Gamblefree Day

28 Aug 2010

Photography: Greg Bowker / New Zealand Herald















It doesn’t look threatening. It plays cheerful tunes and flashes little lights. It spins bright, colourful images. It offers hope and excitement and ruin—all at the push of a button.

And it destroys lives.

Families have been torn apart, homes and jobs lost, mental and physical health impaired, finances ruined—lives shattered … by the pokie machine.

Pokies are the most harmful form of gambling in New Zealand. They are everywhere—the country has some 19,000 non-casino pokies. Kiwis lose $2.7 million every day to these addictive machines.

On 1 September, community-based events around New Zealand will mark this year’s Gamblefree Day. The Problem Gambling Foundation and The Salvation Army Oasis Centres for Problem Gambling will host many of these events, aiming to raise public awareness of the significant harm caused by problem gambling.

While the gambling industry rakes in the profits, many families of problem gamblers live in hardship. Although not all problem gamblers struggle with other issues, problem gambling is associated with alcohol abuse, smoking, family violence and neglect, crime, poverty, depression and suicide. The highest concentration of pokie machines and the worst-affected people are those living in low-income communities.

In the 2008-2009 financial year, New Zealanders lost more than $2 billion to gambling in its various forms. About 33,000 adult New Zealanders struggle with a gambling problem. Their problem, in turn, impacts their families, friends and community.
Problem gambling takes a heavy toll on society and costs taxpayers dearly.

The effects of problem gambling are wide-ranging and impose a heavy burden on health and social service providers, as well as costs to the police and justice system.

Although the gambling industry attempts to justify its exploitation of vulnerable people by pointing to their government-enforced ‘donation’ of 37.12 per cent of revenue to community groups, most of these funds have been taken from those who can least afford to lose money. For every dollar given to a community organisation from a pokie fund, three dollars are lost from the community.

Most gambling trust grants fund sports clubs, although some of the money goes to charities and other community groups. The Salvation Army is among a growing number of organisations in New Zealand who are choosing to refuse direct funding generated by gambling—because it causes significant harm in our society.

This 1 September, support your local Gamblefree Day event by turning up and learning more about the harm gambling does in your community. Don’t gamble yourself and discourage others from doing so. If you know someone who might have a gambling problem, direct them to a Salvation Army Oasis Centre where they can receive free confidential assistance in breaking their addictive habit.

Sadly, behind the pokie machine’s happy music and blinking lights are thousands of hurting people.

By Ruth Sylvestre (from War Cry magazine)

See the Change

28 Aug 2010

‘Once Were Warriors—that was pretty much our life,’ says Aroha Latu, thinking back
to her childhood. ‘Shocking, really.’

Aroha’s biological father was a Black Power gang member. His relationship with her mother didn’t last long. Then her mother met Aroha’s stepdad, another then-member of Black Power. ‘We moved all over New Zealand because my mum tried to leave my stepdad so many times. We’d go to different refuges,’ she explains. ‘But they always got back together.’

Aroha remembers Sundays being ‘hangover day’ at home. But when she turned 10, she was sent to live with her biological father’s aunt and uncle, who were like grandparents to her. ‘I started going to church then,’ Aroha says. ‘Up [north], church is all in Maori. I picked it up—I didn’t understand what they were saying, but I learned the prayers,’ she remembers. She was introduced to God then, but didn’t really understand.

When she was 15, she moved to Taranaki with her boyfriend. ‘His mum and dad took me in and I carried on going to school,’ she says. They had three children together and Aroha’s stepdad and mum eagerly became involved in their grandchildren’s lives. ‘The gang life was out. No more raging parties and abuse,’ she smiles, remembering. ‘[My stepdad] wasn’t the best dad to me, but he was a really good koro. We started getting close when I had my children. They really loved him.’

Her stepdad passed away when she was 21. ‘When he died, my mum went back into drinking, like really heavily. She actually dropped off my brothers and sisters to CYF (Child, Youth and Family),’ she says. Aroha took them in for a while. ‘I had my three kids and my two bothers and my sister.’

There must be more

Not long after that, her partner became abusive, so she left him. She met her now husband, Steve, when she was 23. He had grown up attending church with his mum and nana, but was not a practicing Christian.

‘We were in a life of partying, night clubbing and stuff,’ says Aroha. ‘Then, after the birth of our second child, I started thinking, “There’s got to be more to life than this.” We’d go to work all week, then the weekends we’d drink and party. We used to argue a lot. Every second word was “f”-this and “f”-that. And we’d throw a few things … I would anyway,’ she laughs.

‘Because I was in debt, people started showing me how I could make easy money. It was criminal activity and I’d never been in trouble with the law—I never wanted to do it. But this time, I think because my self-confidence was so low, I was like, “Ah, I’ve got nothing to lose”,’ Aroha says. ‘Then I got in trouble with the police.’

Being arrested, held in the cells, and then waiting for her court dates was all very traumatic. ‘My case went on for ages. Just the sight of police would make me jump because I knew I’d done something really bad,’ she explains. Aroha prayed again, asking God to ‘just make it go away’. Believing he would, she remembers being in court and thinking ‘Yes! God’s got my back!’, only to be stunned when she was found guilty. ‘I was going, “I asked you for help and this is what you done. Yeah right, God doesn’t help!”’

Seeds of hope

Afraid of probation after her sentencing, Aroha ran away for six months. When she was finally arrested again and forced to meet with her probation officer, he suggested she do her community work hours at The Salvation Army Hutt City Corps (‘Crossroads’). 

Aroha’s first job at Crossroads was vacuuming the auditorium. ‘Have you seen how big our auditorium is? When I opened up the doors I thought,“Argh, I’m gonna be here all day!”’ she giggles. ‘I was vacuuming and I was saying, “Lord why did you put me in community service?” Then I looked up at the cross at the front and I had this feeling. I thought, “Oh, my gosh—I’m meant to be here. I’m meant to do this. I asked God for his help and this is where he sent me!” After that, I was vacuuming and laughing at the same time. It was a really good feeling. I thought, “This must be how my life is gonna change!”’

The second time Aroha showed up to do her hours, Crossroads was short-staffed in the office. She ended up on reception, answering the phones. The next day, she was asked to help with the phones again. Christmas was approaching and the phones were busier than ever, so she stayed on the phones for the whole Christmas period.

Aroha finished her community hours in January, but enjoyed what she was doing so much that she continued helping at the desk as a volunteer.

Learning to live

Aroha had been looking for work for some time with little success. ‘With a criminal record, it wasn’t easy,’ she explains. On her second day at Crossroads—the same day she first helped on reception—she had requested prayer at the daily staff prayer meeting that she would find a job.

By Christmas, Aroha had started learning how to pray herself. In those prayer times, knowing they needed another staff person on reception at Crossroads, she began thanking God in advance for a job—and specifically for the reception position at Crossroads. A few weeks later, she was hired as receptionist.

Aroha had begun attending church and soon realised she needed to make some changes in her life. ‘They always say, “Don’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk,”’ she says. ‘I started learning to live it—not work here and then go home and fight with my partner.’

One of the things she learned is that marriage to your partner is important. ‘I used to think marriage was just a piece of paper,’ she explains. So she prayed about it. ‘Then one day, Steve asked me to marry him!’ she beams. ‘It was just before I started working here. I started thinking, “God does answer prayers!”’ They were married in March.

Aroha’s life was changing. ‘My husband saw a big change. Once I accepted God and said I was sorry, I’d go home happy. The anger in our house just left. It was a real calm atmosphere,’ she says. ‘God taught me to forgive wholeheartedly and have love instead of hatred or resentment toward anyone who hurt me—this has really made my life peaceful and happy,’ Aroha says.

By Ruth Sylvestre (from War Cry magazine)

Fighting NZ’s Gambling Problem

28 Aug 2010

An addiction to gambling can destroy lives as surely as an addiction to drugs or alcohol. And despite a small drop in spending on gambling during the recession, the problem of hazardous gambling appears to be increasing, or at least becoming more visible.

Last year, The Salvation Army’s Oasis Centres for the treatment of problem gambling helped 3200 problem gamblers and 950 members of their families—a 27 per cent increase on the previous year. While some of this increase involved brief sessions with clients of other Army services, such as Community Ministries and The Bridge Programme, Oasis’ core workload still increased 16 per cent.

During the same period, Department of Internal Affairs figures shows the amount New Zealanders spent on gambling fell from $2.034 billion to $2.028 billion.

Oasis National Operations Consultant Lisa Campbell-Dumlu says it is difficult to reconcile the two trends. It is highly unlikely the reduction in gambling spending could mean a drop in the numbers of problem gamblers. It is more likely to be a result of casual gamblers deciding gambling is a luxury they can do without during the recession. Problem gamblers, on the other hand, have a compulsion to gamble and are unlikely to change their gambling behaviours without first hitting a major crisis.

The Salvation Army has provided specialist services for problem gamblers since the early 1990s. It brought these services under the national umbrella of Oasis in 1997. Since then, The Salvation Army Oasis Centres for Problem Gambling have built a solid reputation and relationships with other organisations and agencies—to the point where the flow of referrals is rising significantly.

There are six Oasis centres, one in each of the four main centres and in Hamilton and Tauranga. Each operates satellite clinics in outlying areas. A service also operates in Queenstown, home of the Skycity Queenstown Casino.

A 2008 study estimates that between 10,000 and 60,000 Kiwis are problem gamblers, although some in the addiction treatment sector believe this to be an underestimation. The harm caused by gambling includes debt, unemployment, poverty, broken families, child neglect, abuse and violence, fraud and other crime, and deteriorating physical and mental health—meaning it is possible that upwards of 500,000 New Zealanders are negatively affected.

Pokie machines are the most harmful form of gambling, with more than 78 per cent of problems gamblers using them as their primary mode of gambling. Almost 55 per cent of pokie venues are located in the lowest decile socioeconomic areas. A decile 9 area has an average of one pokie machine for 75 people, while the most affluent decile one areas have one machine per 465 people.

Lisa says a large proportion of Oasis clients have been gambling destructively for years; they have often lost everything they own, have incurred huge debt, and their marriages and relationships have collapsed under the strain.

As well as providing counselling for problem gamblers and support for families, The Salvation Army has an important and growing public health role that aims to reduce the number of people falling into the gambling addiction trap.

This ranges from helping to organise annual Gamblefree day events on 1 September through to lobbying for tighter controls for gaming machines at local government level and organising screening for clients of budget advisers, WINZ case managers and probation services. ‘One reason their clients are coming to them could be problem gambling. If that’s the case, they can be referred on to us,’ Lisa explains.

Wellington Oasis Centre staff are involved in Operation Restore Newtown, an initiative providing activities and work for problem gamblers as alternative pastimes and lifestyles to gambling. They also support a youth-focused sports and culture-based programme at Taita College encouraging healthy and wise lifestyle choices. Lisa says while both initiatives are directed at problem gambling, they apply to avoiding or minimising any addictive or unhealthy behaviours.

Particular success has been achieved in Queenstown and Dunedin where Oasis has helped facilitate problem gamblers registering themselves to be excluded from all gambling venues in their home area. Lisa says not only is this an important tool for many problem gamblers to stop gambling, it has improved once frosty relations between problem gambling advocates and managers of gaming venues and Trusts. The result has been an increase of referrals of problem gamblers from these venues to Oasis Centres.

This initiative is being expanded into Lower Hutt, Tauranga and West Auckland. ‘It’s taken two years to get the (gambling) industry and venues on board, but now we’re seeing some great successes,’ she says.

By Jon Hoyle (from War Cry magazine) - Illustration: Martin Wilkinson

Parenting Success at Bethany

13 Aug 2010

Making a healthy and secure future for mothers and their babies

At 17, Alysha knew she didn’t have the skills to look after her newborn son on her own. She figured her only realistic option was to adopt him out. But when she talked to a hospital social worker, she found out about The Salvation Army Bethany Centre.

‘The social worker told me there’s this place where you can go to learn how to look after him. So I decided straight away to go to Bethany,’ Alysha recalls.

She has since learned how to care for little Nathen and how to be a parent. ‘I really enjoy it. It’s good to learn, especially for first-time mothers. It’s good to learn how to look after a baby—like how to breastfeed and wash them,’ she says.

The Salvation Army Bethany Centre in Grey Lynn, Auckland, offers young pregnant women and new mothers an accepting, supportive environment where they can learn the skills they need to look after their babies and parent them well. The centre can accommodate up to 12 pregnant young women and up to eight mothers with their babies.

Most women at Bethany are between 17 and 24 years old, although the centre accepts women as young as 13 and as old as 35. The women come from around New Zealand and from a variety of backgrounds, cultures and circumstances. They are all at Bethany, however, because they lack the support and/or skills they need to parent their babies well. Women can refer themselves, but most are referred to Bethany by social workers, midwives, other service providers or their families.

New Zealand has the second highest teen birth rate amongst developed countries. Some 4670 babies were born to teenagers last year, according to the Ministry of Social Development. These teens often have little family support and lack the capacity and skills to parent their children. For many of the young women, there is ‘not a lot of purpose to their day’, says Bethany Centre social worker Allie Edmonds. ‘At Bethany, they get a schooling environment with a sense of purpose and structure and routine.’

Community midwife Wendy Bowen serves as midwife for some of the young women at Bethany.
‘I have a lot of love in my heart for that place,’ she says. ‘They do a really special job. There’s no way [the young women] would be able to take their babies home if not for Bethany.’

The centre seeks to support young mothers in their decision to parent their babies, as most of the residents do. ‘Bethany is a parenting centre,’ says Sue Carnachan, one of two nurses who help look after the new mums. Sue first came to Bethany as a housemother, about 20 years ago.

‘It used to be that many mothers came [to Bethany] needing “time-out” to make decisions, back when being single and pregnant wasn’t so acceptable,’ Sue says. Adoption was more common then. Very rarely do the young women at Bethany choose to adopt out their babies now; but if they do, they are supported in that decision as well, she says. Bethany primarily seeks to support and equip young women keeping their babies with the skills to care for and parent them. ‘It’s about empowering these young women to make a success of parenting,’ Sue says.

Women can come at any point in their pregnancy, or even immediately after the birth, although arriving between the fifth and seventh months of pregnancy is ideal. At Bethany they attend a 16-week education programme with modules covering topics relevant to pregnancy, childbirth, parenting and daily life. These include infant care, first aid, budgeting, cooking, health and nutrition, and communication and conflict resolution. They can continue their schooling via correspondence if they are still in school, or do further study if they wish. Service providers also offer information sessions and modules at the centre. The programme modules are available to women living off-site, although most women choose to stay at the centre.

‘Its wonderful to see girls who are so lost have such a secure place to stay,’ says Wendy. ‘My role in educating them [as a midwife] is reinforcing what they’ve already learned from staff at Bethany.’

After the babies are born, the women learn how to care for them through the mothercraft programme, which offers one-on-one assistance according to each mother and baby’s individual needs. The young mums are encouraged to establish good daily routines and to look after all aspects of care for their babies, including bathing, nappy changes and laundry. Most women stay at Bethany until their babies reach three to four months, although they can stay up until six months, depending on their needs. Women are assisted in finding suitable accommodation when they leave Bethany and receive visits in the community for as long as needed.

Some of the mothers really ‘have no idea’ how to parent and need to learn simple but vital things, Sue says—like how important it is to talk to and cuddle their babies and not call them abusive names, even in jest.

‘It’s exciting and incredibly rewarding knowing the babies are a lot safer after all their mums have learned here,’ says Sue. ‘These kids have a better chance of success in their lives.’

> Read more info on the Bethany Centre

The Other Side of the World

12 Aug 2010

The world’s best restaurant for 2010 has been named as Noma, which serves up Nordic specialities in a converted 18th century shipping warehouse in Copenhagen. But before you rush to phone them to make a reservation, bear in mind that meals can cost as much as NZ$320!

When news of the restaurant’s success was made known in The (London) Times in April, I was fascinated to learn that one of the gourmet dishes patrons can order includes ‘edible soil’. But in the same edition I was horrified to read an account of a visit to the slums of Haiti by, of all people, the Times’ food critic. He discovered a group of children selling ‘mudcakes’: coarse biscuits made of dirt and water, with just a little salt and fat to make them slightly palatable. Cheap fast food to fill the bellies of the starving.

It’s a strange and grossly-unjust world. On one side of the globe, discerning gourmet diners pay large sums of money to eat dirt, which, of course, they have every right to do. Elsewhere, starving people eat dirt to try and stave off the pain of hunger for a few hours. Pregnant women in Haiti eat the gritty and tasteless mudcakes in the hope of boosting their calcium intake. These mudcakes are the staple diets of entire families. How could they imagine that other, more affluent citizens would find gourmet delight in eating dirt?

The glaring inequalities of the world scream at us from our television screens day after day as we witness human suffering brought about by natural disasters, war, disease and hunger. Then the adverts come on and we’re bombarded with mouth-watering commercials for pizza and hamburgers and ice cream, some of which can be delivered to our door in minutes. Competing for our attention and our dollars are ads for weight-loss diets! One part of the world battles obesity, while a billion people face daily hunger.

Get real

This is where you come in. Because, whether we realise it or not, we New Zealanders are among the wealthiest people on earth.

‘Get real,’ you say, ‘don’t you know how hard we’re finding it to make ends meet? There’s unemployment and food banks and people sleeping under bridges and neglected children and crime here too.’ All perfectly true. But the fact remains that in world terms, with our comfortable homes, good schools and hospitals, social welfare safety net and a clean, healthy environment, we are among the most prosperous people on the planet.

You’re still not convinced, are you? Perhaps a simple illustration might help. Let’s draw a line across the page that represents a continuum of where you might stand among the people of the world. On the left hand side are the people who eat dirt to survive—and on the right hand are those who can afford to eat gourmet meals.

Let’s leave the world’s billionaires out of the equation. Where are you on this line? Did you truly have to worry about what you would have to eat today? Did you even have to give it a second thought? Do you battle with extra kilos on your waistline? Then you must put yourself well to the right on the line, among the people for whom the prayer ‘give us this day our daily bread’ is figurative rather than literal. That’s something to be thankful for, but it also carries a responsibility, which is to find ways to share what we have with those in need.

Look at Myanmar

This time of year, during The Salvation Army’s Self Denial Appeal, our attention turns to the global work of The Salvation Army. We thank God for using our movement to be a force for good and for justice in so many needy places around the world.

How I wish I could transport you to where we are working, in Myanmar, one of the poorest countries on earth. You would see sights that would shock you and cause you profound sadness—and you would see a Salvation Army that would make you extremely proud.

You would see joyful young people fully committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, wearing their uniforms as an expression of what they believe and to whom they belong. You would see hundreds of children being cared for, fed and given a good education that they could not otherwise access. You would see Salvationists living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ even when there is little opportunity to speak out their faith. You would see Salvationist families living in desperate poverty who choose to follow Christ wholeheartedly and who involve themselves in the ministry of their local corps.

Make a difference

The Salvation Army and its officers and soldiers are present in some of the world’s worst slums and scenes of the most extreme poverty, not only with material assistance—food and shelter—but also with the message of the life-changing message of hope in Christ.

It almost seems like God is doing his best work in places where there are the least resources. Which is all the more reason why those with plenty should accept their spiritual responsibility to contribute to our work in the developing world.

But, you protest, all that money gets sent off to London and pays for administration or whatever. Please make 2010 the year that you abandon once and for all that sad excuse to opt out of being any more than a token partner in The Salvation Army’s worldwide mission. Let someone who is personally involved assure you that the Army’s work in poverty-stricken countries like Myanmar and dozens of others simply would not exist were it not for the faithful giving of Salvationists to the Self Denial Appeal! I cannot stress this fact too strongly: our vital, growing work of Christian mission would simply cease to exist without the resources provided by our Self Denial giving. End of story.

Let me tell you one more thing about this corps: its officers and soldiers not only receive from the Self Denial Appeal; they contribute to it. The women of its home league spend many days under a blazing sun, up to their knees in mud and water planting rice for a landowner. And on one of those days, their entire pay of 2000 kyats (NZ$2.81) is dedicated to the Self Denial Appeal.

These are some of the poorest people in the world. Yet they toil for a day, and in other ways, to contribute to the worldwide work of the Salvation Army. Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?

from War Cry magazine

Peace Makers

29 Jul 2010

Sixty-five years ago—in two blinding, flesh-searing flashes of light—atomic bombs blasted the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Estimates put the killed and wounded in Hiroshima at 150,000 and in Nagasaki at 75,000. The legacy of those two bombs was cancer (especially for those in early childhood), brain damage to foetuses, and genetic abnormalities in children born to survivors. The sheer terror of the bombings scarred all who lived through the horror of those days.

Each year we commemorate these events. The citizens of Earth pause and recall the horror of nuclear war in the hope that this will strengthen our resolve to never again allow international conflicts to escalate with such destructive force.

It was argued then—and some still argue this today—that the human toll paid by the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary for ‘the greater good’ of ensuring a Japanese surrender, making the bombings morally acceptable. And we must not forget that the US entered the war after the unprovoked bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan, which killed more than 2300 people (civilians and soldiers) and wounding 1200.

Even during the war years there was considerable unease about the unjust nature of ‘obliteration’ bombing of non-military targets. In 1944, Bishop George Bell protested in Britain’s House of Lords that bombing cities was ‘not a justifiable act of war’, and that ‘to justify methods inhumane in themselves by arguments of expediency smacks of the Nazi philosophy that Might is Right’.

It could, I suppose, be argued that every city and every citizen is part of its nation’s ‘war machine’. This perhaps explains why British and American leaders who once condemned Germany for its saturation bombing of cities came to adopt the same strategy. In February 1945, the Allies’ saturation bombing of Dresden killed 135,000 people over two days—more than the immediate deaths caused by the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A feature of today’s global conflicts is indiscriminate terrorist attacks that target civilians and crowded meeting spots. It seems that the location of war’s front line remains hotly contested.

Physicist Albert Einstein noted: ‘The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.’

Nuclear conflict remains a real threat to our world. A lasting lesson from A-bombs of World War II is that it is no easy matter to end a war after lives have been lost and families and nations shattered. How much better to work solidly for peace before one shot is fired.

We are familiar with weapons of mass destruction. We are familiar with weapons of mass fear. But God wants us to be so disturbed by these that we engage our collective consciences for peace. Sixty-five years after Hiroshima we must not grow weary of our mandate to be peace makers in the world.

from War Cry magazine

No Private Matter

28 Jul 2010

Towards the end of July 1967, the US city of Detroit was left reeling from a social and political calamity known as the Detroit race riots. Five days of violence left 43 mainly black citizens dead, 467 injured and 2000 buildings razed—the worst civil violence in American history until the Los Angeles riots of 1992.

Five years before his city burned, and barely into his teens, Wallis walked away from the small evangelical church founded by his Plymouth Brethren parents. He had taken a keen interest in the civil rights movement, which was then gaining steam. His departure was a mutual parting of the ways after Wallis had spent months demanding his white church face up to the injustice of racism in the city. Church elders told him racism was a political phenomenon while faith was personal, a private matter between you and God. Wallis thought otherwise and walked, gravitating to the city’s black churches and into the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements.

Speaking from Washington DC, Reverend Wallis says: ‘I didn’t have the words for it back then, but I do now: God is personal but never private. To privatise the Christian faith is to choke it and minimise it and strangle it and conform it to our own individualistic and even narcissistic habits.’

Good news to poor people

Those formative years helped cement his understanding of social justice as being central to the teachings of Jesus—and at the heart of biblical faith. Wallis defines social justice as a personal commitment to serve the poor and attack the conditions that lead to poverty.

‘Justice is integral to the Gospel, it is the foundation of the prophets,’ he says. ‘Luke [chapter] four has the opening mission statement of Jesus of Nazareth: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor.” Any gospel that isn’t good news to poor people is simply not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.’

Before attending the seminary, Wallis studied at Michigan State University where he joined the civil rights and anti-war movements. Like many of the activists of his generation, he read the full spectrum of socialist political doctrine. While the churchless Wallis was finishing his studies he decided to take one last look at the Bible to see if he could reconnect with his faith.

He says Matthew 25, where Jesus speaks about the final judgment, ignited his conversion: I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me. ‘Then they will reply, “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?” ‘And he will answer, “I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.” (NLT)

‘Which I thought was more radical than Che Guevara, Karl Marx or Ho Chi Minh,’ says Wallis, ‘and I became a Christian and started Sojourners.’

Talking faith and politics

Sojourners developed from Wallis and a group of like-minded friends at seminary discussing the relationship between faith and political issues. This evolved into a Christian social justice community based in Washington DC, and operating ministries in the city’s low-income neighbourhoods for more than three decades now. Its print and web-based magazine, Sojourners, has a readership of 250,000.

Borrowing from the strategies of Martin Luther King Jnr and other Christian social justice proponents, Sojourners continues to build alliances with churches and secular groups with common values. Wallis has broadened his constituency by touring the country lobbying, preaching and debating, as well as writing a string of books on social justice. Two, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post–Religious Right America and God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, were both New York Times bestsellers.

Wallis and his community now punch far above their weight. The past three presidents have sought Wallis’s counsel, although he walked away from working with George W Bush’s administration following the US-led invasion of Iraq. He served a term on President Barak Obama’s White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighbourhood Partnerships and lobbied hard for policies that address poverty, like Obama’s health reforms.

Social justice and the Church

Wallis sidesteps questions about his contribution to changing the political environment, saying his main role has been to take the social justice debate to the churches, helping to break the religious right’s stranglehold on political debate. He says the engine of change is young Christians who view their obligations to their fellow man as central to their faith—a faith not limited to a ‘private’ one-on-one relationship with God.

Care of the environment—God’s creation—and the responsible management of natural resources is a Christian duty thrown into the spotlight by the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Much of Sojourners’ energy is currently focused on environmental protection and lobbying for breaking the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. For those Christians who don’t take this issue seriously, Wallis invites us to read Genesis.

While gains have been made, there is still much to be done, and advances in social justice and ‘creation care’ will be driven not by the politicians but by the faith community, he says.

Personal attacks, fresh opportunities

As America’s highest-profile progressive evangelist, Wallis is on the receiving end of a stream of often vitriolic attacks, criticised for being pro-life by the left and for being pro-poor by the right. As his influence grows, the venom of the attacks correspondingly intensifies. He has been called a Marxist, a stooge of Latin American communism, a false prophet, and there have been rickety attempts to try to link him to domestic terrorism and even Nazism.

In a throwback to McCarthyism, Glenn Beck, an American talk show host, second only in popularity to Oprah Winfrey, embarked on a crusade against Wallis and Sojourners, claiming social justice equated to communism and Nazism. He advised Christians whose pastors advocate social justice to turn their clergy into higher church authorities.

Such assaults don’t seem to faze Wallis. Adversity unites, and attacks provide opportunities to argue your case.

‘Whenever life is threatened we have to be those who defend its sacredness—the integrity of the image of God and every human life—that’s our job, which means we will always be challenging somebody politically. And I’m comfortable with that’

form War Cry magazine

Just Action Conference 2010

Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau City, Auckland
29-30 September 2010

> register online for Just Action 2010

NZ Launch of new book by Jim Wallace

‘The worst thing we can do in the light of the economic crisis is to go back to normal,’ says Wallis. ‘Normal is what got us into this situation. We need a new normal, and this economic crisis is an invitation to discover what that means.’

In his latest book, Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street, Jim unpacks principles for a ‘new normal’.

We have been asking the wrong question: When will this economic crisis be over? The right question to ask is: How will this crisis change us?


Rediscovering Values has its New Zealand launch during Wallis’s September visit.

Miracle Man

16 Jul 2010

Nan and I are leaders of The Salvation Army’s Maori Ministry. I tell people that I’m a ‘pononga o te Atua’ (servant of the Lord). We are a cultural resource to The Salvation Army leadership and the wider Army.

Maori make up a high number of people needing the Army’s help, so we visit Salvation Army centres to talk and listen to some of them. We also visit Rimutaka Prison’s Maori Focus Unit and Wellington Prison and we’ve found that people there are very much in touch with the Lord. When people come out we help them make links with our corps or other churches.

Five or six years ago I had tests and there were concerns. The doctors said they would keep an eye on things. Just after Easter last year I had stomach pains and went to the hospital. There was a mass in my stomach that was pretty serious. Doctors operated, but said they weren’t sure what they were dealing with. A biopsy showed it was cancer.

I was scheduled for another operation two weeks later, but things flared up and they operated urgently to remove the tumour. Just before the surgery my family was told it was touch and go. The doctors didn’t tell me, but I knew that something wasn’t right when the family came in and they were crying.

They thought they’d lost me during the surgery, and when I was in intensive care they still thought it wouldn’t take much for me to die. But something out of this world happened.

The hospital surrounded me with morbid stuff—I had hospice people and the undertaker preparing me for death. Kaumatua, family, friends, Salvation Army family, and leaders of other denominations were constantly at my bedside with prayer and Scripture. I was cocooned. And so I felt happy.

Nan used to read Scripture to me all the time. She was by my side, and I thank God for her.

The hospital services, doctors and staff couldn’t work out why I wasn’t down like other people. Even my own family said the same. But I believe that God
was with me. I had that feeling.

I didn’t get a real smile on the specialists’ faces until three weeks after intensive care. Some called me a ‘miracle man’, but I said, ‘I’m not the miracle man—the Lord is my miracle man!’ This is the grace of the Lord, and it’s for any of us who are sick or down.

I feel almost as good as before. Anything could still happen, but everything is okay at the moment—the cancer is under control.

God didn’t owe me good health, but my gratitude to God is from John 15:16, ‘You did not choose me, [says Jesus], but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.’ God chose me, and even now he is still choosing me to go out and bear fruit.

As soon as I could walk, with a stick, I went back to doing ministry work with Nan. The Lord has given me a second chance and I’m not going to waste it!

from War Cry magazine

Where God Leads

09 Jul 2010

Suriname—to be fair, it’s not exactly one of the most well-known countries in the world! In fact, until July last year, I’d never actually heard of it. Interestingly enough, Suriname is one of Lonely Planet’s ‘Top 10’ countries to visit for 2010. Always keen to travel somewhere new, when an opportunity arose to serve overseas for The Salvation Army I decided I’d take up Lonely Planet’s suggestion and relocate to Suriname for three years.

What a difference a few months can make. Only six months ago I was living on my own in a quiet little street in Lower Hutt. Now I live with 28 children on one of the busiest streets in Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital city. For a confirmed introvert, this is taking some adjusting.

Suriname lies on the north-east coast of South America and is part of The Salvation Army’s Caribbean Territory. The climate is tropical and much of the country is covered by rain forest. It’s a relatively small country with a population of less than half a million.

Given the diversity in ethnicity (South Asian, mixed African/European, Chinese and Indonesian), it is somewhat surprising that there is little religious and racial tension within Suriname. In fact, it seems that the inhabitants of this small country are rightly proud of their multi-ethnicity.

Sound like a fascinating place to live for three years?  Let me assure you, it is! 

Ramoth Children’s Home

The Salvation Army’s Ramoth Children’s Home provides a home for children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected. There are currently 28 children between the ages of 6-16 living here. We also have an onsite day-care centre that provides support primarily for the many single mothers in our immediate community. In addition, 30 school-aged children are cared for in our after-school programme.

The children in our home all have parents somewhere in Suriname, but for various reasons they are unable to take care of them. Some simply can’t afford to have their children with them, while others have more or less abandoned their offspring. Other parents travel inland to find work and can’t take their children. Some children come from broken homes where parents have separated and gone on to have other children with a new partner, leaving the abandoned children with considerable bitterness and resentment.

It hasn’t taken long for me to come to love the children here. They crave attention, love to have fun, and despite some difficult backgrounds, they have an enduring spirit. However, the reality is that many have significant emotional issues, and living together in this communal environment doesn’t come easy. They often have difficulty adjusting to living together and can show little compassion and tolerance. The limits of my patience are tested daily.

Fortunately, the Netherlands Territory of The Salvation Army has recently given considerable funding for urgent plumbing and electrical repairs to the property. Johnsonville Corps in New Zealand is also helping to provide resources to develop a more structured, child-focused, educational programme. And the Women’s Ministries Department (New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga) is making us their territorial women’s fundraising project for the first half of 2011. We are very grateful for all this assistance, which will make a considerable difference to the children of Ramoth.

Facing reality

While it is a huge privilege to serve God in this way, the reality of living here is that it can be really hard.

I was told that English was relatively widely spoken here. This was somewhat of an exaggeration. It’s difficult and frustrating living in a culture where I don’t speak the language—most people I am in contact with don’t understand me, including many of the children. No matter how much progress I make in learning Dutch (or as I like to say: ‘Double Dutch!’), it always feels too slow.

And speaking of slow … as in many developing countries, getting anything done here, even the most basic of things, is never easy and is always slow. Being the only ex pat here within the Army can also be difficult. While I am surrounded by noise and chaos almost constantly, at times it can be a lonely place.

My list of challenges could go on and on! However, I want to emphasise that there are also many moments of joy and hope: from a tiny hand slipping into mine, to the incredible smiles of these beautiful children; from securing funding and seeing much-needed improvements, to the joy of actually understanding someone when they speak to me in Dutch!

Living out god’s will

Not a day goes by without me feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the challenges here and my inability to meet these in my own strength. But could it be that God sent me here that I might become more aware of my own weakness and consequently surrender my whole self to the One who calls me by name and who promises that his strength is made perfect in my weakness?

We want to believe that every story has a happy ending—and I’m certainly hoping that this chapter of my life will!—yet as I reflect back on my first few months in Suriname, somehow I think that God is not so concerned with giving us a happy ending. He’s far more concerned about our willingness to trust him and our obedience in following God’s call on our lives … wherever that may lead.

from War Cry magazine

The Power to Change

28 Jun 2010

In late 2005, Gaylene Turvey walked into a Salvation Army Community Ministries Centre barefoot and with a terrible hangover. She had just been to Work and Income asking for a food grant, but having already used up all the assistance they would give her for that period, they suggested she go to The Salvation Army.

