20 Sept 2014 NZFT War Cry

FAITH IN ACTION |  September  | Issue 6601 | $1.50

FIREZONE

WALK FOR YOUR HEALTH

NO SHAMPOO?

IP S

T G ET G R EA

LE

KILLS

JESS BISHOP

A DERS

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FRESH MISSION FIELDS FOR AUCKLAND CORPS

 SEPT: DAY OF PRAYER FOR VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

STILL IN GOD’S PRESENCE

0 WarCry 20 September 2014

Kia ora Not healed?

WAR CRY

The Salvation Army Te Ope Whakaora New Zealand, Fiji & Tonga Territory FOUNDER William Booth GENERAL André Cox TERRITORIAL COMMANDER Robert Donaldson The Salvation Army’s message is based on the Bible. Our ministry is motivated by love for God. Our mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human need in his name without discrimination.

War Cry exists to support and advance The Salvation Army’s message, ministry and mission.

EDITOR

Major Christina Tyson GRAPHIC DESIGN

Lauren Millington, Amber Wilkinson STAFF WRITERS

Ingrid Barratt, Robin Raymond, Vanessa Singh CONTRIBUTORS

Kris Singh (music reviewer)

PROOF READING

Major Jill Gainsford COVER

Hayden Shearman (see page 20) OFFICE Territorial Headquarters, 204 Cuba Street, PO Box 6015, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 Phone (04) 384 5649 Fax (04) 382 016 Email warcry@nzf.salvationarmy.org SUBSCRIPTIONS Salvationist Resources Department Phone (04) 382 040 Email mailorder@nzf.salvationarmy.org $5 per year within NZ PRINT MANAGEMENT MakeReady | www.makeready.co.nz

We have a wonderful story of hope and healing in this edition —of the undeniable power of God at work in the life of a young woman, Jess Bishop. It’s a reminder that God heals today, just as he did in the time of Jesus.

Perhaps, like Jess, you can testify to a supernatural incident of healing in your life. That’s great! But all of us would also have had times when we’ve prayed for healing—for ourselves or others—and God has answered with a ‘no’. Healing hasn’t come, and in some cases, prolonged illness and perhaps death has been the outcome instead.

It’s hard, isn’t it, to know that God heals some but not all?

I don’t pretend to have a simple explanation, some things we won’t understand this side of Heaven. I know that sickness and suffering was not God’s intent for this world, and I also know it won’t exist in the world to come. Revelation 21:4 (NLT) promises of Heaven: He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.

But in this life, we know that there will be sickness. There will be tears.

Some years ago, I met a young man with a chronic and debilitating health condition. He told me he’d been to lots of churches where people kept wanting to pray that he’d be healed.

This made him uncomfortable. His observation was that while some of these people felt bad for him, others perhaps felt anxious for themselves. He wondered if having someone ‘sick’ around made them doubt God’s compassion and power. He laughingly said he was going to write a book titled Not Healed! because he wanted to assure people he had no such doubts in God just because his own reality was one of ongoing illness.

My experience is that while the church is sometimes a place of miracles, it’s also a place where we hang in there with one another when miracles don’t come. So, whatever your path might be, know that God is walking it with you, and may you find a church community where you find the support you need.

Christina Tyson Editor

PAPER Novatech is an environmentally responsible paper manufactured under environmental management system ISO14001 using FSC Certified, Mixed Source, ECF pulp from well managed and legally harvested forests.

Member of the Australasian Religious Press Association.

All Bible references from the Holy Bible, New International Version, unless otherwise stated.

Articles are copyrighted to The Salvation Army, except where indicated, and may be reprinted only with permission.

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ISSN 0043-0242, Issue 6601 Please pass on or recycle this magazine

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BIBLE VERSE 1 Timothy 2:1-2 The Message

‘The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation.’

Nga Whakatauki 2:1

1

‘… mō ngā kīngi, mō te hunga whai mana katoa hoki: kia āta noho mārie ai tātou i runga i ngāwhakaaro karakia, i ngā tikanga mahara katoa.’

WISE WORDS

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Marcus Aurelius

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Let’s Talk | 03

W

hen I was a kid, the closest thing we had to reality TV was election night. It was a thrilling night of divas, scathing one-liners, popularity contests, goodies and baddies, personality clashes, and the occasional scuffle. And, of course, there were winners and losers. Basically, it was My Kitchen Rules, but with more alcohol and not so much food.

We were politically astute seven-year-olds—I remember a peculiar game we played at lunchtime where if you got tagged you were ‘piggy Muldoon’. Nowadays, that level of political sophistication could get you a job on talkback radio.

So I’ve grown up with a fond regard for election night antics—at the very least, it’s a good laugh. And it’s kind of true that politics is on par with reality TV for many of us. In fact, regrettably, we may be more inclined to vote for our favourite X Factor act than for a political party.

I think too many of us have come to the conclusion that our vote doesn’t matter because we live in a culture of the individual. If voting doesn’t make a difference to my life, why should I bother? And it’s true that no matter who you vote for, you’ll most likely still face the same financial struggles, personal problems and stresses that you faced before.

But politics is not about our individual lives; it’s about building our nation. We only need to look at the contours of history to see the immense impact of politics on our society.

In recent history, Rogernomics and the ‘trickle down’ that never happened has contributed to the biggest gap between rich and poor New Zealand has ever known.

Looking back further, we can see how Michael Joseph Savage’s introduction of social welfare had an immense impact for good in New Zealand, affirming us as a culture that cared for those who had less. Today, although the landscape of social welfare may be much more complex and often fraught, our heritage of caring for others is still strong and essentially good.

And going back even further, our ancestors signed Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi), with its revolutionary pact between the colonisers and the people of the land. The bitter roots that took hold when the treaty was abused still reverberate among us today.

Politics is all around us as we ponder issues of wealth and poverty. As we take our kids to school with their packed lunches, while other kids go without breakfast and with empty lunchboxes. As we consider whether our children will thank us most for preserving the environment, or for making money from it. As we allow ourselves to feel concern for those who can’t afford housing and live in unhealthy conditions. As we uphold Salvation Army values of ‘caring for others, transforming lives and reforming society’.

Many Kiwis feel that ‘politics is corrupt, so I don’t bother voting’.

Well, let me be so bold as to say, those Kiwis are partly right—there is no untainted party, and politics is a system crammed with compromise. But they are only partly right. As Eldridge Cleaver famously said, ‘There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.’ Not voting only means that you give away your power as a citizen. Not voting only means you further corrupt the system.

Don’t be fooled, politics is not about the ‘reality TV’ of personalities and popularity. Politics is about the reality of who we are becoming as a nation. As we now look toward the next three years, let’s pray for our leaders and continue to care for our country. INGRID BARRATT

04 WarCry 20 September 2014

Bookshelf History/Science Living on Shaky Ground Matthew Wright Telling ‘the science and story behind New Zealand’s earthquakes’.

Wright, a respected historian with more than 50 books to his name, tells the story of NZ’s turbulent tectonics, how earthquakes are measured and described, and how scientists predict future quakes.

It features some lesser-known quakes, such as the most powerful ever recorded in NZ, quakes with deadly consequences, and the most recent tremors affecting Wellington and Marlborough. Featuring gripping photographs and personal accounts, Living on Shaky Ground also includes essential information on preparing for and surviving an earthquake. (Random House)

Playlist

History/Religion The Great and Holy War Philip Jenkins Throughout history, secular disasters have driven religious change. Award-winning historian Philip Jenkins details how World War I reshaped the world’s religious map and initiated a worldwide spiritual revolution. WWI was fought by the leading Christian nations, who presented the conflict as a holy war using language of apocalypse and Armageddon, but it shaped all three Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This is a tale that features characters from Karl Barth to Carl Jung, made all the more powerful because of the interplay of worldly politics and spiritual crisis. (Lion)

Essays/Memoirs Something Better Shaw Clifton General Shaw Clifton was world leader of The Salvation Army from 2006 to 2011. This collection of candid autobiographical essays reveal his heart and mind for the Army, God’s Kingdom and his family.

Clifton served on five continents, giving him a wide view on the Army’s work and his influence over its mission. His personal reflections are touching and fascinating, and detail some of the challenges met while serving in New Zealand.

Clifton does not avoid hard topics such as he and his wife’s illnesses, beginning with his diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1969 and concluding with wife Helen’s death in 2011. (Salvation Books)

Reel News

Rock Get Hurt The Gaslight Anthem Since their 2008 record The ’59 Sound, The Gaslight Anthem has been at the forefront of the heartland rock revival, resurrecting the unpolished everyman ethic of the late ’80’s. Get Hurt is decidedly less influenced by this era, but is still a solid rock ‘n’ roll album, if somewhat more tender. Influenced by change and shifting careers, the New Jersey quartet relegates the blues to the fringes to craft a more tightly focused sound. Melodies are more defined, and there’s a greater pop sensibility to the song structures. Fans may baulk slightly at the change of direction, but early Springsteen fans should take notice of this one.

Experimental Electronica/Pop Sparks Imogen Heap Sparks is UK recording artist Imogen Heap’s fourth studio record.

A single track was composed over a two-week period every three months, for a total of 14 tracks over three years. Hallmarked by found sounds, electronic experimentation and heavy use of unconventional technologies (including 3D mastering, companion apps and even music ‘gesturing gloves’), this record shatters any expectations you might have of an electronic pop record. It’s warm, playful and expressive, and at all points authentic and charming. Sparks is a superb example of musical innovation. Imogen Heap paints incredibly detailed sound pictures that words alone cannot express.

GIVEAWAY To win a copy of Something Better, tell us one of your earliest happy memories.

War Cry Giveaway, PO Box 6015, Marion Square, Wgtn 6141 or email warcry@nzf.salvationarmy.org. Entries close 6 Oct. Know My Heart winner is: H. Bigwood

Sci-Fi Comedy Adventure Guardians of the Galaxy (D & D) James Gunn / M (violence) The story of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who, immediately after his mother dies, gets sucked into a spaceship and—26 years later—is living the life of the outlaw ‘Starlord’. Soon he’s in prison with an odd band of mainly mutants: a talking raccoon called Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a humanoid plant (voiced by Vin Diesel), the powerful Drax (wrestler Dave Bautista) and orphan turned assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana). The five combine to get their hands on a mysterious orb, which leads to a truly fantastic prison break scene.

And ‘fantastic’ is the most fitting word to describe Guardians. The worlds, characters, costumes, spaceships and literally every scene are all spectacularly imaginative and hardly ever sensible.

