A silent tsunami we can stop

A couple of weeks ago a friend and colleague posted a facebook note responding to the growing crisis in East Africa. Adam challenged his 632 facebook friends to respond by giving at least $20 each. He figured if people used social media and the resources they have available in a simple way such as this he could raise over $12,500. I was the only one to respond to Adam’s note suggesting I would call on my 786 facebook friends to do the same. I gave my $20 to a ‘Horn of Africa’ appeal that Sunday.

It’s this kind of optimism that caused Adam and I to start the ‘Blackwood famine village’ back in 2009 and then ‘party with a purpose‘ in 2010 to support the 40 hour famine. Our aim was to educate and recruit. Both concepts took off well in their pilot year but this year both are struggling for momentum. We went from raising $63K in 2009 to $78K in 2010 as a community helping to feed hundreds of starving children for an entire year. I worry this year that we won’t get close to our previous targets.

We have some valid concerns in our communities in Australia, so many I can’t count. Yet to put it in perspective we are still incredibly blessed in Australia. We have seen our fair share of tragedies and when we do, we respond. I was a chaplain in the aftermath of the Vic bushfires and I saw how Australia rallied around affected communities. My sister and her family are living in Toowoomba experiencing the same Aussie spirit helping their neighbours recover from floods.

In the case of East Africa we haven’t seen images of a wave washing cities away or rumble from an earthquake but I have been hearing reports of more than 13 million people displaced. Directly affected countries include Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan. We know how hard the 10 year drought was in Australia, they’re experiencing a 60 year drought! It’s the tsunami we don’t see.

Our friend and mentor for famine village, World Vision CEO Tim Costello, is with World Vision on the border of Kenya and Somalia at the moment. He has witnessed a refugee camp built for 90,000 people currently housing 400,000. He says there is at least 1000 more arriving everyday waiting outside the camp and they still don’t have access to food or clean water. Tim spoke at our party with a purpose launch event in Blackwood a couple of weeks ago and he spoke about Australians becoming inward looking because of the global financial crisis and other global external pressures that cause us to retreat, look inward and only look out for ourselves. He encouraged us that what we are doing in Blackwood is reminding our community that together we can make a difference. Our famine concept not only encourages us to give generously to save lives but we build one another up. Our community issues become a shared load, we rise above our own problems and we gain some perspective and realize that 13 million starving people is an unacceptable number.

What really blows me away is we actually do have the resources in our world to alleviate this crisis significantly. What I struggle with is we don’t all seem to have the will or the same optimism as my friend Adam. We need to transform our doubt into the belief that we can join with Tim and the World Vision team and many other fantastic organizations doing their bit to make a dramatic change. The UN are asking for $2.2 billion to alleviate the crisis. That’s about $2 from every facebook user. We may think the problem is too big but if everyone did their little bit we could send Africa a message about how compassionate the world really is toward their plight.

This year the 40 hour famine in Australia is focusing attention on East Timor being our closest neighbouring country. 1 million children face starvation there. However with the growing crisis in Africa I have just received word that 40 hour famine money will also be directed to places such as the refugee camp on the border of Kenya and Somalia.

Please, please help me raise money for the 40 hour famine and consider sponsoring me at Mark’s 40 hour famine donation page Let’s stop this tsunami!

Please also consider giving to organizations meeting the crisis head on in Africa. There are many so I am just going to name the ones I’ve been following and giving to.

World Vision Aus

Global Mission Partners

Shalom

Mark

Be my eyes

Have you ever sat down with and listened to the story of someone who has been displaced from their home? Do you have a friend who is seeking asylum, or who has become a refugee in a strange new place?

Do you see me?

With 10 days to go until Verity’s CD launch I thought I’d better get cracking on this blog and continue reflecting on some of her songs. There is something subversive about messages contained in a song delivered with a sweet voice and a beautiful face. We receive the message differently to if we were told in a speech or written in a blog. Verity’s messages are piercing to the heart, confronting to our comfort zones, yet there is something that intrigues me to listen again and again. There is something that tugs at me to want to respond.