As she waited to be seen, it struck her that everyone there seemed happy. ‘Whatever it is about them,’ she remembers thinking, ‘I want it.’ Gaylene spoke to a community ministries worker who listened to her story and then shared with her his own victory over addiction through Jesus. ‘I ended up talking with this guy for about two hours and I left there with a little bit of thirst to want to know more,’ she recalls. ‘That’s where the journey [towards Jesus] started.’

Out of Control

When she was 15, her first-ever boyfriend beat her quite badly, putting her in hospital. The 25-year-old broke her cheekbone and ribs in a four-hour assault before taking his own life. ‘That was the blueprint for the rest of my life,’ Gaylene says. ‘Those were the sort of men I seemed to attract or the sort of men I ended up with.’ She has since forgiven him completely.

Gaylene left home about age 16 and started working. Three years later, she got married and that same year her father passed away. She was devastated. ‘That’s when things started spiralling for me,’ Gaylene recalls. ‘I left my marriage, I started drinking a lot.’ She had a complete nervous breakdown. ‘I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t toilet myself, basically nothing,’ she explains. From that point, she started suffering from panic attacks and anxiety. ‘I just kept drinking to overcome all that,’ she says.

Gaylene moved to Auckland when she was 21. ‘That’s when things went from bad to worse,’ she recalls. ‘I started associating with some pretty heavy people and my addictions really set in then.’ She was in and out of court for crime to support her addictions to alcohol, prescription medications and cannabis. Eventually a judge sent her to court-ordered rehab.

Trying to Stay Clean

She went to Auckland Hospital to detox and discovered then that she was pregnant with her first child, Stevie. Gaylene came out of detox and stayed clean during her pregnancy. ‘I thought, “Yeah, I’ve got something to live for. I’ve actually got a purpose now”,’ she says. ‘That was how it was for probably about the first six months of my daughter’s life.’ But then her daughter’s father, a heavy intravenous drug user, left her for someone else.

‘I kept drinking,’ she says. ‘My addictions hadn’t been addressed.’ She had a second child, a son named Baylee, four years later. Again she stopped drinking for the pregnancy, but went straight back to alcohol after his birth. Eventually, after her third child, Alyssa, turned two, Child, Youth and Family took both her daughters from her because of her addictions. At that time, Gaylene was in a relationship with a gang member.

The social worker who removed her eldest daughter, Stevie, is now a work colleague, Gaylene says. ‘I had such a hate for this woman back then,’ she remembers. But thanks to God’s healing, they can now sit down for coffee together and talk about the past. ‘Isn’t God amazing!’ Gaylene exclaims.

A Changing Life

Gaylene’s new life as a Christian ‘was a real roller coaster journey’. She was still experiencing the anxiety and panic attacks that had plagued her since she was 19. ‘Sometimes even for me to get to church was a biggie, to even be able to leave the house—because of the controlling partners I’ve had,’ she says. ‘I was still just going through this stuff.’

Gaylene’s life was changing. She gave up her addictions. ‘I was coming out of those dreadful relationships and I was coming back into the real world,’ she remembers. Her daughters were returned to her care. ‘God restored my family. He showed me what it was to be a godly parent, a good mum.’

Gaylene had started volunteering at Community Ministries, interviewing people who came for assistance, many of them in very similar circumstances to hers. ‘I got such a joy just being able to share with them about Jesus and just being able to journey with people through their problems,’ she explains.

Finding a Place

Then, in 2008, her corps officer (pastor) at the time, Major Gill Waugh, asked Gaylene what her passion was. Gaylene sat there, unsure what to say, when Gill suggested, ‘Do you think it would be something to do with courts and prisons?’ Remembering the moment, Gaylene laughs, ‘I just lit up!’

She started volunteering at Waitakere Court, Manukau Court and Auckland District Court. Major Graham Rattray, National Consultant, Court and Prison Services for The Salvation Army, sent her to chaplaincy training at Booth College of Mission. As part of her training she worked with the late Craig Carter, the Army’s Diversions Coordinator at the time, and Major Terry Heese. When Craig passed away in 2009, Gaylene took his position at Auckland District Court.

Gaylene is now serving at the court as Diversions Coordinator and Court and Prisons Officer for The Salvation Army at Auckland District Court. She helps people find places to do their community work and runs a programme to help people develop healthy lifestyles. She meets with people in the cells and keeps her office open to anyone needing to chat. ‘It’s been great,’ she says. ‘I’ve been through some of the stuff that people are going through here every day.’

Nudged by God

Gaylene has just been accepted as a candidate for officer training. She says that only six weeks after becoming a Salvation Army soldier in 2006, she had felt God nudging her in this direction. ‘I actually thought, “No way”,’ she says, ‘but God just kept nudging me about it.’

God has made dramatic changes in Gaylene’s life. ‘Before I knew God, I was lost. I had no purpose. Just chaos,’ she says. ‘I don’t have that chaos in my life anymore. There’s direction. There’s purpose. It just couldn’t be better,’ she says, reflective. ‘I’m so thankful to God for the grace he’s shown me. I just want to spend the rest of my life telling people about Jesus’

from War Cry magazine

World Refugee Day

19 Jun 2010

Martine Udahemuka’s family was forced to flee Rwanda in 1994 when civil war tore the country apart. They arrived in New Zealand in 1996 to begin a new life in a safe place. Martine, now 27 years old, has completed a Master’s degree at Massey University and hopes to begin a PhD next year.

Refugees are people who cannot safely live in their home countries. Many have fled their homes because of war, others because they face persecution because of their religion, race, or their political opinions or associations.

Jesus and his family were refugees themselves when they were forced to leave their home in Bethlehem one night to escape to Egypt. An angel warned Joseph in a dream that King Herod wanted to kill Jesus, whom he thought might take his place as king in Judea. Only after Herod died and was no longer a threat to Joseph, Mary and Jesus were they able to return to their homeland. (Read the story in Matthew chapter 2.)

There are some 25 million refugees worldwide according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. Some are able to return to their home country once the threat to their safety is resolved (this could be the end of a conflict, for example, or a political regime change, such as was the case for Jesus). Many, sadly, don’t have that option and instead spend long periods—often years—in temporary living arrangements in refugee camps, hoping to be offered a permanent home in a new country.

New Zealand provides a new home to up to 750 refugees each year under a quota programme. These people come from conflict-torn areas or lived under very repressive regimes and had no other option but to permanently abandon their homes and seek refuge elsewhere.

Refugee Services, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, assists all refugees in New Zealand as they adjust to their new country. Many speak little or no English and are not familiar with the culture and climate in New Zealand. Most have also experienced horrors and extreme hardships and are suffering emotional and/or physical trauma. Moving to a new country is daunting in itself without the extra burdens carried by refugees. The adjustment period can be difficult and lonely.

Refugee Services trains and teams volunteers with refugees to help new arrivals learn how things work and where things are in their neighbourhoods as they start to rebuild their lives in a safe place.

World Refugee Day lands on the first day of Volunteer Awareness Week this year. Perhaps you might consider giving some of your time to lend a refugee family a helping hand as they learn to adjust to their new home? Even more importantly, consider sharing God’s love with them through the precious gift of friendship.

from War Cry magazine

> click here for more information on volunteering with refugees

More than a Moment

19 Jun 2010

Becoming a Christian was one of the most difficult things Steve Molen ever did. ‘It was really hard,’ he recalls. He had a lot of changes to make and a lot of tough issues to work through as he made his life right.

Although he grew up in a Catholic home and attended a Catholic school, Steve had ‘no real sense of God’. ‘I went to church on Sunday because my parents made me,’ he says.

When he hit his teens, Steve went from being ‘mild mannered’ to ‘a bit wayward’. ‘I got a little bit naughty,’ he admits. His parents put restrictions on him to try to control his behaviour. He rebelled.

‘Instead of coming home from school one day, I caught a plane to Australia,’ Steve recalls. He arrived in Sydney with just $50 in his pocket, which he promptly spent on a stereo. ‘All boys need a stereo!’ he laughs.

Steve spent several months hitchhiking and bumming around the country, getting kicked out of boys’ homes and getting into trouble with the police.

He had his first small contact with The Salvation Army there. ‘In Sydney, I saw a photo of myself in the paper,’ he says. It said: ‘Have you seen Steve Molen?’ His parents were looking for him and had asked The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service for help.

When he got tired of bumming around Australia, Steve made contact with his parents and they brought him home. But he kept doing his own thing. ‘I was very much living in the world,’ he says. ‘I pretty much did what I wanted to do—if I wanted to drink, I drank. I messed around with lots of stuff.’

Searching for God

But in his mid-twenties, Steve began to wonder if there might be something more to life. He set off ‘on a mission’ to find out, starting out by reading the Bible. ‘I was still living the party lifestyle, but each night I’d come home and read the Bible to see what it was all about.’

After about a year, he started having discussions with a guy who had connections to The Salvation Army. That friend introduced him to Graham Goodisson, a Salvation Army youth worker in Wellington.

The first time Steve met Graham, he told Graham that he wanted to believe in God but that he needed proof God was real. Graham asked Steve if he believed in the spiritual realm. Steve didn’t, so Graham prayed with him, asking God to introduce the spiritual realm to him.

‘After that, I started having bizarre spiritual encounters,’ Steve says. ‘They were not from God, but they left me without any doubt that there was a spiritual realm.’ He concluded that if that dark spiritual realm existed, then God’s spiritual realm must also exist.

‘I made a decision at that point to follow God,’ he says. Steve then began attending a Salvation Army home-based fellowship in Wellington’s Aro Street.

His first couple of years as a Christian were ‘very difficult’. ‘I had to completely change my environment,’ he remembers, which meant he had to stop participating in many of his former activities. He also broke up with his long-time girlfriend.

‘My friends all thought I’d gone a bit crazy. It was a really hard transition.’ By becoming a Christian and going to church, Steve had entered a ‘completely different culture—it was two different worlds’.

He started making plans to go to Russia with The Salvation Army, but at the same time was offered a position at Wellington Youth Services to run a government-funded youth development course called the ‘Conservation Corps’. Steve took the job and has now been at Wellington Youth Services (now Wellington 614 Corps) for 14 years.

However, a couple of years into his journey ‘things started to go a bit funny,’ he says. ‘My wild ways started to call me back. I started to get involved in some things that I shouldn’t.’

A journey of transformation

Steve realised that while he had discovered that God was real and had decided to follow God, he ‘hadn’t really 100 per cent truly been repentant and sorry’. ‘I guess I had always thought that I was kind of a good person,’ he suggests.

And so he came before God truly sorry for the wrong things he’d done. ‘I had this overwhelming encounter with God,’ Steve says, one in which he felt God’s love and acceptance in a new and powerful way. ‘His presence was so significant and so profound—I was left without any doubt of the reality of God.’

Steve sought counselling and spiritual deliverance. He took part in a 12 Step Programme of emotional healing that Major Harold Hill was running at Aro Street. ‘I am where I am today because of the group of people at Aro Street that walked alongside me lovingly, no matter what I was going through,’ he says. ‘I worked through a lot of my issues and I came to a place of being completely surrendered. I came to a real good place with God and with myself.’

Making things right

Steve worked on making amends to people he had hurt by his behaviour in his past, including his parents. He also sought to make amends in other areas of his life. ‘I used to be quite deceptive and steal things,’ he says.

When he was 21, Steve had created multiple identities for himself and used them to rip off Work and Income. Part of making amends meant contacting WINZ and working through the process of paying back the money. ‘That was quite scary,’ he says. He has since paid back all that he owed.

Steve also visited shops where he used to shoplift; to apologise and offer payment for the things he had stolen. ‘That was a very important part of my life—not just getting things right in the spiritual, but getting things right in the physical. God honoured me and stood by me as I worked through things,’ he says.

‘Honesty and integrity are things I hold really strongly now. And being accountable to God. That’s because the Holy Spirit took me through such a strong journey of owning up to stuff,’ Steve explains. ‘My life is surrendered. I’m fully surrendered now to
God.’

He says, ‘God can use me quite powerfully now because I’ve gotten rid of that baggage from my past. If you haven’t dealt with your stuff from your past, then God can’t use you properly in the future.’

Becoming a Christian ‘is not just about accepting Jesus,’ Steve says. ‘You’ve got to work through your stuff’.

from War Cry magazine

A Big win for Problem Gamblers

18 Jun 2010

When Rodney Downes turned 18 and got a job, he switched from playing arcade games for hours to hitting the pokies. ‘I was quite shy,’ he says, ‘I’d go sit in front of a machine and hide in my bubble to deal with my problems.’ He had never learnt how to handle money. ‘I didn’t have any idea of the value of the pieces of paper I was feeding the machines. When I had access to money, I would gamble.’

Rodney first tried to get help after losing a job because of his habit. ‘I could see it wasn’t right,’ he recalls, ‘[but] I wasn’t really committed to stopping and to admitting I was like other people.’ By his mid-20s, gambling was a serious problem. He didn’t gamble much at a time, but gambled frequently. ‘I knew then for sure that I did have a problem, but I still told myself that I could handle it.’

Then in January 2009 he went to a Salvation Army Oasis Centre. He started seeing a counsellor and attending group meetings. He found these ‘very beneficial’, he says. ‘I was able to connect to other people who were the same. Our stories are all different, but we are all compulsive gamblers. We could be true about our emotions—it was quite empowering.’ His wife also spoke to a counsellor who was able to help her better understand Rodney’s problem. ‘That helped the family side of it and the home life,’ he recalls.

As a couple, they set up a system of controls over their finances. At first that meant handing all access to money to his wife, but now we ‘work through all our finances together’, Rodney says. ‘I’m learning the value of money. I wouldn’t like to think how much I’ve lost. It’s scary to think about.’

Problem gambling is a significant social issue and has a major impact on many lives. For every problem gambler, at least several other people are adversely affected by their behaviour. The effects can be devastating on finances, health, relationships, children, employment and communities. The number of people seeking help for gambling increased by 25 per cent in 2009 compared to 2008, according to the Ministry of Health. The Salvation Army Oasis Centres assisted 27 per cent more people last year.

Lisa Campbell-Dumlu, National Operations Consultant for the Oasis Centres, says the increase is likely because of the recession, raised awareness of gambling harm, decreasing shame associated with problem gambling, and promotion of problem gambling assistance services. There has also been a renewed focus on providing early and brief interventions to people at risk.

‘We know gambling problems hit poorer communities the hardest,’ Lisa says. Oasis Centres collaborate with other Salvation Army services, such as Community Ministries and the Bridge Programme, to offer brief intervention services to their clients accessing food parcels, budgeting advice and alcohol and drug assistance. ‘These services are accessed by a very vulnerable population and are a great place to offer early and brief interventions around problem gambling,’ Lisa says. For example, in 2009, approximately 40 per cent of people receiving assistance at the Manukau Community Ministry were affected by problem gambling.

Salvation Army Oasis Centres offer a range of free services for gamblers and their families. They provide comprehensive assessments, crisis intervention, counselling for individuals and couples, ‘affected other’ counselling, family therapy, and group sessions. They also make referrals to other specialist services.The philosophy is to care for and support people wherever they are in their lives. They seek to educate problem gamblers, their families and the community, and empower people to make positive choices for healthy lifestyles.

Rodney says the Oasis Centre really helped him by being a place where he could go to ‘open up’. The support he received there has ‘just been amazing’, he says. ‘They’ve guided me on the right path through the tools of understanding.’

from War Cry magazine

What are the signs of a gambling problem?

• losing more money than you can afford, on a regular basis
• lying about where the money is going
• borrowing money to gamble or pay debts
• using money meant for household bills and food to gamble
• craving a ‘high’ from your gambling
• being evasive about money or gambling

If gambling is a problem for you or someone you care about, The Salvation Army Oasis Centres for Problem Gambling can help.

Click here to find the Oasis Centre nearest to you.

Leadership: The Apprentice

09 Jun 2010

On the one hand, it’s good to be a fighter in business; to be goal-orientated and do whatever it takes to reach those goals. But on the other hand, successful people should have integrity; they should bring out the best in people, lead by example and instil trust. However, as the weeks went by, of the 14 contestants vying for the spot as Terry Serepisos’ apprentice (plus a six-figure salary, apartment and BMW), it seemed the fighters were surviving and the more humble contestants were being fired.

Statements like ‘I’m here to bring them down’ and ‘I’m going to win at all costs’ became the norm as tensions grew and contestants were whittled down one-by-one. My wife and I were glued to the screen and began to wonder whether there’d be any reward for those with true integrity.    

By the final week there were two men left standing: Dave, the proverbial fighter with an incredible ability to talk himself in or out of any situation; and Tom, the humble team-player and family man (a father of five) who refused to build himself up if it meant bringing others down. Though each had strengths valuable in business, we protested that, surely, humility would win over self-satisfaction, Tom over Dave.

In the final episode, amid typical TV dramatic pauses and annoyingly-timed ad breaks, their starkly-contrasting leadership styles were finally brought to light, with Tom easily winning the week’s challenge. His ‘follow my lead’ attitude created a well-managed, happy team that produced exceptional results. However, Dave’s fighting ambition caused him to lose sight of the detail and alienate his team resulting in some major slip ups. So, come boardroom time, and despite Dave’s well-worded appeal to Mr Serepisos, the fruit of Tom’s humility spoke for itself.

Tom, the selfless hard worker, was crowned New Zealand’s first Apprentice. In light of this, isn’t it interesting to reflect on God’s wisdom: ‘whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant’ (Matthew 20:25) and ‘let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up’ (Galatians 6:9)?

We all have our own leadership roles, whether at work, school, home, the sports field or church. It’s important to ask ourselves ‘am I being a humble servant leader, or is self-centred ambition causing me to lose sight of what’s important?’

We don’t have Mr Serepisos looking over our shoulder; instead, we have a God of many second chances cheering us on. He has bigger and better things for those who are faithful in the small things. And God has a job description for each of us that no BMW or six-figure salary could ever match.

from War Cry magazine - Photography: Thomas Ben, courtesy TVNZ

What about doubt?

09 Jun 2010

Sometimes we feel as if we’re barely holding things together; it’s like the wheels are in danger of coming off, or our anchor is adrift. So many metaphors—each capturing a general shakiness in our psyche.

Some people respond to times like these with solid, unshakeable faith. Don’t you love people like that! The way their spiritual autopilot kicks in. They might circle for a bit, but then so naturally turn homeward ... to God.

The wisdom of Philippians 4:6-7 is their experience and their joy: ‘Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything … then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.’ (CEV)

Others, however, find themselves daunted by doubt. Does God really care? Can I really pull off this faith thing, this faith-and-life-together thing? Am I letting the side down with my questions? And even, am I really a Christian if I feel or think this way?

Some people regard religious doubt as dangerous: fearing it might lead to either rejection of God or rejection from other Christians. But rather than weakening our faith, doubt can be the making of it. As writer Tim Stafford observes: ‘Your doubts can lead to a deeper understanding of God, for his answers will seldom be just the kind your were expecting. If your beliefs are shallow, then they will have to be dredged deeper. If the skeleton of your faith has grown crooked, bones may have to be broken before they can be reset. It will hurt. But don’t be afraid: broken bones set stronger.’

The Bible carries accounts of people who doubted, so it’s clearly not a taboo subject. It also contains reassurances that are at their most timely when we’re facing questions (see Psalm 42:5; 2 Corinthians 11:23-12:10; Philippians 4:19; 1 Peter 5:6-7). God doesn’t deny doubt; he offers comfort and hope.

We will all doubt sometimes, but God doesn’t want doubt to rule the day. He doesn’t want us lost in a landscape of shaky uncertainty. But neither does he want doubt to be an excuse for avoidance: a reason to shut out other Christians, to stop praying, or to ignore the Bible’s truth.

To deal honestly and constructively with our doubts it can help to talk to someone about what’s going on in our heart and our head. But we may simply need to take a little time out. Doubts grow when we’re tired, especially if we’re tired because we’re in the middle of a crisis. So rest is often a good first step, Stafford suggests.

If our doubts are intellectual, they might be an invitation to some serious study. Jesus said we are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind (Luke 10:27), which means our reasoning is clearly meant to kick in somewhere along the way. If we pursue our questions until we’re satisfied then our faith can become firmer and less superficial. And that can make us more useful to others.

Most of all, God wants us to understand that we don’t have to doubt alone. It’s a little like a toddler chattering away while sitting on a parent’s lap; it’s okay to hurl our questions at the world when we’re resting in a safe place.

from War Cry magazine

Sweet Surrender: God’s miracle transformation of a willing heart

08 Jun 2010

Sandy was born in Rotorua. One of 12 siblings, she describes their home as one occasioned with alcohol and physical and verbal abuse. Her parents had separated and her mum died when Sandy was just nine. From here, things really started to go down hill. ‘I was a rat bag,’ she says. ‘By 13 I had been expelled from school, so I missed out on an education.’

At this young age alcohol became Sandy’s life, and through her brothers she developed an association with the Black Power gang. After being expelled from school she moved to Auckland and only a year later found herself in prison—and not for the last time.
Twenty-six years passed with life carrying on in much the same way: alcohol, jail and all sorts of jobs. Motherhood became a focus towards the end of this period as Sandy stopped work to raise her eldest son, Terangimarie. She also had a younger son, Tamati. Both boys would soon play a crucial role in her journey with God.

Stopped in her tracks

In a strange way that journey began one morning when Sandy woke and decided, ‘Right, that’s it. I’m giving up smoking. I’m giving up drinking.’ She explains that ‘somehow God was working on me even then, and this prepared me for what was to come’.

Sandy was a touch rugby coordinator in Stratford and was asked to drive a van load of kids, plus her own boys, to The Salvation Army in Mt Maunganui where they were to be involved in Kapa Haka practice ahead of a Salvation Army Congress (conference) in Wellington. On the Sunday, they all attended the Army’s church service—all except for Sandy and the other driver (who happened to be associated with the Mongrel Mob through his family).  

‘The other driver and I started conversing about him being associated with the Mob and me being associated with Black Power—although neither of us were patched members—and how we’d nearly come to grips in Stratford,’ she says. However, the lure of a soft couch in the foyer of the Army hall was enough to entice the two drivers inside where Sandy gained a direct view of the preacher that morning, Captain Wayne
Moses.

He was talking about his former lifestyle as a hustler and a Mongrel Mob [member], and about being Maori. ‘God had asked Wayne to surrender his Maori culture up to him, and he would give it back three-fold. I was fighting it and didn’t really understand. But all of a sudden it was like rainfall; I wasn’t crying but it was raining. I just had this urgency to get up the front. And my fight with God ended. I was up the front on my knees. There wasn’t an altar call or anything.’ There at Mt Maunganui Corps, at 12:15 pm on Sunday 1 October 2000, Sandy gave her heart to the Lord.

Life for Sandy had just taken a drastic turn. ‘I went away, and within a week my life had completely changed,’ says Sandy.

Transformation

Although she had changed, Stratford and her circumstances hadn’t. Sandy’s new, young faith was about to be put to the test in her old environment. Was her encounter with God just a flash in the pan or were she and God in this for the long haul?

The big test of her faith came only a few weeks after her God-encounter at Mt Maunganui. She was thrust into a court battle with her former partner over custody of her eldest son. Sandy describes her view of the situation before the Mt Maunganui experience, ‘I couldn’t see the other side of things. I could only see my side. It was just me, me, me.

In the court case everything was going in Sandy’s favour; she was going to get half-access visitations. But, just as she surrendered her agenda to God that Sunday at Mt Maunganui, she chose again to stop fighting and softened her heart. ‘My son was silently saddened by all this and visited me the weekend before court and started to cry,’ she describes. ‘So I stepped back because he was getting hurt. I told the court to withdraw my case and allow my former partner to care for him. That had to be God working right then.’ 

In the end, her son chose to come back to Sandy. He wanted to make the decision himself and not be pressured by lawyers. But what it taught Sandy is that God can be trusted—if she put him first he would make her path straight.
Ten years on, she’s putting that same principle to the test: surrendering to a call to be a Salvation Army officer (minister).

A Soldier in God’s Army

One day, Sandy walked into the Stratford Corps, and there, on the front desk, was a booklet about Salvation Army officership. She walked right by. But then, exactly as with that unexplainable urge years before at Mt Maunganui, she felt like she had to go back and pick it up. She ended up taking the booklet home that day, reading it and becoming inspired by stories of Army officers using their culture and background to share Jesus.

She knew the move to Wellington for two years of officer training would involve huge personal sacrifice. Her two grown sons were going to stay in Stratford and, as she was ineligible for WINZ support, day-to-day finances and course fees would be a challenge. ‘I didn’t care about money,’ declares Sandy. ‘I knew if God wanted me there, he would make a way.’ The corps pitched in with fundraising for Sandy, running a hangi that saw a bro from the Black Power donate all the vegetables.

She is now in her first year of training. Although Sandy left school at just 13, at 50 she’s studying university-level theology and says she loves being a student at Booth College of Mission. On top of this she is fluent in Te Reo, has retained the respect of the Black Power and is willing to go wherever she is sent.

It’s safe to say that God has big things in store for this faithful soldier.

from War Cry magazine

Our Search for a Hero: Hood vs Christ

08 Jun 2010

Whether it’s William Wallace, Mother Teresa, Buck Shelford, Batman or even WALL•E, we all have an inner urge to find heroes who can inspire us and remind us of the potential we each holdLet’s explore the lives of two heroes. Both have inspired people for centuries, both had hearts for the poor, both lived counter-cultural lives, both were leaders of a rag-tag gang, both have had a different film made about them every few years, and both have perhaps never been so well-publicised as now. The heroes I am talking about of course are Robin Hood and Jesus Christ.

As another Robin Hood feature film hits our screens, and in a time when Christianity is extending its global reach to unprecedented levels, we can compare the uncanny similarities of these two heroes and highlight some importantly stark differences. Ultimately, one of these heroes can help us understand why our need for the other is so great today.

The real story of Robin Hood is incredibly vague, passed down through the generations via songs and English folk stories. Despite the many unknowns of Robin Hood’s life (dates, places and family connections), one of his enduring characteristics is his ‘stealing from the rich and giving to the poor’.

Robin Hood saw injustice and fought to right it. He saw the ruling class taking advantage of the poor and did what he could to stop it. This, of course, involved a fair amount of violence and some cunning acts of deception—with a bow his weapon of choice. 

Jesus also believed a redistribution of wealth was in order, but instead of using force he chose to focus on changing hearts. Take Zacchaeus. He was rich and unjust, but Jesus didn’t corner him in a wooded lane and pinch his money pouch. No, he had lunch with Zacchaeus, showed him compassion and lifted his eyes to see what life could be. The results were staggering: Zacchaeus gave half of all he owned to the poor as well as paying back four-fold any wrongs he had committed. Jesus and Robin Hood were fighting the same fight against injustice—but Jesus’ weapon of choice was love not war. 

Robin Hood is often thought to have been an English resistor of the Norman invaders. But the fact that he hunted and lived in the forest, reserved only for royal hunting parties, shows his resistance to the ruling powers of his time. Similarly, Jesus contravened many of the accepted laws and customs of first-century Israel. He healed on the Sabbath, dined with the scum of society, refused to judge a woman caught in adultery, and promoted loving your enemies over revenge. Jesus resisted the powers of hate, selfishness and pride, and did it no matter what it cost him. And it eventually cost him his life.  

I remember thinking as a kid how great Robin Hood was because he fought for the wellbeing of others with no regard for his own safety. Some stories even describe Robin as an aristocrat who denied a privileged lifestyle to provide for the poor. This self-denial, present in both Jesus Christ and Robin Hood, is one of the key ingredients to why we view them as heroes. It also provides a helpful gauge to check whether we are living heroic lives. We can ask: ‘Am I denying myself for the benefit of others?’

Scholars rarely argue that either Jesus or Robin Hood were mere myths. For Jesus, beyond the New Testament and other early church texts, Roman historians reported on his life, and we also have a complete genealogy tracing Jesus’ ancestors all the way back to Abraham. For Jesus, there can be no question of who he was and that he lived in first-century Palestine.

Robin Hood avoids the ‘myth’ tag by having too many historical characters that could fit the bill. In medieval England, ‘Robin’ (or variations of it) was a popular name and ‘Hood’ was up there for last names as well; there are many records of various lawbreaking, freedom-fighting ‘Robin Hoods’. Which one was the real Robin? We may never know. But the general assumption is that the legend is a combination of various Robins, which leads to an interesting characteristic in mankind’s search for heroes …  

The legend of Robin Hood seems to have taken root in English society around the time of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England. And just as the Allies used stories of war heroes to raise the morale of people in WWII, so the stories of resistors—the many Robin Hoods—would have spread like wildfire among the conquered English. In times of trouble and hardship we humans cling to stories of hope and liberty, and Robin Hood was just such a legend.

What troubles and hardships do you currently find yourself in? What heroes can you honestly look to, to inspire hope and liberty? The life of Jesus—as healer, saviour, king and comforter—is more relevant to us in 2010 than any folk hero, sports star or movie character could ever be. Start reading one of the four New Testament gospels today (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and be inspired by the story of the greatest hero to walk the earth.

from War Cry magazine

The May Budget—a moral document

19 May 2010

A budget is not simply a capturing of facts, figures, incomes, expenditures, deficits and surpluses. Every budget is, in the dictum of Jim Wallis, a ‘moral document’.1 It is a discursive construct of socially-charged language, a politically-framed description of what is and what could be. Simply stated, a budget is a narrative; a story of what it is and who it is we esteem, what it is and who it is we deem to be good and right, a story of what it is and who it is we ‘see’.

Despite its financial intent, the national Budget to be delivered by Finance Minister Bill English this May will be no different. It will try to construct a collective tale of Aotearoa New Zealand—where we’ve come from, where we’re at now and where we could head in the future. It will speak of constraints and possibilities, cuts and inclusions, fundamental non-negotiables and market-driven sentiments, losers and winners. It will try to tell a story of what and who it is we collectively count as important and of priority. It is in this sense a critical ‘moral document’ to engage with and read closely.

I have attempted to construct a set of questions that might help spot what is really being said (or not being said) and what or who it is we’re valuing in Budget 2010.

Questions-Reading to see

Drivers:

• How does the Budget start? How does it finish? What is in the Budget? What is not? What is said? What is silenced? How is the Budget framed politically? Is there a particular political ideology driving the Budget? How does the Budget frame the place and purpose of government?
• Does the Budget say what its intent is? Is the nod given to business, efficiency, economic growth, productivity, or sustainability? Does the Budget show concern for the environment or is it monopolised by profitability and treated like other commodities?

Vision:

• Does the Budget hold a vision of a common good? Does the Budget contain a hopeful vision of New Zealand? What does the Budget say of our place in the world? Does the Budget affect you emotionally?
• Does it speak mostly of individual and personal responsibility or is there mention of the reciprocity of shared relationships?
• Is the Budget fostering contentment with what we already have or is it promoting covetousness, a comparative sense of lack and want? Is the Budget concerned with what is enough or can you detect a fear of scarcity?

Homo economicus:

• How does the Budget define the economy? Is it some impersonal force or is there a concession that it is deeply human and relational?
• How is the Budget framing what it is to be human? How does it speak of individuals, families, and communities? Are we economic units, consumers or contributors? How does the Budget frame welfare? Work? Is there acknowledgement in the Budget of the importance of unpaid work?

Heroes and villains:

• Does the Budget blame or finger-point any villains? Who or what is framed as the problem or problematic? And who or what is the remedy? Are there any possible heroes or solutions named?

Roominess:

• Who does the Budget make room for? Who is included? Excluded? Does the Budget attempt to ensure that there will be enough for children, the old and the sick? Does it speak of intervening to evenly and justly share burdens and rewards among the populace or is there a discriminatory sense of entitlement and privilege running through the Budget?
• Does the Budget offer some hope to those who have lost jobs?
• What does the Budget say of poverty and the poor? Is there mention of advantage, disadvantage or inequality?

History and newness:

• Is the Budget conscious of history or is this a financial plan that only speaks to what is now and what could be in our immediate future? Does the Budget contain evidence of long-term thinking or is there a suggestion that it is limited to the electoral cycle?
• Is there anything daring or new in the Budget or is it simply more of the same fatigued economic and political logic that is now tired and tiring?

Values:

• What and who is the Budget saying we really value? If you have the patience, do a word count to see what is spoken of the most? Are there phrases repeated? What does that tell you about priorities and values?

by Malcolm Irwin - In Touch newsletter (PDF, 1.74MB)

The Parental Cheer Squad

17 May 2010

'Tis the season to be … wet, cold and angry on the sidelines?

There’s not much we can do about the weather, but as we hit our strides for winter sports we can check our behaviour when cheering on our favourite team. And keeping our cool is especially important if we’re supporting kids.

My first realisation that some parents take things too far came while watching my oldest daughter play netball around eight years ago. The behaviour of a dad from the opposing team saw him banned from the sideline for the rest of the season. He berated both sides, commanded his own (10-year-old) daughter NOT to talk to opposition players (‘You’re not here to make friends!’), and had all of us inching further and further away down the side of the court. I’d never seen anything like it.

Sadly, since then I’ve seen a whole lot more well-intentioned but similarly unhelpful displays; most of it from football supporters, and occasionally (I confess, to my shame) from me or my husband.

There was one consistently-irritating presence at some of my son’s football games last season. The first time I saw this particular dad I genuinely thought he was on the opposition’s side. I couldn’t understand how he could honestly believe that the toxic pollution he was spouting from the sideline could possibly help either his son or his son’s team.

Most of us know what it’s like to wrestle with frustration as we will our team to victory. We’re largely helpless, unable to make any tangible difference to the score. Silent prayer isn’t an option; it’s tempting but not fair to ask God to choose sides and influence the result. So all we have left in our arsenal is the strength of our voices, which we direct at players, referees and coaches—sometimes with great fury.