A mix of higher and lesser aims motivate Quinn’s group: revenge, monetary reward, the desire to save a planet from total annihilation, and loyalty. But eventually, tough exteriors forged by tortured backgrounds break down and heroism comes to the fore. Quill reflects, ‘I found something inside of myself—something incredibly heroic. I mean … not to brag.’

The soundtrack is epic, thanks to the mix tape cassette that Quill endlessly plays on his ’80s Walkman, a relic from planet Earth with all of his mum’s favourite songs. Typical of the comic-book genre, there’s plenty of violence but little gore—characters that should have been dead within moments bounce back with little more than a bruised head.

One of the wittiest Marvel comic movies of recent years. For a work of fiction, Guardians of the Galaxy heralds the most profound of facts: we make the most sense together.

Go to

salvationarmy.org.nz/saresources

From the time she was nine, Jess suffered from a debilitating form of illness called fibromyalgia. This year, she celebrates 10 years since she was miraculously healed. Now a Salvation Army officer (pastor), Jess tells her story of fierce faith and freedom.

AS TOLD TO INGRID BARRATT

Photography: Ingrid Barratt

06 | WarCry 20 September 2014

was nine when my world began to crumble. During a netball game I hurt my knee, but it didn’t come right, so I was put in a splint. The pain started spreading into my back, so I was given crutches, and the pain spread to my arms.

It was the beginning of years of scans, specialists and tests, while the pain became more and more excruciating. I was hospitalised, but told that it must be ‘in my head’.

My parents were Salvation Army officers and they were moved to Hastings. It was there that we found a specialist who finally diagnosed me with the most severe form of fibromyalgia—a condition that causes your body to have extreme pain reactions to even the slightest bumps and knocks. I did a trigger test and learnt that I had all of the 18 possible trigger points, to the most severe degree.

I was 12-and-a-half when I was diagnosed, but it’s usually a condition that doesn’t occur before middle age. Fibromyalgia affects your nerve endings, so that even having a shower felt like needles in my back, and being jostled at school was agonising. I was a teenager living in an 80-year-old’s body.

By the time I was 15, I really couldn’t remember what life without pain was like. I had a huge spiritual battle going on in my mind, I got to such a dark place that I couldn’t see the point of living and I had to decide to choose life over death. I said, ‘The point in living is you, Jesus.’ I chose to believe that I wasn’t a mistake, and that God’s purposes for me were good.

A match made in heaven Fibromyalgia matured me beyond my years. When I was 15, I met my first love—and my lifelong love. Daryn started coming to the church where my parents were Salvation Army officers. He was a farmer, and here I was, a delicate, frail girl.

I would go for long walks with my mum discussing how I could get to know him. He was going to Canada for a month, and before he left, I blurted out, ‘I’m going to miss you.’ He didn’t react at all, and I thought, ‘Should I say it again? Did he hear me?’ I spent the next month wondering what I’d done.

Little did I know that Daryn had been thinking about me and what I’d said. He brought a teddy bear back from Canada and said to God, ‘Okay, Lord, I want you to arrange it—if we’re meant to be together, I’ll be able to give this teddy bear to Jess at church tonight.’

Well, I was waiting at church to see him, and we didn’t get to speak to each other at all. When I saw him leaving, I yelled out, ‘Daryn!’ He said to me, ‘I find you very attractive.’ And all I could think to say was, ‘I think you’re pretty spunky, too!’ Then Daryn said, ‘Would you like to have a heart-to-heart, Jess?’ It was there in his little black BMW that he gave me the teddy bear. That was the beginning of our match made in heaven.

Heartbreak and healing Daryn asked me to go on holiday with him and about 20 of his extended family to Brisbane, Australia. It was the trip of a lifetime, but I found the plane ride so painful. I really wanted to join in with all the activities, but my body was breaking down and I ended up staying at the hotel. My mum called me to say there was a healing crusade on in Brisbane. But it was the day that we were booked to leave, so I wondered if I should even mention it to Daryn.

But as soon as he heard about it, he said, ‘Right, we’re going!’ He changed our flights and Daryn’s mum agreed to stay on with us—her only problem was that she needed medication, but when she looked, she discovered she’d brought enough with her for the extra days. We

I got to such a dark place … I had to decide to choose life over death. even knew where the meeting was, because we’d already been to the event centre on our holiday.

It was a huge stadium and we arrived about an hour-and-a-half early, but to our shock, it was already nearly full. Daryn ran ahead and we just got in. Behind him, I slowly and painfully made my way up several flights of steps.

The first part of the meeting talked about our ‘spiritual healing’, and hundreds made their way to the front to receive salvation. Then they said, ‘And now, get ready for your physical healing!’ We were so far away, but started making our way down the stairs. I was in agony, and we couldn’t get anywhere near the front. In the end, I gave up. I was so disappointed and angry. I was just gutted and my faith was dashed.

There was another meeting the next night, but I didn’t even think of going. The next day Daryn started reading a book, Waking the Dead,

by John Eldredge. He flicked it open, and there was a paraphrase of Isaiah 61:1, a scripture that God had previously given us: God has sent me on a mission. I have some great news for you. God has sent me to restore and release something and that something is you. I am here to give you back your heart and set you free.

Daryn and I went for a walk along the beach and I just started crying. I had so many hurts, I had missed out on so much, I couldn’t do what others could do. I was physically crippled and my heart was scarred. As I poured out my heart to God, he started healing it.

This fire started burning within us, and Daryn said, ‘Let’s go back [to the crusade] again!’

A walking miracle Something changed within me; I felt that God had healed my heart.

We arrived three hours early this time, but the stadium was still full.

I hobbled up flights of stairs with great agony, but strangely, I started praying, ‘Thank you, God, for my healing … I’m not going to leave until I get my healing.’

When the time came to go to the front, thousands of people were trying to get through and I was being painfully jostled, but all of a sudden, all these people in front of me parted and I was able to go right up the front. Later, I learnt that Mum had been praying that God ‘would part the red sea’ for me.

We were packed in like sardines, and someone yelled out, ‘Fire!’ and hundreds of people in the front fell flat on their backs, including me and Daryn. He jumped straight back up and yanked me up saying, ‘She’s healed! She’s healed!’ I would have needed an ambulance if he’d done that before, so I thought, ‘Crumbs, I better check it out.’ My healing wasn’t immediate, but as I kept praying and checking, each time my trigger points became less and less tender.

I kept saying, ‘Thank you, God, for my healing.’ What happened next was completely foreign and strange to us. The only way I can describe it was like a tunnel opened up inside me and my mouth opened wide and this huge gagging noise came out of me. I just said, ‘I don’t care how this happens, I’m not leaving here without my healing.’

The crusade finished and people were packing up, and we were still at the front, worshipping and praying. I said, ‘I want to run up some stairs!’ And I motored it out of the building, up the stairs, down the stairs, and out to the carpark. In the middle of the carpark, I suddenly keeled over and started gagging again. Then I got up and ran again.

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away. I was so angry with God. I went for a walk by myself and cried out, ‘God, why did you heal me, and not her?’ And I heard this voice saying, ‘I have—I have healed her.’

Jesus prayed that the cup of suffering would be taken from him, but concluded, ‘Not my will, but yours be done.’ He suffered and died, and only in death did God’s true glory come to pass. I believe in healing and pray for healing—but whether it’s this side of eternity or the other, is in God’s hands.

The calling

In the car, I did these three, huge, disgusting burps from the deepest place in me—I only say this because I want to be honest about how my healing took place; it wasn’t pretty!—and I finally had a sense that it was finished. Neither me nor Daryn had ever seen or experienced anything like we did that night.

When we got back to the hotel, it was about 4 am. I had a shower and started crying because it didn’t hurt. The plane ride was awesome, I was up and down the aisles; I felt like I had a whole new body. When we got home I hugged my brother tight, something we hadn’t been able to do since I was nine.

I went to the doctor and told him that I had been healed. He did all the tests and signed me off as ‘healed by God’, there was no other medical explanation—there is no cure for fibromyalgia.

The faith God gave me for my healing on that night was a gift from the Holy Spirit, and God healed my heart first, before he healed my physical body. Over the next few years I would say to God, ‘Thank you for my healing’ every day. And I continue to thank him. I knew I had to claim my healing because the enemy would want to take it from me.

At the age of 17, Daryn and I were married, with my parents marrying us.

[The doctor] did all the tests and signed me off as ‘healed by God’, there was no other medical explanation.

The healer Over the years, I have pondered why God heals some and not others.

The only answer I can come up with is that God can heal and he will, whether it’s this side of eternity or not.

My beautiful cousin had a tough battle with cancer, and we prayed for her healing. We went to see her and her body was frail and shutting down, but she was praying: ‘I have hope, I have a future, I have a destiny that is yet awaiting me. My life is not over, I have a new beginning just begun, I have a hope.’

On Easter Sunday, we received the news that she had passed

God called both Daryn and me to Salvation Army officership before we met. Daryn had a ‘Damascus Road’ experience while on the farm, in the middle of a paddock. God met him and it was like, Boom!, Daryn was called—to his dismay, at first. Then, when we met, Daryn knew that I was called to officership even before we spoke. It was another confirmation that God was in the centre of our relationship.

We worked on the farm for years, but we were always heading towards officership. Then in 2012, War Cry printed the session name ‘Disciples of the Cross’, and we just knew this was our year! We’re now loving this new season of our lives as corps officers at Masterton Salvation Army.

This year, I celebrated 10 years since I was miraculously healed of fibromyalgia. I have been able to get married and have two beautiful children. I am living a life that I could never have thought possible.

And for that, I still thank God for my healing.

Lord, I am prone sometimes to imagine that the tides of my life are buffeting me without purpose, tossing me to and fro without meaning, battering me painfully against the hard rocks cruelly. Sometimes the storms really are fierce, the skies are grey, and you seem to be absent. It’s just not true that ‘my life is all sunshine in the sweetness of the Lord’.

Lord, remind me that you have never promised to deliver me from struggle and agony and conflict. In the world we shall have trouble. Your own experiences of life among us was a parable of struggle in hope.

But in that struggle you overcame the world. Just as a stone becomes beautifully smooth only in constant friction, so in the mystery of your purposes for us, you create a thing of beauty out of our suffering.

So Lord, when the waves are huge and I feel so helpless, let me not move against them in rage, or go under them in helplessness, but flow with them in faith and hope.

