"AUSTRALIANS NEED TO KNOW THAT THE SITUATION IS PRETTY DIRE"

"I spent today trying to support the team here to give medical support to Haitians who are teaming in from Port-au-Prince in search of medical support, water, and food. The people were coming in by car, truck loads, and motor bike.

     "The search and rescue teams have finally arrived, aid organisations are distributing water, and giving supplies to support the dwindling supplies from hospitals. So many people had to wait outside.

     "The only hospital here was full to capacity and people were waiting on floors and in the street. People also waiting outside.

     "They soon ran out of simple first aid supplies and so we have given them our own personal travel kits.

     RUTH MLAY, World Vision Australia's country program coordinator for Haiti, was in the Caribbean nation when the earthquake hit. Now located about an hour out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, she speaks of her experience in a communication to World Vision staff in Australia on Thursday, 15th January...| more...|

World Vision staff attend some of the victims of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

FOR MORE OF OUR COVERAGE OF THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE CLICK HERE...

Are the athletes generally receptive to your presence? Have you forged ongoing relationships with athletes at previous Olympics?

"The Olympics is a unique experience for athletes and all the emotions they feel each day are heightened in an Olympic environment. It's important for athletes to have an outlet where they can let off steam, be consoled, find support, debrief and/ or relax. Often, being with a
chaplain can foster that.

    " The confidentiality of the relationship between the athlete and the chaplain is crucial for them trusting us and feeling comfortable and safe to unload whatever they need to unload. That may be feelings arising from their performance; it may be feelings about being isolated from family and friends back home; it may be issues with team members, coaches or other support staff, their boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife.

     "Sometimes the relationship begins at the Olympics and continues to be supportive and helpful for them after the Games are over. For many athletes, post-Games support is even more important. For that reason, I believe follow-up is crucial and I spend a
lot of time following up athletes once the Games are over."

     Sydneysider Nett Knox is a sports chaplain who will be working at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. She spoke with DAVID ADAMS...  | more...|

Christians are finding many ways, in and around the Vancouver Olympic Games, to be the 'salt and light' Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount.

     The initiatives range from offering 'radical hospitality' and quality arts presentations, to addressing social issues through both advocacy and protest.

     Christian volunteers are pleased with "how responsive people are" said Karen Reed, executive director of the joint Christian outreach effort, More Than Gold (MTG).

     While the main Olympic venues are in Vancouver and Whistler, some Games events are being held in nearby British Columbia municipalities.

     The City of Richmond has a newly constructed 'Oval' speed skating track. With the Skytrain transit system now connecting Richmond and Vancouver, the city anticipated an influx of crowds and converted its large central park and sports complex into the 'O Zone,' with a performance stage, food venues, a pub, a small outdoor ice rink and other attractions.

      In an article first published on Canadian Christianity.com, JIM COGGINS looks at how Christians are reaching out to others at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver...  | more...|

Lent, iPod and ‘carbon fast’

When the Lent season started, a friend of mine decided to fast from Facebook and take-away food. Meanwhile, Bishop Richard Chartres in London, and Joel Edwards, Head of Micah Challenge International, are calling on Christians to give up using their iPods and mobile phones, as well as participate in a ‘carbon fast’ to reduce their carbon footprint. The reason for the ‘carbon fast’ is that Christians can show their solidarity with those suffering from the effects of climate change.

     Lent is, of course, about Christians preparing themselves for Easter. And Easter is, of, course about Christ’s death and resurrection. Most people will agree that giving up social networking and junk food will help us to focus on God. But some may question whether the emphasis on ‘carbon fast’ runs the danger of reducing the meaning of Easter to some social justice agenda.

     In the past I thought that Christ’s resurrection was all about the victory He had won for me so that I might have eternal life. But now I think that it’s much more. In the following I want to affirm the absolute importance of proclaiming Christ’s death and resurrection, but at the same time suggest that the implications of the resurrection are much more profound and far-reaching than we normally think.

     SIU FUNG WU argues that the 40 days of Lent is a good time for Christians to take another, deeper, look at the implications of Christ's resurrection...  | more...|

It’s the life affirming stories, the good news stories, which keep Youth With A Mission (YWAM) volunteer Hannah Peart from being overwhelmed by the needs of a place such as Papua New Guinea.