But nothing is really helped when we let frustration spill over into angry words. Ironically, the opposite is the more usual effect. As Proverbs 29:22 (CEV) notes: ‘A person with a quick temper stirs up arguments and commits a lot of sins.’

So what is the best strategy for those on the parental cheer squad? On the ‘don’t side’, one coach I talked to says the worst thing about parents coaching their children (or the team) is that they risk killing that kid’s enjoyment of the game. It’s also hugely frustrating and distracting to everyone else, he adds. The same goes for the parent, usually a dad, who thinks he has to constantly get into the referee’s ear. While heckling the ref is part of sporting culture in every country and many sporting codes, there are limits.

He doesn’t let mums off the hook either. Those over-anxious mothers who can’t bear to see their son: subbed, not starting, tackled, pushed or injured need to relax and realise that their kid will enjoy the game more if they do, he says.

The bottom line? Coaches want parents to remember that they go to their kids’ games as fans. The plea of this particular coach: ‘You’re there to cheer the team on, congratulate them when they win and console them when they lose. That’s an important job in itself without trying to play the game for them, or coach them, or coach the referee.’

from War Cry magazine

Mission Possible

22 Apr 2010

Our driver had trouble finding the Salvation Army headquarters. Encaged in the rear of a battered green three-wheeled ‘CNG’ (baby taxi), my wife and I peered out but were unable to help. How could strangers find an address like House 96, Road 23 in this featureless suburb, where any numbers were in Bengali script anyway?

We had to trust our driver. After several u-turns in heavy traffic he gestured triumphantly, and there it was: the red shield, the ‘Sally Ann’ signage, the Toyota van behind the concrete wall!
The officer commanding the Army’s work in Bangladesh was in a meeting, so we waited with coffee and waffles in the Sally Ann shop until she joined us. Calm and downbeat at first, Lieut-Colonel Ethne Flintoff soon warmed to her story as she spoke of Dhaka City, of her work and career, and the challenges of living in Bangladesh.

Traffic, pollution, inadequate infrastructure … Ethne ticked them off in random order … over-population (Bangladesh is the size of the South Island, but is home to nearly 150 million people). But here was a person, one felt, who is comfortable in a hard place, relaxed despite her seniority and the hardships she talked about.

Gradually, we learned of the Army’s mission. Begun in 1971 at the birth of the nation—a time of great stress—The Salvation Army was there from the outset. Ethne arrived in 1986, first time around as ‘projects officer’. Having trained in nursing and midwifery, she had offered herself for officership (serving in Salvation Army Bethany homes in Auckland and Christchurch in the ’70s) and then for overseas mission ‘anywhere God wanted’.

Ahmednagar Hospital in Bombay State was her first overseas appointment, in 1977. Ethne expected to be involved in nursing but must have impressed with her administrative and leadership skills because her career evolved from there, via the Punjab: Bangladesh first time, Pakistan, and then back to Bangladesh in 2002 for her present eight-year stint. ‘Six [overseas] appointments,’ she declared gleefully, as if a Salvation Army officer might expect more, ‘in 33 years!’

Although the Army’s work in Bangladesh is relatively young, it seems mature. Salvationists work among the village and urban poor of this country; the major centres being the capital city Dhaka plus Jessore and Khulna, in the south west. There are 30 Salvation Army corps around the delta nation, led by 60 of a total 81 officers, most of whom are Bengali people.

The Sally Ann craft programme and business is the front window of the Army’s mission, but much goes on behind the glass. Most Sally Ann goods are produced by a network of ‘community development’ groups, lovingly nurtured by dedicated Salvationists who mentor them in many aspects of living: budgeting and literacy, for example, health and hygiene, family planning and HIV/AIDS awareness. Many of the people in these community groups, mostly women, are of limited means and opportunities, victims of injustices deeply embedded in Bengali culture.

Crucially, many have been victims of trafficking and prostitution (mostly internal)—an easy trade, apparently, across the western border into India, and further west to Mumbai.  Working closely with other agencies, Ethne’s staff help rescue the women and children, assist their re-entry to Bangladesh, establish them with their families support groups and set them up with skills to allow them a better quality of life, with dignity.

As visitors, we found this all so exciting—practical, useful mission—especially as the work is carried out under serious political and financial pressure. ‘This, too, will pass,’ says Ethne with an easy smile, and we came away filled with admiration for this Kiwi soldier and her godly work.

By Ken Francis (from War Cry magazine)

Fair Trade... Salvation Army Style

The Salvation Army has a number of development projects in Bangladesh. Unique among them is Sally Ann Bangladesh Limited, a Fair Trade manufacturing and marketing enterprise.

The purpose of Sally Ann is to provide job opportunities for people from the most difficult circumstances, with fair wages and good working conditions. Most of the skilled workers are from various Salvation Army programmes, including sex workers under rehabilitation.

Sally Ann also has production sites in Peru, Kenya, Moldova and Pakistan, and has helped hundreds of people out of slums, prostitution and poverty.

Sally Ann stores—carrying home furnishings and gift articles—are open in Norway and Bangladesh, and there’s also an online store in Sweden. ‘Sally Ann’ is heritage slang for ‘The Salvation Army’.

Padre for Peace

22 Apr 2010

As soldiers of a New Zealand Army unit prepared for a night patrol through a disputed slice of Afghanistan, the army’s Principal Chaplain Lt Col Lance Lukin was summoned by the unit’s commander.

Lance learned that his men were facing the strong possibility of a Taliban ambush. Being the committed Christian commander of what Lance describes as a particularly ‘spiritual unit’, the officer asked that Lance pray for his men. Lance had often prayed with these soldiers before missions but this time there was a heightened tension.

‘So I started praying. I went through the Psalms and God just lifted verses out to me and I prayed through the night. Psalm 35 rang out: ‘May those who plot against me be turned back and confused. May they be like straw blown by the wind.’

Early the next morning, Lance called on the commander for an update. He was told the patrol observed the Taliban but, uncharacteristically, they ‘suddenly upped-sticks and scattered to the four winds’. The patrol arrived back at base unscathed.

Vocational Opportunity

Lance is the army’s most senior chaplain and a major and former corps officer in The Salvation Army. For almost 11 years, he has been friend, confidant, counsellor, pastor, and relationship advisor to thousands of men and women who have shared the unique demands, pressures and fulfilments that come with serving with the regular army. Before his regular force posting, he spent three years as a chaplain with the Territorial Force.

Lance has served in East Timor and had two postings to Afghanistan. He is currently in charge of the recruitment, training, education and mentoring of chaplains for the New Zealand Defence Force and developing and delivering programmes, such as marriage enrichment seminars, which are administered by the defence force’s more than 40 chaplains. Lance is also responsible for providing advice to military chiefs and commanders on issues such as ethics.

But military chaplaincy wasn’t part of his original vocational plan. ‘It was the last thing I ever wanted to do,’ Lance says. ‘I hate getting dirty and wet but it was an opportunity that was presented and I took hold of it because I believe that’s what God wanted—and I haven’t looked back.’

Jesus Christ With Skin On

Lance describes the army as a society within a society—an exclusive community of fit and mission-focused people. The bulk of its members are young: 18-22. Up to 1000 new recruits commence training at Waiouru each year. Many have just left home for the first time and are being introduced to a new and strange communal and disciplined life where personal space is at a premium.

Some come from broken homes and some are quietly suffering the effects of violent upbringings or sexual abuse. Many will be exposed to alcohol for the first time and most will be trying to sort out where they stand in the world or attempting to get a bearing on their sexuality. The chaplains are acutely aware that of all New Zealanders, this demographic is at the greatest risk of suicide.

‘So here we are on the cutting edge of people facing a range of potential crises and I am able to be Jesus Christ with skin on. In general, these kids out in society don’t have anywhere to turn but in the military they have this group of people called chaplains.’

Doorways to Spiritual Awakening

The key task of a military chaplain is to be visible and to show a genuine concern and interest in the soldiers—to prove they have the integrity and trust required by soldiers in crisis looking for help. A multitude of everyday conversations with soldiers slowly builds this foundation, Lance says.

It also requires building strong relationships with officers so chaplains can, for instance, intervene if they think a commander’s expectations of their troops is damaging morale. Lance says this is an accepted and expected part of a chaplain’s job.

For those soldiers unacquainted with church, this pastoral care is often a doorway to a spiritual awakening. Lance says during conversations with his charges, many take an interest in Christianity and The Salvation Army, and some will take the conversation further. Another Salvation Army chaplain is taking great strides in this area, he says.

Colin Mason is also a major in The Salvation Army and was posted to Waiouru Army Camp a year ago. His Sunday services, tailored to the young recruits, have been gaining in popularity, with up to 120 recruits choosing to attend each Sunday.

Touch Points

Over the years, Lance has come to learn that chaplaincy, in the widest sense, is the most powerful tool the church has in saving people. Reflecting on the stream of people he has touched—those wrestling with alcoholism or confused by the realisation they are gay, or those fighting to save their marriages—Lance settles on a teenage French soldier dying in a US special forces hospital in the Afghani province of Kandahar.

Attached to the hospital as a coalition chaplain, Lance had ministered to a constant flow of casualties.
The French soldier had been severely wounded when his vehicle was flipped over by a roadside bomb, and the US doctors doubted the unconscious teenager would live long enough to be evacuated to a hospital in Germany. He had been on his last patrol of his tour and was scheduled to fly home to his family that week.

‘So I sat with this guy. I couldn’t speak French and in his last moments all I could do was pray for him and say comforting words knowing he’s not going home and his family will never see him again.’

‘In these moments of crisis, this is where faith can carry you through and I’m just so grateful that God has chosen this avenue through which I am working’.

By Jon Hoyle (from War Cry magazine)

PNG Tribes Exchange Guns for Bibles

21 Apr 2010

Twenty-six years of tribal fighting in a remote region of Papua New Guinea have been brought to a close thanks to a Salvation Army programme that involved warriors swapping their guns for Bibles.

The fighting, which began after an accusation of sorcery, took place between two groups of Zugu, Taro and Tawansaru villages and the Amusa, Tarotu, Fusa and Takaitu villages of Okapa District. Because of the area’s remoteness, government authorities, community leaders and NGOs were unable to bring peace. The only people who could enter the villages were pastors from various churches.

Male children were raised to fight. Mothers were saddened that their male children wanted to take up arms and fight like their fathers. Some mothers even took the drastic step of killing male babies in the hope that this would stop the endless fighting.

In recent years, the warring tribes heard about The Salvation Army Community Advancement and Reform Enhancement (CARE PNG) programme operating out of its Misapi Outpost that helped communities explore the possibility of peace.

Peace Training Programme

In November 2008 The Salvation Army arranged a week-long peace training programme, facilitated by students from Divine Word University. Some 40 men and women leaders from both tribes attended. They all stayed in the same house for seven days and nights, eating, talking and sharing together. It was a challenging test for the beginning of a new era. Active warriors and the most influential Okapian sorcerers were among the group.

The leaders ended the training with a Highlands mumu, symbolising an end to fighting and beginning of peace. This was the start of the peace process involving each tribe deciding whether or not to have peace. Almost a year later a peace ceremony was held, signifying a final end to the conflict.

Salvation Army leaders travelled to the ceremony by helicopter—the most practical way to get to such a remote setting. Storage space was limited so 300 Bibles were delivered by villagers from Misapi via a three-day foot journey. More than 1000 people made their way to the ceremony, some travelling for days.

A Fresh Start

Chief Secretary Lieut-Colonels Hans van Vliet of the Papua New Guinea Territory told everyone that the ceremony was a fresh start for the region, but that laying down weapons and items used in sorcery was not enough. ‘You know what tribal warfare is all about. Many relatives have died,’ he said. ‘Leaders, you are making the promise not only in front of us but also in front of God. You must change within your mind, heart and soul.’

He said the new chapter in their lives should be one of love and care for their neighbours. Two live pigs were presented, one to each of the warring groups, as a token of appreciation for their peace efforts.

During the exchange process, one man accompanied his young son, who was carrying a gun. The man explained with tears in his eyes that he did not want his son to have to use such weapons and live the kind of life he had experienced, but he wanted him to be able to live in peace with other tribes. Both father and son left with a Bible.

Tribal leaders from both factions called on the national and provincial governments to allocate their share of development funds to the three main churches in the area—New Tribes and Lutheran churches and The Salvation Army—with the idea that these could build health centres and schools for the local people.

from War Cry magazine

The Big Swap

21 Apr 2010

Fair trade products are kind of like that healthy salad that stares at you through the glass cabinet at the café.
 
You know it’s the right thing to get for lunch. You know you’ll feel better afterward and that the price is actually not too bad. Yet the cheese-oozing lasagne, the belly-warming meat pie and the quadruple chocolate cheesecake are just so tempting! Oh, what to do?
 
Buying fair trade can seem just the same; our shopping conscience often echoes Paul’s confession that ‘what I do is not the good I want to do’ (Romans 7:19). But just like the concerted efforts we make in starting a new diet for creating lasting change in our dietary habits, so our shopping habits can permanently become more fair trade-friendly by choosing to participate in this year’s Fair Trade Fortnight.
 
Like the 40-Hour Famine the Fair Trade Fortnight (1-16 May) is a chance to challenge yourself (and maybe your family, friends or corps) to a radical lifestyle shift with a great cause. It is two weeks of intentionally experimenting with fair trade purchases, directly helping workers in the developing world and hopefully creating some lasting positive purchasing habits for yourself.
 
Here are some ideas for what you can swap:
 
Coffee: seek out a fair trade café and buy your own supply.

Chocolate: give a friend a Fair Trade Fortnight gift of fair trade chocolate (Cadbury Dairy Milk and Whittaker’s Creamy Milk are now both Fairtrade certified).

Bananas: fair trade bananas are now available through many supermarkets nationwide
(see allgoodbananas.co.nz for a store near you).

Everyday Food: over the fortnight try replacing other regular food items in your pantry (sugar, tea, rice, olive oil and many more).

T-Shirt: though you may not be able to swap your entire wardrobe, try wearing fair trade tees and shoes (you can even buy fair trade undies!).
  
Also, think about ways of involving others in your Fair Trade Fortnight: 

Mother’s Day: with this special day falling right in the middle of Fair Trade Fortnight what better time to get something nice for Mum from Trade Aid.

Sports Team: there’s a good range of fair trade sports balls available (soccer, rugby, netball and basketball) so your entire sports team (or even club) could practise and play with only these balls for the fortnight (see etiko.co.nz to order).
 
Church/Corps: visit fairtrade.org.nz for a list of all the churches that have made a stand for fair trade … and then, become one of them!

Fair Trade Dinner Party: invite friends around for a meal made (as much as possible) from fair trade foods.

Your Local Store: challenge your local store, café or supermarket to stock various fair trade products (fair-trade.org.nz has details on how to do this).

Fairtrade.org.nz is running a bunch of competitions during Fair Trade Fortnight for the most originals ways of swapping to fair trade and for raising awareness amongst your community. So
get creative and try swapping your purchasing habits from 1 to 16 May!

Give the Gift of Time

19 Apr 2010

Old age is inevitable. Like it or not, each one of us is journeying through the aging process, albeit at different stages. In my role for The Salvation Army I see firsthand some of the many challenges of aging. An overriding sense of loss can accompany this process. The loss of a life-long partner, friends, health, mobility, confidence and independence can make old age a challenging and difficult time of life. Along with this comes an increasing sense of social isolation: families are busy, neighbours keep to themselves, friends have passed on and, due to mobility, hobbies and outings may no longer be an option.

Many of the elderly clients that I visit speak openly of their sense of aloneness, I often hear the words: ‘I just want a friend—someone to talk to’, ‘the days are so long and lonely’, and ‘I feel so much better after having spoken with you. Please come again’. As Mother Teresa once commented, ‘Loneliness is the most terrible poverty.’

Befriending an elderly person is, in essence, the gift of time. A regular visitor in the life of an elderly person has an enormous impact on their social and emotional wellbeing. Someone to look forward to and fresh conversation breaks up the routine cycle of everyday living and expands a ‘diminishing world’. Not only that, but conversation allows the opportunity to share life’s stories—to reminisce with another person.

Reminiscing has real therapeutic value: the recall of happy times and significant moments help keep alive a sense of self-worth, identity and satisfaction from life. By sharing these memories with another person the elderly can recapture the enjoyment and pleasure of their life; reminiscing validates them and enables them to deal with the sense of loss associated with the aging process.

Listening kindly and patiently—without interrupting or correcting—and responding appropriately gives the elderly person dignity and builds a sense of trust and confidence in the relationship. Initiating conversation and sharing interests and hobbies takes an elderly person outside of their own four walls and exposes them to a wider sphere of influence, alleviating the increasing sense of self-absorption that can accompany aging.

Befriending programmes such as those run by The Salvation Army actively address the issue of social isolation so prevalent in our times. The time commitment, friendship, conversation and kindness of a regular visitor have a huge impact in improving the quality of life of an elderly person.

Joining the Mission Dots

16 Apr 2010

Nance Storry could be pigeon-holed as elderly. But she has an enquiring intellect, a sharp sense of humour, and is fiercely independent. One of the reasons she remains relatively self-sufficient is the help she gets each week from The Salvation Army HomeCare service.

More than doing much of the household management of her apartment, Nance’s support worker keeps a regular eye on her wellbeing and the pair have become firm friends. Nance first received home support five years ago when her husband Ian’s declining health meant he needed help with personal care.

The support worker knew how to persuade the reluctant and self-reliant Ian to accept help showering, turning what could have been an ordeal for him into a natural part of his routine. Ian passed away last year and HomeCare has continued to provide household support for Nance and also personal care after her recent surgery.

She says her support workers, over the years, have been more than just cleaners or personal care assistants. They have monitored her welfare, offered support and taken a sincere interest in her life—to the point where enduring friendships have been forged. ‘That social side is quite important because as you become older, you can become quite isolated,’ she says.

Independence with dignity

HomeCare is a major arm of The Salvation Army’s services for the elderly. It provides household management and personal care services—help with bathing, dressing, toileting or exercising—for around 5000 mainly elderly clients throughout much of the upper North Island.
 
The service was established in 1995 by Majors Cherie and Des Buckner in the Paeroa-Waihi region. It now operates on Auckland’s North Shore and in West Auckland, with its Hamilton and Paeroa branches serving the Waikato, Tauranga and Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty region down to Taupo.
  
Most clients are assessed for eligibility by representatives of local District Health Boards (DHBs), ACC or the Ministry of Health, which fund the services. There are a few clients who pay for their own care. HomeCare’s coordinators interview clients in their homes to ascertain their individual needs and the services to be provided by its 900 support workers.

Rebuilding to meet today’s needs

Today, HomeCare is going through something of a Renaissance. For three years, it has been quietly rebuilding itself under the leadership of its chief executive Meng Cheong, a veteran of District Health Board management.

HomeCare’s efforts have led to the recent achievement of the New Zealand Standards Home and Community Support Sector Standard. An audit examined all aspects of the organisation’s processes, policies and delivery of services, giving the organisation a clean bill of health for the next three years.

Future opportunities

With its quality and organisational processes up to standard, HomeCare is now able to approach DHBs for contracts in other regions with confidence, Meng says.

With an eye to current health trends and policy—particularly the increasing trend of caring for patients in the community—HomeCare has started to develop more specialised services to address service gaps. It has already joined forces with North Shore Hospice to train 55 of its support workers to work with palliative care patients in their own homes. ‘This has seen a significant increase in referrals in Waitemata and we are seeking to replicate this in the other regions we service,’ says Meng.

‘At Tauranga, we have also developed our special care business,’ he continues. ‘One of HomeCare’s strengths is that we are flexible in adapting our services to meet the complex health care needs of clients requiring more specialist support to stay at home.’

‘The key difference between HomeCare, as an arm of a Christian-based welfare agency, and commercial providers is that our reason for being is not to serve the bottom line and provide maximum returns to shareholders. We exist primarily to provide opportunities for people to care for people in their communities.

Joining the mission dots

Two of the greatest ongoing challenges are bringing HomeCare into line with the Salvation Army mission, and the ongoing job of building relationships with local corps and Salvation Army Community Ministries.

One recent example of how chaplaincy can spearhead The Salvation Army’s work was when Paeroa HomeCare coordinator Brenda Middleton visited a couple in their 70s, who had been referred to HomeCare. Having lost their savings after the collapse of a finance company, Wendy and Don Parks were living in a camper van at a motor camp. Both had chronic illnesses, making it difficult, and some days impossible, to use the camping ground’s communal ablution block. Using its community contacts and advocacy experience, The Salvation Army secured a suitable home for the Parks within three weeks.

Meng says the Parks’s situation is the classic scenario where the wider Salvation Army community can alleviate suffering, whether it is material, emotional or spiritual. ‘Others may not see the bigger social picture, but Brenda did. We used the knowledge and influence The Salvation Army has around social issues to get [the couple] help,’ Meng says. ‘That’s where you join the dots—you don’t just provide a service, you provide a mission opportunity as well.’

By Jon Hoyle (from War Cry magazine)

A Blueprint for Life

24 Mar 2010

Two of the most influential people in the 20th century had this to say about Jesus and his followers:

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ: Gandhi.

Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me: John Lennon.

Most non-Christians, when told the Easter story of Jesus carrying the cross, dying for our sins and rising on the third day, can appreciate the significance of it and may even believe. But, as was put so well by evangelist Billy Graham, ‘The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. THAT is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.’

Think about it. For 2000 years, at Easter, we Christians have been telling the world of God’s incredible love for humanity, as demonstrated by Jesus on the cross, and of his incredible power to conquer the
grave. Th at was Jesus’ story. But like any story, we look for its relevance now. Whenever we’re asked to buy a product, we’re not just after the story of how it works; we want to see it being used in real people’s lives, today.

People want to see results

Ever wondered how the hours of TV infomercials that promote junk (let’s be honest) manage to sell enough to survive their huge broadcasting costs? They all, without fail, appeal to this need we all have to hear of other people’s stories: ‘I used Amazing Abs for just three days and lost 40kg!’, or ‘I never realised cleaning shower grime could be so much fun, Shower Power has changed my life!’ Okay, so infomercials are way over the top, but the principle is clear: a story by itself is not enough, people want to see results.

The world looks at Easter (the crucifixion, the resurrection, the movies we make about it) and then looks to Christians—‘Christ followers’—expecting, hoping, to see that same Easter story echoed in our lives. People are looking for lives of sacrifice, self-denial, immense love for humanity and of obedience to our God. They’re after signs of God’s power in our lives, transforming us inwardly and outwardly on a daily basis; signs that we have died with Christ and now live by his Spirit.

A blueprint for life

And this is where Easter becomes a frighteningly real and challenging, but inspiring, story to Christians. No longer is it just a long weekend and an excuse to eat chocolate. It is a blueprint for life; the markings of the race we are called to run. It is the biggest of all challenges but with the
greatest prize.

So ask God today (not just at Easter): Where can I take up my cross? How can I die to myself? Lord Jesus, where are you bringing me to life? This is Easter alive and real.

By Hayden Shearman (from War Cry magazine)

Riding a Straight Line

23 Mar 2010

Walking through Timaru’s Edwardian heart down to Caroline Bay, it’s hard to imagine that the town was a battleground during the 1980s and early 1990s.

At the time, up to 100 patched gang members, prospects and teenage hangers-on were fighting for control of the region’s drug trade. What was then known as the Timaru Wars was a long series of clashes between outlaw biker gangs the Devils Henchmen and Road Knights.

The media described Timaru as a ‘town under siege’. At the epicentre of this chaos was Scott Howey, Devils Henchmen president and architect of some of the violence.

But even in those days, Scott was questioning his life. As a patched member of the Devils Henchmen of five years, he was eligible for the honour of having the gang’s colours tattooed on his back. He declined—the first step on an often lonely and dangerous path away from the gang.

‘I now know the Lord was walking with me during those times, but I didn’t recognise that then,’ Scott says. ‘But now I recognise this as to why I was questioning my lifestyle and the people I was hanging with.’

Moving up the ranks

At age 20, Scott was a prospect for the gang. At 21, he was patched.

Identified at school as a leader, Scott put these qualities to work in the gang. Within five years, he had moved up the hierarchy to sergeant-at-arms—in charge of day-to-day management of the gang and its armoury—and was then selected as the chapter’s president. By this time, the war with the Road Knights was in full swing and the gang was living day-to-day in a constant state of high alert.

Before the end of the conflict, Scott had become disillusioned with the biker lifestyle and was tentatively looking for a way out. Scott, with the gang’s blessing, moved to Queenstown to take over the ownership and management of the town’s only brothel. At this time, the drug pure methamphetamine was becoming available and was starting to take a devastating toll on his friends and associates.

‘I started seeing people wasting away before my eyes at work and it got to the point where I was disgusted with it,’ he says. ‘I’d been in the sex industry for four or five years now and I made the decision to get out—and I needed to do it fast.’

But it wasn’t that simple. No matter how dysfunctional it was, the gang had been family for 15 years.

He quit the massage parlour and avoided the gang gatherings he was expected to attend. The final curtain fell when he had to return to the massage parlour to hand over some paper work. He says those present were off their heads on P and must have sensed his disdain. Scott was clubbed from behind, spending a week in the intensive care unit of Dunedin Hospital with head injuries.

Reaping what was sown

In February 2006, broke and with no income, his former friends now his enemies and still suffering from the effects of his beating, he approached Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ). Because Scott had not paid taxes for years and had no formal work record, he was refused a benefit.

‘The reality was that the sins of my past came back,’ Scott says. ‘I had no money in my wallet to feed myself and I was effectively reaping what I had sown.’

Scott says he walked away from WINZ in shock, with no idea what to do. He wound up at the doors of The Salvation Army.

Queenstown Corps leader Aux-Captain Kenneth Walker agrees with Scott’s self-assessment. ‘When I first saw him, I could see he was a genuinely broken man. He became one of my most complicated cases, and it’s a real testament to his strength and a credit to him that he’s come this far.’

Kenneth organised food for Scott and his wife Amy and began a long and complex shuttle diplomacy between WINZ and ACC. The Salvation Army provided counselling and organised DHB-funded specialist trauma counselling.

In a small town, Scott’s fearsome reputation was never far away. During this time, a number of people, including police officers and officials from other government agencies, were warning Kenneth about the potential perils of dealing with Scott.

‘But of course that’s not our starting point. We treat people at face value, deal with their immediate needs, and we come from a position of trust,’ says Kenneth.

Scott says his introduction to The Salvation Army was a shock. After coming from an underground community based on self-interest and coercion, it was hard to fathom this extended Christian family and what motivated its members. He took a cautious interest in the Army and after about six months he and Amy joined Queenstown’s burgeoning congregation.

Spiritual awakening

Scott says his spiritual voyage was tentative at first. He had suspected he had been getting help during his darkest days but couldn’t pin down the source. ‘I knew there was something special there but I couldn’t grasp it, couldn’t understand it.’

He is certain God led him from WINZ to The Salvation Army’s doors. But his past life made it difficult to surrender his life to God. When he eventually did, he says the transformation was overwhelming.

‘When I first knelt down at the Mercy Seat [to pray], that’s when I felt all the emptiness leave me,’ he says. ‘I learnt that if your heart is pure and you give it all up to the Lord, he will lead you through.’

Scott hopes to enlist as a Salvation Army soldier (member) this year. He has a deep desire to guide and support young people wanting to escape the gangs. While gangs tend to enforce loyalty with violence if need be, exiting a gang is a viable option if done with care, planning and outside support.

‘When I was looking to get out, I searched for some inspiration, someone who had successfully got out and changed their life, but I found no-one. If I’d had that inspiration, I would have got out a lot earlier.’

Asked if he misses the money, the power or excitement of his old life, Scott smiles. ‘I have a beautiful wife, a beautiful son. I have my church, I have my faith’.

By Jon Hoyle (from War Cry magazine)

Jesus in Wonderland

10 Mar 2010

Films are funny things. They make us laugh, they make us cry, they inspire us and they sometimes put us to sleep (thanks, Hugh Grant). They also present life in a new light and reveal things about our world that we’d otherwise not see. In light of this, we can also discover things of the character of God, if we look for them, through even the most unlikely of movies, of which Alice in Wonderland is surely one.

Upside down

In Wonderland we encounter a backward world: you celebrate your unbirthday 364 days per year, the first in a race is not necessarily the winner, and not everything is as plain as it seems. Similarly, Jesus turned things upside down with his teaching and example.

Jesus’ ideas were revolutionary and often contrary to accepted opinion and practice. To a world that believes in personal success and preserving your own image Jesus said, ‘the last will be first, and the first will be last’ (Matthew 20:16) and to be a leader is to serve.

Jesus provided the ultimate demonstration of this message by coming to earth as a baby born in a barn, growing up with no special status in society. He was finally to be given a criminal’s death. But as we read in the Bible, the depths to which he humbled himself on earth determined the greatness that Jesus has in Heaven. He was the ultimate servant, and this could only be done by the ultimate king!

The importance of size

 After falling down the rabbit hole, Alice encounters a collection of doors, one of which she finds a key to, but she is too large to fit through it—and to the wonderful garden on the other side. She finds a bottle, drinks its contents, and shrinks to a size suitable for the small door. However, she then is unable to reach the door key, which is sitting, now high up, on a table. Luckily, she finds a cake, eats it and grows big again, but this time much larger than her original size. And so the frustrating tale continues.

We are told that entering the Kingdom of Heaven is much the same. When we try by our own efforts we inevitably miss the mark, and when we try to enter it carrying extra luggage (like wealth) we again struggle. Jesus said that we need to accept God’s Kingdom as a child (Luke 18): humble, innocent and with no extra baggage.

Having said this, however, the Bible also implores us to ‘approach the throne of grace with confidence’ (Hebrews 4:16). So, just because we are to be small and humble doesn’t mean that we can’t stand up, hold our heads high and rejoice in the fact that we are no longer just servants, but friends of Christ (John 15:15) and sons and daughters of the Almighty God (Romans 8:17). What a privilege!

We’re all sleeping

At the end of the story, Alice awakes to find that Wonderland was just a weird and wacky dream. Now back in her real life everything seems to work once more as it should.

Paul compared this life to looking in a mirror: ‘Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully’ (1 Corinthians 13:12).

When we leave this life and find ourselves in Heaven it will be like waking from a sleep. We’ll understand things that were once a mystery; we will see God ‘face to face’; we will be liberated from the limitations of our fallen human frame. In Heaven everything will be as it should: no more tears, no more pain, no more confusion and no more loneliness.

Meaningless?

I remember watching the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland as a kid and being left with this overwhelming sense—even at a young age—‘what was the point of all that?’ It was mostly frustrating nonsense! And this is exactly how life can be to us. Things don’t go to plan, you lose a loved one, and when you expect to be fulfilled you’re left empty. This all leaves you to ask ‘what was the point?’

King Solomon had everything going for him: bountiful wisdom, a famous dad, money, power, palaces, fame, and 700-odd wives! Yet he writes in Ecclesiastes (1:2) ‘Meaningless! Meaningless! … Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’

Solomon too often put his trust in the things of this world, and found out the hard way that they let you down. We find a similar reaction in Alice as she walks away from frustrating conversations and meaningless relationships in Wonderland. And although our world isn’t as meaningless as this, it does in the long run leave us, like Solomon, unfulfilled and still asking the big questions.

The realisation that this world isn’t the answer and is ultimately meaningless is very important for each of us to grasp. For it is only then that we can discover that God—with his immense love for each of us—is the only one who can answer those deepest questions of our hearts. He alone is able to provide our lives with their true meaning. Enjoy venturing into God’s wonderland!

By Hayden Shearman (from War Cry magazine)

A Church that Fits

09 Mar 2010

My parents became Christians before I was born so I grew up in a Christian environment. But with that there was always an element of rebellion.

I was involved at church and in youth group, but I began questioning my faith when I was 16. I wasn’t sure anymore. I wasn’t getting my questions answered.

I went to Samoan churches, I went to Maori churches, to Pakeha churches, and to mixed churches. I tried lots of churches, but I found it quite hard to tie into a church. My faith was weakening.

I started hanging out with friends and drinking. When I was about 19 I decided to give up Christianity altogether.

Three years later, things started to change. I moved back to Wellington in November 2008 after having been away for several months. I was having a hard time with life, relationships and with God.

Praying again

In early 2009 I started to pray again. I got to a point where I got down on my hands and knees and I said, ‘God, the next church I go to needs to be a fit. If you want me back, I need an invitation to my church—one that fits.’

I decided no more alcohol, no more hanging out with my drinking buddies.

One of my teammates at my new job asked me out for coffee one day and said, ‘Marina, God wants you back. You know it. You’ve been dragging your feet.’ I was shocked.

He invited me to his church, The Salvation Army Wellington 614 Corps. I didn’t commit or promise anything, but I went. It was fun and nutty. I had questions being answered. I knew I fit there.

The family I was asking for

I needed a family and God gave me exactly the family I was asking for. God gave me a church that fits. On 1 November 2009 I was enrolled as a soldier in The Salvation Army and signed both the English and Maori versions of the Articles of War.

This year, I’m doing Praxis, a course in Christian youth work. It will help me build my ministry with youth. I believe I’m called to youth work. I’m also getting married this year—to the man who invited me to 614.

I used to think I had no control as a Christian, because other people were telling me what to do. But I actually have more control over my life now. I’m no longer destructive to myself and others. I’ve regained trust and dignity.

I feel like I can truly be something—I feel like I can do stuff for God. He picked a church for me, I fit and I’m happy.

By Marina-Ora Gell (from War Cry magazine)

In the Neighbourhood 614

08 Mar 2010

It’s 5pm on a Wednesday and the hall is humming with chatter. Excited cries of ‘Snap!’ and loud fits of laughter break out here and there as some 30 young people challenge each other at pool, table tennis, board games and fun activities.