Amen Source: Still Waters, Deep Waters, edited by Rowland Croucher

0 | WarCry 20 September 2014

LIFESTYLE

HEALTH

These feet are made for walkin’

The No-Poo You Regular War Cry contributor Lucy AitkenRead’s online book, Happy Hair, which chronicles the highs and lows of giving up shampoo, went straight to number one on Amazon’s beauty and fashion list, and spawned newspaper articles across the globe. Here’s some abridged no-poo advice from Lucy.

We’ve concocted all sorts of exercise regimes, but walking is still the most natural form of exercise. These feet are made for walking; and that’s just what they’ll do!

Shampoo is a relatively new product, only replacing basic soap at the beginning of the last century, and back then people were only advised to shampoo their hair a couple of dozen or so times a year.

Before we had cars and motorways, we didn’t have gyms or Pilates classes.

That’s because when we had to get somewhere, we walked. We got plenty of exercise just by going about our day. Here are a few simple ways to recapture our God-given swagger:

As the modern global beauty industry balloons into a vast and profitable area of commerce, there is a whole movement of people going back to basics. At the extreme end are people like me—the ‘no pooers’. No, this doesn’t mean I’m constipated; it means I don’t use shampoo.

Take one step at a time: If you have a smart phone, download a pedometer app, which measures how many steps you take each day (or you can buy a pedometer). Keep it on your body and you may be encouraged to find that you already take a few thousand steps each day and are already exercising!

The optimum number of steps to aim for per day is 10,000. But remember, this is your long-term goal, not what you need to achieve right now.

There’s a lot of complicated science to support the fact that regularly using shampoo and conditioner washes out our hair’s natural oils, and forces our hair to act strangely. Cutting out shampoos gives our bodies the chance to produce the correct amount of oil.

Baby steps: Now, set a bit of time aside, based on what you feel capable of achieving. If 10 minutes sounds about what you can do, aim for 10 minutes.

If you can realistically do an hour, go for it. But the important thing is just to start. Use a pedometer if that encourages you, but don’t be bound to it—there are lots of health benefits to walking, including getting fresh air, sunshine, and having some quiet, reflective time. It is also be a great way to catch up with friends.

Show your swag: Once you’ve found your swagger, try doing some more deliberate exercises that will increase your heart rate. Try walking the fastest you can between lampposts, then at your natural pace, then at a fast pace again, and so on. This turns a stroll into a workout. As your endurance increases, try walking fast for two lampposts, and at your natural pace for one.

Keep stepping: There are countless ways you can keep increasing your steps per day—use the stairs, go for a walk in your lunch break, don’t park in the closest car park, walk to the dairy … Once you’re used to it, you won’t have to be so conscious of every step, walking will become part of your natural swag.

This may happen in a couple of weeks or a few months, but eventually your hair gets with the programme. During the transitional stage you may get a bit greasy, but courage, people, courage! Brushing your hair daily, with a bristle brush, will help distribute the oils.

There are lots of natural alternatives you can use instead of shampoo that will work with your body’s natural oils instead of against it. You can go cold turkey, or give up shampoo gradually. Start by extending the time between shampoos by one day. And at least once a week, use this alternative: Instead of shampoo: one dessertspoon of baking soda and one cup of water, well mixed. Pour into a squeezy bottle (such as an old water bottle) and pour over your head.

Instead of conditioner: one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and one cup cold water. Pour over your hair, leave for two minutes and rinse. Depending on the hardness of your water, you may need to use more vinegar. And some people find that leaving the cider vinegar in produces glossy locks (others find it goes sticky!) As an alternative to this alternative, squeeze half a lemon into a cup of cool water. So, go forth and experiment, people!

To download Lucy’s ebook Happy Hair at a discounted price, go to www.e-junkie.com/shop/product/498959

Corn Cakes with Salsa Serve with a delicious salsa for a quick and tasty meal | Serves - 1 cup self-raising flour 2 large eggs ½ cup milk 2 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce 1 tsp each cumin and paprika ½ tsp salt 1½–2 cups corn kernels 2 spring onions, finely sliced 2–3 Tbsp chopped coriander leaves 1 red or green pepper, deseeded and diced oil to fry Salsa Combine: 2 tomatoes, diced; 1 avocado, peeled and diced; ½ red onion, diced; 2 Tbsp chopped corriander leaves; 1-2 Tbsp each lemon juice and sweet chili sauce; salt and pepper to taste.

Measure flour into a medium-sized bowl. Add eggs, milk, chilli sauce, spices and salt, then stir to make a smooth batter.

Add corn, spring onions, coriander leaves and pepper and stir just enough to combine.

Heat oil in a large non-stick pan. Carefully drop spoonfuls of batter into the pan, cooking batches of corn cakes until they are lightly browned on both sides and firm when pressed in the centre.

Drain corn cakes on several layers of paper towels. Keep warm in the oven until all the mixture is cooked, then stack on plates and serve immediately, topped with salsa.

From 20 Minute Dishes by Simon and Alison Holst. www.holst.co.nz

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Q&A How do I forgive?

There is a lot of misunderstanding about forgiveness, so it can be helpful to think about what it is not.

Forgiveness does not condone bad behaviour, deny justice, deny the hurt that has happened, pretend the issue doesn’t matter, or allow us to be hurt again.

Forgiveness is also not something that needs to—or even can—happen straight away. You have to acknowledge hurts before you can start to process the idea of letting them go. This step often comes with its own grief, as you let go of hopes for a relationship, a loved one or a future you imagined.

Forgiveness is choosing to release someone from punishment, and ceasing to hold their wrongs against them. Michael Counsell, whose child was killed by a drunk driver, put it this way: ‘I forgive you’ does not mean that what you have done does not matter. Forgiveness is a determination to move on from the past, because compassion is better than bitterness.

But even if you want to forgive, there is often still the question: how? Firstly, examine the blocks to forgiveness in your life, such as wanting to maintain power, holding on to a victim status, or an inability to forgive yourself. Then consider these steps: • Accept what has happened and the hurt it has caused.

Painful feelings that are not dealt with are buried like landmines, ready to threaten your future relationships.

• Acknowledge your own responsibility. In some cases —such as abuse, or the death of a loved one—you hold no responsibility, and it’s important to acknowledge that. But it’s also important to acknowledge how you may have contributed to a relationship breakdown.

• Choose to release. Decide to stop punishing the person, and stop holding hurts against them.

• Make forgiveness an ongoing choice. Go on releasing them again and again—on a daily basis if needed. It will get easier over time.

Source: Restored Lives, by Erik Castenskiold (Monarch Books)

Testify!

Aaron Williams is excited to discover fresh ways to reach out into the community.

It’s like William Booth said, ‘We want to be reaching the worst souls.’ That’s Aaron Williams’s motto when it comes to young people in the Kelvin Grove area of Palmerston North.

Aaron grew up in The Salvation Army—his grandparents on both sides were heavily involved in the church. That gave him a good grounding in life, but things are tougher for a lot of children in the Kelvin Grove area where he grew up, and now he wants to give back.

‘You only have to drive round here at night and you can see young kids, nine and 10-year-olds, out walking round in the middle of the night, they’re in little gangs really.’

At school, Aaron said he got a taste of what it was like for some young people struggling with education. ‘I have been in that situation where the normal box of education doesn’t fit and you get shunted to the side.’

That motivated him to give back, and he and wife Elisha-Jane Williams have been helping where they can. Elisha-Jane has tutored failing students, and Aaron, a trained chef and barista, mentored a young man training to be a chef.

‘He had no confidence and told me he was a bit of a hermit. He came for confidence and life skills and managed to get a job out of it.’

Aaron’s love for troubled youth was summed up in a comment made to him by a fellow Salvation Army youth worker. ‘He

said to me the difference between church youth and street youth is that church youth can be quite superficial. Street youth have something deeper because they have to have each other’s back. I thought this is an amazing thing our kids can learn from.’

Four years ago, the couple moved to a church in Feilding, working as youth workers before moving back to Kelvin Grove Salvation Army this year. ElishaJane has been tutoring a group of children who were failing at school, helping raise their marks to excellence. The couple, with the support of new Kelvin Grove corps officers, Lieutenants Nathan and Jessica Bezzant, also set up The Lounge café at Kelvin Grove Corps (church), providing food, drink and a new way to connect with the community.

The café has helped raise the corps’ profile in the community, and encourage new people to come in.

‘We had an older Asian man who came in the other day and said, “My family are kicking me out of home,” and we were able to point him in the right direction to get help. We’re getting more of that now—there’s so much life going on and people coming in for help, which is really exciting to be a part of.’

The café will also help fund the Williams’s dream of a youth drop-in centre. They have spoken

to CYFS and reached out to schools and are hoping to launch the drop-in centre at the corps this month.

‘The goal is to break the cycle for kids who have no goal or no hope in life. We want to show them that just because family life isn’t great or you don’t have the support you need, you can be who God wants you to be.’

The goal is to break the cycle for kids who have no goal or no hope.

Let’s Talk

Worship with us

I would like: to explore what it means to follow Jesus information about Salvation Army worship and activities prayer for the following needs:

NAME:

For a warm welcome and a friendly, supportive community environment, come and worship with us at your local Salvation Army church.

It’s why we do all the things we do. www.salvationarmy.org.nz/centres

ADDRESS:

Please post to: War Cry, PO Box 6015, Marion Square, Wgtn 6141 or email: warcry@nzf.salvationarmy.org

10 | WarCry 20 September 2014

SUDOKU

Difficulty Easy

5 6 4 4 6 2 4 9  5 3 1 9 1   5 8 9 1 3 8

Che Cormack of The Salvation Army spent time in prison for drug dealing, where he learnt that his drug abuse was driven by his inability to process difficult emotions. Che shares ideas about building a healthy emotional life.

2 9 5  8 5 1 2 4 9 6 3 8 9 1 4 5

Each Sudoku number puzzle has a unique solution that can be worked out logically (not mathematically). The numbers  to  appear once in every row, column and x square.

ANSWERS BELOW 3 4  9 6 5 2 8 1

5 9 2  8 1 4 6 3

6 2 8 3 1 4 5 9 

4 3 1 5 9  6 2 8

 5 9 6 2 8 1 3 4

2 6 3 1  9 8 4 5

9  4 8 5 6 3 1 2

1 8 5 2 4 3 9  6

 Where in the world is Montego Bay?  Who is older: John Key or David Cunliffe?  Who plays Genesis Potini in the Kiwi film The Dark Horse?  Atticus Finch is a character in which American novel?  What group of consecrated men never cut their hair?