     Stories like that of Bonnie, who, when she first met him, was only a month-old and already an orphan after his mother died in childbirth. When Hannah, a registered nurse who visited his community as part of a team providing healthcare and education, the village had declared him “as good as dead” and decided to throw him in the river. But a couple, with whom the decision didn’t sit well, decided to take him and adopt him. While his life was saved temporarily, they had no milk to feed him with and he just grew weaker by the day.

     “When I met him, I didn’t think he had much longer than a day to live.,” recalls the 28-year-old New Zealander. “But I really didn’t think this was the plan for this small child so I really encouraged this family to believe that this child could live and declare life and the value of life over this child.

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

More than three months on from a devastating earthquake in January, the world’s media have largely turned their attention away from Haiti. Yet, for those worst affected by the disaster, even as rebuilding begins, the fight for survival is far from over.

     Philippa Youd, a British doctor who recently spent time in Haiti, says the tens of thousands of people remain living on the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding communities in “tent villages”.

     “The village our hospital served had 6,000 people and 100 tents. The rest of the people are living under plastic sheets or curtains and the rainy season had already started..." she says, describing the city as "devastated".

     "It is worse than it appears on the news because the news only gives a snapshot. Flying over Port-au-Prince or driving through miles and miles of rubble and collapsed buildings is breathtaking.”

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

THE BIG PICTURE: EASTER IN SYDNEY

Photographer RAMON WILLIAMS was there for some of this year's Easter celebrations in Sydney...  | more...|

MOOGERAH PASSION PLAY MAKES ITS MARK IN SOUTH-EAST QUEENSLAND

It’s become something of an Easter tradition in south-east Queensland and, just as they have in previous years, this year once again hundreds of people are expected to make the trek out to Lake Moogerah to watch a passion play about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ under the open sky. This year, organiser Kosti Simons expects, will be no different.

     The first passion play was staged at Moogerah, located about 60 kilometres southwest of Ipswich, in 1993. Mr Simons and his wife Carroll had returned to Australia after 12 years of living on their sloop in Barcelona inspired by a vision he had received during a holiday in Queensland that he was to write a passion play.

     “(I) was meditating in a park when an interior voice quite clearly told me I had to return to Australia,” he recalls. “It actually repeated itself lest it fall on deaf ears. As I opened my eyes I saw dead ahead a bright star (and) I knew…I was to write a passion. I was to found a passion play organisation.”

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

An estimated 350,000 men gathered on a farm belonging to South African farmer/evangelist, Angus Buchan, over the past weekend for the Mighty Men conference in what was one of the largest gatherings of men for a Christian event ever. Some came from as far afield at Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Pakistan, and the UK. 

     Buchan is a farmer turned evangelist who exhorts people to trust God for the impossible, drawing on his personal experience of the miraculous. The author of the book, Faith Like Potatoes - released as a movie in 2006, says he has seen God intervene in his life many times including when his farm was saved from a raging bushfire by his family’s fervent prayers for rain, when a farm worker was raised from the dead after she was struck by lightning, and when God came through for him with a miracle crop of potatoes in the face of the severest drought.

     Buchan refused to comment on the numbers attending the conference, referring to the Biblical story of David who commissioned a census out of pride and was later punished. However he was prepared to say it was the largest gathering of Christian men in the world as far as he knew. He added, “there is no stadium in the world that could hold this number of men.”

     In an article released by Assist News Service, NICO BOUGAS reports on Angus Buchan's 'Mighty Men' conference...  | more...|

Indigenous Australians will soon be able to read the entire New Testament in simplified English - a basic version of English consistent with the linguistic and semantic features of Indigenous languages.

     The Simplified English Version (SEV) Translation Project team includes translators from Bible Society SA, Bible League Australia, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Australian Indigenous Ministries and Church Missionary Society. Its purpose is to make the Bible more easily understood by Indigenous Australians, many of whom speak English as a second language.

     "This is one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever been involved in,’ says Grahame Smith, the CEO of Bible League Australia. "We’re providing Indigenous Australians, for whom English is a second language, with a copy of the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament, in a translation they understand."

     KARYN MARKWELL reports on a project aimed at taking the Bible to Indigenous Australians...  | more...|

It’s probably not typical practice on a movie set to start every day with a 10 minute devotional. Nor would it be considered the norm in Hollywood to have ‘prayer warriors’ standing by during filming, charged with the task of ‘bathing the set in prayer’.

