Eternity – Summer 2023

Brought to you by Bible Society Australia Summer 2023

Pete Greig on the global 24-7 Prayer movement and personal battles pages 12-13

Scan here to sign up to Eternity online Suffering and hope: the book you need pages 4-5

Alpha’s Nicky and Sila Lee pages 10-11 1

Summer reading guide page 23

Suffering, perseverance and hope

T

here are many sections of the Bible that I wrestle with, but none more than James 1:2-3: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

I am fortunate enough to never have encountered true suffering. Of course, I’ve had many physical ailments, including chronic conditions. Yes, I’ve experienced mental anguish, caused by a past eating disorder, infertility, depression, anxiety and panic attacks. And there have been times in my life when I’ve felt like a spiritual orphan, abandoned and forsaken by my heavenly Father.

But I haven’t had to suffer the anguish of watching my spouse fade away before my eyes or endure a daily battle with debilitating pain – at least, not yet.

These are the life stories of two heroes of the faith: Pete Greig, founder of the 24-7 Prayer movement, and Katherine Thompson, Australian mental health social worker and psychotherapist. In this issue of Eternity magazine, both Pete and Katherine reveal their personal struggles with suffering and how this helped fuel their life-changing ministries.

Pete shares candidly about his wrestle with the Lord as his wife Sammy battled cancer, especially

when God was silent. Meanwhile, the prayer ministry he started was going global.

Katherine discloses her constant struggle with pain and the tools that have helped her through suffering as a Christian – both of which make her new book The Discipline of Suffering the most personal, practical and helpful book on this topic I have ever read.

It seems to be so often the case that those who suffer the most are the ones who make the biggest impact for God’s kingdom. As they have persevered through trial, their character has been refined, and the gem revealed in the ashes is hope – “because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4) I pray this issue will inspire you, like Pete and Katherine, to keep persevering and praying through suffering, and to find hope through trusting our faithful God, so that our faith will also be “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:4) In keeping with the light and shade of life, this issue is also packed with other uplifting stories. Anne Lim catches up with Alpha’s Nicky and Sila Lee during their recent visit to Australia, as well as First Nations artist Fern Martins, who discusses her beautiful new Christmas book, created in partnership with Bible Society Australia. And we set up your summer with a reading guide from the team at the Centre for Public Christianity.

While suffering was never part of God’s original plan for humanity but is a result of the fallen world in which we live, we know that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

May this season bring you hope, peace and joy as you hold fast to this promise, and to the promise of new and eternal life through our suffering Saviour.

Rebecca Abbott

To update your postal details or for other enquiries: Email: eternity@biblesociety.org.au Phone: 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537) Web: eternitynews.com.au Facebook: eternitynews Instagram: @eternity.news Eternity is published by Bible Society Australia Print Post Number PP100019810 To receive more great content in your inbox, scan the code to receive Eternity’s weekly enewsletter. eternitynews.com.au/subscribe-to-eternity-news

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Philip J. Davies and the bulletproof Bible Eliot Kern

P

hilip J. Davies almost never spoke about the war.

The outbreak of conflict in 1914 was welcomed in Australia, and the soldiers departed confidently, not knowing how many would never return. Those who did return wanted nothing more than to close that horrific chapter of their lives, and Philip was no exception.

But, when Philip was cleaning out a room and his teenage son Richard asked about a New Testament he had found amid the clutter, wrapped with a red string, the story poured out. Although he heard it only once, Richard would never forget it.

Philip recounted how he, “Lance Corporal Davies”, was elected to lead five soldiers from the 39th Battalion in digging and laying telephone cables at Messines Ridge in Belgium, near the German border.

Late that night, on the eve of his 21st birthday, two large shells exploded nearby, killing one soldier and injuring three, including Philip, who was struck by shrapnel on the back of his legs and arms. When help arrived, Philip was transported to London for surgery on his leg wounds.

The next morning, he found in his top-left pocket the “Soldier’s Bible” New Testament given to him by the Bible Society of Australia, still intact, with a piece of shrapnel embedded in it. The surgeons near the bed told Philip that without the book’s stiff back cover, the shrapnel would have pierced his heart. Instead, it was buried in the pages of the New Testament, stopping at Ephesians 6:16: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (KJV)

New life After months of recovery and treatment, Lance Corporal Davies returned to Australia. He married his sweetheart, Victoria Turpie, who gave birth to their first son, Richard, in 1922 and his brother Raymond the following year.

Before he died in 1972, Philip told Richard to treasure the Bible, to hold on to it until his own death and then to return it with gratitude to the Bible Society. On 14 September 2023, Philip’s wish was granted as Max White, co-executor of Richard’s will, presented the New Testament back to the Bible Society of Australia on his late friend’s behalf.

Richard Davies lived to the age of 100 years and 19 days.

“Philip was very much aware of the fact that the Bible had saved his life and enabled him to come back home, marry his sweetheart and have two sons,” Max told Eternity.

“Returning it was so important to Richard that it was the first bequest in his will,” Max continued, adding that Philip’s granddaughter Marion* told him at the presentation, “If not for this little book, I wouldn’t be here.” Generations later, the family remains gratefully aware that the New Testament that saved Philip’s life also enabled theirs.

Richard Davies proudly displays his father’s Soldier’s Bible, with pages torn up to Ephesians 6:16, where the shrapnel stopped.

For more on Philip J. Davies and many remarkable stories of faith in conflict, including another bullet-bearing Bible, check out Their Sacrifice: The Brave and Their Bibles, published by Bible Society Australia and available from Koorong.

Nic Capp (centre) receives the pocket New Testament of Philip J. Davies on behalf of Bible Society Australia from co-executors Max White (back left) and Desmond Alexander York (back right).

*Marion is the daughter of Raymond Davies, not Richard.

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How to find hope in suffering

Katherine Thompson

Rebecca Abbott

K

atherine Thompson knows a lot about suffering. As a mental-health social worker and psychotherapist, she deals with pain and problems, particularly among teenagers and young adults, on a daily basis.

In addition to hands-on practice, she has also spent the past 15 years researching youth mental health.

But it is Katherine’s own personal experience of suffering that makes her new book, The Discipline of Suffering: Redeeming Our Stories of Pain, one of the most powerful and practical resources on this topic to date.

Katherine’s journey through suffering began at age 14 when her life was “derailed” by acute back and nerve pain. Her pain, and the resulting two spinal fusion surgeries, caused Katherine to miss months of school and to become isolated and lonely.

“Early on in my Christian walk it meant that I had to rely on God for everything, and I think that was very character-forming for me,” she tells Eternity.

After a 10-year reprieve, Katherine’s back pain returned at age 27 when she was pregnant with her son. This forced her to make tough decisions: to only have one child and to limit her career to jobs that could be sustained with her health condition.

Now in her 40s, Katherine lives with chronic pain that is getting worse as she ages.

“It’s forced me to rethink how I live life. Certainly, you can’t just go through every day as if things don’t matter or as if things are easy,” she says. “So it makes

you think a different way about what you’re doing, how you’re spending your time, how important your faith is, what’s motivating you to get up in the morning and get out of bed, basically. My journey has been very much that suffering has been intertwined with my faith and God has walked with me through it.”

Katherine’s book The Discipline of Suffering brings together all the tools that have helped in her own journey through suffering as a Christian.

She combines theological and biblical insights with cultural analysis, psychology techniques, including narrative therapy, and Christ-centred mindfulness – on which Katherine has already written several books.

In addition, she interweaves real-life stories. She shares her own, including losing her brother to lung cancer, and also records the stories of numerous others as they move through suffering, from a place of despair to a place of “redemption” – where they recognise what they have learned and how they have grown in their faith through suffering.