8 1 6 4 3 2  5 9

LET’S GET QUIZZICAL

Answers:  Melbourne, Australia,  John Key (by two years—he’s 53),  Cliff Curtis,  To Kill a Mockingbird,  The Nazarites (Numbers 6:5,13,18).

Do you know someone aged 16 to 19 who could benefit from practical, zero-fees education?

The Salvation Army Education & Employment can help.

For more information phone 0800 437 587 or visit salvationarmy.org.nz/E&E

Getting Emotional

Have you ever tried to pick out where one colour stops and another begins in a rainbow?

That’s how hard it can be to distinguish between different emotions on the spectrum. There are eight primary emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy—with a multitude of subtle shades in between.

Learning to recognise what emotions we are experiencing is the first step toward mastering our emotions and the actions that flow from them.

When I am confronted with difficult emotions, I often talk them through with my wife. This gives me the chance to pinpoint what I truly feel and also to experience the relief of expressing those emotions. Sometimes, this is all I need to get relief from my overwhelming feelings and move forward in a positive way. Her listening ear and sound advice always help.

Last time, I advised the simple exercise of daily starting a sentence with ‘I feel …’. Increasing awareness of our feelings, along with our thoughts and our bodily responses, is referred to as being mindful. If you’re struggling to put a name to an emotion, examine the thoughts running through your mind. Thoughts such as ‘I wish I had a car like that!’ or ‘I deserve that more than him’ are clues that point to the emotions of envy and resentment. Further clues come from your body: are you smiling? frowning? are your fists clenched? are your shoulders relaxed? These clues will not be as clear as insights from your thoughts, because some emotions share the same physical signs, so you do need to build an understanding of your own body and how it relates to your

thoughts and feelings.

To build on our first exercise, I encourage you to start a simple diary. Try to record at least one event each day, writing down what happened and who was involved, what thoughts you had during that event, what your body was doing, and what emotions you felt. Lastly, record how you responded to your emotions, whether by words and/or actions.

If you want to change the emotions that rise within you, you must change the way you think. The Bible says: Do not be conformed to this world, but continuously be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is—what is proper, pleasing, and perfect (Romans 12:2).

God speaks truth into our lives. If you’re tired of feeling ashamed and guilty, hear God saying that he loves you, that he has forgiven you, that he is pleased with you, that he has adopted you as his son or daughter. Chase God for these truths and hold them tight. When things get tough, remind yourself of them. This is the renewal of the mind.

Try this exercise: each morning, make the following confessions and pray that the Holy Spirit would implant them deep in your heart as a foundation for your life and thinking: • God is a loving father, good and holy • I am his son/daughter • God chose me, loves me and is pleased with me • God has a good plan for my life • God has blessed me to be a blessing.

Close Up | 11

#jointhefreedomjourney Freedom, starring Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. as Samuel Woodward, is coming to New Zealand Cinemas in October.

The Salvation Army is planning special screenings in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. More details to come.

Still Fighting for Freedom Sadly, human slavery is not some abhorrent aberration from the pages of history. It is a modern-day travesty that sees hundreds of thousands of men, women and children suffering daily around the world … today.

BY CHRIS FRAZER ‘I am a man—am I not your brother?’ In 1748, on board a slave trader ship, a desperately sick slave poses this thought-provoking question to John Newton. This is a voyage that will see Newton’s life changed forever as his eyes are opened to the brutality of the slave trade.

This scene, as played out in the recently released film Freedom, is a poignant reminder for us today that our lives are inextricably bound with innumerable others, known and unknown, who produce the myriad of goods we buy and who provide many of the services we enjoy—all at bargain prices. The film, which follows and moves between the lives of two men separated by 100 years yet bound together by their search for freedom, portrays the best and the worst of human nature.

We watch with horror as the slave Samuel Woodward and his family desperately try to escape from the Monroe Plantation in Virginia, USA. They are relentlessly pursued by Plimpton, a notorious slave hunter. Samuel is forced to make the difficult, but very human choice between revenge or freedom.

One hundred years earlier, on the ship captained by John Newton, Samuel’s great-grandfather is on his way to America, his survival tied to the fate of Captain Newton. While Samuel’s ancestor’s fate as an American slave is sealed, Newton’s own change of direction creates a legacy that will eventually inspire Samuel, along with those of us confronted by the reality of human slavery today.

We witness with admiration the selfless bravery of those who formed the underground railway to help countless desperate enslaved men, women and children like Samuel and his family find freedom.

And we are reminded that amid the suffering today are other quiet liberators willing to risk all for their brothers and sisters. From beginning to end, Freedom exposes the mix of emotions experienced by Samuel’s fleeing family as they swing between despair and hope, and eventually turn to forgiveness and faith. This powerful film finishes with the invitation, ‘Will you join the freedom journey?’

The quest for freedom for all people is not weakened by time or distance, neither is it dimmed by the cruelty or indifference of some.

Rather, this quest continues to be strengthened by the unwavering determination of ordinary women and men—young and not so young—who recognise that we are all made in God’s image and that, bound together by the love of Christ, we must choose to continue to stand up and challenge all forms of inhumanity.

The 28th of September is a day set aside by The Salvation

Army around the world to pray for those who have been trafficked.

Trafficking in people for profit does not recognise or respect borders, and today no country is immune to this crime in its many forms. Yet, while awareness campaigns and anti-trafficking programmes increase across the world, there is no lessening of the number of people trafficked each year. Even less effective is detection of victims and bringing to justice the perpetrators.

So, what can be done at a local as well as an international level to help bring about effective transformation?

At the recent Wellington Just Action conference, we were challenged to shift from being consumers to contributors. Moving from an ingrained pattern of consumerism to one of bringing life-giving change to others may require a 180-degree shift in our attitudes, beginning with the recognition that we are part of a global trafficking chain. From here, we need to move outwards, gathering evidence and accurate data to direct our actions. What we don’t know, we cannot begin to put right.

We are well overdue addressing the real issues surrounding human trafficking, which are complex and not easily solved.

Together, let’s commit to put aside false and outdated Hollywood images of some heroic white male rescuer and a frail female victim, and work collaboratively with civil society to bring about real change.

The clock is ticking—will you join the freedom journey?

Chris Frazer is a social justice advocate with The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit—www.salvationarmy.org.nz/socialpolicy.

If you’d like to do more to tackle human trafficking, please contact Chris, p: (04) 384 5649, e: chris_frazer@nzf.salvationarmy.org

Salvation Army Establishes International Task Force The Salvation Army has announced it will establish an International Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, chaired by the Director of its International Social Justice Commission.

Chris Frazer, a long-time advocate for the cause of preventing human trafficking with The Salvation Army in New Zealand, has been asked to attend a fact-finding and strategy meeting at International Headquarters in early October that will assist in the establishment of this task force.

1 | WarCry 20 September 2014

Still in God’s Presence There’s more to being still than just stopping the movement of our bodies, writes Vakatoto Wawa.

Praise the Lord! How beautiful it is to be in the presence of the Lord.

How beautiful it is to hear God’s still small voice when you’re in the presence of the Lord.

How beautiful and lovely to listen to the Holy’s Spirit’s leading when humbling ourselves before him.

How wonderful it is to wait for our loving God in our time of stillness.

Those are my personal experiences when, as a Salvation Army officer and a working mother, I put all my busyness and weariness aside and choose to be still at the feet of Jesus.

‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10). This is a very familiar verse. But do we practice it? What does it mean? How do we do it? At first, it seems a simple and straightforward message to repeat God’s advice to ‘be still and know that I am God’, but I have discovered that it is not that easy to implement in my life, and I have a feeling that many of you share that same experience.

Stop moving!

Firstly, it’s not easy to simply be still, is it? We live in a world that seems to be in perpetual motion. All of us have more to do than we could ever get done. It is not in vogue to ‘be still.’ Successful people aren’t viewed as people who are ‘still’; they are people who are active.

In fact, we have this idea that if we’re not doing something, we’re not being productive.

Those of us who are mothers probably remember how often we would just about give anything if our children would just be still? As a mother to four boys, keeping them still is never easy. All that energy and constant movement! So, how many times have you taken your child’s shoulders, looked him or her in the eyes, and said, ‘Please, be still!’ You feel as if you cannot get anywhere with them until they simply stop.

Well, God, our heavenly father, is saying the same thing to us: ‘Stop! … And be still.’ Stop working, stop moving, stop talking—stop!’

The first hurdle we face in stilling ourselves in God’s presence is to get our bodies to be still, to literally stop moving. And for most of us that does not come easy.

I have learnt that I must plan this ‘still’ time in my day. It has to be designated and I must give it the highest priority. For me, this still time has to be early in my day, before my mind is cluttered and my concentration is divided.

Are you having some difficulty with learning to be still? I encourage you to take this verse seriously, and don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould of constant motion. If you don’t learn to be still, you’ll never really learn to know God.

It takes time But there’s more to being still than just stopping the movement of our bodies. I can get up early and get my body into that ‘still’ place, and discover I’m not yet ‘still’. Now, the battle really begins

for me. My mind starts going a mile a minute. It’s easy to lose my concentration on the purpose of this ‘still’ time. Even though my physical body is in the right place, I’m not still before God. To achieve inner stillness, I need that inner focus which centres on God and God alone. Which brings me into that place where he is, for that time, my whole universe, and no extraneous or conflicting information is allowed to interfere.

How can I get to the place where I can be truly still before God, so that nothing interferes with my awareness of God’s presence and his reality? Frankly, I don’t think it’s easy for any of us, because a spiritual war rages when we sit down to be still before God. Our three enemies—the world, the flesh and the devil—are out to break up this quiet inner stillness.

I find it takes time to get still. I cannot be still at the drop of a hat. Sometimes it takes what seems like forever for me to be still on the inside. But until we are still, we really cannot make any further progress toward knowing that God is God. So, this simple verse that tells us to ‘be still and know that I am God’ requires some strong discipline on our part. We have to make a commitment to it, and then ask God to give us the strength to be still. Both on the outside—by stopping the perpetual motion and setting aside time to be alone with God, and on the inside—by focusing our thoughts and mind on God alone.

I cannot be still at the drop of a hat.

Sometimes it takes what seems like forever for me to be still on the inside.

