Fasting for Burma

What an amazing and shocking week it has been for the people of Burma... if you have been living under a rock, since about the 19th, Burmese Buddhist Monks have been rising up in protest marches in the main cities of Burma, from what the news reports have been saying there have been up to 30,000 monks and nuns protesting and many other Burmese Civilians, numbers have apparently been over the 100,000 mark, this has been phenomenal for the nation and the cause on a global scale with all the media attention it has been getting...

However in the past 24ish hours the Military Junta has finally said enough is enough, they have enforced dusk till dawn curfews in an attempt to stem the protests, they have been bashing, imprisoning and in some cases killing these peaceful protesters. Rumor has it that the countries democratically elected leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been taken from her home where she has been under house arrest by the junta and been put back into prison.

This news has of course hit the Burmese refugees here in Springvale very hard, as a result, and to show that we are serious about our concerns for the plight of the Burmese, we have chosen to go on a fast and pray for the nation. Unlike the fasts mentioned by Jesus in the bible, we are not keeping this fast a secret, whilst the purpose of this fast is to come to the Lord in prayer, it is also to make a point and to take a stand... So I ask that you stand with us in prayer if not in fasting (also you can SIGN THIS PETITION).
My main prayers for this time will be...

• that this bloodshed will mark the end of the Junta's rule
• that no more lives will be lost
• that the world will stand up, take notice and say ENOUGH!
• for peace of mind for refugees in other countries separated from loved-ones.

I am in Despair...

Hi everyone...

I am feeling a bit down at the moment, I have been going through a hard time with someone I considered as a really close friend at the moment, this friend of mine has decided to start attacking my beliefs and what I do and that sort of thing always hurts. When I joined UNOH we got a fair bit of this sort of thing from other friends, but this guy stood by us. Now my friend has caught onto a new type of teaching, one that stand opposed to what I do in many ways, one that is more focused on personal righteousness than living out the Gospel, I'm sure you know this type of thing... whilst both things are needed there is an unhealthy tendency to swing towards one or the other rather than keeping them both in tension...

Anyway, I take these things really badly and this has put me out a fair bit, it reminded me of something i wrote about 4 months ago when I was also going through a rough stage because of something that was affecting Naomi pretty badly... it was a cathartic exercise that I was going to keep to myself, but Naomi saw it and thought it was good so I thought maybe I would share it with you...

I am in despair…
When I see the condition of this world,
I am in despair…
When I see the Condition of this Church,
I am in despair…
When I see good people fall,
I am in despair…
When I see good people hurt,
I am in despair…
When I see the tear in my wife’s eye,
I am in despair…
When it seems Evil is winning over good,
I am in despair…
That the church sees the answer as offence rather than love,
I am in despair…
When His Kingdom seems to be slipping away,
I am in despair…
When I feel that my hands are tied,
I am in despair…
That the church keeps crucifying him day after day,
I am in despair…
That I keep crucifying Him also,
I am in despair…
At the darkness that is in me,
I am in despair…
That there is no clear way ahead,
I am in despair…
That introspection makes me feels selfish,

But I stand…
On the truth that He will never leave us,
But I stand…
On the truth that He will never forsake us,
But I stand…
Because the light has not died,
But I stand…
Because the hope has not died,
But I stand…
Because He is my life,
But I stand…
Because I am not alone,
But I stand…
Because I am loved,
But I stand…
Because I am called.

Springvale update

Well, it has been a very busy last couple of weeks, it's not long now until we are back online at home and so will be able to write more regular updates, but to fill you in on what has happened over the last few weeks..

A few weeks ago we had an amazing working bee at our new home, we had approximately 20 volunteers come through from Swanson Street Church of Christ to help clean up, and they did an amazing job. The clean up was so effective that we were able to bring forward our moving date, which happened on the 5th and we had a small but dedicated team and we had all our furniture, boxes and junk moved in by the early afternoon. Since then, we have been working hard at getting settled in as well as cleaning up our old place (which was also done with a working bee of amazing UNOH workers and locals - thanks guys!), and getting familiar with our new neighbourhood.

The welcome we have received from the local UNOH workers and members of "Open Hands" church has been amazing - I think in the time that we have been moved in we have had dinner at our house once or maybe twice!

Springvale itself is a much different place to Noble Park, even though they are neighbouring suburbs Springvale is a much larger suburb and as many of you would know, very Asian in flavour, the town centre has the real hustle and bustle of an Asian city, and you could almost think that you were walking down a street in Bangkok... if you had a really vivid imagination.

Drugs, and everything that comes with them seem to be a much larger problem here, there are definite signs of drug use, we have already found a number of syringes in and around our front yard, there are discarded "chroming bags" along the sides of the alleyway behind our house, and probably the most disturbing of all for us was finding someone shooting up in our front yard. The main reason that this person was shooting up there was because we had an easily accessible source of fresh water in our driveway, and it is not uncommon to come home and find that the tap had been used. The scary thing about this encounter was the realisation of any fresh paraphernalia being left behind... fortunately this individual took his syringe with him, however there was a fair amount of blood left on one of the boxes that he was sitting on.

I was struck once again with the opposing forces of fear for my family and trusting in the Lord, I think that this is a struggle that all Christian parents go through... some respond to this fear by trying to pull their children out of any danger or negative influence... we have tried another response, a response that unfortunately means that we need to face this battle between fear and trust sometimes on a daily basis... I probably need to reflect of this topic a bit more at a later date... but having said this I did change the tap head in our front yard over to one of those ones with the removable handle, so hopefully this will reduce the really in-your-face encounters that we have.

It has been great to be so close to many of the Burmese that we have been getting to know, I have been privileged to be able to play some volley ball with some of them, and have had regular visits from one of our closer and more out going friends... As we get more settled in, the week to come will hopefully be more intentional with our visiting our Burmese friends and making new contacts, as well as familiarising ourselves with the exciting town centre and all its sights, sounds and smells.

We have moved!!

Hi guys,
just a quick note to let you know that we have moved into our fantastic new home in springvale... I have a lot to blog about, but no time right now... I will get onto it soon but we are without internet or even home phone for 2 weeks, thanks to the wonderful response time of optus... We will continue to check e-mails and hopefully will have time to blog as well from the office, but don't hold your breath!!!
Peter