     But Christian film-maker David Nixon – who’s just finished production of Letters To God - believes both are critical to the success of his latest production, Letters To God.

     An Australian who’s worked for more than 30 years in the US film and television industry, Mr Nixon says that throughout filming of the movie, the set was "bathed in prayer", an approach to film-making he learnt from working with the Georgia-based Sherwood Baptist Church when making the 2006 release Facing The Giants and the 2008 film Fireproof.

     “(T)hey just bathed those projects in prayer and that’s really the key to the whole thing,” he says. “We have what we call prayer warriors on the set with us everyday while we’re shooting.

     DAVID ADAMS speaks to Christian film-maker David Nixon...  | more...|

What if we could reshape the lives of hundreds of millions of people who are suffering from poverty and at the same time stabilise financial markets to help prevent catastrophes like the Global Financial Crisis? What if we could generate substantial sums of money for practical action on climate change and for social services like health and education? And what if we could do it all without any cost to the average citizen? Would it be worth doing?

     Absolutely. This is exactly what economists and campaigners are arguing is on offer with the Robin Hood Tax: a tiny tax on the transactions of financial institutions that could raise billions of dollars to fight poverty, tackle climate change and provide money for domestic spending priorities.

     The idea itself is rather simple; it’s a tiny 0.05 per cent tax on financial transactions – that’s just 50 cents on every $1000 traded. It taxes things like currency and share trades as well as the trade of financial derivatives like credit default swaps (If you don’t know what they are, don’t worry - half the time the people trading them don’t understand them either).

     GERSHON NIMBALKER puts forward the arguments for a 'Robin Hood' tax...  | more...|

Palestinian Christian organisations have urged protests by church groups around the world against an Israeli assault on ships bringing aid to Gaza, which Israel says has led to the deaths of at least 10 activists on board the convoy.

     The Joint Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem YMCA and YWCA of Palestine said on 31st May it "strongly condemns this massacre against unarmed civilians which visibly violates international law and human rights".

     Activists say Israeli troops came on board shooting; Israel says its soldiers were shot at and attacked with weapons, the BBC reported, quoting an Israeli spokesperson.

     The YMCA and YWCA urged sister movements throughout the world as well as church leaders and groups to organise demonstrations in front of government buildings or Israeli embassies to protest against the action.

     JUDITH SUDILOVSKY and STEPHEN BROWN report for Ecumenical News International...  | more...|

CHRISTIAN LOBBY WELCOMES NEW PM BUT THANKS RUDD FOR COMMITMENT TO HOMELESSNESS, POVERTY, RECONCILIATION AND MARRIAGE
The Australian Christian Lobby said it would expect Labor under new Prime Minister Julia Gillard to “confirm its concern for the poor and the disadvantaged” along with “the values in society that proved attractive to many Christians throughout Australia” under former PM Kevin Rudd.

     Ms Gillard was sworn in as Australia’s 27th prime minister at Government House in Canberra this afternoon after Mr Rudd stepped down from the office following a leadership challenge this morning.

     The Australian Christian Lobby’s managing director, Jim Wallace, congratulated Ms Gillard on what he said was an "historic occasion".

     “However, we also want to thank Kevin Rudd for the commitment and energy he brought to issues such as homelessness, poverty, reconciliation and the importance of marriage in particular,” he said in a statement.

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

ESSAY: PRINCIPLED POLITICS?

When the former Prime Minister announced that there would be a leadership vote in the caucus, he made this telling remark: "I was elected by the people of Australia as prime minister of Australia. I was elected to do a job."

     He also pointed out that he was not elected by the Labor Party's parliamentary factions. Sadly, at least for those who put their trust in the "Kevin 007" campaign at the 2007 election, Mr Rudd decided that he would not contest the challenge and has stepped down. So even this final phase of his prime ministership, presents us with a problematic interpretation of how Mr Rudd saw the office of prime minister in the Commonwealth of Australia.

     Put it this way: even in the terms by which he defended his office as PM against the caucus vote, Kevin Rudd's explanation presents us with ambiguity. It is an ambiguity basic to Australian political life.
     BRUCE C. WEARNE takes a look at what today's dramatic events reveal about the Australian political system...  | more...|

You founded Operation Mobilisation more than 50 years ago. Did you ever imagine it would grow into the international organisation – with more than 5,400 people working in 110 countries – that it is today?