“I don’t find some of the existing books [on suffering] that helpful because they intellectualise the problem of suffering and faith, and then that leaves a disconnect between how we think about it and our personal experience,” says Katherine.

“I think what we need in our culture is something that’s relevant, up to date, that speaks through the vehicle of story and experience so that it’s relatable.

But not just so that we can understand it easily; it has

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to shift us past that so we actually change as people.

“That’s what I’ve tried to do with the book: present stories so that you can see how other people have gone through suffering and have come through the other side with their faith intact, but also give tools that help you work with your own stories and values so that you can change those with God’s help.”

These tools include practical mindfulness exercises at the end of every chapter to help understand and rewrite the false narratives about suffering that stem from our culture, the church and ourselves.

“In our culture, we tend to run away from suffering – we want to block it out or avoid it in some way.

But mindfulness very much encourages us to sit with the difficult feelings and thoughts that we have, and also to be able to sit still with that before God,” says Katherine.

She gives the example of the biblical story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), where Martha is distracted by all the things that are bothering her, while her sister Mary simply sits at Jesus’ feet, listening to him.

“That story is a really good reminder of what we need to do in times of suffering. We can panic and just grab anything and try to hold on to it. Or we can have the courage to sit there and be still and actually listen to God. And I think that’s ultimately the thing that we’re meant to learn through the discipline of suffering,” Katherine explains.

A book about suffering sounds like a hard sell, but on the flip side, the target market is enormous. As

Suffering has been intertwined with my faith and God has walked with me through it.

Katherine notes, it is “almost impossible for any of us to escape” suffering, despite what our culture tells us.

“We have been sold this idea that we’re meant to be able to own a house, we’re meant to have a family, have a partner, hold down a full-time job, be a perfect mum at the same time and also be really awesome at Christian ministry,” Katherine says.

“So we need to be careful not to just take on our Australian culture’s idea of who we’re meant to be, whether that’s within the church or outside the church. And we need to really think about suffering as not a bad thing. The Apostle Paul (in Romans 5) talks about suffering as developing our character, forming us as Christian people, by creating perseverance, character and then hope.

“As Christians, we need to embrace that. Suffering also helps us rethink what are the values that we’re meant to be living by in our culture. Is Australian culture really selling us the right idea? Or do we need to be thinking about life from the perspective of Jesus Christ and how he lived?

“I think that’s really where we see the ultimate example because Christ died on a cross willingly for us. So he is our brother in suffering. He identifies with our pain. He certainly feels it with us. But then there’s also the resurrection. Suffering brings us hope. It brings us redemption and change. And that is the positive I think we lose if we try to avoid anything that’s negative and painful in life.”

The Discipline of Suffering: Redeeming Our Stories of Pain by Katherine Thompson is available from Koorong.

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Creating a new narrative for our nation Rebecca Abbott

W

hen Anne Pattel-Gray’s high school teacher asked what she wanted to do when she graduated, Anne said she wanted to go to university.

The response from her teacher and fellow students was laughter.

As the only Aboriginal student in the class, Anne recalls being mocked and told, “You know black people only work with their hands. That’ll never happen.”

But for Anne, this derision only lit a fire that propelled her to fulfil this dream.

Years later, after studying theology at four universities, while enduring much racism, Anne became the first Indigenous person to gain a PhD from Sydney University.

She celebrated this moment with her mum – a “staunch Christian woman” who inspired Anne’s faith and her love of education. Her mum had only been allowed to attend school until third grade (under the Queensland Aborigines Protection Act) and so had taught herself how to read, as well as Englishlanguage conventions.

“For her, she saw being educated as opening many doors. It provided us with the equality in which to be able to take our place within society and have the best of both worlds – both the cultural knowledge, as well as the mainstream knowledge,” Anne told Eternity.

Anne’s roots are in Central Queensland, as part of the Bidjara people. Having been raised in the Methodist Church, Christianity and Aboriginality always fit together for Anne.

“One doesn’t really conflict with the other,” she explains. “Colonisation is the conflicting element, not the faith or the belief. When we begin to understand that, more so for our people, we can begin to understand how Christianity was used as a tool of oppression through colonisation. So therefore, the teaching that we received was a method to an end – it wasn’t the true faith.”

Anne acknowledges that “a lot of my brothers and sisters ended up leaving the church because they just couldn’t reconcile the racial hatred that emanated within the practice of the church. Although they

preached ‘love thy neighbour’, the Good Samaritan and all of these biblical stories, yet their behaviour contradicted [this teaching] vastly.”

Yet for her, “it just made me stronger to want to challenge that teaching.”

Anne felt driven to help her people by bringing “a new narrative” to Christianity: “one that expresses God’s love and unity – a Christology that calls us to action and to justice.”

Alongside this aim is her desire to “help nonIndigenous people find within themselves a transformation where they can love our people as well.”

Now, as head of the University of Divinity’s School of Indigenous Studies, Anne’s purpose has been realised.

Launched in 2021, the school has a mission to “encourage the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theologies and ministries,” and to educate students in an “authentic Indigenous theology” rather than “a colonial theology”.

This summer will mark a milestone for the school and the nation when it hosts the first national conference for Indigenous theologians at the University of Divinity’s Box Hill campus in Melbourne.

The conference – titled “Raising our Tribal Voice for Justice: An Indigenous Theological Revolution” – will draw theologians from Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and beyond.

“This is history in the making because there has never been a national Indigenous theological conference in this country,” Anne tells Eternity.

Over four days, from 5 to 8 February 2024, Indigenous theologians will present papers that challenge churches across denominations to address the injustice, inequality and historical failings of the church “to protect, nourish and benefit from Indigenous peoples and their knowledges.”

The conference is also an opportunity for nonIndigenous peoples to gain an understanding of Indigenous perspectives on how they can walk alongside and work with First Nations people and communities.

“First Nations people are excited because we’ve not

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had something like this where academic scholarship is upheld and appreciated, and where our people can come and engage in theological conversation around our indigeneity, how to indigenise our faith and embrace cultural knowledge,” says Anne.

Professor Anne Pattel-Gray

For more information about the conference or the School of Indigenous Studies, visit divinity.edu. au/university/school-ofindigenous-studies or scan the QR code.

Please note that numbers for the conference are limited, so registrations will sell out quickly.

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s e l o S r u O e v Sa Since I joined The Leprosy Mission Australia in September, it’s been my blessing to get to know many supporters who are people like you.

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Sharing the secrets to a long, happy marriage Nicky and Sila Lee have become a model for marriage worldwide. Anne Lim asked about their own marriage ahead of their recent Australian tour.

Images: Alpha

N

icky and Sila Lee fell madly in love as teenagers while waiting to board a ferry to Ireland from Swansea in southwest Wales.

Sila, 17, was an art student; Nicky, 18, was studying English at the University of Cambridge. They married four years later, blithely assuming their love would see them through many years of happy marriage.

But their first year together proved to be rough.

Sila had no idea how to resolve conflict other than by shouting or sulking. They were very different people and didn’t know how make that a blessing rather than a handicap.

“When I came into marriage, I was very unselfaware,” confesses Sila, who with Nicky, developed Alpha’s marriage course in the 1980s which has since helped millions of people revitalise their marriages.

“I just thought, ‘Well, this is who I am. I’m madly in love with Nicky and then on we go.’ Then I realised, ‘No, that doesn’t really work.’ I thought my way of doing things was the right way of doing things – the only way.”

Speaking frankly with Eternity, Nicky adds: “I also thought my way was the right way and the only way.”

After Nicky got ordained in 1985, the couple joined Holy Trinity Brompton (HBT) Church in central London, where the vicar asked them to prepare a course for couples who were getting married in the church.