New theme

I’ve chosen a new theme and blog title to go in partnership with my wife’s new CD coming out at the end of the month. I tend to be the writer/public speaker, while Verity is the songwriter/artist/musician.

Verity’s recording name is Verity Skye and she is about to release her debut album titled ‘Advocate – songs that will not be silenced’. It is a powerful theme with 12 powerful songs. She writes an amazing introduction in the second page of her CD booklet which is essentially a call to radical discipleship.

Amahoro – Johannesburg, South Africa

I am sitting in my room at the YFC camp in Johanesburg, SA. It’s the end of the day (midnight in fact) on the first full day of the Amohoro conference and I am almost lost for words as to how to reflect upon the experience. In case you’re wondering, we have 2 wireless routers on site and I am able to access one in my room which is great because I didn’t expect to have the luxury of internet access while I was away.

I am sitting here staring at the screen wondering whether to launch into this so late in the night or not. I feel I need more time to be able to unpack so I’ll try and give a snapshot and overview of my first 24 hours here.

I am one of 5 Australians here at the conference. The other western countries represented are UK, USA and New Zealand. The rest of the people here are from Africa (large contingent of South Africans – mainly white African). I’ve made new friends from DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda among many others and but i particularly have an affection towards people from those countries because of the connections i have made back home.

The content of the conference so far is more than I could have imagined and no one could have predicted how powerful one of the sessions was. I listened to a black South African talk about the theology of redepmtive suffering (which I want to flesh out some more). I heard a theologian from the DR Congo talk about contextual theology (again another blog coming). Then I witnessed amazing history in the making when i attened a workshop on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. This is a story I really want to tell properly and well so watch out for this blog post coming soon. Tonight was Brian McLaren leading us into a new understanding of biblical narrative which was fresh and confronting.

The spiritual discipline and the theological engagement along with the amazing conversations is more than I could have imagined and I look forward to sharing more soon.

Shalom
Mark

Travelling to Africa

In a few days I leave for South Africa and will be visiting Swaziland and Zimbabwe during my travel to a very unfamiliar part of the world to me.

It’s been some time since I blogged regularly and I’m not about to change habbit although I would love to. I have been busy with so much it’s hard to find the time and the will to sit in front of the computer and reflect in a blog.

However I type this one in the hope that there will be some blogs to come in the near furture. I imagine that spending 12 days in 3 African countries will do something to me, it will stir me and cause me to want to respond in a number of ways. This blog may serve as a tool for reflection and interaction with others as I continue the journey.

I leave on Sunday June 7th for 12 days. I will be spending most of my time with World Vision. For the first 5 days myself and 5 other Aussies (Wolrd Vision delegation) will be attending a conference in Johannesberg where we will be challenged, confronted and inspired by people such as Desmond Tutu and brian McLaren to name a few. On Friday after the conference we travel with Swaziland WV staff to visit some of the poorest communities in Swaziland dealing with disease, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. We return to South Africa on Monday and on that day I will be flying to Zimbabwe with one of my Church of Christ colleagues (Craig Brown who is part of the World Vision trip with me) for 3 days. In Zimbabwe we will be looked after by international Churches of Christ President, BJ Mpofu. We will have an opportunity to see first hand the development work our Australian Churches of christ are contributing to.

12 days later I’ll be flying home wondering what just hit me. The day after I arrive back I’ll be back behind the pulpit of my church wondering what on earth to say after being released by them for 12 days to have an opportunity to develop within myself spiritually & theologically among many other things, and having the opportunity to explore more direct partnerships between our church community and struggling communities in these areas.

So in about the 4th week of June keep your eyes peeled for some of my reflections. I don’t think I will be bogging before that as I don’t expect to have the time or accessability to the internet.