“No I don’t think I did. I was only 19 when I went to Mexico and started this thing and it’s 50 years that my wife and I, after six months in Mexico, moved to Madrid. My vision was very narrow and I wasn’t sure how it was all going to work out – it was for Muslim countries like Afghanistan and Iraq and Turkey, it was for closed countries like (those) in the Soviet bloc and Communist countries, but, through get arrested by the KGB the next summer, in ’61, I realised maybe I was running too fast.

     “So I had a day of prayer and that’s when God gave me the name – the original name was Send The Light (STL) – and…the vision for Western Europe: that He wanted a significant mission mobilisation to take place through the churches in Western Europe and I was to be just a servant of the churches. So that was a huge shift. I moved to from Madrid, Spain, to London, England, and I started taking meetings in places like Cambridge and Oxford and that became the real birthplace of OM as it is today...Europe seemed to be ripe for this vision and Europeans took the leadership and then, of course, it spread to international leadership. It really is the grace and mercy of God – I don’t feel I’ve really led it very well; I feel the Holy Spirit has led a whole team of us to keep pressing on, especially toward the more unreached places of the world.”

    George Verwer, the 72-year-old founder of global mission organisation OM (Operation Mobilisation), was recently in Australia where he gave a series of talks in major cities. Here, the grandfather of five talks to DAVID ADAMS about OM’s beginnings, his vision for the ministry and his heart for mission...  | more...|

A group of prominent Christians say they expect hundreds more people to sign up to a document declaring the importance of issues such as religious freedom, marriage and the sanctity of human life in the lead up to next month’s federal election.

     Called the Canberra Declaration, the document was formally launched at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday. Among the more than 20 Christian leaders involved in drafting the document were Dr Graham McLennan, convenor of the National Alliance of Christian Leaders, Bill Muehlenberg, founder of ethics and apologetics ministry CultureWatch, Dr Lachlan Dunjey, of Morality in Medicine, and Ros Phillips, of FamilyVoice Australia.

     Release of the document follows that of the Westminster Declaration – released in the UK ahead of the British election earlier this year – and the Manhattan Declaration – released in the US in late 2009.

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

YOUR SAY: What do you think of the 'Canberra Declaration'?...  | more...|

Health concerns relating to water quality have triggered an environmental advocacy group to call for the banning of baptisms in the lower Jordan River, where the Bible says Jesus was baptised.

     "For reasons of public health as well as religious integrity, baptism should be banned from taking place in the river," said Gidon Bromberg, the Israel director of EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), which has offices in Tel Aviv, Bethlehem, and Amman.

     Israeli authorities said on 27th July that tests done on the water of the lower Jordan River show the popular site for baptismal ceremonies at Qasr el Yahud on the West Bank meets health ministry standards. Mr Bromberg said, however, they should not take place until pollutants are removed from the water.

     JUDITH SUDILOVSKY, of ENInews, reports...  | more...|

YOUR SAY: Australia remains in political limbo after voters delivered the closest election result in years with the country set to face its first hung parliament since World War II. What do you think of the election result and what does it say about Australia?...  | more...|

Sight's created a single page where you can view all our recent stories related to today's federal election. Have a look and help inform your vote!...  | more...|

YOUR SAY: What issues are most important to you in deciding your vote this election? Join in our Your Say special here...  | more...|

ESSAY: CONFUSED? DON'T WORRY, HELP IS AT HAND

As we enter the final week of the 2010 federal election campaign many voters are still trying to make up their mind who to vote for or even who the candidates are in their electorate or state.

     And while we are being inundated with mindless campaign advertising, there are some great online resources for doing personal research.

     For some voters, the main concern is to discover the policies of the various parties on the issues that matter to them, and there is a wealth of material available.

     The Australian Christian Lobby has published a checklist on 24 key issues affecting Christians and this can be found on the Australia Votes website. Each party can be checked out individually or compared in various combinations covering broad topics such as public Christianity, international justice, poverty, family or indigenous issues. The ACL also provides candidates forums in a range of electorates across Australia.

      PETER HALLETT, pastor and writer of the Australian Christian Voter blog, provides a detailed list of where you can go online to find out more about parties, their policies and the questions that matter most to you...  | more...|

ESSAY: A DIFFERENT VISION FOR A 'BIG' AUSTRALIA

I am in favour of a big Australia.

     But I don't mean a big Australia in population terms which has dominated so much of the federal election campaign. I mean a nation that is big in terms of its vision, its compassion and in identifying its place in the region and the world.