“We had three couples in our home, and that’s where we started developing the course. And it came together very quickly,” Nicky recalls.

From this initial experience, the Lees developed The Pre-Marriage Course and The Marriage Course, as well as The Parenting Children Course and The Parenting Teenagers Course. They also wrote The

Marriage Book and The Parenting Book. These resources have reached more than four million people in more than 120 countries and over 40 languages, giving people practical resources to strengthen their marriages and family life.

This October – 38 years after the Lees welcomed those three couples into their London home to prepare them for marriage – Nicky and Sila visited Australia to run masterclasses for those facilitating The Marriage Course in their local churches.

When it comes to their own marriage, after 47 years, Nicky and Sila have found ways to make their differences work to their advantage. But back in that first year, they floundered.

“What gave us a passion for helping other couples and supporting other couples in their marriage was that we had absolutely no pre-marriage preparation at all. We got married very young. And we knew nothing about how to be married and particularly me, I didn’t know much,” says Sila.

“There were lots of things that I had no idea about.

One of them was how to resolve conflict. I had a wonderful family, and my parents were married for over 50 years. But boy, they did not know how to resolve conflict. There was an awful lot of sulks, slamming doors, shouting. And I just didn’t know how to do it. So I had to learn – we had to learn.

“Nicky and I are very different; many couples are very different. And the differences are very often the things that cause the conflict, but they don’t need to. They can become the strengths because you complement each other, and you can really encourage each other’s strengths.”

After about a year, Nicky and Sila went away for a weekend with an older married couple and three other couples who had also been married a year.

“They just gave us some very practical tips, and it made a massive difference to us. We thought, ‘Wow,

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if every couple who sets out on marriage knew these tips and skills, then it would be so different. And putting in the foundations in those early years is so key,” says Sila.

Those foundations helped Nicky and Sila navigate another rough patch in their marriage, when Sila was struggling to parent her four teenage children.

“I loved parenting younger children. But I suddenly found myself totally out of my depth with parenting teenagers. I really struggled. And that was quite a pressure because Nicky’s naturally very good with teenagers,” says Sila.

“I had to swallow my pride, and I had to ask Nicky for help and support, so that was quite challenging.

“Where there have been pressures, whether it’s from children, family, work or finances, with all these things, they either push you apart or they draw you together when you have to work on them together. When we had particularly pressurised times, it was hard but, in retrospect, they actually helped us – they drew us closer together.”

Sila and Nicky have no idea how many marriages they have saved – although they have many such stories – but they stress that The Marriage Course is not just for couples in crisis or struggling.

“We want to totally change the perception that you

We’ve learned that every aspect of our marriage has to be nurtured.

only do something for your marriage if you’ve got into trouble – we feel prevention is better than cure,” says Sila.

“Last night we were listening to a couple who’d been married about 13 years; they had two children. And he said the sparkle had gone out of their marriage.

Doing the course, he said, ‘saved our marriage.’ He said, ‘I don’t think we would have broken up, but it restored the sparkle in our marriage.’ You could see it as the couple were sitting together on the sofa. That was just lovely to see, lovely to hear. And we know there are many couples like that.”

Nicky and Sila describe how their love has matured since they first fell in love.

“At first, as Sila said, we were in love with each other, so just thought it would work out. And what we realised was that we had to be intentional, really, in every area,” says Nicky.

“Over the years, we’ve grown, and we’ve learned

more of what’s important to each other, how to make each other feel loved. We’ve learned that every aspect of our marriage has to be nurtured. The physical attraction, the sexual relationship has to carry on being nurtured. It doesn’t just take care of itself. So our love maturing is because we’ve got better at it. That first year was very, very significant.

There was a huge leap forward then, but the growing has continued through the years and continues to grow.”

Sila says she has become more aware of how she needs to change because she can’t change Nicky.

She has also come to understand Nicky, which is a lifetime’s work.

“There’s always more to discover. That’s why marriage is such an adventure, an adventure of love.

Discovering more about this person that you’re married to … You never get to the end of discovering things.

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“We’ve been married 47 years, and it wasn’t until we’d been married about 40 years when I discovered that one of Nicky’s favourite things to eat was mushrooms ... Now we have them every Saturday morning, and sometimes in between!”

You can find the full range of resources by Nicky and Sila Lee at Koorong. Scan the QR code to access.

Images: 24-7 Prayer

Pete Greig on prayer and suffering Millions of people, thousands of prayer rooms, but behind the scenes, 24-7 Prayer founder Pete Greig was in a personal spiritual battle, writes Aziza Green.

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n 1999 Pete Greig was leading a church that was doing well by conventional standards, when he felt an arresting personal challenge: “If God died, would we notice?” Realising that he had outsourced much of his prayer life to faithful older generations, Greig began to thirst and seek after God night after night. “Saint Augustine says, ‘Thou hast put salt on our lips that we might thirst for thee.’ God was rubbing salt on my lips,” Greig tells Eternity.

This stirring led to establishing a prayer room in the church, where a small group of believers committed to pray fervently 24 hours a day, seven days a week for one month. As they sought God with all their hearts, they encountered his presence and more people, especially students, wanted to be in the room.

Soon miracles began breaking out and people were getting saved.

Sometime at the beginning of the 24-7 Prayer movement, Greig wrote words on the wall which became a vision statement. It somehow got out of the prayer room, and within a month was translated and published in the underground newspaper in China, servicing over 100,000 churches. It was being used in the National Mall in Washington, DC. In Valladolid, Spain there was a dance troupe who had choreographed a dance to the statement. This and more came out of one simple prayer room.

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That month of prayer became an international, interdenominational prayer movement, which is now entering into a quarter of a century of non-stop prayer. The 24-7 Prayer movement has spread to over 100 nations, with over 22,000 prayer rooms.

“We work with everyone from the Catholic Church at the highest levels, through to the Salvation Army at street level,” says Greig.

God goes silent And yet, behind the scenes of this successful prayer movement lies a very different story. Eighteen months after 24-7 Prayer went viral, Pete’s wife Sammy was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Amidst signs and wonders happening all around through the growing prayer ministry, God seemed silent on the matter of Sammy’s sickness.

“My wife got very sick and nearly died multiple times. She had a brain tumour and I watched her

slipping into epileptic fits again and again, which is horrible,” shares Greig.

He cried out to God to make the seizures stop, but it didn’t work. “I went from believing that my prayers could save the world to questioning whether they could save my wife,” he says. “Our second child was seven weeks old. And I was wondering as I put him and his brother to bed every night, will I one day have to hold up a photograph and try and explain how wonderful their mum was?”

Greig realised there was only way forward: “the path of discipleship, which is to embrace the full Easter experience.” He shares that this discipleship journey must not only embrace the resurrection of Easter Sunday, but the silence of Holy Saturday and the agony of Good Friday. “In those three days together, we find a balanced faith,” he says.

Greig explores this perplexing theme in his book, God on Mute. He says that his first book Red Moon Rising, “set people’s hair on fire with the reality of the power of prayer. I followed that up with a book about unanswered prayer.” Writing honestly about unanswered prayer and prayers that are answered in unexpected ways has encouraged people more than Greig expected. He shares that “many people have said ‘it’s brought me back to faith in Jesus’ or ‘it stopped me quitting’ because I realised that you don’t have to deny your experience to follow Jesus.”

He highlights that it’s “only Jesus Christ and him crucified that makes sense of the pain and the brokenness and the vulnerability of life.”

On suffering Greig says that Bible is more honest about suffering than the church is; the struggle, the searching questions, things left unresolved are all in the Scriptures. It’s tempting to approach prayer as, “God, you’ve got to do a miracle and rescue me.