Get to know God Now, let’s look at the next challenge of these eight simple words: to know that God is God. Knowing something means we understand clearly and with certainty. Knowing implies understanding. Knowing requires training and education. In other words, knowing doesn’t just happen; it is the result of a process and, like stillness, knowing requires involvement on our part.

Knowing develops confidence and trust. Knowing dispels doubt and fear. No wonder the psalmist is calling us to ‘be still and know that God is God’!

To know God means we know that he alone is God and that we don’t look to other people or things to meet our needs. Tell me, when you have a need, where do you go first for help? Do you first go to your bank account and trust in your money? Do you run to a friend or counsellor to give you comfort and advice? Do you look to a job for security? Then, if all these fail, is that when you go to God? When you know that God is God, you run first to him for all your needs. We know that God alone is our life source, even though he may use other people to help us. Knowing God means we are learning to turn first and finally to him for all strength, help, confidence and security. But you’ll never be able to do that if you don’t first learn

Soul Food | 13

to ‘be still’, for this is the pathway that allows us to truly know and appreciate that God is God. Do you have a deeper appreciation today that God is God, than yesterday? Do you trust God more this year than last year? Can you see a growth pattern in your knowledge and trust of God? If your answer is not a definite yes, perhaps it’s because you haven’t yet made a commitment to be still—both bodily and mentally—so that you might come to know God better. That’s where it begins: with stillness.

in line, the secret for a life of peace and contentment, the secret for a life that blesses others and that brings glory to God. I urge you to plan your still time, and to pray for the inner stillness you need so that you can come to know God more.

Remember the I AMs of scripture. Write them down in your heart to remind yourself of how totally sufficient God is for your every need!

And then, carefully keep a watch on the throne of your life to see who or what may be trying to become your god. This often happens subtly, so we must constantly be on our guard against it.

God will meet our needs

Captain Vakatoto Wawa is a corps officer (pastor) with her husband Captain Sevanaia Wawa at Taveuni Salvation Army in Fiji

And so we come to two small but very important words in this verse: I am. Moses asked God what he would tell the children of Israel if they asked him, ‘What is his name?’ God replied, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you”’ (Exodus 3:14).

What does that mean to us? Here’s how I think of it: Fill in the missing word: ‘I need _______.’ Whatever word you can put in that missing blank, Jesus can fill it in, because he is I AM. He is our total need-satisfier.

Consider just a few of the I AMs in the Bible: I AM your shield (Genesis 15:1); I AM the Lord who heals you (Exodus 15:26); I AM he who comforts you (Isaiah 51:12); I AM gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29); I AM with you always (Matthew 28:20); I AM the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6); I AM the bread of life (John 6:35); I AM the light of the world (John 8:12); I AM the good shepherd (John 10:11,14).

Until we take time to be still and know God, we won’t experience his all-sufficiency, the power of I AM to meet all our needs.

Do you need healing of your body, your mind or your emotions?

Jesus is the Lord that heals you. Are you lonely? Are you hurting badly today because of rejection or loss that you’ve suffered? I AM is there to comfort you and meet that need for you. I AM is with you always, able to take away that loneliness if you will learn to know that he is God.

Remember who is God Let’s focus on the last of those eight words: ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Oh, how easy it is for us to forget who is God! This world would have us believe that each of us is a god. We are encouraged almost to worship ourselves, to make ourselves the most important person in the world.

Some in the business community might believe that our careers should be our god. Sometimes we allow another person to become a god in our lives. Often our dreams and desires become our gods.

So we need a constant reminder of who God really is! We need to frequently check the thrones of our hearts and see what may have climbed up there to take first place.

‘Be still, and know that I am God’: those eight words carry a strong message. They hold the secret for us as Christians—the secret for a victorious and balanced life, the secret for keeping our priorities

Ponder This What does it mean to you to ‘be still and know that I am God’?

What can you do to allow ‘quiet inner stillness’ into your daily life?

In what situations in your life could you allow ‘God to be God’? What might be the benefit of doing so?

Mark 1:35 Contemporary English Version

‘Very early the next morning, Jesus got up and went to a place where he could be alone and pray.’

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone; Be looking to Jesus, like him thou shalt be; Thy friends in thy conduct, his likeness shall see.

William Dunn Longstaff The Song Book of The Salvation Army

14 WarCry 20 September 2014

Apology Hard Work, but Helpful for Teens It was an emotionally charged day last month for a group of teenagers involved in a Salvation Army Education and Employment (E&E) training course when the group catered at the police apology to Tuhoe for the 2007 police raids on the Taneatua and Ruatoki communities.

Youth Guarantee Course tutor Jenny Punga said about 15 students from the Whakatane course helped cater for the more than 400 people, including 130 police officers, who attended the event at the Te Rewarewa Marae in Ruatoki on 12 August. Three of the students were caught up in the raids and two of them were among the group that catered for the apology.

One of the teens, who was eight at the time of the raids, said he still felt angry when he saw police. During the raids, he and his family were forced to sit in a shed with no food and water for several hours. The irony was not lost on him that he ended up feeding the same officers at the apology. He was pleased Police Commissioner Mike Bush had visited his house earlier to apologise personally, and members of his family had accepted the apology.

Another teen, who was seven at the time of the raids, said he went to open the door when an officer kicked it down and his family was ordered into their living room by masked men with guns.

Watching a video of the Commissioner’s apology later he thought it seemed sincere, but said that an apology would not fix the hurt they suffered.

However, the third class member whose family was confronted by police during the raids said he had accepted the apology, although it had been hard. Like others, he was upset that the Police Commissioner at the time of the raids, Howard Broad, had not attended the apology, but he was impressed with Commissioner Bush.

‘We’re happy, but we’re not happy,’ he said. ‘I’d like to congratulate the Commissioner, give a big ups to him for standing up and doing something that’s really hard to do—giving eye contact to our people for the hurt that the police had caused. Personally, I accepted the apology. I have to say not many of our people have, but I can say that they’re probably working towards it.’

The class was invited to take part in the event by organisers at the marae, and Jenny said the students had decided as a group whether they would go or not.

One of the teens said they had been worked hard on the day, shelling mussels, cutting meat and moving chairs, among other jobs.

The first students arrived at 6 am to help set up the hangi. Their work also included running to move tables and chairs to different parts of the marae during different parts of the day. Some also took part in the haka welcoming police onto the marae, which was a surprise to the tutors, Jenny said.

The class had catered a few events this year, but Jenny said she was especially proud of their efforts at the marae, and others were impressed as well. ‘We had really good feedback from the marae.

They turned up the next day with a whole stack of pizzas to thank the students for their help, and we got really good feedback on their behaviour.’

She was particularly proud of the students who had been caught up in the raids. ‘They were just staring at [the police] at first, but when we had the meal they were more relaxed and chatted.’

The class had watched news reports and discussed the raids the day before the apology, she said. They also had a stroke of luck when someone borrowed their video camera and taped the Commissioner’s apology.

‘We had the only full recording of the apology. So we watched it the next day and discussed it. It was really interesting. They were saying the Police Commissioner looked sincere because he made eye contact and he didn’t drop his head.’

The students wrote diary entries about their experiences of the day as well, which helped process what happened and contributed to the literacy skills they are learning on the course.

The E&E course that the teenagers were on is for teenagers who have left education, providing employment skills and training, including in hospitality. Students are typically young people who have been put in the too-hard basket by the education system or have dropped out of school at a young age, Jenny said.

The course helps them gain NCEA level one and two, and

Fresh Mission Fields for Auckland Corps

Auckland City Corps (Majors Allan and Linda Bateman) and Auckland City Korean Corps (Captain Byoung-sun Kim and Captain Yoon-hee Park) have now ‘opened fire’ from their new facilities at Allright Place in Mt Wellington.

For the fourth time in its 131-year history, Auckland City Corps has changed location. However, unlike the previous three times when the Corps was located in the CBD, this time the move was to Mt Wellington.

The Auckland City Korean Corps is now worshipping in its own auditorium with adjacent ministry space for the first time ever, having shared the same space with Auckland City Corps first as a corps plant and then after being elevated to corps status at last year’s congress.

The official opening celebration weekend for the facility was held

on 16–17 August, with guest leaders Commissioners Robert and Janine Donaldson. It was special for Auckland City Corps to have the territorial leaders as guests as the Donaldsons had earlier been corps officers at Auckland City.

The weekend started with a community fun day on Saturday morning. Close neighbours had been invited to join in activities including face painting, apple bobbing, a bouncy castle and sausage sizzle. The café was open for refreshments as corps folk sat with visitors, getting to know them better. This was a positive time in which connections were formed with a number of families from the surrounding community.

The more formal part of the day started at 4:30 pm with a pōwhiri lead by the Māori Ministry team. Amongst those being welcomed to the new facilities was the MP for the Maungakiekie

Our Community | 15

Hardcopy Bibles Still in Demand provided hospitality, computing and tourism training along with a Certificate in Employment Skills and literacy and numeracy classes.

The boys said they enjoyed being more self-managed and had found the year-long course helpful.

Go to salvationarmy.org.nz/e&e for information on Education and Employment courses around New Zealand.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush is greeted at Te Rewarewa Marae at Ruatoki; Photographer: Alan Gibson (New Zealand Herald)

District, the Honourable Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. He was delighted to welcome The Salvation Army into his district and looks forward to working in partnership with us for many years.

Commissioner Janine Donaldson then cut the ribbon across the doors, and Commissioner Robert Donaldson unveiled the plaque to officially declare the facility open and prayed a dedicatory prayer for the facility’s mission. Dean Turner from Arrow International, the project managers, then presented the key to the facility, signifying the handing over of the building to Auckland City Corps and the Auckland City Korean Corps.

Saturday finished with a banquet dinner attended by over 180 people from both corps. This was a time of enjoyment and fellowship that finished with the Territorial Commander bringing devotions.

Sunday morning worship was a combined corps event. The

Once again the New International Version (NIV) Bible is on track to be New Zealand’s top selling Bible for the year, according to Bible Society New Zealand. In the past year, Bible Society has sold more than 8000 copies of the NIV, nearly 30 per cent of the Society’s total English language Bible sales for this period.

Bible Society Scripture Distribution Manager John Watson is not surprised. ‘The NIV Bible hit the ground running when it was first published in 1978,’ he says. ‘And its recent update in 2011 has ensured it continues to appeal to a wide audience.’ He believes there will always be a place for traditional hardcopy Bibles. ‘Many people seem to like to have both: a downloaded version on their mobile phone or tablet, and a hard copy to hold and mark up.’