     Sadly the election campaign appears to have become a foreign policy-free zone. It is also a campaign bereft of hope. Neither of the major political parties has sought to define Australia's role in the world. For a host of reasons we are a fortunate nation that has escaped the worst impacts of the global financial crisis.

     Little wonder that more than one political commentator has lamented the domestic, poll-driven nature of this election by citing the acerbic reflections of 19th-century French democrat Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin: "There go the people - I must follow them, for I am their leader."

      In article first published in the Sydney Morning Herald, TIM COSTELLO, chief executive of World Vision Australia, puts a different spin on why Australians should be thinking big...  | more...|

FOR PREVIOUS ELECTION COVERAGE:

CHRISTIAN VALUES: 'CANBERRA DECLARATION' UNDERLINES IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY AND SANCTITY OF LIFE

DAVID ADAMS reports...  | more...|

ESSAY: LET'S VOTE FOR OTHERS

With Australia's federal election to be held on 21st August, SIU FUNG WU says it's important Christians consider the wider ramifications of their vote...  | more...|

FOR MORE ELECTION-RELATED COVERAGE...  | more...|

There are times when New Zealand's Juliagrace knows as she’s writing a song that it’s going to make an impact.

     “Sometimes you just write a song and you think, ‘This is going to make a difference’…,” says the 38-year-old singer-songwriter. “If it makes me cry it’s going to hopefully heal a heart somewhere along the line. I’m a great believer that God uses music in a really personal way and sometimes people hold on to songs because that’s all they have.”

     Juliagrace (aka Julia Vucich) worked as a school teacher before “inching” her way into working fulltime in the music business in her late 20s and early 30s.

     While she describes herself as a “late bloomer”, Juliagrace was introduced to music at a young age and prior to the release of her much acclaimed debut solo album in 2005 had been in bands including a Christian electronica group called Elevator and New Zealand’s world-renowned Parachute Band – the latter an experience she describes as the “ultimate kick-start” for a career in music.

      DAVID ADAMS speaks with Juliagrace...   | more...|

ESSAY: WHAT DOES THE FIGHT AGAINST GLOBAL POVERTY LOOK LIKE AFTER THE UN SUMMIT?

This week world leaders have been meeting in New York for UN talks on the future of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  With just five years to go until 2015 – the deadline world leaders set for halving global poverty  – progress so far has been inconsistent, with many of the goals lagging or off track. So can the MDGs be achieved, and what should the outcome of the UN talks be?             

     UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addressing the leaders during the opening session on Monday, said,  “We have much more to do but the goal can be met.”             

     Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who represented Australia at the summit, also used the opportunity to call on Australia and the international community to increase their efforts to see the MDGs to be achieved.                  

      “Let us be honest. Donor countries have made commitments that they have not honoured,” said Mr Rudd.  “(But) if we strengthen our collective commitment, and work hard to accelerate progress where it is lagging, the goals lie within our reach” he said.    

      MATTHEW DARVAS, of Micah Challenge Australia, takes stock of the situation in the wake of this week's UN Summit in New York...   | more...|

ESSAY: DEATH BY WHOSE CHOICE?

The fear of seeing a loved one suffer has led many to believe that the compassionate response is to send them on to an early death. Indeed, as medical science enables people to live longer and to overcome more and more disease, there is a fear that many elderly patients are being kept alive artificially and against their will.

     The real problem today is not that of over-treatment, but really one of under-treatment. That is, we have become all too willing to allow loved ones to die, without always looking at all the options, or exhausting all the alternatives.

     It must clearly define our terms before proceeding. Euthanasia is not about halting futile treatment. Nor is it about the alleviation of suffering (this is known as palliative care). Euthanasia is an act that directly and intentionally causes a person’s death. Euthanasia has little to do with refusing futile or extreme treatment. The man who rejects a heart transplant or declines a third bout of chemotherapy is not committing suicide, but rather is accepting the inevitability of his own death. The doctor who withholds or withdraws undue treatment at the request of a terminally ill patient is not killing his patient but rather is refusing to prolong his patient’s life at any cost.

      Rev Dr GORDON MOYES outlines his opposition to proposed euthanasia legislation...  | more...|

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN LOBBY TO CONTINUE EFFORTS TO DEFEAT PROPOSED LEGISLATION

The Australian Christian Lobby will continue its efforts to defeat proposed legislation aimed at allowing euthanasia, according to Lyle Shelton, the lobby’s chief of staff.