Sometimes God does miracles, but more often than rescue you, God kind of parachutes in and joins us,” says Greig.

This has been his family’s testimony. “I don’t know why God didn’t heal my wife. She survived brain surgery but she’s lived with a chronic illness ever since. That’s a part of our life. But she is alive, and we celebrate birthdays like you wouldn’t believe. We are so grateful.”

He shares that Sammy’s darkest valley was in the MRI tube. “When you’re lying for half an hour in a tube that is determining your fate, you are utterly alone. The first time she went into the MRI scanner, she vomited, she was so terrified,” shares Greig. “The second time she went in, she memorised Psalm 91 and recited it in her head over and over. She said, ‘I experienced God’s presence in there with me.’”

Greig encourages, “God’s not insecure as to whether we or others believe in him. Our job is not to do his PR. It’s to be truthful about our experience and cling to him.”

When it feels hopeless In the midst of Sammy being rushed in and out of hospital, their youngest son Danny, who was only a baby, got chickenpox. “It was the worst thing ever. He had those little itchy spots all over his eyelids and his nose. And so of course he’d scream and cry,” Greig recalls.

“I had no way of telling this little baby, ‘this too shall pass.’ I had no way of telling him that, apparently, it’s quite good for a baby to get chickenpox as they develop some immunity. All I could do was hold Danny in my arms as he screamed, until he fell asleep in my arms.”

Greig acknowledges the times when we are hurting so badly that we don’t know when or if we will ever feel better again. “Those are the times when we need to allow our Heavenly Father to hold us, even though our instincts may be to push him away,” he says.

Corrie Ten Boom’s father used to say to her, “When you’re on a train in a long, dark tunnel, this is not the time to get off the train.” Greig says to anyone who feels hopeless in their situation, “‘May the God

of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:13). Do not give up. Allow God to lead you through your valley and press on in prayer, be it with mighty words or aching sighs.”

Do not give up.

Allow God to lead you through your valley and press on in prayer.

24-7 Prayer has free resources available for anyone who wants to strengthen their prayer life. Lectio365 is a free app that helps a quarter of a million daily users to pray the Scriptures.

The InnerRoom app makes it easier to record and consistently pray for specific prayer needs.

The 24-7 website also has free courses and a link to the vision statement from the wall of the first prayer room. For more information visit 24-7prayer.com or scan the QR code.

Pete and his wife Sammy

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EVERYDAY THEOLOGY

Why is it so hard to be gracious towards others?

Keith Mitchell kicks off Eternity’s new Everyday Theology series.

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ost of us are aware that grace is an amazing thing and a sweet sound if we are acquainted with that famous hymn Amazing Grace

by John Newton. We may also understand that the embodiment of the good news of the gospel is immersed in grace, as we consider Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and what he did for humanity by dying on the cross and taking our place in punishment.

Many biblical narratives highlight that God is a person of grace; grace being an undeserved favour and free gift endowed upon us. Grace depicts who God is, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. It cannot be purchased through any merit, payment or effort of our own. The Bible shows that God is the giver of grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) and he calls for us to do the same towards others (Ephesians 5:1-2).

It certainly seems easy to receive grace, but it’s much harder to offer it to others as a default position in life. So why is it that we are instructed to be gracious towards others through forgiving (Colossians 3:12-13), loving (Matthew 5:43-48) and doing good (Hebrews 13:16), yet can struggle to practise graciousness in various circumstances?

I believe that God looks at us and the world through the eyes of grace. However, we humans need a correction to be able to do the same. We need to put lenses of grace into our spiritual eyeglasses, so to speak.

I think there are three main reasons why people do not utilise these corrective lenses of grace in their lives as their default position: 1. Influence of our society We live in a secularised society of distraction with distorted philosophies and views that can espouse a warped view of God as only wrathful and vengeful rather than gracious, loving and kind. When we fail to have the lenses of grace over our eyes, we can see God in this way.

However, in various Bible passages God is described as gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:67, Psalm 86:15, Jonah 4:2b). In fact, Jesus even stood against the cultural norm of his day when asked to judge a woman caught in adultery. He offers her grace instead of punishment (John 8:1-11).

Believers of Jesus Christ need to counter the cultural narrative that conflicts with the biblical picture of grace. This means defaulting to a posture that embraces God as good, loving, kind and abounding in grace. For instance, in the Book of Jonah, the city of Nineveh is spared from God’s destruction because of God’s grace (Jonah 3:1-10), despite the prophet Jonah seeing that the Ninevites did not deserve forgiveness.

2. Lack of understanding I wonder if we really understand the depths of grace and the cost that lies beneath it. Sometimes, I think that we need to experience grace, or identify the experience of grace in others, to then recognise what grace looks like. Books such as those by Philip Yancey, Brennan Manning and Max Lucado have brought a focus to me over the years in my understanding and expression of grace because they provide illustration of what grace can look like. Grace is audacious, ridiculous, unfair and reckless; yet, is the most delightful, sweet, stupendous, marvellous, amazing and spectacular thing we can experience in our lifetime.

As with any gift, we need to accept it so that we can be a vessel for others to experience it. In essence, grace is a practical and embodied experience, rather than just a taught concept. When we encounter and embrace grace experientially, our understanding of grace becomes integrated in our own lives. Then we can more effectively offer it to others.

Image: Klaus Nielsen/ Pexels

3. Effort and energy required Emotional and thoughtful energy is required when we consider offering grace, and sometimes the effort to offer it can seem overwhelming. It is so much easier to be black and white, so to speak, rather than allow for any grey. Taking a strict dual position on some issues as right or wrong, good or bad, hope or hopeless, faith or faithless, and so on, can be callous and ungracious.

Instead, some life situations are grey and require deeper biblical contemplation, contextual thinking, pastoral insight and rethinking theological frames that we previously held. For instance, some people hold that God created the world in six 24-hour days, while others see God creating through a longer and more evolutionary approach over millennia. Both are plausible approaches to creation. However, an offer of grace might just allow differences to be accepted and considered, rather than dismissing the other person for their view.

To make it easier to offer grace in more serious situations, practise on small matters, such as accepting the person who pushed in the queue at the supermarket or driving on the road. These small acts can breed a pattern of grace in our lives that, over time, can make it easier to offer grace in the future on bigger matters.

So I want to encourage you to keep wearing those spectacles of grace to correct your spiritual eyesight and make it easier to offer grace to others, just as you embrace that grace in your own life. I invite you to further consider the words of the hymn Amazing Grace: “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

Rev. Dr Keith Mitchell is a senior lecturer at Morling College and teaches people in pastoral and practical areas.

FAITH STORIES WITH NAOMI REED

‘My dad died, and I longed for a forever dad.’

Assumpta’s story | The cost and joy of following Jesus

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grew up in a Hindu Brahmin family. Brahmins are the highest Hindu caste. We moved to Australia when I was seven years old. My family were high achieving and academic.

Being Brahmin, we were suspicious of Christianity.

My parents would tell me that Christians were bad for India because they were trying to upset the order of things by converting people into their religion. It meant I was largely hostile to Christianity.

But then my dad suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack when I was 16 years old. I remember thinking he was so accomplished, so well regarded.

He had achieved so much, and then he dropped dead.

I started thinking, ‘What is the point of life? Is life meaningless? If it is meaningless, then why would I continue to live?’ As far as I could understand, life was suffering.

So I made a promise to myself at 16 that I would seek truth and find it. At that time, I assumed it would be found in a series of rules, doctrines, pujas, rituals or mantras.

I also remember crying at night. I missed my father so much. I remember thinking, I wish I had a forever dad – someone who never went away.

That longing for a forever dad, as well as my desire to find the meaning of life, began to form in me an idea of an eternal kind of relationship. I didn’t know where to find it, but the seeds were sown.

