met lived in one or two rooms, their homes not much bigger than my garage, with a few sticks of furniture, electricity that looks like it is tapping into someone else’s electricity, and a single cold water tap coming into the house through a hole in the wall (giving cold water that can’t be drunk but which can be used to flush down the hole used for a toilet, or poured on yourself as your shower each day)? There is no proper sewerage system, and some of the houses are directly over the channels that direct tens of thousands of people’s waste to...I never found out.
    Urban Neighbours Of Hope's training coordinator JIM REIHER finds himself challenged during a recent visit to Bangkok... | more... |

TAPPING INTO THE RHYTHM OF FIJIAN LIFE

Stepping out of the plane, the island was hot and just breathing heated the lungs like inhaling a hairdryer on low. The air pulsated and shimmered the view over the tarmac of the Nadi International Airport.

    I'd never been to this part of the world. I was trying to check my excitement so I could soak it up.

    The building was not new. Inside, the walls looked musty suffering from humid days. Their murals of beaches, jungles and smiling hoola girls with jasmine necklaces lead us through customs.

    In the foyer we came upon the real thing, a small choir of native Fijians, wearing colourful sulus, strumming guitars and ukuleles with broad smiles and beaming eyes. The ladies heralding the welcome “Bula” once for impact, twice to reinforce, again and again. Ahh, feel the love.
    Musician GURYEL ALI writes about his recent visit to Fiji... | more... |

HOW BLESSED ARE YOU?

Picture this scene - an elderly, frail lady walks for miles across rough terrain. Her arthritic pains are really troubling her in the wet weather and she hopes that the nurse can give her some relief. On arrival, all she is offered is a Panadol, a cup of extremely weak tea and an orange. If this was you how would you react? Her response is one of immense gratitude - she thanks and blesses the giver, struggles down onto her knees, thanks God emotionally for his wonderful provision, and says grace before peeling and eating the orange and sipping on the warm tea.

     When the opportunity arose for me earlier this year to travel to see the work of the Mphatso Children's Foundation - which cares for children in a range of ways at Kande in Malawi - God told me two things: 1) that He would provide, and 2) prepare for miracles.

     I was blessed to be invited to train a group of chiropractors in Johannesburg, and as proof that God moves in mysterious ways, the money that I was paid to teach covered my expenses for the entire trip - almost dollar for dollar. If it wasn’t for Johannesburg, I could never have contemplated visiting Mphatso, and if wasn’t for Mphatso, I would not contemplate travelling to South Africa to teach for two days! Promise number one fulfilled.
    NICK HODGSON reflects on a recent trip to the African nation of Malawi where he saw first hand the difference Mphatso Children's Foundation is making... | more... |

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE IN THE NAVAJO NATION

I just spent the last two days trying to say one of the most beautiful words in the Navajo language, Yá'át'ééh.

     It didn't work, at least to the point of fluidity.

     Yá'át'ééh is the Navajo word for "hello." Traditionally, Yá'át'ééh is used as a greeting or an expression of kindness and love towards another person.

     Though I never mastered the word (at least to my liking), I must say that through the course of my two days with people from the Navajo nation, I did feel expressions of kindness and charity, bringing back memories of my childhood.

     Growing up in New Mexico in the United States, I had many Native American friends, many of which were Navajo. I had my first taste of the Navajo culture through my neighbors, school buddies, and their families.
    In an article first published by Assist News Service, BRIAN NIXON talks about his visit to the Navajo nation... | more... |

IMPACTING YOUNG LIVES THROUGH SCHOOL CHAPLAINCY IN QUEENSLAND

One young person who recently stole my heart was a boy called Stew. Stew is from a single parent family and lives in a poor area.  His dad is dying of cancer, and as he has no brothers or sisters, his dad is all he’s got in the world.

     He’s a tough little guy who was once full of anger - one of our leaders had to shadow him throughout a recent camp to stop him punching walls.

     During a ‘God Spot’ at the camp, there was lots of noise from the band and laughing and singing.

     Suddenly Stew walked across the room and put his arm on my shoulder. It’s hard to explain what happened next, but I knew after all the hours spent in my room talking, crying and sharing, Stew was beginning to lay down his pain.
    On Monday, 15th October, Scripture Union Queensland (SU Qld) will hold its annual Frontline Appeal to raise funds to support school chaplaincy and at risk youth at the Brisbane Convention Centre. Here, in edited versions of speeches they will present on the night, SHAYNE FRASER, Maroochydore State Primary School chaplain, and JENNY DOBBIN, former high school chaplain and now SU Qld's Brisbane North District coordinator, share some of their experiences working with school children...  | more... |

WHY A NURSE FROM SYDNEY HOPES HER LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN AFTER WORKING IN WEST AFRICA

“I pray that I will never be the same again,” says Sarah Creighton, an Illawong nurse who worships with St Paul’s Anglican Church, at Menai in southwest Sydney, returning from 12 months service as a volunteer nurse with the international charity Mercy Ships in West Africa.