      Greens leader Bob Brown introduced a private members bill to the Federal Parliament this week that would reinstate the rights of territory governments to legalise euthanasia.

     Speaking to Sight prior to the introduction of Mr Brown’s bill, Mr Shelton said defeating it would be a “top priority” of the ACL over the next few months.

     Prime Minister Julia Gillard has already announced that Labour MPs will be able to make a “conscience vote” on the bill and it’s expected the Coalition will follow suit.

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

"The story of (the Holocaust) survivors," wrote sociologist William Helmreich, "is not a story of remarkable people. It is a story of just how remarkable people can be."

     The same might be said, albeit in a very different context, of the 33 hardy Chilean miners who emerged from Hades this week. It may not quite match the sheer hold-your-breath daring of, say, the Apollo 11 lunar landing, but the rescue of these Chileans – and one Bolivian – will live long in our collective memory as one of humanity’s most daring feats.

     Their rescue, of course, would not have been possible without their own extraordinary demonstrations of resilience and courage. Above all else this is a story about the resilience of the human spirit.

     In an age where we’re prone to react with a passive ‘ho-hum’ to things that would have seemed awe-inspiring a generation ago – our technology, for example – this story reminds us that our greatest resource is to be found within us and in those around us.

This week's dramatic rescue of 33 Chilean miners, trapped for 69 days in the San Jose mine, has captivated the attention of people around the world. MAL FLETCHER reflects on what we can draw from their survival...   | more... |

In October last year, seven-year-old Allan Ssembatya was walking home from school with friends when he was kidnapped.

     A frantic search followed before he was found, whimpering, under a bush, laying in a pool of his own blood. He had suffered injuries that can only be described as horrific – an axe had torn open his skull and a section removed. He had been stabbed in the neck and had been castrated. 

     Allan, who lives in the Kayunga District of Uganda - just to the north of the capital of Kampala, is one of the many children taken each year by people looking for children to sacrifice to their gods. Thankfully Allan survived his wounds – although a stroke caused as a result of the horrific attack has left him with epilepsy and weakness and numbness in one arm – but many don’t.

     One organisation attempting to tackle the rising problem is Uganda-based Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM) which aims to help vulnerable children. Its data, based on police information, shows that the numbers of children believed to have been killed or disappeared as a result of child sacrifice are growing.

     DAVID ADAMS speaks to Pastor Peter M. Sewakiryanga about a campaign to end the tragedy of child sacrifice in Uganda...   | more... |

The extraordinary media outpouring over the canonisation of Mary MacKillop this week shows that there is still a deep yearning for something spiritual in the Australian psyche.

     Despite our insanely hedonistic and materialistic outlook on life in this culture, there is still something deep in the hearts of Australians that is searching for something more. Whatever we might think of the theology of having someone made a 'saint', the fact that it has created such an outpouring of interest is evidence that Australians are not satisfied with what we can simply see and touch. We have a longing for something more than what this life offers. There is a yearning deep in the heart of everyone - a 'God-shaped hole' as it has been called in the past.

    The irony of all of this though is shown in the fact that the marketers have been cashing in big-time on the whole show. You could buy anything from Mary MacKillop T-shirts to jewellery to key rings in the last couple of weeks. The Sunday Age even had a poster of her. As Midnight Oil sang many years a go, who can stand in the way when there's a dollar to be made?

     NILS VON KALM reflects on the recent canonisation of Mary MacKillop and what the reaction tells us about Australia today...   | more... |

From time to time, Burma hits the world headlines. It did so in September 2007, when Buddhist monks courageously led peaceful protests against the country’s brutal military regime, and faced a bloody crackdown. The following year, when Cyclone Nargis struck and the regime initially rejected international aid and access for aid workers, horrific stories of the dead, dying and displaced were again on our television screens. Then last year, after an American Mormon, John Yettaw, swam across the lake to the home of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the international spotlight was briefly on Burma. Ironically, it was Aung San Suu Kyi who was put on trial, and sentenced to a further three years for having a visitor without permission – even though he arrived uninvited. Burma’s dictator, Senior General Than Shwe, reduced the sentence to 18 months, in an act deliberately designed to make him look compassionate while keeping her out of the way until after the regime’s sham elections.