Around the same time, I went to mandatory Scripture at school. I remember the teacher telling us the gospel and having this weird feeling that it might be true.

Not long after that, I had a series of dreams. I saw hell as a place of greyness and a lack of common grace. Heaven was a place of blinding clarity and

beauty and joy and happiness. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know what it was; I just remember waking up and thinking it was strange.

Then my friend gave me a Bible, and she suggested I read the Gospel of Luke. I read it and immediately fell in love with Jesus. He was amazing! I wondered why the Christians hadn’t told me about this guy. I loved him so much.

But then I also read that Jesus said he was God, which was weird. I remember saying to God, “Is there any way I can follow Jesus without being a Christian?”

Of course, God said no! So I pushed it away. Over time, I realised I’d been searching for the truth and the truth could only be found in Christ. The problem was that the cost of following Jesus was so high. I was a Brahmin, which was a great spiritual privilege.

When I told my family about the truths I had found in Jesus, the fracture that resulted was devastating. It was a terrible cost.

As well as that, I found going to Christian church a massive culture shock. It was very individualistic with an emphasis on nuclear families. I came in as a single woman and was disappointed by that. Over time I became angry at God. For the next 10 years, I ran away from God; I abandoned him.

But you know what happens when you run away from God? Eventually you hit rock bottom. When I hit rock bottom, I thought it would be God’s opportunity to crush and discard me. But he didn’t. God actually

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rescued me from my situation. I had abandoned him, but he never abandoned me.

One of the things about being a Hindu is that you understand the vastness of God, but you never understand the closeness. When God came close to me and rescued me from my situation, I was never the same again. I realised God loved me. It was a massive revelation that the God of the universe could love someone like me.

I’ve been a Christian for 20 years. It’s been very hard at times. The cost of following Jesus is high.

The longer I am a Christian, the more I seem to pay the cost. But also, the longer I am a Christian, the more I’m convinced that there is absolutely nowhere else to go. Jesus is totally worth it!”

“And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14:27

Assumpta’s story is part of Eternity’s Faith Stories series, compiled by Naomi Reed. Read more Faith Stories at eternitynews. com.au/section/faithstories

The Lloyd family: Nick, Lucy, Jess, Anna and Robyn

‘We’re in your corner’ – welcoming vulnerable children into your home and church You don’t have to be a carer to help foster kids, writes Rebecca Abbott.

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obyn Lloyd and her family have been foster carers for eight years, and have welcomed over 25 children into their home.

Like most foster carers, the Lloyd family has never drawn attention to their expansive hospitality. They simply get on with family life, including attending church every Sunday, with an extra baby or toddler in tow each time they get the call from Anglicare’s Foster Care program.

Robyn and her husband Nick first became foster carers when the youngest of their three daughters was seven. The idea was planted while Robyn attended a playgroup with her children which included several foster carers.

“We’ve always had lots of kids and families over to our house as our girls have been growing up, so fostering felt like an extension of opening up our home in this way,” Robyn tells Eternity.

Though initially unconvinced, Nick willingly stepped through the year-long interview, approval and training process. Now, he believes fostering to be a vital way to live out his faith. “The Bible says

religion that is acceptable to God is to care for orphans and widows,” he says, referring to James 1:27.

“Our family lives in such a privileged part of the world [on Sydney’s prosperous North Shore]. I wanted our girls to know that there are others who have far less than us and are in great need.”

The Lloyd girls – Jess, 18, Lucy, 16 and Anna, 13 – embraced their foster brothers and sisters as extra playmates when they were young, and now eagerly share the caring responsibilities with their parents.

Jess – who is in Year 12 – recently became a support person with the Pyjama Foundation, spending one evening a week visiting a foster child to help with homework, read with them and play educational games. Jess has also expressed a desire to become a foster carer herself, although Robyn suggested they postpone this discussion until she finishes high school!

“Our girls have had the opportunity, as we’ve gone out and visited a few of our foster children’s homes while doing transitions, to see different areas of

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Sydney. I think it’s really opened their eyes to what else is around us in terms of poverty and wealth,” says Robyn.

“I think they’ve also become more aware of generational trauma. Often the parents of foster children were in foster care themselves. It’s such a different environment.”

As our conversation continues, Robyn and Nick address three main objections that often prevent people from becoming involved in foster care.

1. ‘The cost to our biological family would be too great’ “There is a cost to being a foster carer,” Nick admits.

“It’s inevitable that your attention is stretched further, beyond caring for your biological children.

We’ve always said that if it ever got too much for our family, we would stop.” That hasn’t happened yet, he adds.

“It’s definitely been challenging and rewarding,” says Robyn. “Those first few placements were really hard, as well as learning to live with the unknown of

The more cheerleaders a foster child can have, the better. fostering. You never know what a child will be like – how much trauma they’ve been through or what their behaviour will be like – or how long they will be with you.

“So there’s a lot of uncertainty. I think we’ve learned to sit with that better over time. When we are called on to take a foster child now we think, ‘Well, they’re here until they’re not.’”

One cost that Robyn notes is having to go back to being at home for daytime naps for babies and toddlers when their own children were well past this phase.

“There is a day-to-day kind of cost, but I think the joys and rewards will always outweigh the costs, even on those days that are really hard,” she affirms.

“I think there’s something pretty special about being a child’s safe person for a while, and it’s amazing how quickly that happens.”

2. ‘I couldn’t say goodbye to foster children when it’s time for them to leave’ It always feels a bit like an unintentional insult when people say to the Lloyds, “It must be so hard to say goodbye to foster children when they leave – I could never do that!”

“It’s always hard to say goodbye to a child you have had in your house 24/7, who you have cared for as if they were your own,” Robyn shares.

The family recently said goodbye to a baby who they cared for from his very first day in the world – having picked him up just 21 hours after he was born and nurtured for the first eight months of his life.

“When people say they couldn’t do that, it makes you sometimes feel like they think you are coldhearted,” says Robyn. “Yes, it is hard, but we knew that we would have to say goodbye when he first came to us.”

She cites research about the importance of attachment for a baby’s brain development and notes this is particularly important for babies suffering from Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

“There’s evidence that, even from a really young age, having people love and care for you helps your brain to develop. So, on a really practical level, just doing that for a child for as long as we have them hopefully has long-term benefits for them, no matter where they end up.”

Saying goodbye to children – along with many other aspects of foster caring – has taught Robyn to rely on God. “There are times when I say to God, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here, but you obviously know that this is where this child needs to be right now, so I trust that you can equip me.

“When children do move on to another family or back to their biological parents, I know that God has them and their future in his hands. So I don’t need to worry about what’s going to happen to them. We can keep praying for them, but it’s in God’s control.”

And by God’s grace, there are opportunities to stay in touch with some foster children. “We’re always there – if they ever need support, we are there and we still care for them and love them,” says Robyn.

“We always think, ‘One day, you never know who might find us.’ Anglicare has a life storybook for each of the children fostered, so they could find out who we are if they ever want to.”

3. ‘I don’t have what it takes to be a foster carer’ As we talk, a stream of messages vibrates on her phone. It’s the sound of a whole church helping foster children. After hosting a foster care evening at her church, Robyn set up a What’s App group with everyone interested in helping families who foster.

Needs from foster families are posted to the What’s App group and, like manna from the Lord, the group rallies to drop off nappies, cots, car seats, baby clothes, meals, etc. This is such a simple, tangible way for churches to care for foster children – and the families who care for them.

She points out that once you start to foster, you’re not locked in forever and you don’t need to accept a placement if the timing is not right for your family.

There is also a lot of support through the foster agency (in their case Anglicare) and other support groups.