     “You cannot see what I have been privileged to witness during the past year and not be touched. You cannot sit with patients who haven’t even been touched for years and have them thank you for that touch without yourself being broken. Or sit with a woman whom no one will go near, because she has been incontinent since childbirth, and see her respond to the healing touch of doctors and nurses.”

     Ms Creighton’s calling by God to become a nurse in Africa came when she was 17. Two years ago she heard the challenge to full time mission work and knew it was time to go.
      Sarah Creighton tells AMOS BENNETT how working with Mercy Ships in West Africa changed her life... | more... |

'STEPPING OUT OF THE BOAT' IN BALI
At the beginning of this year, my family returned from a short-term mission trip to Singaraja, northern Bali. Our role for six months was mainly centred around tutoring English and computers to 36 children at the Lion King Orphanage, Singaraja. With two primary school children of our own, my husband and I for once really “stepped out of the boat” , set up home in a district of northern Bali quite alien to our comfortable, loveable Australia and took on the home-schooling of our children. Our job involved setting up a classroom at the orphanage with computers and a library, and basically putting together learning programs appropriate for tutoring children from primary school age through to university students.
      So why am I writing this, some may already be asking? It’s not the first time and it’s not the last time that a family should do this, after all. Our hope is that others will be inspired to ‘step out of the boat’ also when prompted. I’m the first to admit it was a bit scary initially but then so was the Big Dipper at Luna Park when I was five years old and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
      DEB MACKIE reflects on her family's short-term mission in a Balinese orphanage... | more... |

A WEEK ON BOARD THE MERCY SHIPS
"I am on duty. The rest of the deck department are not needed onboard while the ship is in port, and away building an orphanage just out of town. There are about 60 children in this place, run by a remarkable woman known as ‘Mama Victoria’. Each Friday we have been building a new roof on the church, and putting up concrete walls for some new dormitories. The children are so happy, even though they have nothing.”

      Long-term volunteers serving with Mercy Ships, John and Lee-Anne Borrow, of Sydney, work on board the hospital ship Anastasis with their five-month-old son, Timmy.

      So, what is life onboard like for such a family, one of a number of such families living onboard and seeking to follow the example of Jesus in bringing hope and healing to the world’s poor? | more... |

MOBILISING FOR MISSION?

    "The recent Asian tsunamis focused world attention on Asia. Nearly all of the people affected were non-Christians, and the great majority were unevangelized (particularly those in Aceh, Indonesia). Compassion was stirred like never before, and enormous amounts of money have been raised.

        While not denying the enormous need represented by the tsunami crisis, I would like to take at least one reality-check to point out what many have probably been waiting for me to point out: more unevangelized people die every month than did in one day in December 2004, and get far less attention".

     "Missions mobiliser" MAURICE ANTONELLI says the money and prayer, while important, are only part of the answer when it comes to world evangelisation...  | more... |

IT'S A SWAN'S LIFE IN CHILE
     6:45am
More reliable than any alarm clock, Lachlan, 4, and Annabelle, 2, come bursting into our room: Annabelle for a compulsory cuddle; Lachlan to show us a piece of his train track. I throw open the curtains and am reminded why I love living in Santiago - the majestic snow-glazed Andes rise 3000 metres, just outside our window!

     8:30am
After breakfast (Cornflakes, what else?), I walk 20 minutes to the metro station. There is frost on the ground, and I pass school children smoking to keep warm, street dogs scrounging rubbish for food, and the poor scrounging rubbish for cardboard to sell. I still can’t comprehend how they survive.

    Life is never dull for Australians Tim and Sally Swan, who have shifted their kids and possessions to Chile to serve with CMS (the Church Missionary Society) in the capital, Santiago. Here is a snapshot of a day in the life of the Swans as recorded by TIM SWAN... | more... |

STEPH WOOLLARD, 20, writes of her involvement with the Oaktree Foundation... | more... |

SONJA FRISCHKNECHT shares about her involvement with Mercy Ships... | more... |

LEANNE GRAY writes of her involvement with the Pakpingjai Home Development Project in northern Thailand... | more... |

JANNAH GRAY writes about Christian Surfers' involvement at the Rip Curl Pro, held over Easter at Bells Beach in Victoria... | more... |

  DAVID FREEMAN writes of his involvement with the Bible Society's annual event, Bike for Bibles... | more... |