Wellington 614 Corps’ ‘614 Youth’ is in full session. It’s a weekly time of games and an interactive message followed by a $2 meal. ‘It’s the best youth group I’ve been to,’ says 16 year-old Daytona Hoani.

Originally begun by Wellington Youth Services, formerly an outreach of Wellington City Corps, Wednesdays provide a time for young people from Wellington 614’s various programmes to get together regularly, learn about God and build relationships with the corps’ ‘missionaries’.

Everything at Wellington 614 is about discipling youth. ‘We are quite specific in who we are missioning to,’ says Corps Leader Steve Molen. ‘That’s what makes 614 different [from other corps].’

Evangelism through community

The name, pronounced as digits ‘6-1-4,’ comes from Isaiah 61:4, ‘They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.’ The idea is to take lives that are damaged and ‘rebuild, restore, renew’ them. These people are then to take their new-found hope back into their communities and share it with others.

Although the youth at 614 come from a wide range of backgrounds, one thing most have in common is that ‘they aren’t going to church, they have no church community and not very much sense of Jesus or spirituality,’ says Steve. Essentially, they are youth that are not going to easily integrate into existing churches.

‘Often, youth will find the culture of existing churches a little bit hard to link in with,’ Steve explains. ‘There is the culture of the church world and then there’s the culture the youth are accustomed to—sometimes the clash of the two is too sharp.

‘The reason we’re building a 614 church for these youth is because we have contact with them—we have relationships with these youth,’ he continues. ‘They aren’t fitting into any other church, so we built a church for them.’

Those who make a commitment to God and grow in their faith are invited to the Equipping Station, 614 Corps’ Sunday meeting, which focuses on equipping people to reach and disciple youth.

Evangelism through incarnation

A key part of 614 is the idea of incarnational living. ‘We try to live amongst our youth and get to know them. It’s not just about our community; it’s about their community,’ Steve says.

‘Some churches have become very institutionalised and bubble-like and they’re not actually immersed in the community,’ he continues. ‘The youth in those churches often don’t know anyone apart from Christians. So the reason other [non-Christian] youth aren’t coming to their churches is because they don’t know them. They’re not connected with them.’

This relationship building and incarnational living is what allows 614 to reach youth in a way other churches might struggle with. ‘The youth are more prepared to listen because they have a relationship with us,’ says Steve.

Evangelism to youth

‘Everyone here has the same mission focus: to work with youth and see young people saved,’ says Jenna Limmer, a youth worker at 614. ‘We’re all on the same page.’

Jenna became a Christian through Wellington Youth Services. She was a student in the high school programme and was mentored for a few years before taking a course in youth work to join the team.

But everyone at 614 is involved in reaching youth in one way or another. ‘You can’t be a pew-sitter at 614,’ says Steve. Everyone participates at 614 Youth on Wednesdays and helps out in other ways, such as volunteering at the transitional homes for teens.

Sunday meetings at the ‘Equipping Station’ (the corps’ building in Island Bay) focus on growing and developing the spirituality and faith of 614 missionaries. These relaxed meetings provide in-depth and essential teaching for the missionaries and also for those young people who are ready to go beyond what is offered at 614 Youth.

‘I can put my hand up and ask a question and Steve will answer it,’ says Marina-Ora Gell, a youth worker intern with 614. ‘Lots of questions get asked and jokes fly around. It’s an intimate environment. It’s a family. It’s also straightforward and practical.’

Mark Limmer, Jenna’s husband, says he really likes 614 because it is a community of like-minded people and it plays a crucial role in the lives of young people. ‘Everyone at 614 believes in helping people change lives for God,’ he says. ‘We open our lives up. It’s not a job; it’s a lifestyle. We have to live it.’

Kristen Ojala joined Wellington 614 Corps a few months ago. ‘I wanted to put my faith into practice,’ she says, ‘and I wanted to be with people who model that.’ She has found it challenging. ‘It puts a total spin on how I think about church; it’s not just a Sunday commitment anymore. You have to be prepared to be in it full time.’

By Ruth Sylvestre (from War Cry magazine)

Does God Exist?

05 Mar 2010

Does God exist? Probably not the question you’d expect to see on a Christian website, but nonetheless it’s an important question for each of us to ask.

Of course, the official view of The Salvation Army (as part of the Christian Church), along with 85% of the world’s population, is very much in the affirmative. However, there are many—in fact, 35% of New Zealanders—who do not believe in a greater being. Internationally, one of the loudest proponents of the atheist position is British biologist, Richard Dawkins.

Darwin’s Rottweiler

In mid-March, Dawkins, who has often been described as ‘Darwin’s Rottweiler’ for his aggressive stance against religion, is visiting New Zealand on a sell-out speaking tour. His catch cry is that the evidence of science—and in particular, his version of evolution—proves that God cannot exist. He argues that ‘somebody who claims not to believe in evolution … is ignorant, stupid or insane’ (you can taste the fervour in his words).
 
In making discoveries in science and, from them, drawing conclusions about something supernatural and outside that scientific system, Dawkins is essentially saying that from this world we can establish some fact about another world. This, as you can see, is a curiously bold step to take. It would be like someone trying to prove/disprove the ocean by analysing a glass of water. Sure, it might generate some clues, but there would be very few concrete conclusions one might reach from such a logical process.

And this is the big problem we all have when we debate the existence or non-existence of God. For the only common ground we have to talk about—a non-believer to a believer—is what we find and discover in this world. But from this foundation it is very difficult, if not impossible, to reach a concrete conclusion either one way or the other. And so the believer and the non-believer are left only agreeing to disagree.

The other world

Where does this leave the believer? Well, a Christian believes that they have a direct experience of this other world through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So, for him or her, God can be talked about in a sensible way that doesn’t involve a jump from one world to another—the Christian is already in the other world.

I believe this is why Jesus taught us to pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’ because what this world needs is neither some fancy intellectual proof of God’s existence nor a scientific demonstration of the necessity of a Creator. The world needs a living and breathing experience of Christ’s world on earth: his love, mercy, peace, hope and righteousness—all the things found in his Kingdom. It is only then, with an experience of this other world, that a non-believer might be able to believe that God might exist.

So, when faced with doubts, whether from yourself, from friends or British biologists, over the existence of God, simply pray, and ask the Father for his Kingdom to come in your life, and our world. Today.

By Hayden Shearman (from War Cry magazine)

The Twelve Steps of Economic Recovery

01 Mar 2010

The Priority of 2010

The Government has clearly stated what is going to be the focus of its next 12 months in Parliament. Bill English, Minister of Finance, commented online to the NZ Herald:

'I'm pleased New Zealand has come through a once-in-a-generation world crisis in better shape than most other countries. However, the crisis has left a hole in the Government's books that will take several years to rectify. In addition, it has left many New Zealanders out of work, which has a profound impact on them and their families. The challenge now is to get the economy growing again at a stronger rate that meets our jobs and income aspirations' (Monday 4 January, 2010, www.nzherald.co.nz).

The economy, or to be exact, economic growth, is the priority. No mysteries there.

The global economy has come through its nose dive and with emerging signs of a fragile 'growth', the despairing jabber of crisis management has ceased to get air time and the talk has shifted to that of 'recovery'. Prime Minister, John Key opened Parliament with a speech full of 'recovery' talk:

'2009 was not an easy year for many people. Some people lost their jobs, some their savings, and others their confidence. Yet things are undoubtedly looking up. The economy is picking up and new jobs will appear as businesses have the confidence to invest and expand. What makes New Zealand such a great country to live in still remains. The policies we intend to introduce this year will be a big part of the country's improvement this year, next year and into the future.' (Hon. John Key, Prime Minister, Statement of Position, 9 February 2010, cited at www.johnkey.co.nz).

The promise is economic improvement and recovery. Now, there is a mystifying thought.

Economic Recovery

Recovery … from what do we want to recover? And, more importantly, toward what and for who is this recovery? Are we trying to recover real jobs for the 160,000+ people without employment, or is this simply a recovery of consumption levels, credit ratings and investment confidence? Will this be a recovery that returns our country to where we were before the financial crises, or will it reset our nation toward something new? Brian McLaren, a leading figure in the emerging church movement, captures the double-edged dilemma and possibility of this 'recovery' talk:

'For many people, economic recovery means "getting back to where we were a few months or years ago". That means recovering our consumptive, greedy, unrestrained, undisciplined, irresponsible, and ecologically and socially unsustainable way of life. I'd like to suggest another kind of recovery ... drawing from the world of addiction. When an addict gets into recovery, he doesn’t want to go back and recover the "high" he had before, or even to recover the conditions he had before he began using drugs and alcohol. He realises that his addiction to drugs was a symptom of other deeper issues and diseases in his life ... So ... maybe we can sabotage our addictive tendencies (toward carbon, weapons, fear, stuff , profit and easy answers) by letting the word "recovery" have a meaning that wakes us up rather than drugs us into the comfortable, dreamy, half-awareness in which we have lived for too long.' (Brian McLaren, cited online at www.brianmclaren.net).

I'm intrigued … what if we were to employ the language and practices of the 'Twelve Step Programme of Alcoholics Anonymous' to reframe our economic recovery?

The Twelve Steps¹

Before we start, I'm going to ask you to slow down. Don't rush these steps; this is not a journey that can be negotiated with ease or hurry. Speed, flippancy and simple answers will only entrench the failings of the current economic imagination and inhibit our hopes of a moral and economic recovery.

1. We admit we’re powerless—that our lives have become unmanageable.

Does the 'free market' hold too much power? Is it time to debate publicly how we might limit the freedoms of the market? Should we legislatively limit the credit-debt financing industry, including the predatory practices of fringe moneylenders? Is the financial market now too privatised, too totalising, even god-like? Should the market be allowed to determine the value of everyone and everything?

Should there be a commodification of and price tag on education, health, faith, public goods and relationships? Should we give up on the irresponsible politicking and wishful thinking of tax-cuts in the top personal income bracket and trickledown economics? Does the market only exist to serve the wishes of the fittest, smartest and wealthiest, or is it possible to regulate and redirect the market toward serving the common good? Is it possible to make the market serve the great ideas of equality, social justice, neighbourliness and reciprocity? Shouldn't the market be our shared servant? Is it time to publicly condemn the current direction of the market as unsustainable and the root of our own unmanageability? What is the alternative?

2. Come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.

The 'free market' is not god; only God is God and what we learn from our faith in God is critical to the hope of our recovery. Jim Wallis says it like this: 'Our moral system, our beliefs about what is right and good, must always come before our economic system. Our moral system must provide the foundation for and encompass our economic system …' (Jim Wallis, 2010, Rediscovery of Values).

Is the Church too complicit and compromised with or too distant from the economy to offer any real alternative? Is it possible to couple our efforts at economic recovery with a recovery of what is good and right, with a reprioritisation of shared morals and values? What would our communities (and personal lives) look like if we were to reprioritise and switch from excess to enough? What if we were to fund a new moral economy and a new sense of material sanity and spiritual wellbeing from within these values?

3. Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

I’m praying. Will you pray with me?

4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

I have to drill this down and make it personal. Am I in danger of losing sight of what is enough? Has a fear of not having enough and a desire for having more than enough driven my own anxious and debt-fueled overconsumption? Am I image-focused and status-driven? Do I listen more to how the market determines the value of people and things than the views of my faith tradition? Do I suffer from haste and hurry? What is the connection between my everyday consumption and global poverty? How much do I waste?

Has our country lost sight of what is enough? Is it still possible to distinguish between need and want?

5. Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

I’m truly sorry; forgive me for living anxiously; forgive me for demanding and inflating my own sense of entitlement.

6. Be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

I am. Are you?

7. Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.

I have. Will you?

8. Make a list of all persons we have harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all.

I have to confess I had to pause at this step. If my everyday involvement in a divided economy entrenches 'harm' and injustice, how should I start to make amends? Should I try and 'give back' what I think my complicity has unjustly earned me?

The dilemma is echoed by Tom Sine: 'Those who follow Christ are called by Scripture to unequivocally follow the doctrine of active distribution; that is, we are called to actively redistribute all of our time, talents, and resources to seek first His kingdom in our (neighbourhoods) ... The question is not whether, it's how: how can we most fully invest all of our lives and resources to manifest God’s new age of justice in a world of growing need and tragic inequity?' (Tom Sine, 1981, The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, emphasis mine). What does it mean to fully invest all of our lives in the making of social justice? Is that how we embody our faith? Is that how we make the invisible God seeable, touchable? Does it mean that everyone simply does what they can for and with others, that we individually and collectively embrace responsibility? How can we address the poverty of our relationships?

9. Make direct amends wherever possible, except when to do so would injure others.

I’m still trying to think through what it means to make amends in a global and local community divided by inequalities. Ronald J. Snider makes this scandalous claim: 'Contemporary Christians have an enormous opportunity to use politics to shape a better world. A few basic facts underline this truth. More than a third of the world's people claim to be Christians. That one-third of the global population controls two-thirds of the world’s wealth. If even a quarter of the world's Christians truly followed biblical norms in their politics, we would fundamentally change history' (Ronald J. Snider, 2008, The Scandal of Evangelical Politics). What could this mean? Should we flex something of our political muscle? How can we influence the financial advisors and policy makers of the government to reset our economy to be more favourable to the poor? What kind of world do I vote for with my spending? Should we add to our language of personal sin, a vocabulary of social and structural sin? Should we stop imagining tax as some kind of dreaded penalty and start seeing the tax we pay as a practice of our neighbourliness? What is the honest intent of the proposed increase to GST? Who will it impact on the most? What if we committed ourselves to improving our biblical literacy? What difference would that make to how we see ourselves, our needs, our money, others and the world? Would we see a God who is biased to the poor? The question lingers: how can we right our own neglect of the vulnerable?

10. Continue to take personal inventory and when we're wrong promptly admit it.

The economic and moral recovery of these steps is counter to everything we think we know. There is no fast fix or simple answers. There is only the hard slog of community development and the slow and step-by-step establishment of the Kingdom of God.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

I will. Will you help me?

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we try to leave these messages (and questions) for other generations, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The sea change of recovery that our country needs will only come from defiant, hopeful communities who deliberately decide to interact differently with the current economic expectations that govern the look and feel of our neighbourhoods. The economic direction of our future will only change when people like you and me intentionally play by a different set of economic rules. What legacy will we leave for future generations?

Working our Recovery

Working these Steps 'can be a tool to relieve suffering, fill our emptiness and help extend God's presence in our communities. The Steps release energy, love and a new imagination of what is possible. It is a programme we follow at our own pace. We walk this journey of recovery one step at a time, with God's help and with the support of others in the programme. All we need is to stay open and teachable. Much of the work is done by God's Spirit working through us. If we work these Steps faithfully, we notice improvements in ourselves: our awareness, our sensitivity, our ability to love and be free. Our spiritual, emotional and economic recovery will surprise us' (paraphrased from The Twelve Steps—A Spiritual Journey, 1991, RPI Publishing).

By Malcolm Irwin (from SPPU)

¹ Adapted from The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The questions have come from my engagement with Brian McLaren at www.brianmclaren.net; Jim Wallis, 2010, Rediscovering Values—A Moral Compass for the New Economy; Robert G. Simmons, 1995, Competing Gospels—Public Theology and Economic Theory; Tom Sine, 1981, The Mustard Seed Conspiracy; and Walter Brueggemann, 2007, Mandate to Difference—An Invitation to the Contemporary Church.

Beating Poverty

17 Feb 2010

In 1890, Salvation Army founder William Booth estimated that a submerged 10 per cent of English citizens could be lifted out of poverty if given the necessary tools and opportunities. Despite a century of economic and social reform and a way of life still the envy of much of the world, some New Zealand citizens are still ‘submerged’ below the poverty line and have become social casualties.

Every day The Salvation Army stands alongside New Zealanders at crisis points in their lives. With this privilege comes a responsibility to ensure that what we learn brings improvement and change so other individuals and families don’t follow the same routes of crisis.

In 2004, The Salvation Army analysed the effectiveness of its social services. We discovered that, despite best efforts, more people were falling into poverty. To simply continue providing services without assisting and encouraging New Zealand governments to develop and implement policies to permanently improve the social and economic climate of the nation did not seem sensible or socially just. And so, in March 2004, the New Zealand Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit was born. Fundamental to our work is the belief that people are the centre of God’s creation and that their spiritual, social and physical salvation provides the true and enduring basis of progress.

The unit has its genesis in William Booth’s awareness of the need for intelligent and creative thinking and sound social research. Booth developed his own social policy unit, which he called an ‘intelligence department’, saying: If we are to effectively deal with the forces of social evil, we must have ready at our fingers’ tips the accumulated experience and information of the whole world on this subject ...  in which the accumulated experiences of the human race will be massed, digested, and rendered available to the humblest toiler in the great work of social reform.

Recapturing the vision

The unit recaptures our founder’s vision of contributing purposefully to a nation’s social and economic debates to improve the lives of the needy and vulnerable. Our bold mission statement—‘to work towards a New Zealand in which there is no poverty’—leads us to engage in research, education and advocacy to improve New Zealand’s social climate and reduce material need. Our staff has expertise in disciplines of economics, social policy and theology, and utilise professional research and policy development methods to prepare research papers, policy documents, submissions and articles.

We provide influential New Zealanders with robust information on the circumstances of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens so they can make creative, intelligent decisions on which policies and practices work best for those in need. The Salvation Army cannot eradicate poverty alone. The unit therefore engages with national and local politicians, business, educators and our colleagues in churches and community organisations to build social and economic structures that offer the chance of equity and justice to all. A further aspect of our work is to help people understand how the Gospel speaks into contemporary issues of New Zealand society. This includes organising regular ‘Just Action’ conferences that approach social justice and social policy from a Christian perspective, and publishing a monthly e-newsletter as well as occasional papers.

The Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit has become an essential tool in the mission of the New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga Territory. Its voice has given The Salvation Army unprecedented influence on policy making and the social and economic direction of New Zealand. This is a voice that speaks of a God who cares for and demands justice for his people, particularly those whose circumstances put them most at risk.

By Major Campbell Roberts (from SPPU)

You Can Have Happily Ever After

16 Feb 2010

At this time of year it can seem like we’re surrounded by chocolate hearts and beautiful roses. Love is in the air.

We’ve all seen the movies where Prince and Princess Charming meet and fall in love. They have a few problems getting it together but over the course of the movie all obstacles are resolved.
A happy ending! Yet their relationship is really just beginning.

As the credits roll we assume couples will live happily ever after in wedded bliss. But unfortunately, long after the chocolate hearts are eaten and the roses sent to the compost bin, ‘happily every after’ for many real-life couples becomes a distant dream. Life’s pressures build and they drift apart.

Practical relationship tools

Peter and Lisa Holden, who attend The Salvation Army in Johnsonville, run ‘The Marriage Course’, an eight-week marriage enrichment course by Alpha International. They also advise other churches on how to run the course.

The Marriage Course is aimed at helping couples reach their happily ever after by building a healthy and lasting relationship. It gives them practical relationship tools and the time and space to discuss any difficult issues. The aim is to help couples break bad habits and create good ones that will sustain their marriage for a lifetime.

Peter and Lisa became involved in the course when they were living in England. ‘We had been married for about five years at the time and had a good marriage. Initially, I didn’t want to do it,’ says Lisa, ‘but a friend pressured us into it—and we really enjoyed it.

‘It seems small and quite obvious, but for me the most important and lasting thing that I learnt was that we needed to prioritise time for each other. So now we go on regular “date nights”; just the two of us. I’ve realised that this is how I feel loved within our marriage, and if I don’t get this time I can feel taken for granted and easily become moody and resentful.’

Lisa and Peter’s date night routine has become particularly important now that they have a two-year-old son. ‘We are both busy,’ Lisa continues. ‘There are always a million things to demand our time, but our most important commitment is to each other.’

Investing in marriage

When they joined The Salvation Army in Johnsonville the couple decided to run The Marriage Course themselves. They’ve had strong support from the church’s leadership, which sees the course as a great way to offer something helpful to the local congregation and an excellent way to meet a need in the surrounding community.

‘Along with an incredible team of helpers and volunteers, we’ve run two courses now and are starting our third this month,’ Peter says. ‘It has been so wonderful to see couples come from the church and community to invest in their marriages.’

Each evening of the course starts with a meal. Couples sit at candle-lit tables for two and enjoy a catered romantic dinner. The tables are placed far enough apart that privacy is maintained. Background music ensures that all conversations are just between partners.

The meal is followed by a talk (on DVD) by presenters Nicky and Sila Lee, who help couples discover how to understand each other’s needs, communicate more effectively, grow closer through resolving conflict and heal their relationship after having hurt each other. Couples also learn to recognise how their upbringing affects their relationship. They are encouraged to develop greater sexual intimacy and discover each other’s love language.

Throughout the course, couples have a chance to discuss the different ideas and issues that arise. Homework further extends the course’s impact.

All sorts of people come on The Marriage Course, says Lisa. ‘We know that there are couples who have great marriages; they are still in love and want to learn how to make their relationships even better. We also have couples whose relationships are in trouble; it’s great when they come up to us after the course and tell us that they have found real solutions to their difficulties and that they are committed to working on their marriage.

‘And there are couples on the course who have been married for a while and have stable marriages, but through the anonymous questionnaire at the end we learn that they had lost the spark or the intimacy in their marriage. Often we hear that through the routine of daily life, bad habits have developed. Perhaps conversation has become solely practical and about the children. Or the importance of tenderness has been forgotten.’

Because all the discussions couples have during the evening are private and because there is no group work, no one else has any idea which of the three categories, couples are in, she emphasises. ‘That makes coming to the course easy.’

It’s worked for us

It’s possible that Brian and Trudy Robb hold the record for the shortest time married before doing The Marriage Course.

Both had been married previously, with children from those marriages. When Salvation Army officer Captain Paul Gardner was discussing the couple’s marriage plans he was direct about the importance of doing The Marriage Course, telling them he’d already signed them up. ‘He told us, “You’ll be doing this course,” ’ Trudy recalls. ‘But we agreed. We wanted to start our marriage on a good footing.’

They were married on a Friday and were back for the first night of the course on the following Monday evening, just three days later.

Brian says attending the course so early in their married life has helped them set good patterns ‘right from the start’. Both of them knew the realities of marriage and found it helpful to talk about some of their past habits and how they could now avoid them.

‘The topics were relevant,’ Brian says, ‘and the way the tables were spaced and the background music meant everything felt really private.’ He found the teaching on love languages and the chance to discover what he and Trudy appreciated from each other very helpful.

Trudy says, ‘The Marriage Course made us take regular time out; it was the one night where we had to sit down opposite each other and talk. We knew each other but being on the course gave us the chance to talk openly and honestly—in neutral territory.’

Simon and Charmaine Roper attended The Marriage Course towards the end of 2009. They will soon celebrate four years of marriage and have a 15-month-old son. When the course was advertised Charmaine thought it sounded good and talked to Simon about going along. He didn’t take much convincing; his parents had done The Marriage Course at another church and thought it was great. Other friends had also enjoyed it.

A few months on, Simon says the practical advice on listening to his wife was the most useful thing he learned. ‘It made me realise that I could do better,’ he says. ‘Our talking, listening and communication is stronger now.’

Charmaine agrees. ‘I think [the course] lays a great foundation for understanding each other: how to talk to the other person so they understand where you’re coming from and how you feel.’

Running The Marriage Course always proves a great refresher for Lisa and Peter’s own marriage, they say. They’ve recommended it to all their friends.
 
‘We’ve had fun and it has been such a privilege to be able to serve others in this way,’ says Peter. ‘We’re not experts on marriage—and our marriage is by no means perfect—but we love helping others and love the fact that we can help make that fairy-tale ending a little more achievable’.

By Lisa Holden and Christina Tyson (from War Cry magazine)

Fairtrade Myths Busted

15 Feb 2010

Meeting needs and standing up for injustice is in the Army’s DNA. It’s who we are and what we have been called to do. So it was no surprise when, in 2006, leaders of The Salvation Army in New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga recognised the often unjust attitude of international trade towards suppliers in the developing world and endorsed the concept of ‘fair trade’, encouraging corps and centres to purchase and use Fairtrade-certified products.

Many of us have made the change and now use Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate, clothing and even sports balls. If you, your corps/centre, family or flat haven’t yet taken this step, the following fair trade myth-busters may inspire you to ‘disturb the present to change the future’.

Myth: Would Jesus buy Fairtrade?! Christians are called to make disciples; isn’t Fairtrade a distraction from our core mission?
Busted: Often the best way to demonstrate what it means to be a disciple of Jesus is in practical ways. Salvation Army founder William Booth said: ‘What is the use of preaching the Gospel to men whose whole attention is concentrated upon a mad, desperate struggle to keep themselves alive?’ Showing concern for the livelihood of workers in the developing world by ensuring fair wages makes our stated concern for their souls more believable.

Myth: Fairtrade quality is poor.
Busted: A quick search on the Fair Trade Association website brings up almost 300 different suppliers of Fairtrade coffee in New Zealand. So if you don’t like one café, try one of the other 299-or-so. And once you’ve sampled a block of Trade Aid Fairtrade chocolate you won’t ever want to go back—eating a naughty snack has never been so tasty and altruistic at the same time!  

Myth: Fairtrade is too expensive. It makes sense that if workers are treated fairly, prices paid to the farmers will be higher, and hence, the end product will be more expensive.
Busted: First of all, Fairtrade will often have fewer middlemen to pay. Secondly, many Fairtrade sellers reduce margins at the retail end of the market to ensure products remain affordable. At our corps we did the maths, and the difference between buying non-Fairtrade and Fairtrade products was very little.

Myth: Fairtrade is hard to get.
Busted: Most major supermarkets now stock Fairtrade tea, coffee and chocolate. Later this year Cadbury will begin manufacturing with Fairtrade chocolate. The first shipment of Fairtrade bananas has just landed in New Zealand. Office Max, the main stationery supplier to The Salvation Army, has a range of Fairtrade products. You can purchase reasonably priced t-shirts, jeans and a few other clothing items in New Zealand. Our corps orders direct from Trade Aid’s Christchurch Warehouse at wholesale prices. We place the order and it’s on our doorstep in a few days.

Myth: Fairtrade is not the answer; we need an open free market. 
Busted: While free market economics has its place, many of the countries that are demanding free access to offshore markets by reducing import tariffs are still providing billions of dollars of subsidies to their own farmers. These farmers create more produce and dump excess on the world market, which lowers commodity prices. Sadly, the farmers in developing countries miss out.

Myth: We did that and we’ve moved on to other things.
Busted: I’ll be blunt; while we move on, children work long days without receiving an education or health care or clean water to drink. This is not something where we tick the box and move on—it’s a week-in, week-out lifestyle choice.

By Darren Frazer (from War Cry magazine)

In the interests of full disclosure, the author of this article is not only a hardworking Salvation Army youth worker, he also runs Micah Clothing, selling Fairtrade t-shirts. If you have further questions or comments about this article, email Darren.

Training on Foreign Soil

14 Feb 2010

In it, not of it

The ‘in it, not of it’ principle says that despite the environment and society we live in, we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, bring a slice of God’s heavenly Kingdom to earth through our thoughts, words and actions. Every Christian has the God-given potential within them to rise above their circumstances and bring light to an often dark world.

With the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics now upon us, this counter-cultural and non-circumstantial way of living is perhaps no better illustrated than in the analogous example of athletes from tropical nations competing in the Winter Games. Despite their lack of snow and ice at home, they rise above their circumstances and engage in utterly foreign pastimes.

The first to raise the flag for the tropics at the Winter Games was the Philippines in 1972 with two alpine skiers. Then Costa Rica came on the snow scene in 1980 with another alpine skier (who coincidentally competed at another three Games). And in 1988 the world of snow sports was set alight with the presence of many tropical nations, including: Fiji (which, many will be proud to discover, has its very own Alpine Skiing Association), Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and of course the Jamaican bobsled team—immortalised as heroes in the 1993 classic film Cool Runnings.

Since then several African nations have had lone athletes appearing on the ice and in these Games Ghana will make its Winter Olympics debut with Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong entering both the men’s slalom and the giant slalom. And yes, at the time of writing, the 2010 Jamaican bobsled team is on track to again make an appearance in the Vancouver Games.

Out of the norm

As you cheer on these unlikely contenders (as well as our own New Zealand Olympic team of 15) think about the dedication necessary for these athletes to even reach the Games: the training in 30-degree heat, the lack of appreciation at home for their sport, and the many hours and thousands of dollars spent travelling to suitable training grounds.

And as you contemplate their dedication, transfer that same example across to the dedication required to maintain and grow your own walk of faith in a world and society that is typically moving in the opposite direction.

Like the Winter Olympian from the tropics, your relationship with Christ is mostly counter-cultural and therefore will involve: partaking in activities that are out of the norm (e.g. keeping Sunday for rest, reading your Bible); standing out from the crowd (e.g. keeping to OJ or Coke at after work drinks); and regularly spending time and effort transporting yourself to your training ground—the feet of your Heavenly Father.

Happy training.

By Hayden Shearman (from War Cry magazine)

Listening for God

13 Feb 2010

I’m 25 years old. When I was about seven a Salvation Army bus started coming to Glen Eden where I lived to run Sunday school. My brothers and sister and I got involved with The Salvation Army through that.

My family attended a very traditional Nuiean Presbyterian church. Its culture was important to my parents but I had trouble understanding it. The Salvation Army opened up the Bible so I could go with it and understand who Jesus is. What I learned seemed more relevant to my everyday life. Mum was all for it because she saw it was nourishing us spiritually.

I started to get involved in the Army’s brass culture, playing baritone, then euphonium, and joining the National Development Youth Band. Music became an anchor for me. I’m not an extrovert, and music gave me a tool to express my feelings. I became a Salvation Army soldier in my late teens.

My girlfriend Sheree and I had been buddies for a long time. We finished school and she became pregnant. Although my church wasn’t judging me, I fell away from God for about a year.

During that time I felt empty. I was totally lost; there was no foundation in my life. I was thinking: ‘Is there a God? And if there is, why does he have so many restrictions? Why can’t people be happy without getting married?’ I knew God’s standards but thought it was too hard to follow them because my partner wasn’t a Christian.

I had lots of questions but I wasn’t actually listening for God. I was selfish and wanted God’s answers to fit what I wanted.

Bringing up a young family makes you more aware of needing God. Alyssa-Jane was born five years ago. Our second child, a boy named Trinity, was born a year later. Sheree started coming to The Salvation Army but didn’t feel that comfortable. Being new was hard.

When our twins, Ethan and Nathaniel, were born—almost three years ago—we had so much help from our church. That’s when Sheree saw Jesus, through what people were doing for her. We married when the twins were on the way.

Sheree became a Christian in 2008. I recommitted my life to Jesus the same year. I remember we were singing a song about God’s mercy. It was the first time I listened to God, opened my heart to him and said: ‘What have you got for me? I’m yours.’

Just after I qualified as a painter I told God, ‘My life’s in your hands, do what you will.’

Be careful what you ask for! A children’s worker position opened up at Glen Eden Salvation Army and our leaders approached me about it. So now I’m leading children into the same sort of journey I started when I first got on that Salvation Army bus.

I experience God’s love through those kids. What drives me is not just them knowing about God; it’s them having an intimate relationship with him.

I want those kids—and my own kids—to know it’s okay to ask questions; the only dumb question is a question NOT asked!

A Peculiar Tradition

11 Feb 2010

February 14 is a marketer’s dream, a single person’s nightmare, a florist’s pay day, and ultimately, when you stop and think about it, a peculiar tradition.

For what are we actually celebrating on Valentine’s Day? And what are we looking to discover? Sure, ‘romance’ is the obvious answer, but what exactly is romance?

A recent blog on stuff.co.nz asked its readers this same question. The responses (all 104 of them) made for some intriguing reading. There were a couple of the conventional descriptions of romance: giving flowers, surprises of chocolates or jewellery, love notes and poems, and mystery weekends away. Yet by far the overwhelming majority of responses appealed to the little things in life as being the most romantic.

These responses included:

• ‘Warming up my side of the bed on a cold winter’s night’
• ‘The smile that spreads across my partner’s face when I get home’
• ‘Making me laugh every day’
• ‘Cleaning out the shower drain’
• ‘A cup of tea first thing in the morning’

And the list went on.

The small, everyday acts

Although all agreed that displaying ‘X loves Y’ behind an aeroplane is certainly a romantic action, respondents declared that the real fire of romantic love is sparked and kept alive through the small, everyday acts of selfless affection—the same acts that are so very easy to overlook. And the reason they are easy to overlook is that they require a shift in our day-to-day mentality. They’re not just one-off events that are simply switched on and switched off; they require a life geared towards lovingly serving the other person.

Jesus hinted at this description of romance when talking of love in general: ‘Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). And, as Jesus himself demonstrated, this laying down of your life could be in significant one-off events (for Jesus, this was dying on the cross) or, more often than not, in day-to-day expressions of one’s love for another (examples: Jesus washed feet, provided lunch and was always there to talk).

The three Valentines

Back to the peculiarity of Valentine’s Day; it’s an interesting fact that scholars have little idea who Saint Valentine was. They’ve pinned him down to three possibilities: all called Valentine, all martyred between 100 and 400 AD, and all found in the Catholic Church’s martyrology on February 14.

Little is known about these three Valentines—we don’t even know if they had wives—yet we do know they each died as Christian martyrs and therefore each epitomised this principle of love, that it’s about laying your life down for another (for them, it was for love of Jesus Christ).

So this Valentine’s Day let’s follow the three Valentines’ examples and love, not just according to the one-off, conventional methods of romance, but by laying down our lives, moment-by-moment for the ones we love—in the small things and the big. 

By Hayden Shearman (from War Cry magazine)

Equipping Children for Life

27 Jan 2010

A Salvation Army-run early childhood education centre (ECEC) in Britomart Street, Wellington, received a glowing ERO report at the close of 2009 because of its adherence to the centre’s philosophy and dedication to excellence in student learning. The centre is managed and supervised by Salvationist Amy Hutson.

