Alive and Kicking

Where is the most unsafe place for a human being to exist in the State of Victoria?
The correct answer is: In his or her mother's womb.

Each year, it is estimated that around twenty thousand abortions are performed in Victoria alone. An abortion can in principle take place up to 28 weeks gestation. (After 28 weeks, the 1958 Crimes Act deems the indictable offense of 'child destruction' to have taken place.) Past 20 weeks gestation, public hospitals will normally only do abortions if there are fetal abnormalities. However this could be something as minor as a cleft palate, which is easily corrected by surgery.
Private clinics are a different story.

I just can't comprehend how, in one delivery suite doctors could be delivering a baby which is to be killed during or after delivery, by lethal injection or dismemberment in utero, or simply by being left on a shelf to die, whilst in the delivery suite next door, a premature baby of the same gestation and health is delivered and kept alive to grow up to vital, healthy adulthood.

The Victorian Parliament is contemplating decriminalizing abortion, based on a bill introduced by Candy Broad. (However the ban on 'child destruction' after 28 weeks is not affected by the proposed changes.) To find out more, and consider whether you wish to take action, visit Alive and Kicking and follow instructions about how to contact your local politicians.

Shrek sells his soul for a buck

Everywhere you turn these days the face of Shrek appears: in the supermarkets the shelves are full of Shrek-branded merchandise.

It is a great irony that someone who began his film career just wanting to be left to himself in his own piece of swamp has ended up selling his image to endorse a thousand and one products.

A good example of how show business can undermine your character!

Mission-minded? A message from Africa to the West

Oscar Muriu from Kenya spoke to an Intervarsity meeting in December 2007, in St Loius.
Some of his points:

• There were nine million Christians in Africa in 1900, over 360 million today.
• There are more Anglicans in Nigeria than in all of North America and Europe.
• Kenya has more people with a personal faith in Christ than the whole of Western Europe.
• The largest congregations in Kiev, London and Zürich are led by African pastors.
• African has the fastest church growth in the world.
• For every North American or European Christian who drops out of church (6000 a day), 4 are added in Africa (23,000 a day).

The centre of gravity of Christianity has moved from the ‘north’ to the ‘south’, and it is the Christians of the non-Western world who will increasingly define what it means to be a Christian in the world today. Muriu asks: “If western models of church are not working in the west ... should he church of the two thirds world copy the models of the west or embrace western theologies?”

On the other hand, we still all need each other. Muriu spoke about the absolute importance of building genuine partnerships between Christians across the world. Although Africa is now sending missionaries to the rest of the world, missionaries are still needed in Africa. We all need each other. (1 Corinthians 12:14-27).

Muriu stated: “The mission industry of the last 200 years was hugely successful. ... We who come from Africa will always be eternally grateful to your forefathers who sent out their very best, their own sons and daughters, and resourced them to bring the gospel to us.”
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Well - what do you think?

At the first church I served in as an ordained minister, the whole path of the congregation was turned around by a visit from an African, Bishop Alexis Bilindabagabo. We had invited him to come and lead a mission, then we got cold feet, and disinvited him. He wrote to us and said that if we could not fund his visit, there were African Christians in Kigali who had a mind to support mission, who would send him. And so he came, and we all had a wonderful time enjoying God's grace through Bishop Alexis’ preaching.

I have two thoughts. One is that we in the West should always remember and give thanks for the many missionaries who have been sent out, and who sowed the seeds of faith in Christ into the 2/3rds world, often involving great personal sacrifice. These seeds are now bringing forth sweet and wondrous fruit all over the earth. The students have surpassed their teachers. This should never cease to give us joy.

The other is that we have great cause for confidence. The gospel is going out to the nations. It is being presented by the power of the Spirit of God, as He enables ordinary men and women, boys and girls all over the nations to confess Christ boldly. Let us do the same.