Robyn’s final word to potential foster carers is, “I think a lot of people have much more capacity and ability to do it than they think they might. I don’t feel there’s anything particularly extraordinary or special about our family that means we can do it and other families can’t.”

God calls his people to love those who are vulnerable. That’s why we believe: Love is Foster Care Everyone can love. Everyone can play their part in transforming a child’s future.

What part can you play?

Scan the QR code to learn more about Foster Care

OR Call (02) 9890 6800

PSALMS 68:6

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE SPONSORED PAGE

Break Free From the Constraints of Regular School.

Embrace the Flexibility of Distance Education.

In an age where technology is integrated into our daily routines, Distance Education emerges as an ideal mode of schooling for many Christian families.

Offering a unique blend of flexibility, accessibility, and support, this innovative program is redefining the learning journey for a diverse range of students.

Any student connected to the internet can embark on this transformative learning journey. More than merely online lessons, this program provides students with 24/7 access. Whether it’s the early riser diving into a maths lesson at dawn, or the night owl decoding history mysteries, learning has no time constraints.

The essence of this program isn’t just its flexibility; it’s the unparalleled support system behind it.

Students aren’t merely handed lessons and left to their own devices. Expert teachers, well-versed in the nuances of online education, stand ready to assist.

Queries, concerns, or just a simple clarification students find answers swiftly. With an impressive

average 10-minute response time via live chat inside the online learning portal, no student feels left in the dark.

For many, the opportunity to earn their leaving certificate online, coupled with the prospect of direct tertiary entrance, acts as a motivator. This isn’t just about streamlining education but unlocking student aspirations. No more draining commutes to school, no rigidity of class timetables, and the freedom to mould a routine that works for the individual.

In the words of an Australian Christian College student, “It feels like I have the best of both worlds.

I can learn at my own pace, yet I never feel isolated.”

This sentiment echoes a unique feature of the program. While there are ample opportunities for students to connect, collaborate, and forge friendships, there’s no obligation to do so. It’s all about choice.

Distance Education suits many contexts. Young prodigies charting a path in sports or the performing

arts find the flexibility a game-changer. For students residing in remote areas, especially those benefiting from the rise of high-speed satellite internet, this program connects them to quality education without feeling the constraints of location.

It’s not only the remote learners who benefit. Crosscultural missionary children can maintain continuity in their studies when overseas. Those grappling with medical and mental health challenges discover an understanding environment in which to continue their education. For children who’ve faced bullying or are battling anxiety, Distance Education offers a sanctuary where learning thrives without fear.

In a world teeming with change, Distance Education stands out as a legitimate alternative to regular school. By intertwining faith, flexibility, and futuristic learning, it’s shaping a brighter future for Christian children and youth everywhere.

Why Let Traditional School Dictate?

Let Your Child Flourish Online Traditional schools can limit student growth. Post pandemic, many are questioning the rigid structures of an age-old education system.

Online education allows children to not merely learn, but truly flourish.

They’re free from the limitations of conventional classrooms and progressive agendas.

Australian Christian College’s Distance Education Program offers 24/7 lesson access, plus a range of virtual and in-person events.

Teachers experienced in online education provide student support, with an average 10 minute response time via live chat.

Uniquely, we provide plenty of opportunities for students to connect, but no requirement to do so. It’s the best of both worlds!

Distance Education suits: • Students pursuing a professional sporting or performing arts career • Students who live remotely in rural locations (particularly due to the advent of affordable and reliable high-speed satellite internet) • Cross-cultural missionary children living overseas or in remote locations • Students with medical and mental health challenges, such as anxiety • Students who have been bullied at traditional school Australian Christian College delivers Distance Education to 3,000 students across New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. With plans in place to commence in Victoria next year (pending VRQA registration).

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CENTRE FOR PUBLIC CHRISTIANITY

Meeting on the porch: Christian schools as common ground Simon Smart

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ight before he died, Timothy Keller wrote a piece called “Lemonade on the Porch: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society”.

Keller used the metaphor of the “porch” to talk about engagement with people who are not Christian.

Drawing on experiences of neighbourhoods where busy porches functioned as vital community spaces, Keller painted an image of the secular world (the street) and the church (the house) finding a point of connection on the “porch”. Keller’s interest was in spaces where relationship can develop to the point where it might even be natural for the person to enter “the house”.

While there were once many of these “porches”, these days they are few and far between. Keller identified the arts and media, the activity of the church in caring for people in need and, thirdly, educational institutions as some of the remaining “porches” for secular people to encounter Christians and what they believe.

In Australia as the “no religion” category grows and those ticking “Christian” on the census continues to decline at a striking rate, schools run with a Christian mission and foundation (and there is a wide variety of those) are, perhaps surprisingly, playing an increasingly significant role in our social fabric.

What will people find today when they step on to the “porch”, that is the school, that offers a Christian view of the world? What are the ways that education might be a gift to those people encountering the core of the Christian story at their school? There are so many. Here are just four: Understanding the physical creation as a gift of God The modern dream of technology seems to be all about escaping our physical reality, but from the very beginning, the Bible is radically positive about creation, declaring it to be profoundly “good.” This is a challenge to our tech-infused virtual realities that, as Andy Crouch suggests, are dangerously depleting “our capacity for wonder and delight, contemplation and attention, real play and fruitful work.”

Significantly, the Bible tells us the physical stuff of life means something. It matters. It comes from a God who gives it to us to enjoy. It means that every aspect of life is, in a mysterious way, sacred, because there is a relationship attached to it.

Schools have a huge opportunity to illustrate this reality and make links between “creation as gift” and our understanding of sport, art, music and dance; of the way we engage with and take care of creation; and how we think about creativity, food and community, and where these things fit within the grand biblical vision.

Forming a stable identity Understanding who we are as human beings is a crucial question as we form our identities, and the signs are that contemporary culture is floundering in trying to find a satisfying answer.

Schools have a vital role to play here. Christianity tells us that we are not simply physical beings made up of water and chemicals. We are not only animals or pleasure-seeking machines with no inherent purpose. Human beings, according to the Bible, are precious beyond measurement because we are made in the image of God. We have a bestowed worth that lifts us up and makes us God’s special representatives on earth. We are intimately known and loved by him.

Where every other part of our lives suggests our worth is in what we can achieve – what we can get in our ATAR, what credentials we can amass for ourselves, what job and possessions, the number of followers or friends we can accumulate, how fit we can be – Christianity supersedes that measurement.

This valuing of the individual is a key part of school communities that have a strong Christian foundation. If a young person can come away from their school knowing their value comes not from what they can conjure up from within themselves but from a God who loves them, they will be well placed to navigate their place in the world confident in who they are.

Finding community As a society our experiment with radical individualism is not working well. We have an epidemic of loneliness. Today 40 per cent of Australians have never felt lonelier. And young people are suffering this scourge. The loneliest of all the generations are Gen Z and Millennials.

Schools can speak into this dilemma providing community that situates each student within a grand story. It can be community with a distinct flavour of welcome and hospitality, offering time, interest in each person, true listening and belonging. In her book A Place at the Table, Jo Swinney describes hospitality this way: “You are seen. You are accepted.

You are not alone. How badly we all need to hear these words expressed in an unhurried conversation, an arm around the shoulder, a probing question.”

Becoming that kind of community for a generation of kids in danger of missing out on deep connections is a goal worthy striving for.

The great paradox: the full life from service of others Jesus says the full life comes not from self-service but service of others. Whoever wants to be great among you must become a servant, he said, which might sound like a hard sell for teenagers. But I

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have seen schools take this on and adopt programs of “service learning” that are built into the fabric of the school operating across all the years a student is there. Without exception, staff speak of the incredible impact of getting students out of their own heads and working on behalf of people in need.