Though the centre has always maintained a Christian basis for education, it was after The Salvation Army New Zeal conference in 2009, which emphasised ‘heaven invading earth’, that staff fully realised their potential to speak into the lives of children at their centre and the wider families. A visit to another Salvation Army ECEC, ‘Kidz Matter 2 Us’ in Waitakere, by Amy and teacher Amanda Pethybridge also provided inspiration.

‘New Zeal was certainly one catalyst,’ says Amy, ‘but our visit to Waitakere was another.

Integrating Christian faith and God for children

New Zeal helped us to know that God had a plan for what we were doing, but Waitakere was really insightful because we could instantly feel the presence of God in their centre. We could see simple ways to integrate Christian faith and God for our children. We were after a natural way to do that and we found some really easy but impacting things at Waitakere.’

Amanda has been a teacher at the centre for the past two years and is one of a number of Salvationists on staff. ‘Our passion is to empower children and their learning,’ she says. ‘But our main priority is sowing positive seeds into these children’s lives, to teach them about the Kingdom and about Jesus and to eventually see our families coming to church.’

Day-to-day learning incorporates Christian principles in children’s daily routines. This includes prayers before meals and nap time, Bible stories and the recent addition of the ‘Prayer Bear’. ‘The children sit around in a circle and pass the Prayer Bear around,’ Amanda explains. ‘When they hold the Prayer Bear they say a little prayer. These started out as simple prayers, being thankful for Mummy and Daddy, but they have really developed. Some of the kids are starting to pray for other children or if someone is sick. It’s really exciting.’

Recently the centre received funding to present each child with a Bible when they leave at age five, the same version used at the centre, increasing the chance of stories sticking with the children as they get older. The funding came from Wellington South Corps Band, which donated half of the proceeds of a pre-tour concert as well as some additional money raised during its trip.

Amy, Amanda and Mary McDonald, another teacher, made the strategic decision to become part of Wellington South Corps in 2009, where teacher Nicole Jellyman and centre cook Tina Tonge also belong. ‘The purpose was to form relationships with a local corps, so that we have a faith community for our centre’s parents to go to,’ says Amy.

When ERO reviewers arrived near the end of last year to conduct their review, they took into mind the centre’s Christian principles as well as its educational quality. They came away impressed. ‘It’s the most impressive ERO report we’ve ever had,’ said Amy. ‘They couldn’t fault us.’

The reviewers also requested to use some of the centre’s written learning material for their exemplar folders, something staff are very excited about. Amy and Amanda say the centre’s glowing report stems from a positive team environment, which has an emphasis on communication, working together and the ability to be flexible.

‘Our success is down to God’s timing and our listening to God,’ says Amy. ‘We thought it was a big task, but if you just open yourself and allow God to use you for his purposes then the possibilities are limitless.’

Salvation Army ECECs

The Salvation Army has seven ECEC centres throughout the North Island, each one providing specialised service to meet a particular community’s needs. Fay Clarke, ECEC national consultant, says the Christian perspective is a priority for each centre along with providing high quality education and care. ‘All our centres want the best for children; the focus is on the children and on bringing out the special qualities, strengths and skills each one has.

‘Three of our centres have introduced “Love letters” for the children, written by the parents,’ she says. ‘Parents are invited to write to their child, post it in the centre post box and have it read out to that child. The letter is then added to the child’s profile folder. This is often the first time a parent has written a letter to their child. Staff ensure that every child gets a letter. It is very moving for staff, children and parents to be involved in such positive affirmation for children.

ECEC work is an integral part of the Army’s mission, says Fay. ‘Our early childhood centres are part of the holistic ministry The Salvation Army provides to families, contributing to social and spiritual wellbeing by empowering people and equipping children for life.’

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

When the Running Stops

26 Jan 2010

Two People Meet on the Path to Christ

Dave, or Big Dave to his friends, despite his slightly overwhelming outer shell has one of the brightest smiles and the biggest hearts I have ever seen. Michelle, shy as she is in her new church family, absolutely sparkles with the love of Christ in her eyes and is bursting to tell people about him.

Neither of these two has led an easy life. Dave found himself in and out of jail eight times since he was 16 for various offenses including robbery and drug possession. He found addictions controlling his life, leading him toward a path full of violence, crime and heavy drugs. Dave fathered six children with four different women, and when his last relationship broke up, he contemplated suicide.

‘This life ate me,’ says Dave. ‘I knew there was something else, but I just had to keep running and riding it out for myself. There was no way that I wanted to commit myself to anything. What I wanted to do was to keep running.’

Michelle’s mum died when she was just four years old, leaving her to drift from place to place with an alcoholic father who loved partying and women. Michelle recalls being sexually abused by the time she was five years old; and because she felt herself unable to love, she eventually began to use her body as a means to get what she wanted.

Michelle found herself in an abusive relationship and quickly formed an addiction to marijuana. She had two children, moved around the country and eventually found herself in and out of rehab with no lasting effect.

‘Everybody that I had ever loved had left me,’ says Michelle, ‘so I learned from a really early age not to love, not to feel anything for anybody else. Eventually my drug addiction really kicked in and that became my best friend in the whole wide world.’

A bigger man

After Dave’s brush with suicide, he realised he needed help. He went to see a drug counsellor who encouraged him to enrol in rehab, but Dave still thought he could do it alone.

‘I thought to myself, “Naw, I can do this.” So I got off the heroin and needles by myself and cut down my drinking,’ says Dave. ‘But there were still a lot of drugs I couldn’t throw out and a lot of attitudes I couldn’t get rid of, so I knew there was something else I had to do.’

He enrolled in rehab at Springhill Residential Treatment Centre in Napier, hoping to finally fully overcome his addictions. Dave has now been drug and alcohol free since 19 August 2007, a fact that makes him beam with pride.

About three weeks after Dave started rehab, he was invited to attend Sunday church at The Salvation Army Napier Corps. Agreeing to go along changed his life. ‘Instantly I felt that I belonged,’ he says with a smile.

Dave continued going to church at the Army and found a stable job outside of drugs for the first time in his life. During that time he also secured accommodation at a halfway house to protect himself against his former lifestyle, and continued to attend Narcotics Anonymous (NA).

After about a month at The Salvation Army Dave made a full-time commitment to Jesus Christ and eventually became a soldier (member) of Napier Corps.

‘I sometimes feel like I don’t know enough, but God puts it in my heart. I don’t need the motorbikes. I don’t need the parties. I don’t need the drugs. I just walked away,’ says Dave. ‘That’s a part of my life that I am happy to give up. Jesus washed me clean. God’s put something else in my heart and I thank him for that.’

A perfect storm

Michelle’s life continued to spiral into a whirl of drugs, sex and depression. Her relationship with her partner was never stable, and Michelle’s relationship with her children was blurred by a constant stream of marijuana and anti-depressants. It was at this time, Michelle says, that she had her first encounter with God.

‘My mates and I were at the beach and I was so scared I thought I was going to die,’ she says. ‘I remember looking up to the sky at God and saying, “What do you want from me?” All of a sudden I got this warmth through my body and it was like all of the sudden, “Yup, I believe. Okay, I believe.”’

So Michelle began taking her steps toward recovery. After her experience at the beach she told her doctor of her drug use, and was encouraged to go to a 12-step drug recovery programme in Napier. Though she agreed to go, Michelle still continued in her lifestyle, not able to admit she had a drug problem.

‘Everyone in the circle there was saying that they had problems with drugs, and when the circle came to me I said it too. But the only reason I said it was because everyone around me was saying it. I felt that I was fine,’ she says. ‘These people were not people that I would hang around with either. It’s crazy to think that a junkie, someone like me, would lie about their problems and still be able to look down on someone else.’

After over a year in rehab, Michelle got out of the abusive relationship for the last time and moved to Rotorua where she met another man and got pregnant. Within three weeks, when Michelle would have been four months pregnant, she went in for a scan and found that her baby had died.

‘My relationship with God was so strong: I hated him. I just couldn’t get over it,’ she says. ‘I ended up having this weird experience where I got to the core of this disease, of this grief and the thought that things were always my fault. I needed to live like it’s not my fault. So I began to realise that this little baby, the way things worked out, all of these feelings and events were getting me closer to God.’

Michelle moved back to Hastings with her now-teenage children and started attending Narcotics Anonymous again. It was there that she came across Dave.

Something is different

‘I was at this stage where I didn’t trust anybody at all, but I remember going to NA on a Friday night and just wanting a hug,’ Michelle says with a twinkle in her eye. ‘And then Dave was there and I asked him if he would give me a hug. I found that I just didn’t want to let go because I felt that he didn’t want to take advantage of me, and when he shared, he shared from his heart. There was just something about him.’

Dave and Michelle got to know each other over time and had their first date, as Dave recalls with perfect clarity, at McDonalds during the opening ceremony for the Olympics on 8 August 2008. But as Michelle soon discovered, Dave’s recovery was radically different than her own because of one thing: his church.

‘One thing fascinating about Dave was him going to the Sallies and that it was important to him,’ she says. ‘I had grown up in NA and I thought that was the only way. But he was going to church and he didn’t go to NA like I did, yet he seemed well. I couldn’t comprehend how someone could get that same wellness not through NA.’

Earlier this year Dave gave his testimony at Napier Corps and invited Michelle to come along. Though her scepticism of church was strong and she wasn’t even sure at that time what a ‘testimony’ was, she agreed to go along, as she says, not to go to church, but just to support Dave. This was her first real church experience.

After that, Michelle says, she didn’t continue to come along to church, but she would wait in the parking lot to take Dave home after the morning service.

‘I would come here and I would wait outside because there was still something in me that thought that they were going to judge me,’ she says. ‘But they would all come outside and say hello to me! It was really weird; they treated me like I was something special. So then I decided to come to church with Dave.’

A child-like faith

Michelle went to the Sallies with Dave, who held her hand as she sat and listened, and eventually began to pray and ask questions. Michelle recalls her instant love of the preaching with its down-to-earth storytelling style. She also recalls with a smile and a wink at Dave the ‘old girls’ of the church who would come to pray with her most Sundays in those early days. But church was still far out of her comfort zone.

Dave and Michelle were married six months and three days after they met, and it wasn’t until after this that Michelle really started to make church her own.

‘It was only about a year ago that I found that I wanted to cry all the time. I would just start crying at church and I just didn’t know why,’ she says. ‘I wasn’t sad; people were just touching me when they were up front. Even the songs would do it! I started to understand the songs.

‘What would get me would be the simple words, “God loves you”, “God is good” ’, she continues. ‘These simple words would just make me start crying.’

As Michelle begins to tell of her full acceptance of Jesus Christ in her life, Dave smiles back at her with tears running down his cheeks. She speaks of praying at the front of church, not knowing why people went up to the front to pray but yet knowing that the commitment she was making was the start of something huge.

Michelle attended The Salvation Army’s New Zeal conference last year where she says ‘something came together’. She found herself becoming closer to her church family and experienced a moment on the last day where she says God freed her of her past.

‘All of a sudden it was like all of my life and all the pain was whizzing past me,’ she says. ‘And it was like everything that had been taken from me had been given back.

‘I am a baby Christian,’ Michelle continues with a smile. ‘I want to know things, I still challenge things, but I know that I am still childlike and I love that about me. My faith just keeps filling up and filling up.’

Dave recently completed the Leadership Jesus Way course in Napier and plans to help mentor other men with similar backgrounds to his own. Michelle continues to find out more about the Bible and the joy it can bring to her life. And together they are growing into exactly what they believe God created them to be.

‘We are learning about the Word [of God] and carrying a message on,’ says Michelle. ‘We’re educating ourselves—we’re getting to know people in the church and we are getting to know each other as well’.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

The Right Choice

26 Jan 2010

For a long time I had been in a fairly dark place. I was unhappy, angry and desperate, had virtually no self-confidence and hated myself. Basically, I was severely depressed. My turning point came when I was fired from a job I despised.

Looking back, being fired was the best thing that could have happened to me. It was the kick in the pants that I needed. Because I didn’t have a job, I couldn’t afford my rent. Thankfully, my parents had a spare room they were able to offer me. So, I moved north and into my parents’ place. I’m lucky they’re really supportive and that I’m able to talk openly with them. Everyone needs at least one person they can turn to when they need to talk.

Even though I had a roof over my head, I needed some form of income to cover my bills, so I went to see WINZ. As a condition of receiving my benefit, I had to do a course. That was how I was put onto The Salvation Army Employment Plus. I spoke to Bronwynne and was placed on the ‘Right Choice’ course.

The course was brilliant. It was the best thing I could’ve done and came at the perfect time. Some of the work is tough as it really makes you look at yourself and sometimes pushes you out of your comfort zone. But it really is worth it.

Things in my life keep going from strength to strength

Doing the course helped me realise what was really important to me and what I really wanted to achieve in life. It helped to shift my focus from all the bad stuff in my life, to where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. It helped give me a sense of purpose. The support and friendship that I received at The Salvation Army Employment Plus really helped as well.

As soon as I started focusing on the good stuff, things started getting better. I started to find a lot of jobs that I was interested in and that I could apply for. I ended up with a few interviews and just as I finished the Right Choice course, I was offered a job in an area I was interested in. I accepted that job and haven’t looked back.

Things in my life keep going from strength to strength and I can’t thank The Salvation Army Employment Plus enough for all their help. I love my job, I’m in a great flat with awesome people, and I’m happier than I have been for as long as I can remember. Things are getting better by the day, because I still use the tools I learned on the Right Choice course.

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt in the past year is, if you are positive and put your mind to it, you can achieve your dreams. Take a chance. Make a choice. And take that step to a brighter future.

Looking at Balance

26 Jan 2010

After what can seem to parents an interminably long summer holiday we’re shopping for stationery and counting sleeps as we ready our darlings for another exciting school year. Hooray!

Those whose exam results were less than delightful may already have a cloud over their heads. If that’s so, parents need to nurture optimism about what’s on the horizon. Disappointment remains one of life’s most important, yet most underwhelming, building blocks.

As children head back to school they enter an environment that exists to teach the essential skills for success within society. This includes the basics of reading, writing, maths, communication skills and computing. They’ll learn and practise important social skills: how to follow orders, how to get along with others and how to handle conflict. And they’ll learn about culture—theirs and other people’s. For instance, with Waitangi Day on the horizon, the melting pot of New Zealand school children will learn about the Treaty of Waitangi Day and a bi-cultural relationship that still needs care.

Pray for the nation’s children as they shoulder their school bags to start this new school year. And pray for their teachers. The demands on them are countless and complex. Some will remain fond figures in their students’ memories for a lifetime; others will be recalled as ineffective figures that missed more opportunities than they met.

All I ever really needed to know I learned in kindergarten

Newspaper columnist Robert Fulghum wrote a wonderful piece in the 1980s headlined ‘All I ever really needed to know I learned in kindergarten’. He suggested everyone in the world stop for cookies and milk at three o’clock each day then lie down with their blankets for a nap. Ah, bliss.

Here are a few things Fulghum says he learned in his formative years: ‘Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush …’

Even after leaving teachers, classrooms and lunchtime games of tag behind, we should never forget the lessons learned at school. One lesson, reinforced by timetables and school bells, is the importance of balance: fitting a variety of tasks and experiences into a day.

What does ‘balance’ look like? Here is Fulghum’s school-day definition: ‘Learn some and think some and draw and paint and dance and play and work every day some.’ I don’t know about you, but—with the addition of prayer—that sounds like a worthwhile mix for any day.

By Christina Tyson (from War Cry magazine)

Learning to Listen to God

11 Jan 2010

It can be difficult trying to hear and understand what God wants for your life - to figure out what he is calling you to and to clearly discern his voice.

Lieutenant Pati Leqa, newly commissioned as a Salvation Army officer (ordained minister), and Cadet Geoffrey Miller (commencing his second year of officer training), both from Fiji, discuss their experiences of learning to listen to God and tell how God made it clear that his plan was for them to be Salvation Army officers. The following is adapted for the web - a full version appears in the 16 January edition of War Cry magazine.

How did you begin to understand and hear God’s voice?

Pati: I think it started in our family devotions, as simple as they were, with Scripture and prayer. I grew up watching my mum’s mum spending hours reading her Bible and praying. She and her brother, a Methodist pastor, were some of the main influences on my life in discerning the will of God. In those family times I began to make that connection with God, to yearn for something more, something deeper. From this God started to speak to my heart. I felt there was a call to do God’s work.

Geoffrey: When I was younger I was healed from a rare sickness that was related to a spiritual curse. An Assembly of God (AOG) pastor prayed over me and he became the first person to help me along my spiritual journey as my pastor and mentor. I became involved with that church, but when its college suggested that I become a full-time ordained AOG pastor I told them I didn’t want to as I was already involved in ministry within The Salvation Army. The principal suggested that I needed time to pray and seek God about it. So I sought God and after one month of praying and fasting I came to conclusion that God didn’t really have a ministry for me in the AOG.

How did you hear God calling you to Salvation Army Officership?

Geoffrey: He came to me in a voice. I had been praying and fasting over a month. I couldn’t sleep at all and would be awake all night. All that came to me was to pray, pray, pray. One night when I was about to go to bed I had an urging to go into my Salvation Army corps and pray. I was sitting up praying and suddenly heard a voice that said, ‘I am calling you to The Salvation Army for ministry.’ There was a real peace throughout the rest of that week for me and I could sleep well. I thought to myself that this must be the call of God and I was thrilled about it.

Pati: While I was working at Telecom I began to feel God wanting me to leave there. Though I was getting good pay and had the promise of a promotion I knew that this was God’s voice urging me to leave. So I left. My boss really supported me and told me he admired me for making this choice.

The searching then began as I said to God, ‘Where to now?’ God laid out before me his call on my life. He gave me clear words: ‘I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes.’ I had been fasting and praying, just seeking God. I was reading the Scripture a lot and found that same verse in Jeremiah 5:14. That confirmed to me that this was God’s call.

I met Lusi and we got married in 2001. I had completed studies at the South Pacific Missionary Training College where I did theology studies and missionary training and was doing an internship at the Nadi Gospel Brethren Assembly. Lusi was working as a writer for Pacific Islands Business Magazine in its Suva office. We had to work around our schedules and there were times when we wouldn’t meet for weeks. We knew that if we didn’t do something immediately we would have problems in our marriage, so Lusi decided to leave writing and come and support me in the ministry in Nadi.

How do you feel knowing you have obeyed God’s call and are doing what he planned for your life?

Pati: Real excitement and at the same time a sense of huge responsibility. But there’s still that sense that it’s divine. Even with my preparation, I can’t do this on my own. I can’t describe the feeling, but Lusi and I are really excited to see what God has in store for us.

Geoffrey: I feel so peaceful about it because I know that when God calls, he provides; that’s what I have experienced. When I went to Bible College I had nothing. But I went through all three years of study. The College Bursar told me that someone paid my fees. And I know that if I have to venture out to do something that concerns God’s calling on my life for me to do, whether it’s hard or means to be another country or means adapting to life or concerns over money or whatever, I don’t have any worries at all in stepping out because I know God will provide.

What advice can you give to others who are trying to figure out God’s call on their life?

Geoffrey: The best and only way to hear God’s call is to seek him—that’s the first thing you should do. Seek God, pray, ask the Lord to reveal himself—reveal his plan—in whatever way what he is wanting. God can use other people as instruments who give confirmation, but it is most important to seek the Lord about it: fasting, praying, spending time with him, reading his Word and having that real deep desire to just seek him.

Pati: One thing that I have learned, and that Lusi and I have learned as a couple, is just to be obedient, hard as it may seem sometimes. Learn to say, ‘Yes, Lord, you know what is best.’ Learn to trust God.

I’m not perfect; I’ve failed a lot. There are times that I am tempted, and I have succumbed; I have relied on my experience and my knowledge instead of truly just waiting on God. But I don’t care how many times Satan gets me down, I get up and continue to fight. God is so on target; he knows what he is doing. Trust him!

By Sarah Healey (from War Cry magazine)

The Second Journey

08 Jan 2010

O Ira, what are we going to do with the rest of our lives?’ That’s the question the heroine of Anne Tyler’s novel Breathing Lessons poses to her husband.

It’s a question that rises from within when one’s chosen path no longer seems enticing or fulfilling. It’s a heart cry that’s sometimes acted out in damaging fashion, with out-of-character or downright irrational behaviour (extra-marital affairs, spending splurges and the like). Consequently, it’s often labelled as a ‘mid-life crisis’ question.

But in a world where it’s becoming more usual for people to switch work paths anything from five to 15 times, this question can come at any age. It’s sometimes birthed out of disappointment or even trauma. Those who work with cancer survivors, for instance, say it’s common for them to seek out more meaningful avenues of work or leisure. No one says, ‘I’m glad I got cancer’, but almost everyone says, ‘It changed the way I look at my life, the way I handle relationships, my career—everything.’

The question necessarily arises out of unemployment or job insecurity. The New Zealand Government’s career services website features the story of a man who started a new job in the forestry industry after his supermarket job was restructured. ‘From the moment I started, I knew this job was for me,’ he says. ‘I just wish I’d known about it 20 years earlier.’

At its core, the question: ‘What am I going to do with the rest of my life?’ is concerned with investment. It’s on the heart or the lips of a person who senses their innate worth as God’s creation, and who may be questioning whether it’s time to better deliver on their worth rather than keep-on-keeping-on in the current, perhaps mundane routine of everyday life.

Author Brennan Manning suggests in The Ragamuffin Gospel that this is the prevailing question of life’s ‘second journey’. It comes when we are aware that we have only a limited amount of time left to accomplish what really matters, he says. This awareness sheds light on what really counts and provides a new centre.

A Second Call from Jesus

For the Christian, says Manning, this second journey, which typically occurs between the ages of 30 and 60, is often accompanied by a second call from Jesus: a call to a deeper, more mature and less naive faith that replaces some of the idealism of youth. This second call invites us to reflect on ‘the nature and quality of our faith … our hope in the new and not yet, and our love for God and people’.

If, at the start of a new year, you are considering leaping into some new opportunity, listen carefully for God’s wise counsel as you consider the pros and cons. God may have truly super plans for you this year, so be open to the intersection of your availability with his possibilities!

By Christina Tyson (from War Cry magazine)

Reasons to be thankful and hopeful

21 Dec 2009

Despite our considerable economic problems, New Zealand is still a great place to live so let’s look at some things about New Zealand that we should be thankful, or at least hopeful, for.

We are Honest

The cult TV series Flight of the Conchords depicts New Zealanders as basically honest and trusting, perhaps naively so. Transparency International produce a ‘corruptions perceptions index’ ¹ or CPI which measures and ranks countries by the degree of corruption that is evidenced in public life. New Zealand ranks 1st out of 180 countries on a CPI of 9.4 just ahead of Demark on 9.3 and way ahead of our ex-convict Australian cousins who came in 8th at 8.7.

We are Free

Don Brash the former National Party leader and Reserve Bank governor has recently chaired a group known as the 2025 Taskforce whose job it was to find ways of closing the income between New Zealand and Australia. The 2025 Taskforce completed a report on New Zealand’s economic prospects entitled ‘Answering the $64,000 Question’.² Most commentators have criticised his proposals as being ideology dressed up as policy given Mr Brash’s penchant for seldom allowing the facts to get in the way of a good idea. How else can we explain this reports claim that … ‘Good estimates done in other countries using a variety of methods suggest that as much as one third of the income gap to Australia could be closed if we are able to move New Zealand to world best practices across all the major areas of regulation’ (p117). It is difficult to understand how New Zealand is so far behind ‘world best practices’ when the neo-liberal group, the Economic Freedom Network,³ report that New Zealand is ranked third in the world for economic freedom including being first in terms of business-friendly regulation and in the regulation of the banking system.

We are Well Off

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) publishes a Human Development Report and a Human Development Index⁴ which reports progress in key development indicators such as life expectancy, education enrolments and per capita income. The 2009 report is based on 2007 data and ranks New Zealand 20th in the world with an index score of 0.950 well behind second ranked Australia with a score of 0.970. New Zealand however ranked 14th overall in life expectancy and second in enrolment rates but we were weighed down by our 32nd in per capita GDP.

We are Satisfied

The Gallup organisation undertakes a ‘World Poll’ of people’s life satisfaction. The 2006 Poll ranked New Zealanders as the 9th most satisfied with their lives scoring 7.3 out of an 11 point score. We are apparently slightly less satisfied than Australians and slightly happier than the Flemish (or Belgians).

We Don't Work Too Much

This general happiness is also borne out by the Quality of Life Survey undertaken by Statistics New Zealand and reported in The Social Report 2009.⁵ In 2008 78 percent of working New Zealanders were satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance and three-quarters of New Zealanders are satisfied or very satisfied with their recreation and leisure time. These proportions were slightly higher than in 2006. The survey shows that the young and the old are the happiest and that all ethnicities are more or less uniformly happy.

We are Prosperous

The Legatum Institute publishes the Legatum Prosperity Index which is a broadly defined measure of prosperity which extends beyond financial wealth.⁶ This index ranks New Zealand as the tenth most prosperous country in 2009 just behind United States and just ahead of Ireland. We ranked a poor 27th in terms of our economic fundamentals which is hardly surprising but 1st in terms of the quality of our social capital and 6th in terms of personal freedoms.

Our Kids are Clever

Despite the misgivings of our Minister of Education Anne Tolley over the quality of our education system New Zealand school students appear to do quite well by international; standards. The Programme for International Student Assessment undertaken by the OECD ranked New Zealand 2nd to Finland in the proportion of 15 year old students achieving in science at a high level. New Zealand is also ranked 5th just behind Finland and just ahead of Demark in graduation rates for tertiary students and 7th overall in our expenditure on education.⁷

So have a great Christmas everyone and make the most of what you have. From all accounts we have a great deal to be thankful for so lets give thanks for that.

By Alan Johnson (from SPPU)

¹See Transparency International’s website for the Corruptions Perceptions Index
²See 2025 Taskforce's website for the report, Answering the $64,000 Question
³See Free the World's website for the report, Economic Freedom of the World
⁴See The United Nations's website for the Human Development Index
⁵See Statistic New Zealand's website for The Social Report 2009, pp54-55 and pp90-91
⁶See Legatum Institute's website for the Legatum Prosperity Index
⁷See OECD's website for the report, The Programme for International Student Assessment

The Christmas Blues

15 Dec 2009

As a child I raced towards Christmas Day. My Christmas pilgrimage began after school ended. Mary and Joseph may have travelled by donkey (the Bible only tells us they arrived in Bethlehem, not their mode of transport), but our family travelled by Kingswood as we journeyed from Wellington to Palmerston North and Grandma’s.

Family Festivity

Aged Christmas decorations were taken out of storage and the tree trimmed. We dusted off deck chairs and hung out under the summer sun, cycling to the local swimming pool as the temperature climbed. No pump bottles of sunscreen; sunburn (and peeling!) was a summer ritual. Seven cents bought a Popsicle in those days, and the local dairy would even choc-dip a lemonade or cola ice block for an extra few cents.

Money went further, but consumerism was still the order of the day. I recall the year my sister and I got Barbie dolls—an extravagant gift. I also remember snapping off one of my doll’s arms within just a few hours and my father, the quintessential Kiwi DIY-er, fashioning a metal pin to restore her to full mobility.

Church attendance wasn’t a big part of my family’s Christmas observance. My grandmother, a churchgoer for most of her life, had ‘fallen out’ with her local church after the death of a son from cancer in his mid-teens. I understand her response to such a tragedy but wish the bitterness that gripped her after my uncle’s death could have found solace in a God who is no stranger to suffering.

The Christmas Gloom

However, as I head towards this Christmas, disappointment colours my own outlook on the season. The latter part of this year has brought challenges that, it’s fair to say, I didn’t anticipate this time last year and that I am struggling to resolve. I am sure that I will, in time, but I’m not there yet. And so a sense of gloom hangs heavy this December. I sense it as my 15-year-old son asks: ‘Are we having a real Christmas tree this year?’ and my initial (unspoken) response is: ‘Do we have to have a tree at all?!’

I’m surely not alone in my dread at putting on a ‘Christmas face’. Christmas exacerbates existing stressors and can be a tipping point. It’s therefore no academic exercise to consider an antidote to Christmas gloom. But neither do I want some clichéd prescription for ‘joy in a box’. For me, the answer that seems to be revealing itself is returning to the essence of that first Christmas, before the trappings of Christmas consumerism, sentimentality and holiday making got mixed in.

A Season of Waiting

When Jesus was born there was strong anticipation at what the coming of Messiah (deliverer) would mean for his people. This was no trouble-free time: God’s people were suffering. They may not have sat in a counsellor’s office to tally their ‘stress scale’ scores (Christmas carries a score of 16 points, by the way), but they knew that life was not always easy. And they were calling on God to put things right.

Jesus came into a season of waiting. And for me, and perhaps some of you, this Christmas is such a season. Perhaps you are waiting to see what God will do next in and around your present reality.

Waiting is hard. When my children were young we didn’t put presents under the tree until almost Christmas Day because the anticipation (and temptation!) would become almost overwhelming. As they’ve grown older they understand that the presents are there but they’re secret; not yet revealed. This is the essence of Christmas gift giving: anticipation and expectation together. Something good is coming (there is no doubt), but we have to wait a while.

As I consider how the story of Jesus intersects with my own, particularly when my own story has hit what novelists might term a ‘narrative challenge’, I am reminded that when life gets muddled and messy, it’s especially important to look for signs of God’s presence and listen for his will. I need to watch and pray.

The ancient writer cries, ‘How long?’ to God (Psalm 94), but quickly adds: ‘When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your love, O Lord, supported me.’ While our instinct in tough times (or simply at Christmas) can be to ignore God, these are the very times we need to turn our face towards him.

By Christina Tyson (From War Cry)

Simeon’s Vigil

15 Dec 2009

A Man of Great Hope

I love Simeon’s story because he was a man of such great hope. At the time when Jesus was born the Israelites had already been in captivity for a thousand years or more and were under Roman rule. King Herod, around this time, ordered the massacre of all Jewish baby boys in Bethlehem and placed forbidden idols in the temple. The Jews were not willing subjects to the Romans and this most certainly was not a time of overwhelming hope for Israel’s reconstruction.

But Simeon went against the grain. He was a man who still dared to hope that God would carry out his plan to free Israel from their bondage through the coming of the Messiah.

I can’t help but wonder what Simeon must have looked like to the people around him. I imagine this old, stooped man with a white beard and kind, sparkling brown eyes, leaning in with a smile of heedless joy on his face as he whispers, ‘He’s coming soon, you know. The Messiah, he’s coming!’ They must have thought he was crazy—I probably would have.

The Promised Messiah

But Simeon bubbled over with the joy of the Holy Spirit and the promise he had received that he would live to see God’s promised Messiah dwell among the people.

What I love most about Simeon’s story, though, is what happened when he met his Messiah—a tiny baby only eight days old lying in his mother’s arms.

I wonder how Simeon pictured it would be when he finally did meet the Messiah. I wonder if he expected to see Jesus as the Messiah realised, performing miracles and heralding Israel out of bondage, not as a child brought to the temple to be circumcised.

I think that if I had been in Simeon’s position I would have doubted myself when looking at that baby: how can I be so sure that this baby out of all the rest will one day step into his role as Messiah? Maybe if God opened the babe’s mouth and he spoke, maybe then I could be sure.

Not a Doubting Moment

Simeon didn’t spare a moment for doubt. I see his brown eyes looking into Mary’s, full of tears, as he asks to hold the child in his arms—I love that we can assume that Mary allowed this easily. And when Simeon’s eyes meet those of baby Jesus, we can be sure that his spirit leapt inside him and that he knew in an instant he could die in peace because here, in his arms, was the salvation of Israel, the one promised since ages past; the one promised to change the world for forever to come.

Simeon didn’t, as I certainly would have, question Joseph and Mary on how they planned to rear the boy; he didn’t run him into the temple and demand that Jesus learn there exactly how the Messiah was meant to behave. He didn’t question why God had not allowed him to see the Messiah in action; he simply looked into the child’s eyes and praised God purely and completely.

There was no doubt, there were no questions. In Simeon there was only joy, an even bigger dose of hope than had been there that morning and the knowledge that it would be accomplished, just as God had said.

I like to think that Simeon went home that afternoon in total peace and perhaps a bit straighter—his beloved Israel would finally be saved and he himself would finally go in peace.

God's Gift

I don’t think that you and I view Jesus’ birth in the same way that Simeon did. We get caught up in consumerism and tradition, in staying out of debt and spending time with family.

Christmas is often the busiest time of the year and can easily become a time when we forget about the magnitude of God’s gift even as we read from Luke before opening our presents on Christmas morning. Jesus’ birth sometimes even becomes a technicality in the overall story: well, yeah, he was born, but it’s the fact that he died and rose again that’s of real importance!

But listen! Christ came and dwelt among us because of the great, loving and incredible sacrifice of our awesome God. Not only that, but Christ lived as we do, encountered temptation and overcame it as a man—he became all that we aspire to be.

Without the birth of the child in the manger we would live a faith submerged in sin and devoid of hope.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

‘God pulled me through’

14 Dec 2009

I was brought into the Mormon faith, and struggled with the strictness of it. I got dis-fellowshipped after my fourth year at the church school and ended up going off the track when I went to AUT in Auckland to become a chef and met my wife in a nightclub.

She got pregnant about a month later. We married when I was 20 and she was 19 and I worked at the Sheraton Hotel. We struggled through the first five years of our marriage and I got very sick when I was 21 with a tumour in my chest. We lost our house and I picked up a rare disease, which affects my adrenaline, and Addison’s disease.

But God pulled me through that. Both of my illnesses are treatable, which is amazing. So I went back into work, and out there in the secular world priorities are upside down. I ended up getting really caught up in it, and drink probably became my worst drug.