Another trend is the advent of ‘special design’ Bibles, with extra content for targeted audiences. Bible Society is producing speciality Bibles through partnerships with various organisations. Some churches also want to produce special design Bibles such as New Testaments to give away to people visiting their church for the first time. These often include introduction pages explaining how to read the Bible, where to look in times of need, and a bit about the church.

A further emerging trend is the increasing demand for foreign language Bibles. ‘We have just landed a shipment of Khmer Bibles from Cambodia,’ said Mr Watson. Bible Society New Zealand currently stocks the Bible in 131 different languages.

The Bible is also aiding literacy, with ‘diglots’ or ‘two language’ Bibles becoming increasingly popular. Te Kawenatu Hou, the newly reformatted New Testament in both English and Māori, is now onto its third printing since its release in 2008.

Mr Watson says one of the biggest developments in Bible distribution in New Zealand was the 1988 opening of the Amity Printing Press in China, a partnership between the United Bible Societies and the Amity Foundation, which has enabled global printruns of high quality Bibles at excellent prices.

Bible Society stocks more than 3500 Bible products in its Wellington warehouse and is the largest not-for-profit Bible distributor in New Zealand. It distributed more than 58,000 Bibles and New Testaments in 2013.

Auckland City and the Auckland City Korean Corps songsters participated, as did a combined music team and the Auckland City Corps band. The Territorial Commander challenged each corps that while they now had a beautiful facility, the building means nothing if they were not fulfilling their obligations to their new community— reaching out with the practical love of Jesus.

The Auckland City Corps and the Auckland City Korean Corps are delighted with their new premises. It is a real joy to be placed among a community where we can meet the needs of the people while showing them the love of Christ. We look forward with great expectation to what the future holds for both our corps, for the Mt Wellington community and the many untouched areas of Auckland nearby.

Major Linda Bateman (Corps Officer)

16 WarCry 20 September 2014

Proving the Faithfulness of God On 31 August, friends, family and colleagues from around New Zealand celebrated the retirement of Colonels Graeme and Wynne Reddish. The retirement service was held at Johnsonville Corps, which the couple attend.

Graeme entered training college with wife Nola in 1972 as a cadet of the Blood and Fire Session. Nola was promoted to Glory in 2002.

In 2005, Graeme married Major Wynne Jellyman, who entered officer training in 1980 as a member of the God’s Soldiers Session. Graeme and Wynne held a wide range of leadership responsibilities in corps, as well as divisional, territorial and international headquarters appointments.

The retirement service was led by Wynne’s brother Major Wayne Jellyman, who expressed amusement that though Wynne was the youngest of four siblings, she was the first to retire. He said it was fitting to acknowledge and say thank you to Graeme and Wynne for their service, while also giving the glory to God. The service commenced with a rousing rendition of ‘Send the Fire’, accompanied by the Wellington South Band and the Johnsonville music team.

Graeme and Nola’s eldest son, Derek, shared family memories and said how proud the family was of his father’s faithful service, especially during difficult times.

Derek was joined by sister Tania

Horton and younger brothers Jason and Bevan to sing ‘I Need Thee Every Hour’.

Major Heather Rodwell was a cadet when Wynne was appointed to the training college as Field Officer in 1988. She said the cadets had enjoyed Wynne’s contribution to college life and said she had coped well, especially since she was a similar age to the cadets. Heather admired Wynne’s ‘get on with it’ attitude in whatever tasks she was assigned and in her attitude to personal development goals. Such goals included university study and, more recently, learning to quilt.

David and Carol Major were session mates of Graeme and Nola. At the session’s recent 40year reunion, David had talked about ‘if I had known then what I know now’. Graeme approached him afterward and said that even

knowing what he knew now, he would still do it all again. This was a testament to God’s faithfulness, said David.

A video message from previous territorial leaders Commissioners Don and Debi Bell conveying warm wishes and sharing some fun anecdotes was received with amusement.

Territorial Commander Commissioner Robert Donaldson then presented Graeme and Wynne with a book of greetings compiled from colleagues unable to attend the retirement service. He shared Scripture and presented the couple with their retirement certificates, congratulating them on their years of service.

Wynne expressed her gratefulness for the opportunities her various appointments had presented—including meeting

many people and travelling.

Her desire had been to honour God and make him known in the world, she said, and God had been faithful in each appointment. Wynne challenged the congregation to obey God’s call on their lives and to prove his faithfulness.

Graeme acknowledged the many members of Nola’s family that were present. He spoke of the privilege of being in positions of influence, and assured the congregation he had not taken these lightly. A shy young man when entering training college, Graeme had doubted that God could use someone like him, but he held to the promise of Joshua 1:9. He testified to God’s enduring faithfulness and commended this to others.

Cara Reddish

What If? One Cause—Questions Posed from Rolleston Corps Plant At the Rolleston Corps Plant, the pursuit of questions regularly leads to discovering things at a greater depth; rather than just being in pursuit of answers.

Our most recent question was, ‘If you had to die for one cause, what would it be?’ This was first discussed at one of our gatherings. It was asked of each other. It was asked of those we interacted with. It then became, for some, a discussion starter in other settings of life.

As with all good questions, it evolved. We’ve ended up with the question: ‘If you could give up your life so one thing was different, what would that one thing be?’ Here are some of the responses we’ve heard: • One person said they would give up their life if no one had

to live in addiction, especially to alcohol or drugs.

• One person said they would give up their life if it meant every child would have the same fair go.

• One person said they would give up their life if no one had to live as an outcast.

• One person said they would give up their life if it would create a society where everyone who had enough would freely share with those that didn’t.

Since this question was first asked, it has become the topic of most conversations within our community. It’s been amazing to see people thinking about about what they would give up their life for!

But the questions don’t end

there, because a question that is asked in response to people’s answers is: ‘If you’d be willing to die for that cause, why don’t you live for it now?’

Imagine what would happen to society if every Salvation Army soldier lived their life fighting the battle that has been placed on their hearts! Imagine what would happen if we stopped talking about soldiership as a membership in a service that we’re already paying participants of, and started talking about it like it was a covenant to a life lived for a cause worth dying for!

Maybe then, the music played at church and how long the sermon was would be much less important … maybe.

Nathan Holt (Corps Officer, Rolleston Corps Plant)

GAZETTE Resignations The Territorial Commander announces with regret the resignation from officership of Capts Ve’u Ragafuata and Sarita Jare, effective 8 Sept. Ve’u and Sarita were commissioned on 3 Dec 1999, having previously served as envoys. They have served as Corps Officers of Raiwai Corps, Managers of the Raiwai Hostel, Corps Officers of Labasa Corps (with an additional appointment for Sarita as Community and Family Services Manager), Divisional Public Relations Officers, and Corps Officers of Tavua Corps. We thank Ve’u and Sarita for their service and pray God’s blessing on them in the future.

Appointments Effective 9 Sept: Mjrs Maika and Louisa Ranamalo Raico, Corps Officers, Tavua Corps, Fiji Division.

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Add a Tour to Your Boundless Experience

CALENDAR SEPTEMBER –: Youth Conference / Central Division : Workout with the Word / Northern Division : South Canterbury Anniversary : School for Officer Training Spiritual Day / Fiji – September: Foundations of Leadership / Booth College of Mission : Business Coaching / Northern Division –: Children’s Camp / Tonga Region : 24/ Prayer / Fiji Division –: Youth Councils / Midland Division –: Central Otago Regional Weekend / Southern Division –: Kids Camp / Northern Division : Daylight Saving begins (NZ) – Oct: Kids Camp / Northern Division

Pre and post-congress Holy Land tours are on offer for those planning to attend the 2015 Boundless Congress in London next July. Maranatha Tours (UK) have been organising tours to the Middle East for 25 years and have close links with The Salvation Army. The tours will be led by Salvation Army officers. Pre-congress tour: 16 to 26 June. Post-congress tour:  to 1 July.

For more info go to www.boundless2015.org or contact Major Graham Mizon (e: graham.mizon@ salvationarmy.org.uk)

Updated NYB Membership Criteria

OCTOBER –: Youth Councils / Southern Division : Local Leaders Training / Tonga Region – October: 12 Steps Workshop (Part 1) / Booth College of Mission – October: Kids Peak Adventure / Blue Mountain Adventure Centre 10: Fiji Day : Corps Cadets Camp (West) / Fiji Division : Youth Rally / Tonga Region : Blaze Youth Event / Central Division

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OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENTS Commissioners Robert (Territorial Commander) and Janine Donaldson (Territorial President of Women’s Ministries)  September: Flaxmere Corps – October: Auckland City Corps (with Wellington Citadel Band)  October: Napier Corps – October: Winton Corps 125th Anniversary – October: Tri-Territorial Leaders Conference / Melbourne Colonels Willis Howell (Chief Secretary) and Barbara Howell (Territorial Secretary for Women’s Ministries) – September: Orientation and Welcome / Midland Division and Homecare – October: Orientation & Welcome / Northern Div. and Addiction Services – October: Tri-Territorial Leaders Conference / Melbourne

The Salvation Army National Youth Band (NYB) supports churches and communities in worship and outreach through regular ministry weekends.

Additionally, the band seeks to encourage and support developing Salvation Army brass musicians throughout New Zealand. The band’s membership requirements have recently changed. To apply, you need: The support of your corps officer.

To have made a commitment of faith in Jesus Christ.

To be aged between 15 to 30 years.

To be committed to the life and ministry of your local Salvation Army corps and a member of your corps’ music ministry.

While senior soldiership is a preferred requirement, it is not essential.

To be willing to audition for a place in the NYB.

For more information, contact Major Graham Medland (NYB Executive Officer) , p: (0) 839 2242, e: graham_medland@nzf.salvationarmy.org,

Medlands Beach Memories Major Sam Medland has written a book about his early life on Great Barrier Island from 1929 to 1948. Medlands Beach Memories contains 22 chapters of short stories, 100 pictures (some in colour) and information about The Salvation Army, with Sam’s mother being among the first officers trained in New Zealand in 1913. The stories carry messages about forgiveness, being non-judgemental and being adventurous.

Readers have been full of praise for this book.

Order for $10 (incl p&p) from Sam Medland, 27 Rochester St, Napier 4112; e: samedland@xtra.co.nz

Uniform Wanted

PRAYER FOCUS Please pray for: Winton, Woodville, Albany Bays, Alexandra, Aranui and Ashburton Corps, Southern Divisional Headquarters; The Salvation Army in Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar.