Also stay tuned for an event I am organizing with World Vision and members of local churches called the ‘Blackwood global village 40hr Famine challenge’. My trip will certianly contribute developing our focus for this event. In shotr we (local churches of Blackwood) are hoping to work with local business and government to make the Blackwood shopping precinct a 40hr Famine zone to impact 50,000 people in our community by raising awareness of the global food crisis and raise $100,000 for Wiorld Vision to help combat the crisis. We will have a range of activities happening on the weekend of August 21-23 including a concert on the Saturday night.

As you can see plenty to look forward to over the next couple of month in this blog.

See you in a few weeks

Shalom
Mark

Gran Torino – a reflection

Warning: If you haven’t seen Gran Torino but want to and you don’t want the movie to be spoilt for you then don’t read this post as I reveal the ending

I am surprised that in a country where the conservative right are obsessed with Hollywood movies that perpetuate the fixation on atonement theology, that Gran Torino didn’t make the list of movies for them to develop church resource packs, bible studies and campaigns to get the masses to flock to cinemas for their salvation.

The Passion of the Christ and the Chronicles of Narnia seemed to become an obsession for for some churches to drive home the point of sacrificial salvation for our souls through the substitution of one for many. There are still elements of Narnia haunting the shelves of Christian book shops.

Who would have thought that a similar theme can be found through the actions of an old racist white guy (played by Clint Eastwood) who lives with his haunting post war memories in a dodgy run down multi-cultural neighbourhood, in the movie Gran Torino. I guess the people who drive these campaigns to horde churches into cinemas for their vicarious Jesus fix didn’t see the connection. Maybe it was the violence, but that doesn’t stop them promoting the Passion of the Christ. Oh I know it must be the language, because you can’t have Christians exposed to bad language in the cinema now can you.

As you might imagine I was very unimpressed with not only the campaigns but also the movies attached to them, when well meaning Christain groups have tried to drive an agenda down our throats. But there is a great story in Gran Torino that has been missed by many.

The story is developed around a lonely and angry traditional old American man (Walt) who has just lost his wife. A veteran of the Korean war he lives in a neighbourhood full of Veitnameese refugee families whom he has no time for at all. He is a drinker and a smoker with a foul mouth. A family next door is harassed by a Vietnameese gang which results in an altercation on Walt’s front lawn and he steps in and becomes involved. Clint Eastwood’s presence in the roll of Walt can only be played by him, he takes on a whole gang with a stare and gun and a few choice words. However unlike most Clint Eastwood movies he never fires a shot.

Walt is the man on the porch who reluctantly becomes the object of affection and salvation by an oppressed community and begins to develop a relationship with his neighbours next door. there are a range of themes running here and I highly recommend watching the movie just to see the dynamic of the relationships between Walt and his sons (emotionally distant), between Walt and the Vietnameese family who put up with his insensitivity and racism but discover the compassionate man within, and between Walt and the Priest of the Catholic church Walt is reluctantly a part of. The relationship between Walt and his Priest is one of my favorite relationships to watch unfold and develop as they discuss theology, social justice, life and death.

Walt’s commitment to social justice alone would be the reason why I would take my church to see this movie. You can see that it gives him great pain to see his new friends constantly harassed by an oppressive situation where they will never get a new opportunity in life and will always be kept in the cycle of poverty and violence. Walt befriends the teenage boy next door Tao. This is where you see someone who has the ability to step into the cycle of poverty and redirect it to create opportunities for Tao so the cycle doesn’t continue. Walt helps Tao get a job, even takes him shopping to by the tools he needs. It’s a comical relationship as Walt even teaches him how to socialize like a ‘true American’.

A significant incident of violence against the family one night breaks Walt’s heart and the viewer is left wondering what Walt is going to do to seek vengeance on their behalf. This is where I think the DVD cover is miss leading.