I struggled with liquor for about nine years. It even got worse when my wife went for a job here at The Salvation Army about 12 years ago. When she told me not to drink, I went way, way overboard.

My wife started fostering children about eight years ago when I was right at the peak of this journey of self-destruction, and about six years ago I smashed my company car. My whole life changed from that day.

I ended up doing my community hours here at the Sallies after going through the court system. One of my jobs was to paint the walls of the prayer room. You know what? My name was on that wall 24 times. That’s powerful stuff!

I started coming to church with my wife because I had nothing else to do. After a while I started listening to the promptings of the Spirit and realised that in the preaching there was a lot of stuff for me.

I accepted a job working for Community Ministries as a driver and started getting to days apart where I wasn’t thinking of my drinking. My priorities changed and family came at the top. I had been at The Salvation Army for about six months and knew that I needed to make a commitment, so I became a Salvation Army soldier.

One of my first things from God after that was to work with the homeless. I really love these men. I’ve been working with them for four years. I know this has come from God and I really care about these guys. I play a huge part with the homeless people in West Auckland; I am able to have a voice for them.

I love this job. I absolutely love it. God has taught me about who I am, about who Malvin Reihana is: I am a child of God and he loves me so much.

Community at Christmas

14 Dec 2009

Zandea grew up attending church, but when the fellowship she was a part of with her mum split, she lost interest and no longer felt drawn to a church community.

‘At that point in my life I was quite rebellious,’ says Zandea. ‘I didn’t enjoy church because it didn’t relate to me in any way. So I told Mum to go find a church and that when she did I would come along for her sake.’

Zandea’s mum started coming to The Salvation Army in Waitakere, known locally as ‘The Faith Factory’, helping with their community meals by washing dishes with her friend. Later, when she realised that The Faith Factory was a church fellowship as well, she began attending worship services. 

Zandea visited The Faith Factory a few times, and although she appreciated the preaching and the community feel of the place, it still did not resonate with who she was then. It wasn’t until she had a visual encounter with the suffering Christ that her faith became her own.

‘My mum invited me along to Passion of the Christ and that was my first God encounter,’ she says. ‘I had heard messages about Jesus Christ dying on the cross before, but it just didn’t click for me. It was all words.

‘Visually seeing the suffering and the pain and the anguish, that hurt,’ she continues. ‘I found myself saying, “If that’s how much you love me; if that’s how much you love me, Jesus, that you would die on the cross for me, then I want to give you my all.”’

Planting the Seed

Zandea attended church at The Faith Factory the next morning and accepted Christ into her heart during the altar call.

‘Whenever I think of the love of Jesus, I just look at the cross,’ she says. ‘When I testify about his love for me, it’s like I’m speechless. It’s like there aren’t enough words to explain just how much I feel overwhelmed by that. That’s the memory I will always have, going back to the cross: that’s what keeps breaking me every time.’

In 2006, two years later, Zandea joined the Waitakere Community Ministries team to give back a bit of what she had received.

But Zandea, who hadn’t known what food banks were before accepting her new position, had a lot to learn about The Salvation Army’s call in the community.

‘Let me tell you, it was a real big learning curve and a really big challenge,’ she says. ‘My eyes have been wide open about the needs and helping people, but also encouraging and empowering them to help themselves.’

‘Sometimes the giving doesn’t quite hit the mark because there is more underlying in these people’s lives,’ says Zandea. ‘So we see how we can gauge that opportunity too, learning how to build the relationships and move forward. These people become part of the family.’

Watching it Grow

During past Christmas seasons, Community Ministries at The Faith Factory has given out food hampers to families who have come to them throughout the year for help, whether it be for physical, emotional, mental or spiritual reasons.

Though Zandea says that families have gone away blessed by the hampers, because of changes in funding and because the team has birthed an even greater community focus, she felt the food hampers weren’t quite ‘hitting the mark’.

‘For me, Christmas time is such a challenge because I see a lot of gifts going out all the time, and sometimes I sit there and wonder if we are actually hitting the mark with that,’ she says. ‘We want to do something and do it well, and to do that we need to do it with the people coming through our doors.

‘For instance, we work with some homeless guys that we provide utilities and meals for on a weekly basis,’ she continues. ‘What are they going to do at Christmas? If we give them a hamper, how are they going to cook it? Where are they going to prepare a Christmas lunch? Who are they going to share it with?’

So this Christmas Zandea and her team are working toward their goal of building relationships with the community by having a Christmas banquet on Christmas Day with an open invitation and a heart to serve.

Collecting the Harvest

Zandea set to work with her team organising the lunch, inviting those who would have nowhere to go at Christmas and getting the wider Salvation Army church family involved. The response has been overwhelming.

A local chef, who owns a café in nearby Henderson, offered his services for the dinner, even offering to open his own kitchen on the day if required. Salvation Army members have offered to help peel potatoes, set up the hall and come along with their families to connect with other members of the community.

‘I envisage that we are going to sit around these tables and we are actually going to talk and to reflect and ask, “What has been good and what has been not so good this year?”’ she says. ‘It has been a long year and a hard year with deaths or addictions or whatever it is, but see where we are now and see what we celebrate.

‘It’s just bringing the love and the joy of what Christmas is all about,’ she continues, ‘being around people that love and care for you. As long as I see people sitting around and having a meal together, for me we have achieved it.’

The message Zandea and her team want to send this Christmas is simple. ‘It’s not about handouts; it’s about coming and joining us because we want you to know that there is a family here. We’re saying: “I want to love and care for and support you through whatever you’re going through”—that’s what Christmas is about for us this year.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

Adopt-a-cell

05 Dec 2009

The ‘Adopt-a-cell’ project is being run by the Prison Chaplaincy Service of Aotearoa New Zealand (PCSANZ) in conjunction with Caritas.

The Salvation Army’s representative on the PSCANZ Board is Major Graham Rattray. ‘Prison visitation and court ministries have been significant parts of The Salvation Army’s work since our beginnings,’ he says. ‘The recent growth explosion of our prison populations calls for an even greater response—and the Adopt-a-cell prayer project is an excellent way to do something.

The Power of Prayer

‘Remember the power of 24/7 Prayer, how Salvationists from corps and social programmes were galvanised through a shared commitment to prayer? 24/7 Prayer must surely be seen as a turning point for The Salvation Army as we sought God’s will and power for our movement. We know prayer works, and so I’d encourage Salvationists to sign up for Adopt-a-cell. Pray that New Zealand prison cells become a source of grace, conversion and redemption for prisoners.’

Kilian de Lacy is the PCSANZ spokesperson for Adopt-a-cell. She says, ‘Many of us are familiar with Matthew chapter 25, where Jesus says unequivocally: “I was in prison and you visited me.” Most Christians are not able to “visit” a prison in the physical sense, but we can all pray!’

Those who get involved in Adopt-a-cell receive a prayer card naming a particular cell in a specific unit of a New Zealand prison. While the identities of prisoners are not shared, Jesus, who knows what it is like to be in prison, knows each individual by name—and loves them with an undying love.

As well as praying for present and past occupants of their assigned cell, people are asked to pray for the families and victims of prisoners, the chaplains who minister to prisoners, and all who staff New Zealand prisons.

The Financial and Social Cost

Says Kilian, ‘In this country, we are constantly being told that, in the interests of our safety, we must lock up those who break the law for longer and longer periods and, preferably, “throw away the key”. The result is huge numbers of people housed in more and more prisons at immense cost—financially and socially—to all of us.

‘It is not enough for us as Christians to simply shake our heads at the ever-increasing levels of violence in our society. It is not enough to consign those who commit the violence to prison and forget about them. In due course, most prisoners will have served their time and be released. Do we want them just to pick up where they left off and go back to jail, or do we want them to find redemption during their time in custody?

‘We are in a position to help this come about. Prayer is stronger than chains and prison bars. So let’s do it! Let’s reform our prison population by prayer.’

• To join the Adopt-a-cell prayer team, contact Kilian de Lacy, p: (04) 381 3340; PO Box 9, Wellington 6140; or e: Kilian

Julian (‘Junior’) Yates

04 Dec 2009

I used to get lots of hidings. My mum was a dealer and guys would come to the house and give me hidings. Barnardos hooked me up with Granddad and Nana, a Christian couple in Porirua, who adopted me when I was five.

Granddad used to read Scriptures to me when I went to bed. A year after moving in with them, I accepted Jesus. A few years later, in 2002, Granddad passed away. I was 12. When he died, I felt I didn’t like Jesus anymore. It wasn’t fair.

I got into a group of friends and we started our own little crew—a small gang called STO (Street Thug Outlaws). We got into drink, drugs and heaps of fights. We fought the Mongrel Mob and other groups because we wanted to get known.

I thought it was cool at first, but then I got a bit scared. I thought I was going to die. My Nana was getting sick of me, too. She didn’t want me to get killed or anything. She rang The Salvation Army.

That’s when I moved to The Inn, a boy’s home [run by Wellington 614 Corps]. I soon lost my connection to my gang in Porirua, but I drank heaps. It felt good to drink.

One day I held up a bottle store. I was off drinking the bottles when two police dogs sniffed me out and I was arrested. I had old charges as well, so I got sentenced to six months in jail. I only ended up serving three, which isn’t very long, but it was long for me, eh!

Jail affected me a lot. I missed everyone. It sucked. I went to church on Sundays, though, and I prayed a lot in jail—every morning, every night. I wanted Jesus to help me. I used to listen to my mate next door read the Bible to me.

I rang The Salvation Army on my last day in jail and they invited me back to The Inn. I took classes at Wellington City Mission and joined a small group at 614 Corps.

I’ve cut down on my drinking dramatically. I’m staying out of trouble. I haven’t been arrested and I haven’t fought anyone.

I made a commitment to Jesus and, on 11 October, I became an adherent [member] in The Salvation Army.

I never really used to smile. Now I’m happy. Life is pretty good, eh!

• For more on Wellington 614 Corps, go to www.614wellington.org

One Shot for Glory

04 Dec 2009

One shot for glory: could there have been any more perfect marketing slogan than the one used for the New Zealand v Bahrain 2010 Fifa World Cup Qualifier? On 14 November over 35,000 spectators at the Wellington Cake Tin, aware of the Fifa ‘away goals’ rule, wanted just one goal: one more than Bahrain.

Ricki Herbert’s squad knew they were part of a mighty moment and brought their all to the match. Fitness, technique, discipline and the passion of their hearts: all were at their coach’s disposal.

I witnessed this epic struggle just six rows back from both teams’ benches and, to a man, our team was glorious! Ryan Nelson was solid in defence and inspirational as captain. But it was Rory Fallon’s surgical first half goal, off  a corner cross from Wellingtonian Leo Bertos, and Mark Paston’s heart-stopping save from a penalty in the second half that secured victory for the All Whites.

A goal makes a difference

There isn’t one aspect of life: sports, education, work, family, health or friendships, where a goal doesn’t make the difference. To avoid mediocrity and realise a sense of purpose we have to set clear goals and pursue them. Goals help us narrow life’s choices from an abundance of options; they keep us being sidelined from what’s most important.

The Bible stresses that when it comes to pursuing a goal, determination and focus on our coach’s direction are essential: ‘… So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won’t let go. And we must be determined … We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete.’ (Hebrews 12:1-2, CEV)

Motivation

Each of us is going after wins in life, but the key to securing those wins is not the ‘what’ of a particular goal but the ‘why’. Motivation matters most.

The All Whites’ goal was to win that 14 November qualifier, but the ‘why’ was what fired them up. It wasn’t the glory that came on the day (heady as it was), or the money (and we’re talking up to $13 million); their ‘why’ was the chance to compete on the world’s greatest football stage. That’s what made this the greatest match of every one of those players’ lives.

Perhaps you’ve set some important goals, yet they still seem unachievable. Maybe they’re even more distant today than when you first set them. Go back to the ‘why’ of those goals. Consider the positive impact of reaching them: What will it mean for you? Who will it help? How will it change the world, even on a local scale?

Remind yourself of why you set your goals in the first place. Determine to pursue them with all the discipline and passion of your heart.

Sometimes success comes down to a goal. Pure and simple.

By Christina Tyson (from War Cry)

Why Church?

16 Nov 2009

Many people find church a hard part of their walk with Christ whether because of hurts, time commitments, circumstances or because they sense hypocrisy. Some of us find it hard to relate to Christians who hold different views than us, we wish the music was louder or softer or that the organ would come back in style, and we just can’t seem to agree with our pastor’s view on theology.

So why do so many of us still attend church regularly, and why do we view it as so important?

First, going to church is an expression of our love for God. When we come together on a Sunday we spend quality time together lifting up God’s name. While we do seek to praise God through our daily devotions or when reading the Bible, a primary purpose for church worship is to take time out of our schedules and spent time meditating on and praising the name of our Lord.

Positive Community

Second, church is a beautiful place for positive community. While we all carry our different baggage with us to church fellowship (see Stephen W. Simpson’s article Why I Went Back to Church: God on the Ground for an interesting take on this), God calls us to come together with other believers regularly. In fact, God states that when we are in a relationship with him, it will follow that we are in fellowship with others (1 John 1:7), and that where two or more believers gather together, there God will be also (Matthew 18:20).

Similar to the issue of community is the idea of accountability. When we engage with other believers we have motivation towards living a right life before God. Meeting with others and talking about our triumphs and our struggles spurs us forward in our personal faith journeys.

Bringing Honour to God

Also, attending church brings honour to God and pleases him. When God met Moses on the mountain and gave him the Ten Commandments, the fourth commandment he gave was: ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’. God cared enough about setting a day aside for his glory that he included this in his law. When we honour his request, we please God.

Christians will never be perfect people, which can make church-going at times unattractive; and there are people or situations that can hurt us and make us feel distant from church, but praise, the community, the accountability and the honour it brings to God overwhelm the problems that we tend to face. Plus, as Stephen W. Simpson says, ‘We can get over ourselves and the little things that divide us, learning to see each other as God does.’

(from War Cry magazine)

Pete Bartholomew: A Plumber After God’s Heart

16 Nov 2009

Pete Bartholomew grew up in Porirua with his family and attended a Salvation Army corps as a boy. When his parents stopped attending the church, Pete followed and spent little time in church thereafter.

‘Mum and Dad, for whatever reason, got out of the whole church thing completely. They gave us kids a choice to stay, but I was young and kids just choose what their parents choose,’ says Pete. ‘Every now and then when I went to Grandma and Granddad’s on a Sunday I would go to church with them, but for years and years I didn’t go at all.’

When Pete was 25 he met and started dating a Christian girl, Carolyn, or Caz, who encouraged Pete to retry church and faith in God as an adult. He came back to church briefly, but when the relationship ended for a time, so did Pete’s church involvement.

‘When I was away from Caz I suppose I kind of talked to God in my own way, but at that time I wasn’t into it that much,’ Pete says. I said to myself and to God that if I got back with Caz again that it would be a good sign for me to go back to church.’

Though Pete now admits that giving God an ultimatum probably wasn’t the best way to go about his faith, he and Carolyn did pick up their relationship again, which to him was an answer to prayer.

Grounded Roots

As Pete and Carolyn grew back into their relationship and eventually got engaged, Pete’s relationship with the church and with Jesus Christ grew alongside. And though Pete and Carolyn initially attended a Wellington city church together, it was Pete’s roots in The Salvation Army that kept drawing him back in.

‘Granddad had invited me to two men’s breakfasts at The Salvation Army, and I got to meet a few of the guys from that and just started regularly going to it,’ says Pete. ‘We just recently started to go along to the meetings on Sunday too.’

When asked what drew him back to his initial church roots, Pete sites the ever-lasting example of his grandparents, the warmth of the people at the corps (Salvation Army church) and the music.

A New Mission

Pete and Carolyn were married on 18 April of this year, and Pete started his own plumbing business in August. He continued to be regularly involved in men’s groups and events at Tawa Corps. At a men’s breakfast earlier this year, Major Keith Wray, corps officer at Tawa, invited Pete to consider going to Tonga as part of a missions project with the corps.

‘I went to say goodbye after a men’s breakfast to Keith and he just happened to mention that the trip was coming up and that someone had cancelled,’ says Pete. ‘So he asked me on it and straight away I got excited about the prospect.’

Pete joined nine others from 5 to 14 September on a trip to Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu, where he planned to help the group paint a kindergarten and replace security mesh around the kindergarten and adjoining corps.

When he got there, he found that he had much more to tackle. ‘When I first arrived we went to Captain Sila Siufanga’s (officer at Nuku’alofa Corps) house and I noticed, as I do with plumbing, being a licensed plumber, that his toilet was dripping and just constantly running,’ says Pete. ‘So I mentioned it to him and pulled it apart for him and got the right part for him to go off to the building merchant and grab the right bit. Then I fitted it for him.

‘When he realised what I had done, he gave me a few more things to fix up where we were painting at Supo,’ laughed Pete.

Major Rex Johnson, regional commander in Tonga, soon heard tale of Pete’s plumbing expertise and whisked him away from painting one morning to help another corps officer whose home was completely without water because of a dysfunctional water tank.

‘The other job that I did was spouting at one of the officer’s properties. All of the spouting he had done by himself and it was no good,’ says Pete.

‘The downpipes were essentially disconnected and falling the wrong way and the spouting basically looked like a zip,’ says Pete. ‘It went up and down and all over the place, and so nothing got into the tank. So I just used what they had there and fixed it up so it worked again!’

So Much More

The corps officer, who had been travelling to the local corps each day to wash his clothes and shower, was incredibly grateful to Pete for the work that he did. Pete, however, just saw it as his way to share the love of Christ.

‘I’d like to do more,’ Pete told me on his last night in Tonga. ‘I have sort of fallen in love with the place here. I know that they have bad water problems around the place: I saw it myself. The place that I went to was one place out of a lot of places that don’t have any running water.

‘I’m not sure how or anything, I’ll sort of play it by ear and see how things fall into place, but I’d like to do a few more trips like this one, except spend a bit more time getting people into storing the water from the rain into tanks, even if it’s putting up spouting and that sort of thing,’ he continued.

Before leaving Tonga, Pete left behind some plumbing supplies and also agreed to send over parts to ensure easier fixes for smaller problems, like leaky toilets, and a guitar for the Supo kindergarten in the near future.

‘The parts that I used to fix the toilet here were only 50 or 70-cent things, so they cost me nothing; but here in Tonga they are quite expensive—four dollars or so for some of the things,’ he says. ‘So I’ll send them over here to Tonga to hopefully make a difference.’

A Change in Heart

While in Tonga, Pete also began to experience a new side of church he had not yet fully encountered; and his favourite part was seeing the different way the Tongan Salvationists did church, particularly in the smaller corps.

‘Going to the smaller churches was the best part for me because they have the most energy and they are the most lively,’ he says. ‘I really liked all the kids and the faster music and the dancing too.’

More importantly, however, Pete grew to realise even more the incredible importance that faith and community in Christ were beginning to have on his own life, particularly as he and Carolyn are expecting their first child early next year.

‘After going along to the services in Tawa, getting to know people and then getting to go on this trip, it has just been amazing: getting to know everyone a bit more intimately and seeing the whole church scene a bit more and how it’s really based on good foundations and is a healthy environment,’ says Pete.

‘And when Caz and I have our kid,’ he adds, ‘I’m really looking forward to introducing our kid to God and that style of living, because it’s just such a healthy and non-harming environment for a kid to grow up in. I’m really excited for that’.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

Jesus Changed Me

10 Nov 2009

I first met Lineni at Popua, an area in Tongatapu (the main island of the Kingdom of Tonga). Lineni was working as a volunteer for The Salvation Army Mobile Health Clinic there and agreed to show me around the area. As we walked, I discovered just how far her passion went for Jesus Christ.

Lineni and her seven siblings grew up in a Christian home, her parents becoming involved in Tonga’s first Salvation Army congregation in 1986. Her parents always insisted on church involvement—Lineni remembers attending church activities, even when she felt too lazy, from a young age. She became a junior soldier (child Salvation Army member) when she was 10 years old.

Wrong way

When Lineni started college, she became a senior soldier (adult Salvation Army member) and remained involved in corps activities, but she soon discovered the pull of other temptations and began to fall into trouble with the wrong crowd at school.

‘My lifestyle changed,’ she says. ‘I began mixing with other girls who didn’t go to church. I was still attending church, but my mind wasn’t on Christian things.’

When Lineni was 17, she found that she was pregnant and came to her family, and the church, to seek the help she needed.

‘My family was cross and upset with me, but I know that Jesus was with me during this time,’ she says. ‘I knew I had messed up, so I made a promise to my dad, and especially to God, that I would not make this mistake again.’

Lineni’s parents flew her over to American Samoa where Lineni’s sister lived, to have the child, a baby girl. Her sister’s family adopted the child, and, feeling homesick for her church—Lineni convinced her father to allow her to return to Tonga where she promised her life would change.

Second chance

In 2005 Lineni came back to Tonga where she became more involved in Salvation Army programmes, but she did not invest her whole heart into it and still did not wear her uniform proudly.

Sadly, Lineni’s dissatisfaction led to a continuance in her old lifestyle with her old friends, and soon she found herself pregnant again. This time, because she feared her father’s response, she begged her sister in American Samoa to once again take her in so that she could hide what had happened.

‘The truth is that I had no hope because I had no purpose in life, and nobody trusted me anymore because of the type of lifestyle that I was in before and the evil actions I showed,’ says Lineni. ‘I thought that was the fun life and true peace, and many times I was proud of it and thought it made me a real woman to do those things.’

Lineni’s father soon discovered her condition. He insisted that she stay in Tonga and learn how to be responsible and care for the baby on her own. When Lemaki Jr. was born, Lineni realised fully her position and knew her life would have to change.

This is it!

Slowly, Lineni began to find her way back into faith, and in 2008 she was invited to attend the large-scale Make Change youth conference in New Zealand. During her preparation for the event Lineni grew closer to God, felt amazing encouragement and support, and when she came back, she had completely changed.

‘At Make Change, God touched my life in a special way and I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into my life with my all,’ she says. ‘I still feel the warmth of the Holy Spirit in me during the conference and also the transformation that God had done in my life.’

Lineni now realises her mistakes, but she is in no way defined by what she did or who she used to be. She has seen the other side: a life of sin, inner turmoil and unhappiness; but instead of living in regret, Lineni chooses to praise God fully.

‘I praise the Lord for lifting me out of the disgusting, deep pit and filth that my life was in,’ she says, ‘and I want to testify together with Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

‘I know for sure that God has saved me; because he didn’t come to the world because of the righteous, but to save the sinners like me.’

Gloriously renewed

Lineni is now fully involved in The Salvation Army and believes that God has called her to someday become an officer. Since Make Change, Lineni has become a volunteer at the Health Clinic, and she actively participates in corps events, including the music team, Bible studies and corps cadets. She also volunteers each week at Kolovai Kindergarten, Regional Headquarters and as part of the Bibles in Schools programme.

And it is not only in her time but also in her interactions with the people she comes across and those she seeks to help through her faith that shows Lineni’s true transformation. She has become a beautiful woman, shining with the true light of God, whom she seeks to please with everything she does.

‘God is able to perform the same miracle in your life as he has performed in mine,’ says Lineni. ‘I praise God that I have life! So I encourage you; give your life to the Lord, and he will strengthen you and be with you always—through good times and also bad times.

‘I give much thanks to my God and I witness to followers of Christ that I love my Lord very much—more than I love anyone in this world’.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

The Mystery of Goodness

09 Nov 2009

Dr. Hillel Levine, an American Jew, was born ‘when the ashes of Auschwitz were still warm’. Although trained as a rabbi, Levine became a professor of sociology where he attacked a deterministic, ‘no-fault’ attitude towards history. To explain abhorrent behaviour is not to excuse it, he said; people are ultimately responsible for their actions.

Levine’s emphasis on the responsibility that comes with free will was nurtured by his religious beliefs and commitments. He believes God is all-powerful and all-good, although he admits that, for a Jew in particular, such a belief can be seen as a ‘contradiction of cosmic proportions’, the kind theologians have wrestled with in every generation.

A very precious gift

‘My response,’ explains Levine, ‘is not that God has retired to Miami Beach, or that God neglects the world, or that God has become impotent in his old age. My response is that God, as a very precious gift, gives people freedom, gives people commandments, gives people a sense of right and wrong, gives people a passion for life, all of which can be distorted or perverted, but nevertheless people are given freedom.

‘People are free to create the Auschwitzes. People are free to create the Beethoven symphonies. People are even free, like the German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler and his musicians, to give magnificent performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with its heart-stirring affirmations of the familial connections between men and women, while their people were killing millions of my people.’

Sugihara

In a period of deep depression, Levine searched for the mystery of goodness. This eventually led him to author In Search of Sugihara, the story of a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who saved tens of thousands of Jews on the eve of World War II. When other diplomats were closing their doors and hearts to the Jews, and even as Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was selecting Jews for unspeakable medical experiments at Auschwitz, Sugihara was furiously writing exit visas to save as many Jewish families as he could.

What makes Sugihara’s story even more extraordinary is that he was a major spy for a Japanese pro-Nazi faction in Europe. But at a certain point Sugihara looked at those lined up outside his consulate every day and decided he could not let them be killed. The desire for good overwhelmed the desire for bad, leading to one of the largest mass rescues of World War II.
 
‘God endows us with [powers] for good or bad, to help others or to destroy them,’ comments Levine. He speculates, ‘If there had been a thousand Sugiharas, or a hundred, or even only 10, perhaps there would not have been a Holocaust.’

What will we do with the freedom God has given us? The invitation is to join a conspiracy of goodness in our world. 

By Christina Tyson (from War Cry magazine)

Why do Salvation Army soldiers choose not to drink alcohol?

23 Oct 2009

Salvation Army soldiers (members) adopt a lifestyle free from alcohol and tobacco. They also abstain from addictive drugs except when medically prescribed.

Alcohol, like other addictive drugs, can be harmful to individuals, families and society. Salvationists are mindful that, while certain lifestyle choices may be legally and socially acceptable, some choices may be neither helpful to the person concerned, nor to those likely to be influenced by their actions.

The Bible urges believers in Jesus to think about how their decisions and actions might impact those around them.
1 Corinthians 8:9 (NLT) says, ‘But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.’ Christians are also expected to live their lives well before God and not engage in the type of wrongful behaviour that can accompany intoxication.

When someone becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit makes his home within them. This is another reason that the body should be treated with respect and why Salvationists exercise caution about consuming potentially-harmful substances.

The Salvation Army has an effective ministry among those for whom drugs and alcohol are a problem. Because of that, it wants to offer a safe and supportive environment in its social service and worship centres so that those in recovery from addiction can avoid temptation.

Although Salvationists commit to an alcohol-free life for themselves, they don’t condemn or discriminate against those who do drink. You do not have to promise to refrain from drinking to make The Salvation Army your spiritual home.

Alcohol in our Sights

22 Oct 2009

In June 2008, Navtej Singh was shot and killed over a few dozen bottles of alcopop and the day’s takings from his Manurewa liquor store. His death and the ensuing public outrage forced the country to finally bring its sights to bear on 20 years of liberalised liquor regulation.

The Law Commission has been tasked with reviewing the sale and supply of liquor legislation in New Zealand. Preliminary suggestions for liquor form reform detailed by The Law Commission include:

• A split purchase age. The age to drink in a supervised setting such as bars and cafes would remain at 18, while the age for purchasing liquor from an off-licence would rise to 20.
• Increasing excise tax on alcohol and consideration of a minimum pricing scheme for alcohol.
• Reduced trading hours. For instance, off-licences should be closed between 10pm and 8am. On-licensed premises should be closed by 2am, or 4am if the bar operates a ‘one-way door’ policy.
• Lower legal blood-alcohol levels for drivers.
• Wider grounds upon which to refuse license applications, such as if a license is likely to have detrimental effects on the local or wider community.

Alcohol-fuelled harm

The damage caused by New Zealand’s drinking habits is considerable, costing the country upwards of $5 billion a year.

The Alcohol Advisory Council says more than three-quarters of a million adult Kiwis regularly binge drink and 125,000 New Zealanders under the age of 17 can be categorised as binge drinkers. Alcohol is a key contributor to the deaths of about 1000 New Zealanders each year.

About 22 per cent of ACC claims are alcohol related, adding up to a taxpayer bill of around $650 million a year. Half of facial fractures treated by Christchurch Hospital’s specialist Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Service between 1996 and 2005 were alcohol-related.

According to police figures, in almost a third of all recorded crime the offender has been drinking before committing the offence. In another Law Commission submission, district court judges estimated 80 per cent of defendants coming through the district courts have alcohol or other drug dependence connected with their crimes.

Sale of liquor in NZ

Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca Williams says New Zealanders effectively passed control of our drinking culture to the liquor industry—with disastrous results—with the Sale of Liquor Act in 1989. This legislation promised a more civilised approach to the use of alcohol, but its critics say the law has produced more carnage than responsible drinkers. ‘The community is bearing all the costs of the harm caused by alcohol while the licensees and (liquor) manufacturers take the profits,’ she says.

The Sale of Liquor Act 1989 greatly simplified the liquor-licensing system and the criteria for granting a licence.

The Act, according to its architects, would provide ‘a reasonable system of control over the sale and supply of liquor to the public with the aim of contributing to the reduction of liquor abuse so far as that can be achieved by legislative means’.

The law was further liberalised in 1999, opening up the lucrative retail beer market to supermarkets, lowered the age of purchase from 20 to 18 and introduced host-responsibility obligations on licensed premises.

In the past 20 years, drinkers have found themselves with unprecedented choice in access to alcohol. The number of liquor licences has jumped from 6295 in 1990 to 14,183 in June this year. While the total amount of pure alcohol available for consumption has risen by 25 per cent since 1988, our per-capita consumption of pure alcohol dropped following the 1989 legislative changes. However, per-capita consumption has risen nine per cent in the past decade.

Liquor commercialisation

If the aim of liberalisation of New Zealand liquor laws was to ‘civilise’ our drinking culture, it failed, according to National Addictions Centre Director Professor Doug Sellman. The result has been the ‘excessive commercialisation’ of liquor, he says.

Professor Sellman is part of Alcohol Action, a group lobbying against the excessive presence of alcohol in the community.

Alcohol Action’s ‘5+ Solution’ proposes raising alcohol prices, raising the purchase age, reducing access to liquor, cutting marketing and advertising, and putting a greater emphasis on curbing drink driving.

Professor Sellman says that while the Law Commission’s recommendations cover most of these five aims, it falls short of tackling advertising, favouring leaving regulation to the Advertising Standards Authority.

The liquor industry spends around $200,000 a day marketing alcohol to the point where, after 20 years, the heavy-drinking culture is seen by many as normal, he says, warning that New Zealanders can expect the industry ‘to fight tooth and nail’ to maintain its right to market, sponsor and advertise alcohol.

‘They know how important this is, particularly to maintain their influence over their life-blood for the future: recruiting young people into regular heavy drinking.’

Addressing alcohol misuse

Addiction treatment professionals view alcohol misuse as a continuum moving from hazardous use, to problem drinking, to mild dependence, through to full alcohol addiction.

Salvation Army Addiction Services National Manager Major Lynette Hutson says the liberalisation of liquor laws in New Zealand has contributed to growing waiting lists for places at the Bridge Programme and led to younger and younger people seeking treatment.

While outside its frame of reference, The Law Commission notes a ‘lack of policies, facilities and programmes around the country in relation to treatment of people with alcohol problems’.

Lynette suggests that funding ‘early interventions’ to intercept drinkers before they begin to graduate to addictive behaviours would be both effective and significantly cheaper than paying for the social costs associated with addiction and intensive treatment later on.

The Salvation Army speaks out

The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit is coordinating a body of research aimed at informing public attitudes to alcohol; one it hopes will help shape better social policy for the future.

The unit is at work on a number of reports that will be released over coming months, with input from key Salvation Army stakeholders in the fields of addictions and community ministries. An external panel of experts is providing additional feedback. The reports will consider such topics as taxation of alcohol and problem-drinking triggers. The unit will also distribute The Salvation Army’s submission to the Law Commission issues paper.

There is a need for cultural change in the New Zealand alcohol scene,’ says the unit’s director, Major Campbell Roberts. ‘New Zealanders need to rethink their relationship with alcohol to ensure that we are not glossing over real problems in our families and communities with booze.’

By Jon Hoyle (from War Cry magazine)

Status Frenzy

20 Oct 2009

My latest Facebook status: ‘Cara Wood wants a little black and white puppy to name Raskolnikov.’ A bit random? Yes. Necessary for the hundreds of people who will see that post in the next week to know? Not a chance.

Facebook statuses are funny things. In them we tell the world what we ate for breakfast, whose party we’re going to on the weekend, what makes us incredibly angry or happy, or even who our heart does or does not belong to. We share our lives on Facebook without a single pause!

Recently I found out on Facebook that a couple I know was going through a divorce. Both of their statuses were full of sadness and anger, a feigned sense of being okay and a hurtful portrayal of what was going on in their new lives apart from each other.

You see, the problem with finding this out on Facebook was that I wasn’t even close enough to either of them to mention how sad I was to hear the news or to offer my friendship or a listening ear during this difficult time. The only thing I could be was an unwelcome bystander—an unneeded extra in a private conversation.

We seem to be so quick to put up the most intimate details of our lives on Facebook … but when was the last time you shared your most intimate thoughts with God? We fill our Facebook statuses with things as menial as puppy names to situations as painful as divorce with the push of a button yet forget to bring all of our burdens to him.

David says in Psalm 142:1-2: I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. Let’s strive to be as easy in our speech to God as we are on Facebook to people we hardly know; because in the end, he’s the only one that can really meet our needs.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

The Perfect Storm

12 Oct 2009

The present global food crisis has been referred to as ‘the perfect storm’¹. Weather forecasters will often point out grouping of weather patterns that when combined together produce certain effects.

