Archive for May, 2012

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Nearly there

Thursday, May 31, 2012

One Mission fundraising update

Josh Dye
Public relations intern
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Three One Mission teams will visit Botswana and Zambia, Cambodia and Mongolia during the semester recess. Here is an update of each team’s fundraising and projects.

This graph shows the fundraising targets and actuals of each of the One Mission teams.

One Mission Africa
Target: $30,000
Actual: $20,000
Evangelism, education and health are the foci of this trip. The team will be joined by young volunteers from local churches who have registered to help with HIV/AIDS awareness and education.

One Mission Cambodia
Target: $12,500
Actual: $10,000
The funds will help build a toilet block to provide sanitation for local communities. Supported by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

One Mission Mongolia
Target: $18,700
Actual: $13,500
The funds will help build a fence around agriculture crops in rural Mongolia to improve food security for local communities. Supported by ADRA. The project seeks to train and empower local farmers.

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Magnificence and morality

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The astonishing machine-gun preacher

Brad Watson
Senior lecturer in international poverty and development studies
School of Humanities and Creative Arts
Avondale College of Higher Education

The autobiography of Sam Childers is magnificent and ugly. In Another Man’s War, Childers describes himself as a motorcycle gang member with an insatiable desire for drugs, sex and violence. With bluntness and honesty, he describes falling in love with his wife, the impact of her faith and the beginning of a remarkable journey in which he becomes a church leader and crusader for Sudanese children—with the astonishing nickname of the machine-gun preacher.

The magnificent bit for Christian readers is the powerful reminder that no matter how far we stray from God, He is longing to redeem, transform and enable us.

The ugly bit is the moral complexity of how Childers decides to help. Placing his own life at risk in a conflict zone, he travels to Sudan to build an orphanage and rescue children in an area terrorised by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. He buys AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. He relishes battle and the death of his enemy and boasts of the lives he takes—many of who are child soldiers.

Another ugly bit is Childers’ disregard and detestation of the humanitarian principle of neutrality. In conflict, humanitarian workers deliberately remain unarmed. For them, pulling a trigger is a last resort; a tragedy to be avoided at all costs.

But perhaps the ugliest part is Childers ignores the many brave, proud and selfless people of Sudan. He perpetuates the myth of a pathetic, morally bankrupt Africa that must be rescued by a gun-toting philanthropist. In Sam’s story, only Sam stands tall.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad Childers was able to escape a life of drug-fuelled violence and sordid behaviour. I’m grateful for his reminder we are all loved by God. I’m just led to question his belligerent, vigilante approach.

Is he Christ-like and peace loving, or does he parachute into Sudan like a battle-hardened warrior straight out of the Old Testament?

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Slackers and clickers

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Are they activists?

Pr Mark Craig
Associate minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

All of us at some stage feel the tug of injustice on our sensibilities, whether it be the big human rights issues such as child slavery and human trafficking, or the small everyday issues such as another driver cutting us off in traffic.

St Augustine is quoted as saying hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage—anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.

The way things are has never been more evident than it is today. Information is readily accessible—at the click of a mouse or the swipe of a finger. It seems everyone has a good story and a great cause to support.

In 1995, Dwight Ozard and Fred Clark coined the term “slacktivist” to describe those who support an issue through minimal personal effort and risk. In 2010, Micah White described online advocacy as “clicktivism,” claiming it was a dangerous mix of consumerism and activism. White notes the outcomes of clicktivism have to be measurable and simple compared to the vital and immeasurable inner events and personal epiphanies of which great social ruptures are made. Her words, not mine.

Slacktivism and clicktivism, by definition, separate themselves from what their authors define as true activism: an individual’s inner change, personal effort and risk resulting in great social change.

In practice, these definitions don’t always help. If I click the “Like” button in support of a campaign, do I deserve derogatory labels such as “slack,” “ineffective” and “ignorant”? Perhaps, if that’s the extent of my response, but it’s too simplistic to assume.

The pressure on awareness campaigns to push emotional buttons is high and there is danger in oversimplifying the answer. Transparency, accountability and critical thinking are needed. The answer is not found in the click of the “Like” button.

I want to see change. Change is based on hope, and hope has two daughters: anger and courage.

 

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Correspondence

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

COSMOS: Change Is Coming
Thank you for presenting such a well organised event (“Legacy lives,” Connections Vol 25 No 11). It inspired me. I brought my two girls, who are seven and nine, as part of their development. The only issue I had: the event could have started an hour earlier. My girls and their friend enjoyed the face painting, cupcakes and concert but could barely keep their eyes open.

Isel Rante
wp.avondale.edu.au/news
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Thank you, Isel, for attending the concert with your girls and for your kind words. I brought my children and they struggled to stay awake, too. The organisers discussed the starting time of the concert at length, but because tickets were available for sale at the door, they wanted to wait until the end of Sabbath. The other issue: students and their dinner arrangements. The cafeteria opens only for a short time in the evenings on weekends. If the concert becomes a regular COSMOS event, the starting time will be discussed again, and the organisers will consider your comments.

Bruna Tawake
wp.avondale.edu.au/news
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Venus Transit Festival
Wonderful photo, Lachlan. Thank you for sharing the joys of the night sky that so many of us miss while taking the time for our beauty sleep.

Corinne Knopper
wp.avondale.edu.au/news

Fine Arts Series: Evensong
It’s fair to say Hinsdale Men’s Chorus did not perform at its peak due to illness and general tiredness (“Minor key,” Connections Vol 25 No 10). The performance at Evensong, one of the last on the ensemble’s Australian tour, was the third in less than 24 hours—Wollongong to Parramatta to Cooranbong. And from the perspective of having attended the Sydney Male Choir and The Promise’s concert in the same venue this past Saturday (May 26), I find it amazing that while these ensembles are directed by full-time music professionals, the Hinsdale Men’s Chorus is directed by a practicing dentist without an advanced music degree, with the members of the self-supporting ministry committed to having God use them for His glory, musically and otherwise.

Kym Pullia
wp.avondale.edu.au/news
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Correspondence

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ross Cole: Theology of ordination
[This is] a contentious subject I feel shouldn’t be (“The discussion we had to have,” Connections Vol 25 No 7). People tend to be dogmatic about things, which I believe is against the spirit of Christ’s message. I will be interested in the outcome. One solution could be to make ordination a local rather than worldwide issue. Perhaps this could take some of the sting out.

Roger Harder
wp.avondale.edu.au/news
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