Walt’s community want him to act on their behalf to seek justice, they have high expectations of him. They have suffered this kind of oppression for long enough and are looking for a saviour. Walt realizes that the only way to give this community a chance is to remove the cause of the oppression once and for all. I love how the director leads us to expect one outcome but what eventuates is entirely different. We’re led to believe that Walt will take his gun, go around to the house of the gang and shhot them all.

In an emotionally charge climax Walt does front up on the lawn of the house where the gang live and they come out to confront him, guns aimed. Walt has a few choice words to say to the gang about their behaviour then he reaches for his lighter in his jacket to light his cigarette. He knows this is it, he knows what will happen next and as he draws his hand from his jacket, in fear the gang members shoot him dead. Walt falls to the ground, shot in cold blood, unarmed, his arms stretched out as if you signify crucifixion.

A guy with a compassionate heart developed a relationship with an oppressed community. Working tirelessly, he tried to ge=ive them a chance but the forces of oppression wouldn’t let that happen, so he deliberately gave his life to save the vulnerable and those who were too weak to save themselves. As a result the force of oppression was removed from the community and the community was set free.

Can you see the parallel Gospel themes here? Then why didn’t i get my church resource pack for Gran Torino?

I would highly recommend Gran Torino, particularly for the themes of social justice, salvation, community and relationships.

And what about the Gran Torino? Well that’s a story within a story. Walt’s classic 1970′s Gran Torino is at the heart of this and there is a great story line that unfolds with the Gran Torino in the final scene but I won’t tell you how that all plays out, you’ll just have to go a see the movie. Great ending though.

Have you seen the movie/want to see it? Keen to hear what you think

Shalom
Mark

Shopping bag ban

The next most popular news story alongside the swine flu, is the pending epidemic of the disappearance of plastic shopping bags from our supermarkets. Yes folks it’s a national tragedy for many. No longer will you be able to recklessly shop undil your hearts content then load your shopping into as many plastic bags as you can fill at the checkout. No longer will you be able to then use those bags to line your rubbish bins so our landfill can be loaded with plastic wrapped rubbish. Think of it this way on a positive note. When you are walking from the checkout to your car you can breathe easy because no longer will the bottom fall out of your shopping bag leaving your face red, half adozen eggs smashed and a lite of milk running across the carpark.

Seriously though have the many complainants spared a thought for the environment lately? When I first heard that supermarkets were phasing out plastic bags by May 4th I thought, ‘finally, someone’s got some sense’. But then I heard about the amount of people complaining and I couldn’t believe my ears. My wife and I turned our backs on plastic bags a few years ago when the ‘green bags’ were first introduced. I admit, sometimes we forget to bring our bags along so we just go without.

I’ve come to know the manager at the IGA across the road from the church over the past couple of years. We say hi and exchange pleasantries often. Earlier in the year she was a bit distressed so I asked her what was wrong,. She said that both her and her staff have been verbally abused and threatened by customers because of the new pending law. They had not yet withheld plastic bags, they had only just begun informing people! Come on, what is that? Abusing a checkout operator because a plastic bag is not available?

Supermarkets around Adelaide have stepped up security anticipating the fallout on May 4th. Here’s my challenge to you. When you go to the supermarket next and you see a member of staff wearing a ‘Don’t bag me’ badge, don’t! Instead take the road less travelled and offer a little pastoral care on the run. Save the environment and engage in social justice all in one short visit to the supermarket. There that feel so much better than abusing an innocent bystander for not offering you a carbon sucking environmentally polluting device to carry your groceries, doesn’t it?

Shalom

Mark

Chocolate back on the menu

Cadbury’s dairy milk chocolate is back on the menu for Stopthetraffik fairtrade chocolate campaigners according to a press release sent out 2 weeks ago.

I know I’ve been a bit slow to respond to this on my blog but I have been a very active campaigner of fairtrade products and particularly fairtrade chocolate through World Vision’s ‘Don’t Trade Lives’ campaign.