Experts in overseas aid and development argue that a sequence of events have occurred that has led to the growing food crisis; events such as the oil crisis and the global economic downturn, which has contributed to a massive hike in food prices. Blend all these actions with the realities of climate change and the resultant effect is proving to be catastrophic in many of the less financially robust communities.

Devastation and destruction

Survival at its most basic requires adequate food, clean drinking water and some sort of shelter. Take life up a notch and quality of living is closely bound up with sharing in community with others, notions of self worth, and a sense of self determination. Such feelings of wellbeing arise within a framework of living that sees needs being met through having the ability to provide for oneself and one’s family through sufficient sustainable production and income.

As Christians where do we sit as the perfect storm of starvation gathers momentum?

When travelling by plane I am always thankful for the pilot’s skill in ensuring the flight path avoids the worst of the stormy conditions. When confronted by extreme hunger and deprivation, do we opt for the same smooth course avoiding at all costs the turbulence of injustice and suffering that is the face of extreme hunger?

What does Christ call us to do? As people living with much privilege and possessions how do we rise to the challenge laid down by Isaiah to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless? (Isaiah 58:7)

The storm is rising

The Rev. Kenneth Leech² speaks of a manifesto for a renewed spirituality of justice and peace. He speaks of the storm in which we find ourselves in the time we live in, which is a result of spiritual hunger and social injustice. Quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King he goes on to say, ‘the storm is rising against the privileged minority of the earth, from which there is no shelter in isolation and armament. The storm will not abate until a just distribution of the fruits of the earth enables ‘man’ everywhere to live in dignity and human decency.’

Leech argues that for the Christian community the challenge will be to once more become a pilgrim community, a community on the march, a pilgrim people committed to seeking an authentic spirituality for the struggle against injustice.

‘Our spiritual pilgrimage is not within an artificial religious world, but within the real world where coal is mined and lemon meringue pie is made, the world in which companies are taken over and homeless people die on the streets, the world in which wars are declared and millions long for peace and for justice.’³

We also live in a world where people driven to desperation take desperate risks to try to escape the relentlessness of hunger and poverty, where shop shelves are filled with food that many cannot afford to buy, and where distressed communities are taking to the streets in food riots.

Who ultimately has the responsibility to challenge such constant hunger and deprivation? Is it simply to be left to each country’s governing body?

There is a song that goes, ‘let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me’. Feeding the hungry and challenging why there are so many hungry people in a world of plenty is our mandate as a Christian community marching for justice.

A huge task and a daunting one, yet St Augustine put it so well in one of his most memorable sermons, ‘sing alleluia and keep on walking, as we move into the heart of the storm we will sing but we will keep on walking.’

By Chris Frazer (from SPPU)

¹ LiveScience, The Science of Hunger: What 1 Billion People Feel, September 2009.
² Leech, Kenneth; In the Eye of the Storm, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, London UK, 1992.
³ IBID, p231.

Just Early Childhood?

12 Oct 2009

The Roman Catholic Order of Jesuits claimed: ‘Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the adult person.’

The implication of this claim is that what influences and forms the development of a child up to the age of seven will significantly impact the adult they become.

Early childhood policy a priority

If we accept the importance of the first seven years of life then it seems reasonable to suggest that New Zealand’s early childhood policy is a priority for the social policy and social justice agenda of The Salvation Army in New Zealand.

Media outlets provide a daily litany of criminal offending involving mindless destruction, murders, serious assaults and domestic violence perpetrated by adult New Zealanders whose lives have gone wrong in major ways. The research on such offending reveals that it is often committed by people who experienced their own highly dysfunctional childhoods of abuse, violence and neglect.

Good early childhood environments

Early Childhood Education (ECE) cannot make up for the worst experiences in dysfunctional families or compensate for violence against children, but it can provide the nation’s children with: a love of learning, good teacher role models, self-esteem reinforcement, safety and security. And good early childhood environments can help parents learn and experience things that assist them to care for and act as good role models for their children.

Public policy in New Zealand increasingly values early childhood education with policies that provide better financial reward for early childhood teachers, free hours of entitlement for all children and support for the provision of early childhood facilities in vulnerable communities.

Pleasing as these initiatives are, the reality is that many New Zealand children in low-income areas still miss out on the benefits of early childhood education. Rates of Maori enrolment in ECE have been in decline since 2005¹, while poorer communities generally have lower participation rates than the national average².

Contributing to this dilemma is that private providers who now dominate ECE provision³ are not so attracted to low-income areas. Also contributing is the difficulty that low-income families face in transporting their children to a distant early childhood centre on a regular basis. Without access to a second car and with little public transport, transporting children to a centre that isn’t easily accessible by walking is difficult.

ECE is important for all New Zealand children, but in an environment where there is a shortage of public resource, the priority must be to focus attention on making access available to children in the most marginalised population areas and groupings.

No single policy has the chance to contribute more to New Zealand’s economic and social wellbeing than the provision of an excellent early childhood for all New Zealand children.

By Campbell Roberts (from SPPU)

¹ Into Troubled Waters, Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit 2009
² What Does It Profit Us, Social Policy and Parliamentary Unity 2008
³ Into Troubled Waters, Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit 2009

When did you last believe in Jesus?

09 Oct 2009

John’s stories about Jesus are always full of discoveries, and in the story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11), faith is expressed in surprising ways.

Have you ever thought about the effect Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine had on his followers? Verse 11 says: ‘He thus revealed his glory, and the disciples put their faith in him.’ What? Did they not already have faith in him? They had faith enough to leave their usual occupations and follow him, so what does John mean when he writes this? Clearly we need to understand the nature of faith to see what is happening here.

When did you last believe?

Faith is always in something or someone, for something. We have faith in our car (mostly!), that it will come alive when we turn the key and take us where we need to go. We have faith that when we swipe our card at the supermarket and put in our pin, our money will be released to us.

And, as the Lord shows us more of himself and more of what he is able to do, we are challenged to step into that by faith. Our faith is in Jesus for his will and glory in the world.

Sometimes the disciples baulked at what Jesus was saying or doing. So do we. We can be slow to respond with faith to something new that he is showing or asking of us. The disciples hesitated:

• when Jesus asked them to feed a hungry crowd
• when Jesus said he was the Living Bread the disciples had to eat
• when Jesus had fed 5000 people, but the disciples then talked about forgetting to bring the bread
• when Jesus told them he was going to die and Peter rebuked him

English Bible teacher David Pawson once asked this profound question: ‘When did you last believe in Jesus?’ I think he meant: ‘When did you last have to step out in faith, trusting what Jesus has asked you to do?’

Many in Jesus’ day heard him but they did not combine hearing with faith; they did not add words or actions that showed they trusted or obeyed what he said.

It is true for us too. We can hear and yet not combine this with faith. When we listen to Jesus, our prayer always needs to be: ‘How can I express faith in what you are saying to me, Lord?’ Remember that the Lord wants to regularly ‘reveal his glory’ to you in new ways so you may put your faith in him and walk in the power or truth he is revealing.

Faith provokes miracles

Back to the wedding scene. Something else is happening here—to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is Mary’s faith that provokes this miracle!

Imagine Mary’s life up to this moment. She has those wonderful promises of Jesus as the Saviour of the world. She has been watching his maturing into adulthood, waiting and wondering. Now he has gathered disciples. But when is he going to reveal himself as the Messiah, as the Saviour? She must have been on the edge of her seat with expectation.

Picture the scene with me. Was Mary part of the catering team? Was this a wedding in a friend’s family? She noticed that the wine had run out. Did she come to Jesus with some servants in tow? What was she expecting Jesus to do? Was she really expecting a miracle? Had the Father prompted her to ask for one?

Notice the conversation, which I feel had some long pauses:

‘They have no more wine.’
Jesus is puzzled. ‘Dear woman (madam/lady), why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.’ 
Ah … Jesus knew she was asking for some divine intervention. But he had no sense from the Father that he should be doing anything about the situation. Does he turn away? Does Mary walk away?
What is her expression? She feels sure he will do something, yet he said no: wrong time. Do they stand there looking at each other? ‘No,’ from Jesus. ‘Yes,’ says Mary’s faith.
Then she says to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

How audacious! But this is the key. This is the statement of faith that unlocks the miracle.

Most of the miracles of Jesus were drawn out by the faith of someone involved. Not all, but most. This is the partnership we are called to: one of co-labouring with Jesus.

Open your eyes

Someone has said, ‘If you can see it (in the Spirit), you can have it.’ This is the ‘seeing’ of faith. Faith enables unseen realities that have real substance (in Heaven) to be seen and almost felt in this realm. And we can take hold of them and pull them into our earthly realm. This is the way we help to fulfil Jesus’ words: ‘Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.’

God has designed the universe to run by faith. Jesus already had the wine. Mary could see and taste that wine before it became a reality. Faith sees into the future—into the eternal—and takes hold of these realities and pulls them into the present.

The way this works for us is that we ask the Lord to open our eyes to the spiritual realities that he intends to birth in us. Then we take hold of these by faith and declare them—for as long as it takes—and bring them into now. We are called into a partnership of faith for the sake of a world in need.

What if we could see what God has for those loved ones we care about? Or those neighbours we are praying for? Can we see it? Can we see them redeemed and transformed by God’s love? What difference would seeing this make to our praying? Would there be more listening? More seeking to see? Less of our pain and concerns, and more of an enlarged, energised and excited faith? I wonder.

Faith sees, faith hears and obeys, faith rests, faith walks, faith comes boldly to the throne of grace, faith proclaims. ‘When did you last have faith in Jesus?’ And what for?

By Kath Wells (from War Cry magazine)

Meet Joy Cowley

09 Oct 2009

Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s most beloved children’s authors, who recently worked with Bible Society of New Zealand to produce Tārore and Her Book. But while Joy’s books have delighted both children and adults for many years, it is perhaps Joy’s heart that is most delightful. Cara Wood spoke with Joy recently to talk about Tārore and picked up these beautiful bits of wisdom…

Children and reading

Reading is something that we impose on children; it’s not natural to them—storytelling is natural. But reading is needed for their education, so if they don’t read and don’t enjoy reading, they have problems later on.

But also, reading is a way they find meaning. Whoever said that you only live once wasn’t a reader, because as often as you open a book you enter another life. Children learn so much, not just about the world and about other people, but about themselves through their reading.

For early readers, there are language skills introduced in the books, but they must be presented in a non-didactic way so that the children find them interesting. You can teach children to read and to hate reading if the lesson is dull and difficult. Pleasurable learning leads to pleasurable recall, so if the children love reading, as adults they will pass a bookshop and look in the window and have a good feeling.

Story is non-threatening instruction, isn’t it? They can see their own worth, their own value, their own beauty, and also see guidelines in it.

I encountered a child not that long ago who said to me, ‘When I read your books I feel as though I am sinking down through the pages.’ Now isn’t that nice? He’s put into words what I couldn’t have—that feeling when you are completely immersed in a book. The way children think is beautiful.

The Art of Writing

Writing is like meditation; it’s a very deep journey. I think that the important thing is to do it, to write something every day. I see people who are going to write when they retire and they want to know where they can get a publisher, and it doesn’t quite work like that. It’s very competitive, but there are some very good courses around, which can fast track the process. One of the best courses in New Zealand would be the Whitirea course for writing for children.

It’s also important to write for children as one writes for adults, but to stay within the child’s experience. Contrary to what is popularly thought, writing for children is more difficult than writing for adults. If you write for adults you write for yourself and for your peers. If you write for children you must know the specific age you are writing for and the experience.

Books should affirm; books should be a way of showing children how to love themselves.

I see bleak books written for children—no doubt you have too—and especially for teenagers. All that tells me is that the author is still carrying bleak memories from his or her own teenage years. I don’t think that adolescents who are going through bouts of depression really want to read about depressed kids. Adolescents have huge mood swings. There can be times when kids feel suicidal; there are times when life is a great blast. There are great highs and great lows … I think we cater for the highs.

Making a Point

I have written a number of books that are anti war because I feel very strongly about this. It doesn’t affect me personally, but I see the futility of war: the great pain it causes. There is so much that is untrue about war, and it perpetuates fear, and fear is the opposite of love. It’s the opposite of the reality.

Children do see things very clearly. There was one book called Yellow Overalls. It was about two kings who decided to wage war. So their wives got together and sabotaged the soldiers’ uniforms and made yellow overalls for each side. So the soldiers showed up for battle and they are all dressed the same and they didn’t know who to fight. It’s just a way of saying that we are all the same, and that if soldiers didn’t wear any uniforms at all, there would be no way to wage war.

Children are very wise. I asked children in a school in California, ‘What would you do if you were President for a year?’ And one boy wrote, ‘If I was President, I would make the people who made wars go in and fight them.’ It’s absolutely sensible, isn’t it?

Children and the Bible

I think that some caution is needed when children are given a Bible. I would give young children a Children’s Bible. I picked up most of the facts of life from the Bible, more than I should have, probably, but I was astounded to see the things that happened that were written about so explicitly.
 
I mean, it’s all experience, but somehow children miss the most important stories there that have great meaning for children. Also, there is a tendency when children are given a Bible to see it as all being as though a big hand came down from the sky and wrote it and that they don’t have to believe that this all actually happened.

I didn’t realise that when I started writing reflective poetry that I was using the couplet form of the Psalms—I would do an echo and refrain. I was steeped in the Psalms. I have always loved the Psalms, and some of the Old Testament was very important to me, the book of Ruth and the Gospels, particularly the Gospel of John. These were things I loved when I was a child and I didn’t understand. We used to have the old King James Bible and I would speak the verses to myself. I knew chunks of it by heart just because they were delicious phrases and I wanted to hold onto them.

The Beauty of Faith

I’ve had a very ordinary life, which at the same time has been very rich—lots of wonderful things have happened. But the most wonderful things are the ones I didn’t want at the time, the hardships.

As a young person I really didn’t like those messages in the Bible that seemed to be all doom and gloom … ‘Take up your cross and follow me’, ‘He who loves his life will lose it’ … I don’t think that young people are meant to enjoy those passages because they are not relevant to them. But when you get to mid life you realise the wisdom of those challenges, how important it is to let go of the ego—to die to self—because you move to a larger place.

There are little crucifixions in life, but what is resurrected is always greater than what died. And I think that was the whole truth of Jesus’ life. I believe too, now, that our little souls come here to life school to grow, to learn, and that we are tended by a very loving God. We all have little sparks of God within us, and sometimes bigger sparks have come to earth to be our guides: I can think of people whose books I’ve read who have influenced me. But then the great fire of God came to join us in Jesus: he went through everything that we could expect to go through, including death, and came through the other side to show us what it’s all about.

At this stage I would say that my faith is fairly simple. We are given all the teaching we need, all the lessons we need, and if we try to avoid a lesson it will keep on coming back at us until we take notice of it. Then God says, ‘Okay, you can have a little holiday now,’ and then the next lesson comes up. That’s the way it goes.

There is a feeling that everything is connected. You can see the hand of God in everything. And I can even see it in little threads of my life and in people around me. I can’t see the whole pattern, but I just know from those little threads that the whole tapestry is perfect.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

Shine Your Light

06 Oct 2009

Anyone who has been down a coalmine will know what dark means. The dark of a coalmine is almost an invisible wall before you.

We humans were not designed to constantly live in total darkness, so one of God’s earliest commands was, ‘Let there be light.’ Light is best appreciated in darkness. Our neighbour has a security light on his house that comes on with any movement between our homes. This is convenient for us when arriving home after dark as our car brings on their light. If that light comes on in daylight hours we don’t even notice it.

The dictionary tells us light is ‘the natural agent that stimulates the sense of sight (or) visible electro magnetic radiation from sun, fire, lamp, etc’. But it is not the only such agent.

To ‘see the light’, for instance, is to come to an understanding of something previously obscure.

Kept in the dark

Conversely, one can be kept in the dark, something Paul remarks on in 2 Corinthians 4:4, ‘The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.’ Satan deliberately blocks the Light of the World—Jesus—from being seen to prevent the truth about God’s love and salvation from being understood.

The light that can bring understanding to a mind in the dark is no human, natural or even artificial light. This light is supernatural: the light that can make the spiritually blind see.

From time to time our daily papers carry letters decrying the existence of God. In reply there are letters asserting God’s reality. While nobody really ‘wins’ such a debate, I am always pleased to see such correspondence, for it is another way to keep God in the minds of people. If God did not exist then he would have ceased to be a subject of thought many millennia ago, I suppose!

Paul tells us that ‘God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom’
(1 Corinthians 1:21). We cannot know God on our own. To know God personally requires a revelation of light: either dramatic and instantaneous like turning on a light (as Paul experienced), or a growing illumination as the dawn breaking, finally leading to acceptance.

Either way, the light needs to break through

I used to work in Buller’s Denniston coal mine. One day the rope road stopped and the rumbling of the passing boxes ceased. In the silence, which was almost as absolute as the dark, I heard a scuffing noise, yet a look up both side roads showed nothing. The trucker was almost upon me before I saw him.
 
‘Can you give me a light?’ he asked. ‘My lamp has gone out and I can’t restart it.’ ‘How did you find your way here?’ I responded. ‘I knew the rails came here, so I put my left foot on one rail and followed my foot,’ he said. He thanked me for the light and returned to his work.

You and I can be a light. The source and supply is Jesus, but the sharing is ours: ‘… let your light shine before men, that they may see …,’ says Jesus (Matthew 5:16).

By Stan Harris (from War Cry magazine)

Eseta’s Brave Heart

26 Sep 2009

Before she was born, Eseta’s father, who was a minister in the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, was serving in a village on the island of Savai’i in Western Samoa.

When Eseta became sick at 11 months of age, her parents took her to the hospital, but after four weeks they were told to take their daughter home to die. ‘They fasted,’ Eseta recounts, ‘and coming to the end of that week, I cried out. That was the day my father said: “The Lord wants my daughter to do something for him!”’

Over the years that followed, Eseta kept returning to her father’s declaration. ‘Sometimes the load is so difficult,’ she says, ‘but I come back to what he said: There is a purpose for me.’

‘I will kill you!’

When she was eight, Eseta wasn’t feeling well and was left asleep at home while the rest of the family went to church. She awoke to a hand over her face.

A man’s voice hissed: ‘I don’t want any sound. If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you! And I will kill your parents, your brothers and your sisters.’ He then raped her, making his escape only when he heard Eseta’s mother returning to check on her daughter.

‘What he said to me stopped me from telling anyone.’ says Eseta through tears. She did not tell her story to anyone until she became a Christian at the age of 30.

Eseta's father died when she was almost 14. As the family and people from the village gathered around his bed, he told them: ‘Continue with the Word of God.’ He repeated those words twice more and then passed away.

‘Black sheep’ of the family

Eseta excelled at school and qualified as a high school teacher at 19. By then she had turned completely away from her father’s Christian values. ‘I was like a black sheep in the family, drinking and smoking,’ she says.

She avoided church. Her anger towards God was constant. ‘Why did you bring me back from the dead?’ she still demanded of him. ‘And why did you let my father die?’

At 19, Eseta was raped again. She felt she had to quickly decide what—and where—her future was to be. In August 1978 she left Samoa to join her older sister in New Zealand.

The Kiwi way of life made an immediate impact. ‘I had a good job, more money than I’d ever had, and I saw other people going to the pub, so I went with them,’ she recalls. She met her husband-to-be in a pub when he was playing in a band. Unfortunately, he was also a heavy drinker. This contributed to abuse and violence at home, with the couple separating in 2007.

The turning point

Within the space of a few years, Eseta was a passenger in two bad car crashes. After the second she woke in intensive care where a policeman told her, ‘Woman, I don’t know why you are alive!’

There were other stressors too. Eseta’s first son, Abner, was born severely autistic and didn’t speak until he was 14. After Abner’s birth she became pregnant two more times. Both boys died before they were born.

In 1987 Eseta was working five jobs: full-time at State Insurance, part-time teaching at a polytech and in three cleaning jobs. After walking away from a third car accident, when the car she was a passenger in went under a parked truck, she lost confidence and was afraid even to cross the road on her own.

For three weeks Eseta didn’t go to work and stayed in bed. As she reflected on her life she began to realise that she needed God after all. One morning she got down on her knees to pray and heard a voice say, ‘Child, come to me.’ ‘I knew it was God,’ she says. ‘I prayed for forgiveness and felt his wonderful peace and  presence.’ The next morning she felt fully restored to health and says her fear was gone.

Eseta gave up her cleaning jobs and took up an offer of part-time work at The Salvation Army second-hand shop in Newtown. She also accepted an invitation to attend church at The Salvation Army Wellington South Corps.

Eseta ducked out for a cigarette during the Sunday service only to be drawn back inside when she heard the brass band play. As she listened to the music her mind returned to the three car accidents she’d miraculously survived. She also thought about the two boys she’d conceived but lost and the rapes she’d been subjected to.

The song contained the words: A miracle! … God’s Holy Spirit came and we are not the same, for he touched us and filled us with his love.

‘As the band played, that’s what happened to me,’ says Eseta, ‘God’s Holy Spirit came and the tears ran down my eyes. I ran forward to pray and gave my heart to the Lord. And what God spoke to me, I remember. He said: “Dig into my Word.” I told him, “I don’t know much about you, God, but this is my vow: as long as I live, I will dig into your Word!”’

In 1988, Eseta gave birth to another son. ‘The doctors told me I wouldn’t be able to have another child, but I knew that God is the creator of all beings and so I asked him to help me. He gave me Abraham. Abraham, like his brother Abner, is a blessing to his mother. He is a talented musician who is studying at university and is also a committed member of The Salvation Army.

God continued to push Eseta into his Word. After becoming a Salvation Army soldier (member) in 1990, she completed Salvation Army Bible lessons by correspondence and, in 1995, graduated from Salvation Army Leadership Training (SALT) at The Salvation Army Officer Training College.

Eseta had been working at State Insurance for 24 years, since one week after her arrival in New Zealand. When her work there ended in 2001 she took the opportunity to study full time with the Victoria University School of Religious Studies and the Bible College of New Zealand (BCNZ), eventually becoming Programme Coordinator for the BCNZ Samoan Programme and a Pacific Representative to its Wellington Centre Board.

When BCNZ closed its Wellington Centre with a move to distance education, God began to reveal a big plan to Eseta. He asked her to start and lead a college to make the Bible more accessible to Pacific languages. In November 2006 the Wellington Pacific Bible College was established, with Eseta as its principal. This year the college has 52 students representing 23 different Wellington churches.

God’s Healing

Eseta is still amazed at the journey she has taken with God and the healing he has brought to her life. Reflecting on the abuse she suffered in her early years, she says, ‘It’s an awful life situation; it’s so intimate and sensitive to talk about. And it never goes away. But I have forgiven and the pain has gone—and I know God wants me to be part of his healing for other people. I thank my Lord Jesus Christ, my Saviour, for showing me that the life he lived, his death and resurrection, could create a new person in me.

‘Sometimes we have small-minded thinking,’ she continues, ‘but faith turns our vision into a great future. We have a limited mind, but God brings bigger things in our lives. That small mind says we can’t do things, but nothing is impossible to God, in God and through God! If you are saying that something is too hard, you are saying that God is too small. But you are so special to him; he wants you to re-engage with his Word and to walk with his loving Son who will help you fulfil your purpose in life.’

By Christina Tyson (from War Cry magazine)

Gendered Ageism—a myth or reality?

09 Sep 2009

It has been said that an older woman faces a double jeopardy; she is a woman and an older one!

Whilst it is a fact that aging affects everyone from birth to death, it is also a reality that many communities perceive this natural progression from weaning to wrinkles with extreme negativity. Stereotyping, prejudice and age discrimination, in our youth-focused world, is prevalent. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest ageism has a predominately feminine face. There is an old Muslim saying that goes:

When a child is born they are surrounded by 100 angels
an angel is added for every year a boy lives
an angel dies for every year a girl lives.

Gendered ageism

Is gendered ageism a modern-day phenomenon? Elizabeth Markson¹ commented that looking back in history to many centuries ago, older women were revered for their wisdom and skills; they were known as healers and midwives. ‘The term hag (hagia), she reflected, means “wise woman” and was used at this period of time as a compliment.’

So when did such a positive social construct begin to change? Such transformation, which has seen women move from being perceived as wise and valuable to wrinkly and past it, has much to do with how society began to be organised, with the formation of a predominately patriarchal structure. Markson argues that when researching Greek history and during the time of the early church, women were clearly seen as inferior and judged to be defective males.

Indeed, it was believed that a female birth was due to the father having an illness or being deemed a sinner.

Have perceptions changed?

Moving into the twenty-first century—have such negative perceptions changed? Whilst acknowledging the positive progress made that has seen women, in many parts of the world, competing on a more even playing field with their male counterparts, there is still a great deal of disparity and discrimination, especially in leadership positions where male dominion is still very much the norm. Couple this with age prejudice, and women, in many instances, remain doubly disenfranchised.

Today, both women and men live longer and, by and large, are healthier than their predecessors. Such longevity, though, brings with it challenges for both genders. Whilst by no means a homogenous group, women face a unique set of tests as they move through the decades. Many women living alone progress into older years with less financial stability than their male counterparts. Causal factors for this include a disrupted career due to raising children, being clustered in lower-paid jobs, the continuing inequality of sexes in the leadership roles, and the dissolution or death of a partnership. Couple these factors with a culture that extols feminine youthfulness and the ‘feminisation of poverty’ is set to continue rising.

What steps will be needed to help counteract this? One possible step for some women will be access to continuing employment, yet this too is fraught with difficulties.

A recent study² researched the interaction between mature female job-seekers (aged 45 years and up) and private employment agencies in the Auckland region. Two emerging themes from the resultant data highlighted the difficult relationship between female job-seekers and consultants, and the importance of ‘appearance’.

One woman respondent explained, ‘On the telephone I can sound animated and I would often get called in for jobs, and then they would see me, and not that I looked bad, but I look my age, and they instantly weren’t interested. They’re (the agencies) run by young, upwardly-mobile, stunning young women. They wanted a younger person that looked like them’.

Adopting a counter-cultural approach

According to John Macnicol³, ageism arises from our own ‘deep rooted, irrational, subconscious fears of our own aging, and our apprehension at the prospect of impending physical and mental decay.’

Gendered ageism is a fact and is prevalent throughout our society; it is portrayed through a media that spotlights youth and beauty, it is present within workplace ideologies and evident in pews where leadership cry, ‘We have a problem, our congregation is getting older!’

Our challenge then, should we choose to accept it, is to adopt a counter-cultural approach that welcomes, accepts and, indeed, rejoices in the diversity of God’s people here on our global home and seeks every opportunity to support and encourage both genders to continue to reach their full potential throughout their lives.

By Chris Frazer (from SPPU)

¹ Elizabeth Markson, Director, Gerontology Centre, Boston University.
² Massey University, ‘Gendered Ageism and Employment Agency Practises’.
³ Macnicol, John, ‘Age Discrimination, a Historical and Contemporary Analysis’.

Capturing the Master’s Design

08 Sep 2009

Phillip Bartlett always had an interest in photography. Growing up in Nelson, his family often went on day trips and tramps into the bush, sparking Phillip’s interest in the beauty and the intricacies of the New Zealand outdoors.

‘I never liked being indoors or liked the idea of sitting at an office all day,’ Phillip says. ‘I think that the landscapes we have in New Zealand are just mind blowing. To get out amongst it all is a challenge but also very rewarding.’

‘When I was getting started it was everything: the vibrancy in the marketplace, the crustiness of people, different scenes; it wasn’t so specific as it is now,’ he says. ‘When I was in Cairns, Australia, I started to see other photographers that I admired—my interest narrowed to landscapes and grew into a full-on passion.’

Capture It

Part of Phillip’s ardour with landscape photography came to fruition in ‘Capture New Zealand’ photo tours, a project he began when he returned to New Zealand in an effort to put a local flair into New Zealand photo touring.

‘What we do is provide a service to international guests to target photography no matter what their skill level. There are some people who are just holding a camera for the first time; then we also have the professionals who just want to get to the spots,’ he continues. ‘The great thing about it is that we provide a local angle, which means that we go to all the right spots at the right times: all the nooks and the crannies and the secret places.’

One aspect Phillip always teaches is getting the eye of the photographer to see things in landscape and to translate that into a photo that gives off a sense of awe.

The ‘It’ Factor

‘To get a sense of emotion into the photos, it’s all about colour and the time of day, really; it gives a warmth and vibrancy to the photo,’ Phillip says. ‘I also try to get a combination of the elements that best suits the scene. The areas I like I just keep going back to, to get a good combination—sometimes I’ll go back three times before I feel I have a combination that fits the scene the best.’

While it may be the combination that makes a photo work, Phillip finds that, with only four shots per roll of film, a complicated reloading process and a finicky framing method, it’s the elements that can also prove to be the most frustrating.

‘The most frustrating thing about photography? The weather. That would be it right there,’ says Phillip. ‘Unlike a painter or an artist, I have no control over the scene. I can predict what is going to happen by looking at the weather reports or reading the sky, but I can’t predict how it all is going to play out. I might find an interesting cloud formation in the pre-dawn and find that it has the perfect colour and then I’ll get all set up and nothing will happen; it just dies.

But it’s getting that one perfect shot, Phillip explains—even after weeks of frustration—that what he does is really all about. ‘The most rewarding thing is to get the shot, as simple as that sounds. There is a big difference between getting an okay shot and getting a great shot.

The Designer

Phillip has now developed his landscape photography and his photo tours into a professional vocation, a feat that he says would not have been possible apart from the creativity of the ultimate designer, God.

‘I find that being out there in the landscape I get to appreciate creation,’ he says. ‘I look at all the different facets and intricacies in the landscapes: the Pancake Rocks, for instance: sure, it’s the result of stratification and years of the ocean running over them again and again, but the greatest part of it is the natural effect. It has such a design element to it, such detail.

‘What gets me is that God set it all up in place knowing the results,’ he continues. ‘Areas will change appearance and things will continually change in their subtleties year after year—I continually find that I am astounded by the design element God puts into creation.’

‘People often say that I make great landscape photos,’ he says. ‘I find that a little embarrassing as all I do is frame up a suitable composition to show people what God has been up to in places they could not visit themselves. God does it all—I just turn up to see what’s going on’

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

Give Peace a Chance

08 Sep 2009

John Lennon wrote the anti-war anthem ‘Give Peace a Chance’ during his famous 1969  ‘bed-in’ honeymoon. A  reporter asked what Lennon was trying to achieve by staying in bed and he answered: ‘All we are saying is give peace a chance’.

In another song, Lennon made it clear that the world he was a part of was far from the world he longed for:
Imagine there’s no countries / It isn’t hard to do / Nothing to
kill or die for / And no religion too / Imagine all the people /
Living life in peace …

As Lennon’s violent demise proved, his pessimism was well grounded.

A call for peace-makers

Nationalism, greed for resources, and the forces of fundamental and ideological fanaticism have always been factors in world conflict. And Christians have been far from guiltless. We have, at times, failed dismally to live out Jesus’ call for his followers to be peace-makers.

But Lennon had it wrong; to do away with religions isn’t the panacea the world needs. People of faith have often been the most earnest drivers of peace and reconciliation—on small and large scales.

Jesus said: ‘God blesses those people who make peace. They will be called his children’ (Matthew 5:9, CEV). If Christians are to be a force that brings peace to families, communities, nations and the world, then our family likeness to Jesus must shine through.

At a time when other religious figures argued ‘eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’, Jesus preached—and practiced—a pacifism born of love and marked by mercy. The Apostle Paul amplified Jesus’ message: ‘Do not repay anyone evil for evil … as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge … On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink” … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’

Organised love

Another singer, Joan Baez, once said: ‘That’s all non-violence is—organised love.’ If we really want to give peace a chance, then we have to put love above all. And we need to be organised, intentional, about it. Love, like peace, doesn’t ‘just happen’. Sometimes it’s the hardest thing on earth, but it’s the best thing for the entire earth.

Lennon dreamed of a better, more peaceful world. But anyone can retreat to their beds to dream. Those who actually make the world a better place are those who let their longings inspire prayers and who then turn those prayers into actions. Or, as Gandhi said: ‘We must be the change we wish to see.’

By Christina Tyson (from War Cry magazine)

The Baby Boomers’ legacy

03 Sep 2009

During May 2011 the first Baby Boomers will apply for the New Zealand Superannuation. From this day and for the next 20 years the number of people who are likely to be paid the New Zealand Superannuation will grow by around 450 people per week.

On average, it takes the income taxes paid by two wage earners to pay for the Superannuation income of one retired person.¹ This means that every week from mid-2011 we will require an extra 900 earners in our economy. If New Zealand isn’t able to find these extra workers then there may be higher rates of tax, the government might have to reduce the value of Superannuation payments, or it will have to cut spending in other areas such as health, education and welfare.

The prospect of New Zealand finding these extra earners is not bright if Statistics New Zealand’s population forecasts² are to be relied upon. If the present population trends continue then New Zealand’s working-age population will, on average, grow by less than 200 people per week.

The economic impact of the baby boomer ‘demographic bulge’ has been well known for some time. The contribution-based Superannuation introduced by the third Labour government in 1974 contemplated the difficulty that the country would have in affording retirement incomes for the Baby Boomers and sought to make early provision for this. This scheme was quickly dismantled by Robert Muldoon in 1976 following his election as prime minister when he promised that a pay-as-you-go Superannuation scheme was viable.

A social favour

Pay-as-you-go Superannuation schemes require the taxpayers of today to pay taxes to support the pensions of the retirees of today. In such an arrangement there is something of an implicit social contract whereby the taxpayers of today presume, or are led to believe, that the favour will be continued by the taxpayers of tomorrow who will gladly contribute taxes to support their parents’ and grandparents’ generations in their retirement years. The problem with such an implicit social contract is that no one thought to ask those on the other side of the contract whether or not they were willing or indeed able to be part of such a contract. One reason why those on the paying side of the contract weren’t asked was because they weren’t even born when the terms of the contract were set up.