I am looking for a second-hand men’s uniform jacket, size 126 to 128 cm. Can you help? e: Ben (Dingo) Smith on myjesusilovethee@hotmail.com or p: (02) 253 5526.

To advertise your event, email: warcry@nzf.salvationarmy.org

• Experience the raw energy of God’s power in your life • Take your faith higher and impact your world!

Don’t miss the most significant Men’s Event of 2014! - Register now!

AUCKLAND 3-4 October

Victory Convention Centre, Freemans Bay

1 WarCry 20 September 2014

LEADERSHIP LINKS

Keep the main thing, the main thing!

I can still hear my homiletics lecturer hammering home the point: ‘If you want a memorable sermon, you must keep to one main idea.’ If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably sat through more sermons than you care to remember that had no main theme or big idea. You were simply left to guess what the preacher was trying to say and what your response was supposed to be.

Thankfully, God isn’t like that. Almost every page of Scripture reminds us that God has one main theme for his creation, nothing less than global redemption! Page after page of both covenants echo this overarching theme of redeeming love.

When William Booth was asked what the Salvation Army’s mission was, he replied, Getting people saved, keeping them saved and helping them get other people saved. Booth was clearly articulating the principle of the ‘one main idea’.

The Salvation Army was raised up to be a soul-saving mission station to the unloved, unconvinced and therefore unconverted.

We aren’t the Celebration Army, the Social Services Army, the Sanctification Army, the Seniors Army, (as good as those things might be), we are The Salvation Army! Our mission is to do what we were birthed to do: saving lost humanity—offering atonement through the shed blood of Christ; heralding with a clarion call the redeeming love of Jesus; reconciling people to God and pointing them to the Cross. In essence, nothing less than full salvation will do!

In recent years, a growing global trend towards addressing social justice issues has had a positive influence on our movement. We have made this a Territorial Strategic Mission Plan (TSMP) goal and are recapturing our prophetic voice in these key areas. Many new initiatives have commenced to fight injustices in our world. It’s interesting to note that many nonChristian organisations and individuals are also involved in these humanitarian endeavours. Bill and Melinda Gates, Madonna, Oprah Winfrey and many others are making a significant difference. However, they’re not so interested in leading people to Christ. Surely, that has to be our unique distinctive?

In our enthusiasm to recover lost ground in social justice, I hope we never lose sight of the main thing and neglect doing what only the Church can do: saving souls and winning the world for Christ. In 1904, when Booth was invited to Buckingham Palace and asked to sign King Edward VII’s autograph book he wrote: Some men’s ambition is art Some men’s ambition is fame Some men’s ambition is gold But my ambition is the souls of men.

Jesus said, ‘What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?’ (Matthew 16:26), and ‘for the Son of man came to seek and save that which is lost’ (Luke 19:10). Let’s keep the main thing, the main thing!

Lieut-Colonel Rod Carey Territorial Secretary for Programme

Leaders are Neither Born nor Made Getting better as a leader requires intentionality.

BY ALASTAIR KENDREW General John J. Pershing said: ‘A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary, an incapable leader can demoralise the best of troops.’ If we are serious about growing the Kingdom of God, we need great leaders—which is why we recently added the goal of ‘developing leaders’ to our Territorial Strategic Mission Plan (TSMP).

But according to Vic Downing of Global Advantage, we’ve got our goal wrong! He believes good leaders are neither born nor made; they develop themselves. Downing might argue that a better goal would be to inspire leaders to develop. In other words, The Salvation Army can offer all sorts of things to try to develop leaders, but unless people decide they want to be better leaders, our plans will be of limited effectiveness. And when people are truly inspired to improve their leadership, they’ll be looking for opportunities to develop well beyond anything we offer.

It might sound obvious, but in most aspects of life, significant improvement comes only when you decide to improve. In other words, while we might gain some natural improvement with experience, the most dramatic changes follow deliberate effort. For example, over the past 10 years, I’ve probably driven around 200,000 km. I doubt my driving has improved over that time, but there have been other times in my life when my driving improved significantly. As a 15-year-old, I was desperate to learn to drive. I knew I didn’t have the required skills (or licence), so I nagged my parents to let me behind the wheel as often as I could, doing whatever was needed to earn the opportunity to develop my driving skills.

I hate to admit it, but I failed my first driving test. I thought I was a pretty good driver, but the police officer testing me saw a high-risk teenage male and failed me for not looking around enough. While this upset me at the time, I now look around a lot more while driving. One holiday, my brother followed me as I drove on the open road, laughing at me because I used my brakes around most of the corners. Because of that feedback, I

Mission Matters 1

consciously improved my cornering (and now get frustrated when following others who brake like I used to). A defensive driving course also improved my handling and braking skills, and occasionally, while driving on the open road, I’ve set myself the challenge of seeing how smoothly I can drive around corners.

I’d suggest my driving history provides a blueprint for leadership development. We start by getting involved in leadership, and at some point, we decide we want to get better. So we look for things to work on. This may come after some feedback—like the feedback I received from that police officer and my brother—or because we’ve done some self-review. As a result, we set about improving ourselves. We may also recognise there are things we don’t know that we probably should, which might lead us to attend a course or to read some books.

This cycle repeats. We decide we want to improve, find new things to work on, expose ourselves to new ideas, and then put what we’re learning into practice.

A few things have really helped my development. The first is the Global Leadership Summit (www.willowcreek.org.nz/gls). Each year, Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago gathers world-class speakers on leadership, and makes videos of these talks available around the world. The event is so popular, that they expect 300,000 people to take part this year, and next year’s summit has already sold out—in two days! The summit is offered across New Zealand in October and November. I make it a priority to attend every year.

I’m not a keen reader. I always struggled at school to complete any required reading on time, and I don’t remember the last novel I read. But I recognise the importance of reading, so I try to read at least a few books each year. Recently, I came across a subscription service called Leaders Book Summaries (www.studyleadership.com).

They read the best new books on Christian leadership and send subscribers a 10-page summary. The idea is that you read the 10 pages to see if you want to buy the book, but I find that the 10 pages are really useful just in themselves.

In my previous career with a global consulting firm, I was privileged to attend a wide range of courses on leadership. Having benefited enormously from this, I’m keen to pass that knowledge on, so I’ve been working with the Centre for Leadership Development at Booth College of Mission to develop the Local Leadership Development Programme. The first module has been used for South Island regional training events, with very positive feedback.

Southern Divisional Commander Major Ivan Bezzant says, ‘Leadership is a critical issue for The Salvation Army, so we are encouraging corps in the Southern Division to use this material. To role model this, we used Module One as the basis of our training in the South Island this year, with around 300 attending. I encouraged

Get Great Skills!

Napoleon Dynamite: I don’t even have any skills.

Pedro: What do you mean?

Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nunchuck skills, bow-hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only like guys who have great skills.

These skills are over-rated, but everyone likes people with great leadership skills!

The Salvation Army’s Local Leadership Development Programme will help you serve God and make a difference for the Kingdom.

Over 14 modules, you’ll learn about: •

personal leadership: relationship building and coaching

•

ministry leadership: training on relevancy, facilitation and communication skills, project management, strategic thinking and how to organise an event

•

team leadership: building a team and leading others.

Ask your corps officer about running this programme at your place—you could even offer to organise this! Or team up with nearby corps/centres to provide regional training options.

For more info, email Alastair Kendrew in the THQ Mission Resource Dept, e: alastair_kendrew@nzf.salvationarmy.org

the trainers to personalise the material, which further enhanced their presentations.’

We recently ran an event at Johnsonville Corps, where 85 per cent said they would recommend the first module to others, and 90 per cent said they’d probably come to the next training module too.

How about you? Have you decided leadership is important enough to invest some personal effort to get better? Do you go looking for feedback, and welcome it when you receive it? Do you attend events or courses? Does the Global Leadership Summit appeal to you? How much do you read?

Would a subscription to the book summary service help? Can you make use of our new Local Leadership Development Programme in your context?

I think Vic Downing is right. Leadership development is not about The Salvation Army developing your leadership. It is about you and me choosing to develop ourselves, perhaps with The Salvation Army’s help. I’m sure we’d all like to be better leaders, but only we can decide how much effort we’re prepared to make so this happens.

GOD & FAITH

BY HAYDEN SHEARMAN

It’s true! Running is a great metaphor for life. So … get those legs pumping!

hand, while being life-giving and fundamental to our human natures on the other.

Of all people, it was the not-so-sporty celebrity Oprah Winfrey who said, ‘Running is the greatest metaphor for life.’ And, judging by the number of times the Bible refers to running, I believe God would agree. Here are two reasons why.

It turns out that the most important and good things in life are just the same. Take relationships, study, work, family, church, or faith—they all can be painful and hard at times, but ultimately they bring our lives purpose and meaning. They are essential to who we are.

Firstly, if you have two functioning legs, you can run (yes, even above-the-knee amputees have run marathons). At about age two, we all started running. In fact, back then, you probably loved it so much that you drove your parents batty with all your running around. Beyond just freaking out Mum and Dad, in human history we’ve used running to travel, hunt, communicate, play, sightsee, release stress, catch the bus, have fun, lose weight, and to feel free. Like breathing, eating and sleeping, running forms part of our humanness. God designed us to run.

However, the second reason running makes a great metaphor for life is that it is hard —stupidly hard in some cases. Think back to the last time you ran (however long ago it might be). Did it involve any (or all!) of the following: blisters, the stitch, sweating profusely, asthma, vomiting, painful muscles, light-headedness, cramps, cold weather, hot weather, injuries, wobbly … umm … everything, exhaustion, diarrhoea, or chaffing (and bleeding) in places you never knew could chaff (or bleed)?

With a list of cons like that, running often earns itself the title of ‘mild self-inflicted torture’. Yet millions go running every day, and many of those find it in themselves to say they ‘enjoy’ it. Which is the crazy thing about running: it is painful and hard on the one

I discovered running because I wanted a sport I could do anywhere that didn’t involve face planting on hard concrete (goodbye skateboarding) or the ocean in winter (Wellington surfers will know what I mean).

So I strapped on some shoes and went running, Forrest Gump style.

That was eight years ago. Now I run competitively and most of my working life is running related (whether it’s coaching or writing about running). My journey into this blister-ridden sport has allowed me to dig deeper into the metaphor of running —sometimes a little deeper than planned, as my multiple hospital visits testify. It’s allowed me a little sneak peek into what the Bible might mean when it compares running to a life following Jesus.