These programs are transformative for students in giving them perspective, appreciation for what they have and empathy.

It turns out that the ancient wisdom of Jesus actually works! Social researcher Hugh Mackay has spent decades observing and talking to Australians about their lives. He concludes his book The Good Life with this stunning summary of his findings about the shape of the life worth living: “Nobody can promise you that a life lived for the sake of others will lead to satisfaction. But it’s certain that nothing else will.”

Conveying even a taste of that wisdom would be a fine aim for a school seeking to be a Christian witness and an embodiment of the way of Jesus.

There are enormous opportunities and responsibilities here. With fewer Australians knowing much at all about the faith, but still keen to send their kids to schools with a Christian ethos and values (whatever they understand those to mean), it is exciting to think of what can be done to provide a welcoming place that celebrates each student as a precious child of God, a thriving community where they truly belong, and a place where they can be, in both words and actions, exposed to the truth and the beauty of the Christian story and all it entails. That can be a true gift, not only for students and parents but staff as well.

Simon Smart is Executive Director of the Centre for Public Christianity. In a previous life he was a history teacher.

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Illuminating God’s word in Oceania Bible distribution in the Solomon Islands. Image: Dave Dever

Karen Mudge

A

cross the Oceania region, the opportunity to enlighten lives with God’s word is immense.

The Bible already has a place in so many of these cultures, and people are crying out for God’s word: in their language, in their hands, in their hearts and in their lives.

“Multitudes of people need the Bible. Multitudes desire a Bible. There are desperate hands reaching out everywhere,” says Canadian missionary Dave Dever, who, together with Bible Society, distributes Bibles in the Solomon Islands.

“In all my years of giving Bibles out, only one lady in a shop has ever said ‘no’ to a Bible. At the pub, at the prisons, at the hospitals, the schools, in out of the way and hard to reach places, at the top of mountains and everywhere else, people desperately and gratefully receive a Bible ... and need a Bible.”

As well as the desperate need for Bible distribution, in this region there are hundreds of languages without a Bible, and more that are crying out for contemporary revisions. In response to requests from community leaders, Bible Society in the South Pacific currently has translation projects in multiple languages underway in Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Similarly, Bible Society PNG has a project revising the popular Tok Pisin Bible, and another supporting Bible translators in other languages that currently have no Bible.

In each case, it is the speakers of these languages who desperately want the Bible in their language.

So Bible Society is working to support the translation efforts, providing consultant checking of draft translations, as well as helping to resource translation efforts with pens, paper, computers, laptops, electricity and connectivity.

Yet the opportunity to enlighten lives around the Oceania region extends beyond Bible distribution, and even Bible translation. The next step in illuminating the Bible to people in Oceania is literacy. Among the United Bible Societies (UBS) worldwide, literacy is being acknowledged as the key to unlocking Bible translation for Bible engagement.

Once a person knows how to read, the Bible in their language is accessible to them. Although there is literacy education available in countries in the Oceania region, it is most often in English, which poses a challenge because it is a second language to most of those learning.

“You can only learn to read and write well and use that skill later on efficiently – for let’s say, Bible engagement – if you speak the language,” says Dr Kimmo Kosonen, UBS Head of Literacy and Education. When children are educated in a language other than their first language, Kimmo says, “there are some children who never learn to read and write well.”

This obstacle to literacy is also the experience of Syd Gould, who has worked with the Huli speaking people of PNG for decades, in education and in Bible translation. “I am distressed that Huli children are not being taught to read their own language,” he says. “If they were, they would have access to the Huli Scriptures during primary school. As it is, very few will be able to adequately comprehend the Scriptures in English for many years.”

Bible Society Oceania is working towards building literacy projects to serve the region. In July this year, Ledua and Teu from Bible Society of the South Pacific (BSSP) attended training that was run by UBS. When pioneering Sunday school teacher training in

a Fijian village, Ledua discovered that some kids in the village were not able to read, although they attended school. While Fijian schools – helped by Australian aid – are now encouraging literacy, it is all in English, and not in the mother tongue of the majority of Fijian children. Ledua adds, “If Bible Society was able to use mother tongues for literacy materials, it would be great as a stepping stone for children to their second language.”

Teu, who serves as Fiji Mission officer for BSSP, was encouraged and inspired by the literacy training.

Among the diverse cultures and languages of the South Pacific, Teu says, “Most schools are removing vernacular studies from their curriculum and the effects are seen in the number of school dropouts and non-readers in schools and even Sunday school.”

Teu believes that “literacy projects will give Bible Society an advantage to help communities and churches in Bible engagement, by helping communities use their mother tongue. This will help preserve their God-given identity (their language) and move them closer to engaging with the word of God.” Karen Mudge is Copywriter for Bible Society Australia.

You can support the work of Bible Society and illuminate God’s word across Oceania by visiting biblesociety. org.au/illuminate or by scanning this QR code.

Christians in Oceania are desperate for more Bibles in churches, homes, remote areas and its translation in many heart languages. Your giving will advance Bible translation and distribution programs in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific, as well as the expansion of the gospel message to remote areas in this region.

Give today and illuminate God’s word this Christmas! biblesociety.org.au/illuminate

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Help the broken children of NagornoKarabakh and their desperate parents Almost the entire population of NagornoKarabakh – which is 120,000 people – are now in Armenia. They were forced to flee their homes in the days following an invasion of the Armenian Christian region by Azerbaijan on 19 September.

Around 30,000 hungry and traumatised Christian children are among them. These children had already experienced bombardment, hiding in cellars, and nine months of desperate food scarcity that was followed with a full-scale military invasion.

Within a few days it was clear that their beloved homeland was lost – a land filled with ancient churches and vibrant Christian faith.

Their bodies are weakened by months of nearstarvation. Their minds are frantic with worry about relatives who disappeared, probably captured by Azerbaijan. Their spirits are broken as they grieve for the land they will never see again. They feel a terrible sense of failure to protect this Christian enclave, which for 1700 years stood as a witness to Jesus Christ.

They are afraid of the future – how will they live?

Despite being home to an Armenian community (which embraced Christianity in 301 AD) for more than 2,000 years, Nagorno-Karabakh was incorporated into the Republic of Azerbaijan at the break-up of the Soviet Union.

An earlier Azerbaijani assault on NagornoKarabakh towards the end of 2020 left much of the enclave in Azerbaijani hands. That conflict also led to many accusations of war crimes against Azerbaijan: murder of civilians, torture of prisoners, destruction of church buildings and Christian cemeteries.

These crimes evoked the century-old memory of the 1893-1923 Armenian Genocide, in which several thousand Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians were among the 3.75 million Armenian, Assyrian, Syriac and Greek Christians systematically exterminated in a 30-year campaign waged by the Turkic rulers of the Ottoman Empire.

Azerbaijan – itself a Turkic Muslim-majority power – continues to enjoy the military and political support of Turkey in its campaign of terror against Armenian Christians.

A campaign of terror Nagorno-Karabakh is – or was – an Armenian Christian region within the borders of Muslimmajority Azerbaijan.

Give Them Help. Give Them Healing. Give Them Hope.

Barnabas Aid helped the Christians of NagornoKarabakh after it was attacked in 2020.

Barnabas Aid helped the Christians of NagornoKarabakh during the blockade (December 2022 to September 2023), getting food into them by channels which God gave us.

Barnabas Aid is still helping the Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh, now that they are refugees in Armenia.

The world may not care about them, but we do.

Share with us in this task. It is a God-given privilege. It is a joy.

For the children it could be as simple as pens, pencils and notebooks to enable them to return to school. It could be a bed and a mattress to give them the possibility of a good night’s sleep. It could be providing special activities to heal them from the trauma.