Of course the flip-side of this inter-generational social contract is that future generations get to inherit other stuff that a country with well-developed infrastructure and social systems has built up and nurtured by preceding generations.

Aside from the question over the fairness of this deal, there is a more pressing question around whether or not this deal is economically and socially sustainable.

We can't grow our way out of this problem

It is doubtful that we can rely on the cure all of economic growth to simply grow our way out of this problem. Firstly, Superannuation pensions are tied to the average wage; as the economy grows, wages will also grow and, hence, so too will the cost of Superannuation. Secondly, the world is also facing three other problems that will increasingly demand any additional economic resources that may be available. These are: the legacy of debt that is growing out of the current financial crisis, the rising cost of energy as oil becomes scarcer, and the costs associated with adjusting to the impacts of climate change.

Those left working as the Baby Boomers retire could always agree to hold up their end of the bargain and agree to pay more taxes and receive fewer services.

But New Zealand is not the only country facing the problem of an aging population. In fact, New Zealand has a slightly younger population than most western countries. As these other countries age, they will face skilled labour shortages and will look to recruit skilled workers. If the tax burden is too high and public services inadequate, many younger New Zealand workers will simply vote with their feet and leave. So who then is left to pay the taxes and do the skilled work required to grow the New Zealand economy?

Rising cost of health care

Perhaps the real sting in the economic tail of an aging population is not the increasing cost of retirement incomes or a dwindling workforce but the rising cost of health care. A recent report by the Treasury³ suggested that by 2051, 69% of our health expenditure will be on the elderly compared with around 40% today. This report warned that government would need to severely prune growth in so-called ‘non-demographic’ health spending if it is to limit public health spending to less than 12% of GDP. Currently, such spending is around 7%.

It seems inevitable that both entitlement to and the value of retirement incomes will be cut over the next five years. Most likely the age of entitlement will gradually shift up to 70 years. Also, means testing of Superannuation may be re-introduced and the indexing of pensions to wage movements may change.

These responses by themselves may not be enough as they don’t really address the underlying problem that is caused by there being too many people at the top of the age pyramid and too few workers to support them. Addressing this more fundamental problem requires a radical shift in focus away from the needs of the old and the aging and towards the needs of the young and yet-to-be-born.

Focusing on leaving a great legacy

At present we have a welfare system which allows at least one-in-six children to live in relative poverty and around a quarter of our school leavers to exit high school without a meaningful qualification. Furthermore, there is a strong link between who is poor and who does not succeed at school. Ideally, these needs and failures should be addressed as a national priority.

If we are interested in building a prosperous and just society, the real challenges don’t lie with how we fund our retirement incomes or how we provide better health services to an aging society. Rather, the compelling challenges are around how we can make sure that every child has the resources needed for them to grow up healthy and clever and how every young person has the opportunity to utilise their talents and become a contributing citizen. Meeting these challenges requires not just a significant and immediate redirection of resources, but a mind shift that begins to focus on the great legacy we might leave for our grandchildren.

By Alan Johnson (from SPPU)

¹ The average wage and salary earner pays $7000 per year in income tax while the basic Superannuation income for a married person is $14,228 per year.
² These figures are based on Statistics New Zealand’s medium fertility, medium mortality scenario with 10,000 net migration.
³ John Byrant et al, (2004), Population Aging and Government Health Expenditures 1951-2051 The Treasury—available at www.treasury.govt.nz

What’s lost is nothing to what’s found

03 Sep 2009

We recently went on a week’s R&R to Brisbane but failed to factor in the impact of four grandchildren. It became apparent that we must be aging as carrying and chasing them caused leg and arm muscles to ache like never before. Our adult family members kept talking about how good it was that we were having such ‘quality time’ with the children! But ‘time’ was what we had and so we wiped noses and bottoms and reflected on our former years as parents to our four children, who we are quite sure were more manageable—or is that our memory failing?

A time to reflect

One of the great benefits of aging is having time to reflect. Joseph Campbell the great Mythologist, made the point that if the first half of our lives is about acquisition—where we achieve education, careers, success and provide for family; the second half of life should be about divesting—we free ourselves from the clutter and the physical and external dependencies of life that can hinder the essential preparation for our transition from this world to the next.

To partake in deep reflection is to get a meaningful return on the investment of your life. Frederick Buechner, a Presbyterian Minister and writer, tells of an eleventh century monk named Godrick who, as an old man, lost almost everything. In response to his poverty he said, ‘What’s lost is nothing to what’s found. And all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.’

Old is gold

I received an invitation by email to a Hindu Elders Conference, the theme of which is ‘Old is Gold’. The challenge is to do some deep reflection on the journey of one’s life and to mine its gold—to discern the presence of God in the places, events and people that had been part of our journey.

Walter Rauschenbusch captures the idea of discovering these God moments:

In the castle of my heart there is a little postern gate
Where, when I enter, I am in the presence of God.
In a moment, in the turning of a thought,
I am where God is.
When I meet God there, all life gains a new meaning,
Small things become great, and great things small.
Lowly and despised things are shot through with glory.
My troubles seem like pebbles on the road,
My joys seem like everlasting hills,
All my fever is gone in the great peace of God,
And I pass through the door from time to Eternity.

This reflection can be both disturbing and exciting as the vicissitudes of life have shape and determine what we’ve made of ourselves. But it is a way to discover the treasure of one’s journey and deepen one’s trust in the One from whom we came, and to whom we return. We take with us not our possessions (there are no pockets in a shroud), but who we are and the wisdom and wealth of our spirit, character and integrity.

A wealth and wisdom to respect

Contained in the life of our older citizens is a wealth and wisdom we would do well to respect. In contrast to the prevailing individualism that leaves many older people lonely and isolated, Maori and other indigenous peoples show how to care, value and listen to their sacred stories. To reflect on their remarkable journeys, to share in the story of their struggles and adversity, to ponder their faith and love, to appreciate the quality of their wisdom and being, is the best preparation for when we will be old and, hopefully, valued.

By Ian Kilgour (from SPPU)

A Choice Decision

26 Aug 2009

After growing up in Invercargill, I moved to Christchurch at 17, joined the New Zealand Army as a cook and stayed there for about six years. I wasn’t much of a team player and always lived outside the Army compound, flatting with civilians, taking drugs and getting into trouble. I eventually got out of the Army and ran massage parlours and escort agencies, getting into drugs in a big way.

I ended up in Napier and carried on the same lifestyle. I was a reasonably trusting person and wound up serving a prison sentence after being caught by an undercover policeman.

I learned my lesson, though, and never went to jail again, even though my lifestyle didn’t change. I simply kept what I was doing a more guarded secret.

Through all of this I was searching for identity. I hung out with motorcycle gangs and the like, and there were also a few destructive relationships. In fact, the same bad things happened over and over in my life.

Around this time I took up pistol shooting, representing New Zealand overseas and reaching the top of my field, but even that came to grief when I joined a motorcycle club, prospecting for the Hell’s Angels. Life got a bit complicated for the next three years, and I was constantly on methamphetamine.

An Unlikely Conversation

One day I was in a pretty deep hole. I had been charged by the police, and faced eight years in jail. I had also discovered that some of my trusted friends weren’t trustworthy at all.

Plus, to cap it all off, my wife said that she had had enough of my lifestyle and was leaving. She was a Christian who had seen God work miracles in her life, and she told me, ‘Before I go, I am going to tell you about Jesus, because you’re going to die. You’re going to be killed!’ That got my attention.

So she told me about Jesus and how he loved me. I had been to Sunday school as a child and had heard the stories, but you tend to forget them in the blurred reality of drugs and everything else that goes on.

What she said really struck me. I said, ‘Woah, yeah, that sounds good; I’ll have a piece of that.’ So I gave my heart to the Lord there and then and immediately felt a great sense of peace. I stopped taking methamphetamine, which I was using in vast quantities, and shortly afterwards I left the gang—with God’s help.

My wife and I went round Napier looking for a church to belong to. We happened to walk past The Salvation Army and thought we would try it. We felt welcome and accepted and people here helped us out a lot.

Keeping the Options Open

However, at that point I still had one foot on either side of the fence. I had been burned a number of times in my life, and so I figured I’d give God a go but keep my options open by staying involved in drugs and criminal activity.

When it was time for my court case, I really felt at peace; I was trusting God and knew he had a plan for my life—and if that included going to jail then everything would still be okay. But I was found innocent and the charges were dismissed.

Shortly after, the police turned up again, finding evidence that didn’t look good for me. I was looking at another two or three years in jail. It was at this point that I said to myself, ‘What am I doing?! Here I am, involved in drugs, coming to church and even giving my money so The Salvation Army can help people who are affected by drugs.’

Returning home from the police station I threw all the drugs away and cut up any firearms I still had left and threw them away too. And that’s been pretty much it ever since. I’ve tried to keep walking forward from there, because I realise that I have nowhere else to go: I’ve been to Hell; I’m not going back.

In court, my lawyer was pleading with the judge to accept my guilty plea, because if he didn’t I would go to jail. Right at the very last moment, when the situation seemed desperate, I spoke words from the Bible to God, reminding him, ‘God, you said that no weapon formed against me will prosper.’ The very second that I prayed that, the judge accepted my guilty plea and sentenced me to 150 hours of community work, which I ended up doing at The Salvation Army.

Beginning Restoration

But life on the farm carried on, as they say. My wife left, taking our children. The bad crops I had planted over the years had finally choked the life out of our marriage.

The next couple of years were a lonely, hard place, but I can say that the love of my church family really kept me going. That was awesome, because the only thing that I had to look forward to each night was lying on my heated bathroom floor, spending time with God.

I kept putting one foot in front of the other, believing that God would eventually come through. And he has. When he says that he will restore everything, it’s true! I’ve seen a lot of restoration and I’ve seen a lot of miracles. Even my totally trashed relationship with the mother of my first daughter has been miraculously healed, and I now see my daughter whenever I like.

I had given up praying for my ex-wife and children. I felt like I had said enough prayers and shed enough tears, so I just thought, ‘God, you can sort it out.’ One Sunday someone prayed with me and as I walked out from church I thought, ‘Well, it’s Sunday, I’ll just text and see if I can possibly see the kids’.

It turned out that God had just spoken to my ex-wife at her church and told her to ‘forgive Gavin and stop punishing him’. She asked whether I wanted to have the kids for the day!

A New Identity

So that’s God for you. He really has restored everything. I have a simple faith; I believe that God loves me and has a good plan for my life, and I thank him every day.

I have found my identity as God’s son. I believe that God created me to honour and love him and to bless others—and that’s what I enjoy doing. I help out at The Salvation Army’s Sports Adventure Life Training (SALT) in Napier, and also with the Army’s men’s restoration group. There are a lot of men that need help changing their lives and climbing out of the same hole I was in, so that is where my passion is: seeing lives restored and transformed.

God is good, and I believe that he answers prayers; I know he does! I have seen it so often. I look back on my life and I see that, even though I didn’t walk with God until 2004, he’s always been working hard out just to keep me alive.

I’ve had so many near-death experiences, and I have seen God save me over and over—I’ve got to give God all the honour and glory! I know he’s got a plan and I’d like to think that it’s a big one, but even if it’s a small plan, I’m just happy to be here, and hopefully to one day be remembered as ‘a friend of God’.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

A Roll of Sellotape

25 Aug 2009

As a young boy, I’m told, I had an insatiable addiction to Sellotape. So much so that my parents gave me a fresh roll every birthday that would, to their horror, disappear in a matter of days. The question is asked: how could my parents allow me to sink to such a level of adhesive depravity? Blame aside, somewhere along the line it seems that I developed a desire to pull things apart, inspect them, tape them up in new ways and admire my handiwork (or, more often than not, lack thereof).

As I grew older this nature took me into the shed where odd bits of wood, sandpaper and Dad’s worn tools became an outlet for my creative conscience. After slowly realising my lack of ability with a saw, I turned to more indoor pursuits, which now finds me more at home with a pen and paper than hammer and nails.

Regardless of what it looks like for each of us, there is a simple satisfaction in situational problem solving. The room is messy; it needs a clean. The tire is flat; it needs a repair. The toy is falling apart; it needs more Sellotape.

Even in my recent trip to Tanzania my friends and I spent our days volunteering at an orphanage assessing problems and finding solutions. The eldest boy, Albert, came up to us one day and said, ‘Every day you have a new idea.’ He was intrigued by what inspired us to build a kitchen table or a simple wash basin or a washing line. It was a privilege to involve these young men in projects and show them the joy of giving something a go.

At the heart of this DIY spirit is a God who is, at his core, creative. And we, bearing his image, share in that creativity. The beauty and satisfaction of a day in the rice field exists because it has always been the Creator’s intention for us to work with our hands—to partner with him in the building of his Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.

The gift of grace is not a licence for laziness, but a mandate for work. ‘We are God’s workmanship,’ writes Paul in Ephesians, ‘created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’ Moments prior Paul implores us to recognise that salvation is a gift. And as any good gift does—from a roll of Sellotape to the generous grace of God—it should motivate us for action.

By Elliot Taylor (from War Cry magazine)

Not Your Usual African Adventure

10 Aug 2009

The Africa Mercy is as tall as an eight-storey building, refitted from a rail ferry to a state-of-the-art hospital ship. From captain to cooks, surgeons to school teachers, Mercy Ships’ multi-national crew of 450 raise their own sponsorship to provide transformational health care to the poorest of the poor in West Africa.

Alison grew up in The Salvation Army, attending Tawa Corps, near Wellington. She says The Salvation Army nurtured a strong belief in taking action for justice and mercy. The Hutt Hospital nurse first encountered Mercy Ships during a public relations tour by the ship to New Zealand in 1983. ‘I definitely felt a call,’ she says. ‘Jesus said, “Make the blind see and the lame walk”, and Mercy Ships take that very literally.’

Initially working on board as an operating theatre nurse, Alison’s responsibilities now include managing the six operating theatres and their staff. ‘Treatment is of the highest standard, even if the working conditions are a little different,’ she says.

With volunteers from 35 nations coming together to use their skills for two weeks to a few years, training the multi-national teams to work together in the high-pressured but friendly atmosphere is one of Alison’s greatest challenges. This year alone the surgical team has performed more than 2520 surgical procedures.

Alison is honoured to treat those without access to health care who are struggling to survive. ‘Using my skills, what I do—to bring such massive change to the poorest and most desperate, to help those who have no hope—is an amazing privilege.’

One of those Alison has helped is 14-year-old Alfred, whom she met in Cotonou, Benin, in 2005. Alfred had a rare facial tumour that had been growing for four years. ‘He was the smallest person with the largest tumour I’d seen, yet he had the sweetest nature,’ says Alison. When Alfred arrived on board the Africa Mercy, the five-pound benign tumour enveloped his lower jaw and teeth. Its growth was causing him to slowly starve, and his eyes revealed terrible suffering.

Alfred’s father believed the tumour was the result of witchcraft. Father and son had visited more than a dozen traditional healers who poked holes in Alfred’s skin, applied pastes and prescribed animal sacrifices. A local doctor also examined Alfred but could do nothing. ‘In my heart,’ his father says, ‘I had given up.’ A local pastor told the family that Mercy Ships was in port and its medical staff could treat Alfred for free. Disillusioned by failure after failure, they reluctantly made the journey to the ship.

Alfred underwent complex surgery; his tumour was removed and a titanium plate inserted along with a bone graft to fashion a new jaw. ‘Before the surgery, people used to run away from me,’ Alfred says. ‘I didn’t go to school for four years. When I went back to school, all my friends were like “Wow!” My family and my close relatives would just say, “Yes, it’s a miracle.”’

In January 2009, Alfred, now 19, noticed swelling in his jaw. He knew Mercy Ships had just returned to Cotonou and so he returned to the ship; this time with faith. Alfred was examined and rescheduled for follow-up surgery to remove a small tumour that was forming.

Alison and the surgical team had the rare privilege of being reunited with this young man years after his initial life-saving surgery. They saw that his life had been totally turned around and that his future was full of hope.

Reflecting on her African medical service, Alison simply says: ‘It’s the most useful thing I’ve ever done.’

• For more information, go to www.mercyships.org.nz

Conquer Your Own Mountain

10 Aug 2009

On a cool, damp morning on the side of a ridge over-looking the Whakapapa River, a dozen teenagers from South Auckland dismantle the makeshift camp where they have just spent a rain-soaked night. A couple of kilometres away, another group takes turns abseiling down a 35-metre rock face overlooking the foothills of Mt Ruapehu. A third group is watching a team mate negotiate steel cables suspended five metres up in a stand of pines.

This is Winter Peak Adventure; a week-long crash course of team work, confidence-building and problem solving, hosted and run by The Salvation Army Blue Mountain Adventure Centre (BMAC).

Nestled between the banks of the Piopiotea Stream and the village of Raurimu, the centre is one of the Army’s lesser-known masterworks. With Mt Ruapehu and its ski fields at its backdoor and dozens of caving, hiking, camping, rock climbing, canoeing and kayaking sites close by, BMAC has, for the past 19 years, provided an outdoor education experience for thousands of people, from pre-schoolers upwards. They include school students, youth group members, parents, church groups, and people from a variety of Salvation Army centres.

Quality outdoor education

While it may sound simply like a good excuse to go thundering down rapids on a raft or squirm through the Okupata limestone caves, BMAC is primarily about education and changing lives for the better.

As the only Christian outdoor adventure centre in the country, BMAC’s beating heart is a team of committed Christian instructors led by Kent Nanninga and wife Leanne. Kent says continual training, updating and assessing technical skills and safety procedures, personal training and ensuring the staff’s spouses and children are content are behind the centre’s success.

BMAC has a family feel to it. Its instructors seem to have perfected a relaxed, yet no-nonsense approach to teaching, coaching and managing people of all ages. Collectively, the instructors have an array of skills ranging from specialist instructor qualifications for the full spectrum of adventure activities through to training in social and youth work, counselling and tertiary biblical studies.

Kent says this broad skill set and a well-grounded team are critical to fulfilling BMAC’s aims of developing the physical, emotional, social and spiritual facets of their charges’ lives.

‘We’re not a tourist place where we say, “Let’s go for a blast down the river,”’ Kent explains. ‘We teach people a lot about respecting themselves and others; we encourage them to solve their own problems and finish what they start.’

Sowing seeds of change

People wrestling with addictions, or who have had encounters with the police and courts, and some from sole-parent families require a delicate approach, he adds. ‘The group we’ve got here at the moment has a lot of boys without fathers,’ says Kent, ‘so we’ll go to their leaders to see what that’s about, and we’ve made a point of talking about the issues that may affect them.’

The instructors often see positive changes in the young people in the short time they attend BMAC, but Kent says the centre’s job is ‘sowing seeds’; the major changes in lives will happen progressively over time.

For some, however, their personal development is more dramatic. One recent teenage graduate from BMAC made the quantum shift from regular drug use to owning up to his problem, then committing to staying clean, removing himself from his circle of drug-using friends and making amends with his parents. ‘And he’s still on track, so it’s impressive to see that sort of change,’ says Kent.

Programmes for all needs

BMAC has developed a range of programmes for different age groups and abilities, including Winter and Summer Peak Adventures for teenagers, Father and Kids Weekends, and programmes for women’s groups. It recently completed comprehensive renovations and extensions to its 1.3 hectare complex, giving the centre an accommodation capacity for 50 people. This provides BMAC with greater scope to host retreats and team-building programmes and to extend its current range of adventure programmes.

BMAC also provides NZQA-accredited courses for those looking to become instructors or who simply want to increase their skill levels across a range of adventure activities. These training courses are offered as part of the Wellington 614 Corps Equipt training programme.

One of BMAC’s specialities is ‘The Journey’ for 16-30 year olds, a 300 km odyssey by foot, mountain bike, raft and canoe from Tongariro National Park to the Tasman Sea, via the Mokau River.

Like all of the centre’s programmes, The Journey is a ‘God-grounded’ excursion designed to develop initiative, self-confidence, perseverance and trust within the group, with a particular emphasis on leadership. Responsibilities and leadership roles are rotated among the group as the journey progresses.

BMAC instructors thoroughly train and prepare Journey participants before the trip but once underway, it’s largely up to the group. ‘We’re there as instructors to keep them safe and encourage them when they go too far off track and yes, it is okay to go off track,’ says Kent.

Top results for Project K

The centre recently designed and delivered a similar Journey experience for a group of Project K teenagers starting at National Park and finishing 290 km later in Hamilton. Project K was the brain child of Kiwi mountaineer Graeme Dingle and is designed to help 14 to 15-year-olds reach their full potential through a progression of outdoor adventure, community projects and a year of mentoring.

Karen Blue, Waikato programme director for the Foundation for Youth Development that runs Project K, says BMAC outperformed previous providers used for Project K and she expects to engage the centre in future programmes.

Her priorities in selecting an outdoor adventure provider were safety of the teens and being able to monitor the progress and morale of the group from her base in Hamilton. ‘[BMAC] certainly lived up to expectations; I can’t rave highly enough about them and I’m a pretty hard taskmaster.

‘What I saw was [the instructors] setting parameters and then encouraging the kids … to make their own decisions, and I think that allowed the kids to rise up a little and take on the leadership role themselves.’

Karen says young Kiwis rarely get taught resilience, perseverance, practical problem solving or teamwork. The skills her Project K teenagers learnt from BMAC will be taken to the community work phase of the programme, and hopefully into their adult lives.

Anchored through adventure

Back at Winter Peak, two dozen teenagers are whooping it up on Whakapapa ski field. Most are trying snowboarding or skiing for the first time and some are having their first encounter with snow.

Salvation Army youth leader Danny Wairasi has brought a small group of teenage boys down to BMAC from Tamaki for the week and says his guys have made considerable progress in a short period, in terms of their self-confidence, self-respect and respect for others.

‘The idea has been to give them first-time experiences, memories that will steel them in later life,’ says Danny. ‘Because these are first-time experiences, it’s a good time to inject positive messages, not necessarily through talking but also actions, giving them positive adult examples to follow. Yeah—I’ll be bringing another group back for Summer Peak.’

• For more information, go to www.bluemountainadventure.org.nz

By Jon Hoyle (from War Cry magazine).

Adrenaline Adventure

10 Aug 2009

I’ve never been one for roller coasters, I’ve never been downhill skiing and I don’t actually even enjoy the feel of adrenaline … unless it’s coming from the pages of a thrilling classic novel … but that’s it.

To be honest, I’m actually a bit of a scaredy-cat—though a self-acclaimed one, I might add. Put in a little bit of danger or make me go higher or faster than should be humanly possible and I’d much rather curl up on the couch, and maybe read about someone who will do those things instead.

But it’s funny, really, because isn’t the most important part of my life one massive, adrenaline-filled adventure? Doesn’t the mere admission of my Christianity entitle me to mind-blowing, positively terrifying adven-tures every step of the way?

When I signed up for this I didn’t sign up for easy, but you don’t see me begging to take it all back and return to the comfort of my couch. Even as a complete scaredy-cat when it comes to things like riding a board down a mountainside or trusting a wood and metal structure to eventually bring me back to where I started, I am positively and excitedly anchored in the adventures that I am privileged to be a part of through belief in Jesus Christ.

Though I can’t take the heart-thumping adrenaline of the regular adventure, I absolutely live off of the adrenaline of encountering the Holy Spirit, inviting others to come to Christ, and seeing the little miracles that God sprinkles through my life every day. That’s the kind of adventure I’m willing to anchor myself in.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

Dave Wiggins: The Clean Comedy Guy

30 Jul 2009

Dave Wiggins is an American turned New Zealand resident who doesn't like Marmite, thinks New Zealand houses lack something crucial to survival: insulation, and to top it all off-he doesn't understand rugby.

So what does a guy like this have to offer Kiwi culture? Well, he’s always good for a laugh.

Remember that One Time …

Dave grew up in Maine and first encountered New Zealand at 16 years old on a missions trip.

At 19 Dave felt the pull to return to New Zealand where he began study towards a three-year degree at the Bible College of New Zealand.

‘I got the call, if you will,’ he says. ‘I really enjoyed New Zealand, and it was really a sense of adventure that brought me back.

After study Dave decided to make New Zealand his home, partly because of his new Kiwi bride—a lovely addition to his already positive feelings about New Zealand—and spent two years in youth ministry. He is currently working part time at Massey Community Church in Auckland where he serves as the Sunday morning coordinator.

The Funny Man

In his second year of study, one of his mates told Dave that he was funny and encouraged him to try stand-up comedy at the local comedy club, Classic. Dave gave it a go and it stuck.

‘Comedy is one of those things that I can look back on in my life and see that I was headed this way,’ he says.

Dave’s now been in the country for seven-and-a-half years, despite his abhorrence of Marmite, and is known as the ‘clean comedy guy’ throughout the country, a title that raises more than a few eyebrows in the New Zealand comedy world.

‘You come across a lot of clean comedians in the States,’ he says, ‘but that isn’t so much the case here—we aren’t the norm.’

Dave now not only performs a solo routine regularly at the NZ International Comedy Festival, even being nominated for the Billy T Award this year, he is also invited to speak at churches and Christian events around New Zealand.

‘It’s about expression and being spiritual,’ he says. ‘I am really passionate about the arts, so I started thinking: why can’t we have comedy in the church too?

I’m a Believer

Dave’s latest solo routine is the first to talk about his faith in an overt, though satirical way. His routine, ‘I’m a Believer’, runs for one hour and takes the mickey out of what he’s all about.

‘In the show I am satirical about Christianity and Christian culture, but try to put a positive spin on it all,’ he says. ‘I try not to just use church humour in the show. I try to stay away from just being observational about the church or how pastors are funny and things like that, which only church people will get. I try to make it so that anyone can laugh at it.’

But Dave’s church humour hasn’t always been something that people will laugh at during his secular shows.

‘In the new routine I talk about the fact that I have found in the past at comedy clubs that when I say that I am a Christian, the whole place goes quiet and it totally kills the environment,’ he says. ‘You can be offensive and you can be vulgar, but you start talking about Jesus in a positive way and people get awkward.’

Dave does admit, though, that there is a fine line between playful satire about the Christian faith and reinforcing negative views about the church in the secular world.

‘I’m really at the beginning of a journey. I use satire in my routine but try to work to break down the negative presumptions about Christianity,’ he explains. ‘I use satire, yes. But then I bring in the positive that your personal beliefs do belong somewhere.

Squeaky Clean

When Dave is asked to speak at a church or Christian event, he also always tries to book a gig at a pub or other secular venue in order to balance it all out—to continue challenging perspectives on Christianity in secular culture and on comedy in Christian culture.

‘I like to have a balance of secular and Christian. I want to really be the salt and light in mainstream comedy, but I also really enjoy the combination of entertainment and teaching that I get to do at Christian workshops.

Dave admits that his has been an interesting journey so far: one with laughter and hardship, one that deals with the cynical nature of the secular world while pressing to bring laughter into our pulpits, one that carries passion for the realisation of the Kingdom while having a laugh at the things that so often deter us from that goal. One that mixes comedy with ministry and makes the two positively inseparable.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

Loving Bruce

27 Jul 2009

I have always loved coming up with projects for myself. Whether it’s painting or reorganising a room of the house, learning how to knit or speak a new language, or even trying vegetarianism on for size, I’ve always loved the challenge of a new project.

But out of all my previous projects, I think I have enjoyed my current one the most: I make monsters. While on vacation at the start of the year, my husband came across a monster-making kit and held it up with the words, ‘Cara, you have got to do this!’ So off I went on my latest project adventure.

I cut out bodies and sewed on mismatched eyes and crooked noses. I added arms, which I later decided were overrated. I added hearts and stars and wide-open mouths, and finally sewed the pieces together by hand. Then I named each of my endearingly hideous creatures.

The first monster I made, Bruce, was positively ridiculous. The stitching showed a shaky distrust of myself with a needle, the stuffing bulged in all the wrong places and the combination of colours … well, we won’t even go there.

But still Bruce takes his place on the shelf with wide-mouthed Frankie, abstract Spencer, four-armed Fargo and the myriad of others, because somewhere in Bruce’s creation, I became terribly fond of him.

Bruce, just like the others, has gained a special place in my heart, and to my husband’s dismay, a prominent place in our studio apartment. In creating my own little monsters I have gotten a tiny glimpse into the depth of love a creator feels for its creation—what God must feel for the little monsters he himself created.

The care that God has for his little Bruces and Spencers and Frankies and Fargos—during their creation and after—is so spectacular that it becomes unfathomable. My appreciation for Bruce’s finer abnormalities, what makes him ‘special’, doesn’t even come close.

By Cara Wood (from War Cry magazine)

The Best Book Ever

10 Jul 2009

A page-turner from the start

I was checking out the most popular book of all time on SoYouWannaKnow.com and, no surprise here, it’s the Bible!

The site estimates the Bible’s sales at six billion copies, identifies its author as ‘God’ and comments that ‘the Bible was clearly a page-turner from the start, and it benefited from good word-of-mouth publicity, flying off the shelves’.

Maybe the writers behind this snippet of ‘so you wanna know’ trivia weren’t meaning to switch people on to The Book, but their précis of its storyline is pretty engaging all the same: The basic plot is that there’s this omnipotent deity who creates a planet and some beings to inhabit it. These beings screw everything up, he washes them out with a flood, and then they come back and screw everything up again. As a character, [God’s] a little bit inconsistent; he’s a vengeful guy one minute, then he’s answering prayers the next. But you have to give it a chance. There’s so much blood, gore and sex that we’re surprised that the thing hasn’t been banned by one of those moralistic groups that are always trying to ban something.

Give it a chance

Good thing the Bible hasn’t been banned or sanitised, which is undoubtedly due to its author being the omnipotent God. My advice is to read the book right through, though, to get a real handle on the perceived ‘inconsistency’ of God. God didn’t water down the truth about his character so we’d be more inclined to sign on with him. He’s justice, mercy and grace.

But don’t take my word for it. Read the Bible and find out for yourself.

By Christina Tyson (from War Cry magazine)

The Treaty through Christian Eyes

30 Jan 2009

Since it was first introduced in 1960 and then instituted as a public holiday in 1972, Waitangi Day and the treaty it celebrates has been regarded with some ambiguity by many New Zealanders, Christian and non-Christian  alike. How are we to make sense of the founding document that forged us into a modern nation?

The answer to that question may lie in an appreciation of biblical covenant and the remarkable story of Maori evangelisation prior to the mid-19th century. It is a story not entirely in keeping with the secularist viewpoints that have been prominent for some years, and it deserves to be told.

New Zealand's greatest Christian revival

By the late 1830s, Christian missionaries had made considerable inroads into Maori iwi. By 1845, over half of Maori were Christian, with 42,700 as Anglican, 16,000 Methodist and 5000 Roman Catholic. This is undoubtedly the greatest revival New Zealand has seen and yet it is virtually unrecognised as such.

The translation of Scripture into Maori and the rapid growth of literacy through mission schools were major factors in this remarkable achievement. European missionaries were learning basic lessons in anthropology and moving away from a dominant civilising agenda. In addition, there was the remarkable spread of the Gospel by Maori themselves, especially Christian slaves released by their now Christian masters.

It was a common occurrence for European missionaries to arrive in pa and kainga never before seen by a European, only to find a church already built and an active worshipping congregation! Maori, exhausted by the massive upheaval of the musket wars, turned in large numbers to Christ.

Treaty protection for Maori

Prior to 1840, an equally fascinating Christian phenomenon was unfolding in the United Kingdom. The British Colonial Office was heavily represented by members of the radical evangelical group known as the Clapham Sect (of William Wilberforce fame). The Colonial Secretary himself (Lord Glenelg) was a member of this remarkable group, which was committed to the protection of the interests of indigenous peoples.

New Zealand was a deep concern for these individuals - the large scale colonisation plans of the New Zealand Company in places like Wellington, Nelson and Taranaki, negative influences of European whaling and trading activities, the devastation of the musket wars and threat of French annexation all militated together to demand action.

It was agreed that the British Government needed to enter into a formal treaty with Maori that would protect indigenous Maori rights over land, bush, river and seas in exchange for British protection and sovereignty. Lieut-Governor William Hobson was dispatched from Sydney to achieve that end.

On 6 February 1840, the treaty was signed at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands. Historian Claudia Orange draws attention to the strong covenantal understanding with which Maori chiefs (starting especially with Ngapuhi) approached the treaty. These men understood and interpreted the treaty on the same terms as a biblical covenant between themselves and the Queen of England and it is this covenantal undergirding that offers an effective means of appreciating the significance of the treaty.

Ignoring the promises made

By 1851, however, 37,000 European settlers had arrived in New Zealand and already governments were choosing to ignore the protections of the treaty for Maori in the frantic grab for land. As Maori began to realise the treaty covenant was not going to be honoured many deserted the Christian faith or adapted new Maori expressions like Ringatu. Some iwi resorted to arms.

As warfare broke out in Northland, Wellington, Taranaki, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and East Coast, British regiments were despatched to deal with the threat and the government confiscated huge areas of land.

The Treaty of Waitangi document itself went missing from the mid 1860s until it was rediscovered in a rodent and water-damaged state in 1908.

Choosing to honour a covenant

The Treaty of Waitangi established an ongoing covenant of partnership between Maori and settlers. Salvationists understand this concept of 'covenant'. Covenant runs like a golden thread through the Old and New Testaments (or 'covenants'). Covenant lies at the heart of the Salvationistís dedication, marriage, soldier and officer vows. Other Christians hold similar values. Covenant is not contract; it is open ended. It is based on a relationship of trust and understanding.

Now that the treaty is being honoured and restored to its rightful place in New Zealand, we Christians possess a powerful lens with which to view it. The vision and understanding of those signatory chiefs is the same vision and understanding that can help us today - a covenantal view that recognises strong Christian imperatives at work in the signing of the treaty and that provides a biblical foundation of understanding of our treaty obligations.

By David Noakes (from War Cry magazine)