     Once again, Burma is in the news. The scenes last weekend of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi emerging from her latest stretch of seven years’ house arrest, and greeting crowds of thousands waiting at the gate of her home, were as visually inspiring as Nelson Mandela’s walk out of prison twenty years ago. Scenes of her addressing crowds the next day from the offices of her banned party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and giving interviews to the BBC and ABC, had been unimaginable even a few weeks ago. She has, after all, spent a total of 15 of the past 20 years in detention.

     BENEDICT ROGERS, a human rights activist working with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, on why the international community must keep up pressure on Burma's military junta in the wake of Aung San Suu Kyi's release...  | more...|

What was the best moment on the walk?
     Carnsey - "I would have to say the finish. It was awesome walking with over 100 people who represented all those who had followed and supported us. I guess it was also a picture of those who had got behind the cause also.
"Throughout the walk it was really encouraging to see how many people got behind what we were doing. I also loved hearing stories of what people had done after hearing about the walk.
"We heard of a Sunday school class in Ireland that adopted a people groups, a prayer meeting that started in a ladies workplace and another church who presented our updates each week at church. These are people we didn’t have direct contact with but it just showed me that there was a ripple effect that was going out continuing to raise awareness for this need."

     Sav - "I was never really sure that I could walk the 2000 kilometres, but when we reached the 1500 mark it suddenly struck me that I could do it. That was an awesome moment. But of course nothing compares to the thrill of walking up to the finish line...and feeling the tears come with the relief of it all being over."

     Back in August, three Australian mates - Andrew Carnell, his cousin Dave Carnell, and their friend Andrew Sav - walked out of the Queensland town of Cairns on a mission to raise awareness of the 2,000 or so language groups around the world which don't currently have the Bible in their own tongue.

    Having arrived at their final destination, the New South Wales-Queensland border town of Stanthorpe, last week after spending more than than 80 days walking 2,000 kilometres, two of the walkers - Andrew Carnell, known as 'Carnsey', and Andrew Sav, known as 'Sav', reflect on the walk's ups and downs and the lessons they drew from it. They spoke with DAVID ADAMS...  | more...|

FOR PREVIOUS:

DAVE, SAV AND CARNSEY'S 2000 WALK BLOG...  | more...|

LONG ROAD AHEAD: THREE QUEENSLANDERS PREPARE TO WALK 2000 KILOMETRES TO RAISE AWARENESS OF BIBLE TRANSLATION NEED...  | more...|

Farmers are known for their love of the land. We think of them as grafters, those who know the meaning of the word ‘work’ and admire them for their tenacity and strength in the face of adversity.

     Farmers all over the world are struggling today and farms that were doing well a few generations ago are "doing it tough" today.

     According to Nick Rose, of the Food Connection Foundation, five Australian farmers leave their farms every day. “Depression and suicide rates,” he says, are “double that of the non-farming population” and we are facing what Mr Rose calls, “an unfolding silent rural crisis” in Australia.

     In April this year, an event called La Via Campesina was held to "highlight the plight of small farmers worldwide". In support of this initiative, Rose said, “Food is not simply a commodity like any other. It is the very basis of our existence and of our culture. Valuing and respecting food means valuing and respecting our farmers, and ultimately ourselves". He also made mention of the "one billion hungry people on the planet" and of the need to "ensure farmers are able to stay on the land".

     BEV HOLMES-BROWN reports on initiatives to help support farmers in the Australian outback...  | more...|

Singer Jackson Browne - who does not profess a Christian faith - laments the mad consumerism that overtakes us even more at Christmas than it normally does. In his song, The Rebel Jesus, Browne says the following:

Well we guard our world with locks and guns

And we guard our fine possessions

And once a year when Christmas comes

We give to our relations

And perhaps we give a little to the poor

If the generosity should seize us

But if any one of us should interfere

In the business of why there are poor

They get the same as the rebel Jesus

     Jackson Browne sympathises with the treatment Jesus gets for raising awkward questions – the questions no one wants to hear, the issues that no one wants to face. Julian Assange would also sympathise with both Browne and Jesus right now. But most of us would rather have it easy. It is the troublemakers who raise these questions, and the easiest way to deal with our insecurity of not knowing how to handle them is to shut them up. We do it with our children too when they constantly pester us with that eternal question, “why?”

    NILS VON KALM takes a look at what Christmas is...and isn't...  | more...|