For their parents it could be a fridge or a table and chairs, as they set up a family home again. It could be a few chickens, some sheep or a beehive, to give them a way to earn a livelihood and a renewed sense of self-worth.

If you can help, please visit barnabasaid.org/help-karabakh-christians

Help the broken people of Nagorno-Karabakh 30,000 hungry and traumatised Christian children fled with their parents to Armenia in the last week of September.

Could you help Armenian Christian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh?

You can also make a donation online at www.barnabasaid.org/help-karabakh-christians

GPO Box 612, Adelaide SA 5001 Telephone (08) 8117 8079 or 22 1300 365 799 Email bfaustralia@barnabasaid.org

Summer reading guide The team from the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) share their book picks for this summer.

Clare Potts

Max Jeganathan

Natasha Moore

Q: What book are planning to read this summer?

Q: What book are planning to read this summer?

A: Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis

A: Moby Dick by Herman Melville

CPX Senior Research Fellow

As a young woman with an ongoingly complex relationship with my body, I’ve been interested to dive into the theology of embodiment. I regularly experience a dissonance between how I think and feel about my body (ew) and what God says about my body (good). When Jesus offers to give us life and life to the full, he’s not just talking about our souls.

He’s talking about our bodies too.

I’ve been waiting for this one! It’s the story of the rise and crash of cryptocurrency trading website FTX and its enigmatic founder Sam Bankman-Fried. It explores what happens when human greed trips over the fine line that separates staggering success from spectacular destruction. Bankman-Fried went from billionaire to broke and arrested, in a couple of days.

The depth of Michael Lewis’ research and the texture of his writing brings a theatrical feel to true stories.

This will be no different. From Moneyball (a book about baseball strategy), to The Undoing Project (charting the rise of behavioural economics), to The Premonition (documenting the human response to COVID-19), Lewis breathes entertaining insight into pretty much anything he writes about. I can’t wait.

Q: What book have you already read that you would recommend?

Q: What book have you already read that you would recommend?

A: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

A: Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

CPX Brand Manager Q: What book are planning to read this summer?

A: What God Has to Say about Our Bodies by Sam Allberry

Ok, I admit it. I’ve read this one a few times before.

But I’m about to start writing my master’s thesis on hope and grace in Jane Eyre, so I needed to do a re-read to get started. Humbly, I think Jane Eyre is everything a novel ought to be. It has daring romance, orphans, house fires, gypsies, missionaries, madwomen and even the French. It also examines issues and ideas well before its time: spiritual abuse, neglect and coercive control. Ultimately, however, it is a Christian novel – move over Francine Rivers – about a woman with keen insight into the people around her and into the God who is full of grace.

This beautifully written novel straddles fiction and non-fiction. The story charts the lives and histories of staff and residents of Cinnamon Gardens, a retirement home in a fictional suburb of Sydney.

It brings to life the Tamil culture in a uniquely and beautifully Australian way, and thoughtfully illuminates the refugee, immigrant and white Australian experience. It doesn’t surprise me that my fellow Sri Lankan Tamil Aussie Shankari Chandran won this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award for this one. She colourfully blends the real-life experiences of joy, loss, friendship, race, brokenness and the search for belonging in modern Australia.

The writing is rich. The issues are relevant. And the pages will turn themselves. I loved it!

What God Has to Say about Our Bodies is available at Koorong

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CPX Senior Research Fellow

This summer, I’m feeling a re-read coming on – my favourite novel of all time. It’s been a good few years since I last read Moby Dick, and I’ve been craving a revisit. I know this epic about a crazed sea captain forcing his whaling crew on a doomed quest for vengeance against the white whale isn’t for everyone – but since my first reading of it around 15 years ago I was captivated by its exuberance, its zest for life, its humour, and its frequently breath-taking prose. My copy is so battered, it might be time to invest in a pretty new one first.

Q: What book have you already read that you would recommend?

A: The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible by Michael S. Heiser I’m cheating a little here because I haven’t quite finished this book yet (but I’m confident I will before the summer!). Heiser argues that most of us today look at Scripture through a modern, hyper-rational filter which screens out all but the most unavoidable supernatural elements of the faith (e.g., miracles, the incarnation, the resurrection). That means we skim over or dismiss a lot of puzzle pieces of the Old Testament, especially those that made sense within the wider belief system of the ancient world. From angels to Nephilim, from God’s divine council to cosmic geography, Heiser will challenge what you think you know about your Bible and about reality!

The chapters are short and compelling but also quite dense (lots of footnotes), so it’s a good one to read slowly over an extended time – like a summer holiday.

The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible is available at Koorong

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A Short Guide to Theology: 3 Steps to Start Today Caleb Gomez “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us,” writes AW Tozer.

Or put simply: What you believe about God shapes who you are and how you follow God. Theology is all about learning and studying to gain a proper understanding of God as revealed in His Word, in history, in creation, and through the Spirit.

Theology is a vast field and sometimes it can seem daunting. For instance, you will learn on your journey that soteriology affects one’s eschatology and one’s understanding of anthropology is interconnected with ecclesiology, which impacts missiology.

Don’t be put off by all of the “ology’s”, they are just ways of saying salvation, end times, humanity, worship, and mission.

So in order to help you begin this ever important journey, I wanted to share three steps that have helped me in my theological quest.

Step One: What is Theology?

Theology is the study of God. It can be literally translated to “God-Speak”. So, in one way or another we are each doing theology already. Another helpful definition is “faith seeking understanding.” The task

of Christian theology seeks to answer at least three fundamental questions: Who is God? What has He done? Who am I/we in relation to Him? Once we have placed our faith in the life and work of Jesus Christ, we seek to understand and make sense of the cosmic meaning of life, evil, work, sexuality, politics, and the list goes on and on.

So the first step is to have a clear definition and understanding that theology is “...the continuous process of inquiry that is prompted both by the surprising grace of God and by the distance between the promise of God’s coming reign… and our experience of the brokenness of human life.”

Step Two: Mapping Theology Once you’ve understood the task or definition of theology it’s time to explore the content or the fundamentals of the Christian theology. There are two key sources of Christian theology: Scripture and tradition.

We begin with the Bible. Theology begins with God as revealed in scripture. It is vital to allow the Bible to shape your imagination and intellect. For when we study theology we will never be the master.

The aim, in actual fact, is to be mastered by the author of the text.

Next is tradition. For centuries, Christians and theologians have wrestled and studied to provide essential tenets of our faith. For instance, who is God and who is Jesus? Or how do we understand the concept of a Trinitarian God (the word Trinity isn’t even used in Scripture), or the incarnation, or the virgin birth? God invites us to seek answers to these fundamental truths of the Christian faith.

Reason and experience are also helpful in mapping our theological understanding, but it is vital to gain a deeper understanding of Scripture and tradition first.

Now, to reiterate, step one is defining Christian theology. Step two is studying the contents or fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith beginning with Scripture and tradition.

Step Three: Choose Your Adventure Once you have a solid foundation, it’s time to begin digging deeper into a specific topic or theme that interests you. From art and beauty, to work, salvation, and the end times, theology is an endless adventure of working out our faith with fear and trembling.

As always, read widely and generously. Pick a topic and two opposing authors and see where you stand.

It is helpful to learn the ins and outs of each view.

After all, we are all trying to make sense of God. Reading and studying theology will deepen your faith, broaden your vision, enrich your ministry and change your life. The study of theology, if done humbly, will lead to transformation. That’s why we at Morling have put together a short 45-page free ebook called Why Study Theology, to help you take your next step.

Let’s journey together in this adventure! Download the Why Study Theology booklet now: info.morling.edu.au/whytheology