So, I’ve picked out some of my favourite running Bible verses and dissected them, adding some gory running tales.

Blood doping Jesus’ way … those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength … they will run and not grow weary …

(Isaiah 40:31) When I first took up running, the ‘weariness’ that Isaiah talks about would kick in after just 10 minutes. But as I trained I was amazed

at how my body gradually adapted. After each run I would feel weary, but in the rest period that followed, my body would not only recover but also become stronger.

It took about three weeks to start to avoid the weariness point in 30-minute runs, about three months to get comfy running 60 minutes, and three years to get used to two-hour runs. The progress was slow, but the runner I am today is worlds away from the runner I was seven years ago.

Putting our hope in Jesus is just like that cycle of training and recovery. When we go through tough situations, our hope and trust in him gets stretched. But that stretching makes our hope stronger for next time, meaning we’re better able to tackle even tougher situations in the future.

The extra cool thing about God’s hope is that it works on an even more dramatic level than the metaphorical equivalent of traditional running training. Yes, you guessed it, more like taking performance-enhancing drugs, Lance Armstrong style.

A couple of years ago I had some medical blood problems that left me constantly tired and running slow. To treat it the doctors gave me a blood transfusion that was basically the legal version of what doping athletes do to cheat. The results in my running were …

PHE-NOM-E-NAL! I ran a personal best, just in training, and was bouncing off the walls. This is exactly what happens when God’s supernatural hope comes into our hearts. His life and joy charges through our veins in such a way that our struggles look much less like mountains and much more like jumpable hurdles.

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FIREZONE.CO.NZ

Yes to crawling, no to quitting I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7) In a running race, the worst result you can possibly have is not a slow time or coming last. It is getting a ‘DNF’—meaning ‘Did Not Finish’. My coach taught me that unless your life or limbs are in serious danger, never ever pull out of a race. Walk, crawl, roll; do whatever you have to do to finish, but don’t quit! He said that when you’ve quit once in a race, from then on you’d have an excuse to pull out whenever things get tough. And, by definition, a race is supposed to get tough or else you aren’t giving your all.

Life and faith are exactly the same. It gets tough­—expect it to get tough, but don’t quit. Walk, crawl or stumble in the dark, but don’t quit! On the cross, Jesus showed us how to grit our teeth all the way through hell and back. And remember, he’s your coach cheering you on through it all.

It’s PB o’clock Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24) I reckon if Paul wrote this verse today—in the age of stopwatches—he would have reworded it to say, ‘Run in such a way as to get a PB (personal best).’

Every runner has to work with the body and genetics they’ve been dealt. For some, this might mean an Olympic gold medal is their personal potential; for others, it might mean completing a half marathon by walking. The key with my running is that,

first and foremost, I’m competing with my previous race times. It’s me vs. the clock. I’ve come last in races, but walked away stoked because my fast competition brought the best out me so I could run a PB. In our Christian lives, it’s not about comparing our Christian-ness to the people next to us, because we’ve each been dealt entirely different sets of cards (remember that verse that says ‘to whom much is given much will be required’?). Instead, it’s about doing the best with what we’ve been given, each day aiming to do and be our personal best.

The finish line … since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses … let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus … (Hebrews 12:1–2)

So, with the finish line in site, I ran faster and the witnesses roared louder. Energy surged through my veins and I began sprinting. Their volume got even louder. I pumped my arms, asking for more volume still. The crowd obliged and pushed me home. A finisher’s medal was draped around my neck and an icy Powerade thrust into my hands.

As I lay in the ambulance on my way to ED (yes, I collapsed not long after my sprint finish!), the crowd still echoed in my ears.

I had a teaser for what running home into Heaven will be like. And my hope is that I can run with even more perseverance in the infinitely more important race of my life following Jesus.

Happy (metaphorical) running everyone. And remember who your Coach is.

I ran my first ever marathon in Chicago alongside 35,000 other runners with two million spectators lining the streets. That day I battled dehydration in the 27-degree heat, chronic stitch, muscle cramps, lead bricks for feet (by 30k of the 42.2k race), and a lonely industrial stretch of the course between 35k and 40k. But, through all that pain, as I emerged onto the finishing straight, I was greeted by a massive roar from the huge crowd.

Americans are encouraging people to start with, but get them at a big event and they’re in their element with banners, air horns, jazz bands and cheerleading squads. After six months of mostly solo training in the wind and rain of a Wellington winter, the support of the Chicago locals was mind-blowing. I got all choked up. It was a taster of the great cloud of witnesses Hebrews 12:1 talks of.

Hayden is a past deputy editor of War Cry. These days he lives in Auckland where he runs TempoFit, a bootcamp for runners of all abilities, including those learning to run. For more info, go to www.tempofit.co.nz

FIREZONE.CO.NZ

EVENTS | 22

Young Adults Retreat The first ever Young Adults Retreat was an awesome time of refreshment, teaching and sharing.

From 1–3 August, 40 young adults from around New Zealand met at El Rancho, Waikanae for three days that was all about … them.

The Territorial Youth Department put on the Young Adults Retreat for two main reasons: to emphasise that The Salvation Army truly cares about and values its young adults, and to hear their thoughts, opinions and experiences. And the whole weekend was focused around that. The programme was super relaxed—no curfews, no real rules, no compulsory camp-wide messy game—just plenty of time to hang out, learn and discuss.

Over the weekend, guest speaker Reverend Joshua ‘Spanky’ Moore (pictured top right) led the group through some real ‘sink-yateeth-into-it’ teaching—exploring the whole concept of young adults and the church, and thinking about what makes a true disciple. A lot of the delegates said this deeper, practical teaching was the highlight of the weekend.

There were two church services across the weekend. The first was led by Spanky, who challenged the group to think what they were personally ‘wrestling’ with: themselves, God or church. Then, Lieut-Colonel Rod Carey (Territorial Secretary for Programme) led the final church service—sending the group out with a call to live their God-given dream and give their best for God with the help of the Holy Spirit.

about getting to know each other better), to the question and answer panel (where delegates could have their tough questions answered). And the final ‘Think & Share’ session, where smaller groups were asked to answer seven different questions and come up with creative solutions and answers to some of the unique challenges about young adults and The Salvation Army.

The weekend also featured the Inaugural Young Adults Lawn Bowls Championship; where a whole bunch of the group battled it out in the rain; The Daly Quiz with Phil Daly; and the Super Rugby Final, which allowed space for the young adults to connect with each other, hanging out and having some fun.

The weekend was a great time away and young adults left feeling valued, heard and refreshed. The Salvation Army has an awesome group of young adults (much bigger than the group that attended the weekend) who are passionate about God and The Salvation Army—continue to encourage these young people and journey with them!

Look out for a Firezone article in the coming months pondering the question, ‘What’s all the fuss about young adults?’

YOURS ALONE

BY VANESSA SINGH

Worship

CityAlight

CityAlight is a song writing collective out of St Paul’s Castle Hill, an Anglican church in Sydney. The group was formed with the goal of marrying theologically rich lyrics with easy to digest melodies for church worship. The result is a focused, deep, insightful album. Upbeat opener ‘The Love of the Father’ sets the acoustic led organic tone of the album well.

‘Jerusalem’ paints a great alternative picture of the crucifixion through its hymnal yet catchy melody. Each track works excellently for its intended purpose, and that makes this an album well worth your time.

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ALBUM REVIEW

ALBUM REVIEW

There were also plenty of opportunities for delegates to share with others and the leaders over the weekend. From the first evening ‘Chat & Chill’ session (which was all

ANOMALY

Rap/Hip-Hop

Lecrae

While a lot of Lecrae’s work is autobiographical, Anomaly makes itself distinct by directly engaging with the boxes Lecrae’s audience puts him in. It’s a strong hip-hop record and an equally strong contemporary Christian album. Lead single ‘Nuthin’ represents the insightful social commentary that flows through this album. Lecrae doesn’t pull any punches, questioning the state of Christianity, hip-hop culture, education and crime. Rhymes are punctuated by strong beats and anchored with catchy vocal hooks—an album hip-hop lovers need to check out.

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GOD CONTENT

The number  is special.

When you multiply it, the numbers in the answer stay the same, just in a different order. Check it out …

1 X 142857 = 142857 2 X 142857 = 285714 3 X 142857 = 428571 4 X 142857 = 571428 5 X 142857 = 714285 6 X 142857 = 857142 When you multiply it by , you get another special number:

What happens twice in a week, and once in a year, but never in a day?

The letter ‘e’.

Which month has  days?

What time is it when  cats chase  mouse?

All of them!

Ten after .

SOLVE THE PROBLEM, FIND

AN AMAZING NUMBER!

THE TIC-TAC-TOE!

Fun4Kids | 3

3 x3

 x6

10 -

10 -0

14 -5

5 x

3 +

11 -6

 +

7 X 142857 = 999999

PLAY

TIC-TAC-TOE WITH YOUR

MATES COLOUR BY NUMBERS 1 = RED, 2 = ORANGE, 3 = YELLOW, 4 = GREEN, 5 = DARK GREEN, 6 = LIGHT BLUE, 7 = BLUE, 8 = PURPLE. LET’S TALK Junior has been learning about making God NUMBER ONE in his life. There is only ONE God, who made our world and created each of us. God loves us and has been caring for us since we were born, so we want to make God FIRST in our lives. That’s what the word ‘worship’ really means. When we worship God, we are saying that God is NUMBER ONE—the ruler and leader of our life.

One of the TEN rules that God has given his people says, ‘Do not worship any god except me.’ Another version of the Bible explains this same verse as meaning ‘Do not put any other gods in place of me.’

Lots of things in life could become more important to us than God: friends, sports, school, TV, food …

Most of these things are good for us, but sometimes they take up so much of our time there isn’t much left for God. God might even end up being ZERO instead of NUMBER ONE. Junior says his life is best when God is NUMBER ONE. One of the ways Junior is keeping God as NUMBER ONE is by watching less TV at night.

Instead, he goes to bed a bit early to read his Bible and pray. Junior says he’s sleeping better and feeling better the next day, too.

Junior

READ IT

Do not worship any god except me Exodus 20:3 (CEV) LET’S PRAY Dear God, I want you to be NUMBER ONE in my life and not to let other things take your place. Help me to put you FIRST always. Amen.

for

Victims of Human Trafficking Sunday 28 September 2014