Dear Australians, we have a Federal Government who have been matching dollar for dollar every individual East Africa famine donation to selected NGOs during October and November. This is amazing! If you give $20, the government will turn that into $40. If you give $50, the government will turn that into $100. $400 becomes $800. $2000 becomes $4000. You get the picture. HOWEVER, it ends on 30 November 2011. So we only have 24 hours left to donate.Click here for a list of places to donate.
We may not hear about it much in the media, but the need is massive. Some 13 million people are directly effected by the drought, famine and conflict. Read more about the situation here.
If you haven’t yet donated, act fast! This is an amazing opportunity to leverage your personal wealth and the wealth of our nation for those in desperate need.
Here are 4 ways you can donate:
Anglican Aid – I’m an Anglican minister, so I went through our Archbishop’s Oversees Relief and Aid Fund. Anyone is welcome. They have some great work happening in Kenya. Give now.
Aus Aid – check the government website for all 19 NGOs that are approved for the dollar for dollar initiative. Go crazy.
A night of prayer & song for East Africa – Trev Hodge is leading this event on Wednesday night 30 November in Sydney. All money raised will likewise, be doubled! Check the facebook event for deets.
Some mates have just launched a new design business. Introudcing: Tyro Designs.
For too long, good quality design has been out of the reach of the ‘little guys’. We’re hoping to change that with our company!
We are seeking to offer many of the design skills that usually cost thousands of dollars at a reasonable price for people who are just trying to get off the ground.
Many Australian readers would be familiar with the tragic news of two twin babies being killed recently in a Melbourne hospital mix-up. Devastating. Below is an extract from an article that John Piper linked to in this tweet.
Every headline is mistaken. There is no ‘wrong’ twin in any of these circumstances. Only helpless unborn babies, every one of them.
The only reason any of these babies was chosen to be aborted was because of potential disabling conditions.
The answer isn’t better medical tests or more specific hospital guidelines, but changed hearts that rush to help mothers and babies rather than destroy them.
Compassion do an amazing job at releasing children from poverty. Over December/January during the last 2 years readers of this blog have been part of raising just under $5000 for clean water projects in Rwanda and Northern India. I’m planning on partnering with Compassion again this Summer. Stay tuned! In the meantime, I’ll be following along with Colin Buchanan and a bunch of ministers from around Sydney as they visit Tanzania.
If you missed the firsttwo posts, I grew a goatee. It looked terrible. It’s now gone. The world is a safer place. My face is still ugly. It was to help raise money for the cottage.
LIVING DEVOTION is the latest album from the St Paul’s Castle Hill music team. I like it. It’s a stripped back live recording, with some great tracks. They are currently offering a free download of the track TAKE OVER NOW via their Facebook Page.
Also check out the website for resources (guitar charts etc) and some videos of the songs from the recording.
Kid number two has just hit the 6 month mark. Before we know it he’ll be driving!! Here are 3photos of Tom. Maybe I made them a little dark? Still cute…
I recently read the ‘Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By‘ from the Harvard Business Review. Each of them challenges how I operate in different ways. Below are the 4 myths (in bold) and their relevance for me.
Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand. Multitasking is stupid. It’s taken me a while to admit it. I regularly try to juggle 5 things at once.
Myth #2: A little bit of anxiety helps us perform better. Here’s a brief blogpost I wrote 4 years ago: ‘The Dead-Line Driven Life‘. I haven’t changed. I need to “for the sake of my family, for others who rely on me; and for godly discipline.”
Myth #3: Creativity is genetically inherited, and it’s impossible to teach. My application of this one is slightly different to the the article. I’m fairly creative, but often I don’t trust that others can also be creative! So I become a bottle neck, either by having to do the creative work or making sure the creative work is up to my standard.
Myth #4: The best way to get more work done is to work longer hours. Guilty. Longer hours doesn’t lead to more effectiveness. Repeat.
Check out the following two vids from my mate Matt Sparks and MBM Youth. They’ve started producing video Bible readings. The public reading of scripture ought to be central to our Christian gatherings. Some might argue differently, but I think that the videos actually help to show the significance of the Bible. What do you think?
Next week is International Day of Prayer (IDOP). It’s more than just one day of prayer but a week (6th – 13th November 2011) of Christians around the world committing to praying for Persecuted Christians. You can find out more on the IDOP website or on Thirteen Three’s website. We’ve got a report form Open Doors at church this Sunday night and I’m planning on having a spot on Friday night at Soulies for thoughtful prayer and reflection. We’ll also have a blog series on Soulies.net for the week. If you haven’t already, have a think about how you can commit to praying this week at home and in Christian gatherings.
One of the things I’m surprised by as I read of the first persecuted Christians in the Bible and then read of contemporary persecuted Christians (through books like Radical and the VOM newsletter) is that so often persecution is faced with unrelenting joy!
His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42)
The Apostles keep getting told to shut up about Jesus, they don’t. They get beaten up and told to stop, they don’t! Instead they rejoice that they were considered worthy to suffer for Jesus and then keep telling people about Jesus!!