The press release from Stopthetraffik is very encouraging because it goes to show that the tireless campaigning of people like you and me against the practises of the mega giant corporations and companies who use unethical practices to source and produce their products, can actually bring about change! Please read the PDF file and be encouraged. Cadbury’s are switching to faritrade this year! Who can now eat Cadbury’s chocolate and feel good about it! Here’s the next challenge. To date Mars and Nestle (Mars being the biggest and most powerful chocolate producing company in the world) still refuse to budge. However Cadbury’s move may have an impact on this.

Here’s what you can do. If you enjoy eating Mars and Nestle chocolate then make sure you write to them and let them know how much you want to enjoy their product if only they changed to fairtrade practices. With Cadbury’s move and consumer pressure you would think that they would start to listen. You can pray for a change of heart but even if they change their practices purely for competitive reason, that’s still a leg up for the thousands of child slaves in Africa used by these companies to source their cocoa.

I’ve included helpful links to assist with informing you of the dire situation of slave trading and how you can respond, below.

World Vision ran a very public ‘walk against slavery’ campaign in Adelaide end of last year headed up by Tim Costello and Sen. Chris Pearce. Sen. Pearce’s agenda is to get fairtrade chocolate into vending machines in Commonwealth buildings, while Tim is campaigning more for the abolition of slavery in the chocolate industry in this particular campaign. It was a great day to raise awareness.

Before I finish this post let me ask you a question. Will you be buying Easter eggs or other Easter chocolate related products this Easter? If so do you ask yourself deliberate ethical consumer questions like…where does this chocolate come from?

My challenge to you: Don’t just buy your favorite chocolate, or the cheapest chocolate, let ethical consumerism inform your choice and choose fairtrade. Feel good about eating chocolate this Easter and go fairtrade, it feels better and tastes better – it’s only fair!

So, where do you get these fairtrade chocolate bunnies and eggs from? Check out the Chocolatier at your local David Jones store, the Oxfam shop in your city and most Woolworths and Safeway stores will also stock them. This link will give you more information about where to shop.

Here are some helpful links where I have been involved in my campaigning that will infom and guide you to make ethical choices.

Don’t Trade Lives

Stop the Traffik

Ethical shopping guide

Have a ‘fair’ Easter, don’t trade lives, stop the traffik, make poverty history, make a massive difference through simple choices.

Shalom Mark

‘Dear Westboro Baptist Church’

I was updating my video bar to reflect some of the footage taken of the National Day of mourning service when the YouTube link I’ve posted below poped up in the search. I wonder what you make of it. I’m kinda scared and a little bit freaked out by it, no wonder I saw no sign of Westboro Baptist Church at the service. This cute little animated puppet is one scarey dude. Have you seen Child’s Play with little Chucky?

Seriously though, how helpful do you think this is? I link this post back to my post on foolish compassion. Sure we don’t agree with the inhumane and outrageous views of a small minority that call themselves Christians yet hate everyone. There is something seriously wrong here and I mean some serious pshchological issues going on there with Fred Phelps and his followers.

It’s interesting that I note within myself that I think I was more fired up about ‘Pastor Danny’s’ comments from ‘Catching the Fire Ministries’ than I am by Fred Phelps. I just find it hard to take that guy even remotely seriously but he explains the bushfires in Australia quite simply saying, ‘God hates Australia’. Of course he links it to the film Heath Ledger stars in when he played a homosexual character, saying that Australia is full of fags and we deserve it. I know I used to get angry too but I just can’t take this guy seriously enough to get angry with him anymore.

Back to this video link however. What disturbs me is the assumption of attack by Australians and the condoning of violence against anyone who aligns with this thinking. We are Australian and we are better than that…I hope. Otherwise we may be just as bad as the people of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Remember the words of Jesus to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. These are the actions I would hope we as Australians would aspire to over violence and revenge. Let’s have a conversation about what that kind of love and compassion look like rather than ways in which we can hurt people who enrage us with their views and opinions.

Check the video and if you really want to see what the Westboro Baptist Church are saying you don’t have to look far to find out.