John 8:1-11 
  
Grace: That we would be servants to one another 
Commentary: Ch 11 - Forgiveness.  
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, pg 139

Today is my last office day before house church camp and 3 month sabbatical/long service and study leave all rolled into one. Its actually our 20^th year of full-time mission and 20^th year of marriage! Just a few random thoughts and news to leave behind as I go.

1.       We seriously have so many amazing things God is doing through UNOH at the moment. One of my last jobs was to put our Finding Life newsletter together. When you add together, just with what we can put in the FL with all the baptisms, camps, holiday programs, new centre for urban mission, youth ministry, new S-m interns, retreats, Kay’s new role, holiday programs, jail visits, great equipping/training opportunities, new challenges, new books and new supporter mobilising campaign it’s very clear God is loving a lot of people through us! And this was just the stuff we could fit in a newsletter! FL will be out soon.

2.       Ian Corlett’s sudden death last week and funeral this week also put things in perspective. His life reminded me too of what is really important. He had over 400 people at his funeral on Tuesday, just a few of the many lives he had impacted through loving people in simple, but profound ways.  I have written a longer reflection on this blog.   

3.       So grateful to be part of UNOH and have such great community to belong to! Its not been an easy last few years for us all, but I just can’t wait for us all to catch up and again July. Especially can’t wait to fight Anji’s ‘boyfriend’ Father Richard Rohr when we get together on retreat. (listen to Anji’s Surrender 08 talk about RR and you’ll see what I mean! She’s a Priest Perve!). Also love to see as many other friends in Melbourne in July for my 40^th Birthday. I would love it to be a very bad karaoke arvo/night singing the classics like ‘Kai San’, ‘American Pie’ and ‘it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll’ with a load of old mates.

4.       For those who don’t know what we’ve planned for our sabbathical here is the low-down. We do see these 3 months, from April 16^th  to July 16^th as a time for renewal, re-tooling and sharpening up so we are ready for our next season with UNOH and in life. Basically 2 months will be spent in Bkk, a few days in HK/China and the rest in Oz. Thanks to Leanne’s contacts and a supporter we’ll move out of our slum house we’ve lived in over 7 years now to a 4 bed-room condo near the kid’s school. Just went to look at the place with the kids and they love it. It even has a ‘smart toilet (one that flushes) so Aiden is especially thrilled. It so big actually it will probably take us 2 months to find each other in a place that size! The kids will keep going to school during this time. As well as some much needed family time, I’ll be writing up my PhD each morning till lunch, hoping to get my first full draft completed during this time and then spend the next 12 months cleaning it up ready for submission. I also plan (again) to get fitter and healthier! Anji plans to do some writing/reflection and some more Thai language study as well. Mid-June we go to Hong Kong and China for the kids for a few days (Disneyland in HK for Aiden and mainland China for Amy who now speaks Mandarine as well as Thai and English). Then we go to Oz for family break and for me some more PhD writing too.  July 13^th is my 40^th Birthday so please come and sing the worst karaoke songs you possibly can. We then have 3 weeks of UNOH ministry in Oz (me in Melb, Sydney and Adelaide and Anji in Perth and Melb), before returning to Bkk on August 6^th.

5.       Thought you might like these pics Rod took of me to remember me by. Taken on an outing with the young guys in his neighbourhood (my former footballers) a few weeks ago. The kayak does look like its sinking, but Rod has some even grumpier ones of me. Especially after 7 hours of paddling up dirty klongs with 2 guys in my canoe who weren’t keen to paddle, cutting open my foot and with filthy mud up places the sun don’t shine any-more. I must admit at one point I did wondering out loud, ‘Am I too old for this sh*t??!’ Probably not. Only about half way there as it turns out, all going well. And we’ll do it all again in the canoes this week-end!  

What hair?

Over the years Ian has been there for me personally, but also for Urban Neighbours of Hope as a community. Despite Ian’s later health concerns and vulnerabilities he, Curly and Bec would keep stretching out their arms to embrace us. Whenever we were in Adelaide we would catch up. Whether we talked through my leadership struggles, or had long fire-side chats about changing the world, or prayer, or financial support or when he enabled ministry opportunities for us, Ian has really been there for us over the years like few others.

But not only for us. For Ian kept seeing and connecting with the people we are trying to live with and serve for Christ’s sake. Living in Klong Toey slum, Bangkok since 2002 has made it harder to see Ian, but that hasn’t stopped his compassion flowing through us. For example, a few years ago a tiny 6 year old girl named Em was being excluded from starting main-stream schooling because she had Down Syndrome. Though very bright, such is the stigma of disability-as-kharma-for-bad deeds, no schools would take her. Some school administrators even thought Em would pass Down Syndrome onto other students. After many attempts with different schools, Anji and Em’s mum finally found a school that would take Em and also her older brother ‘It’. This was a Christian school and they would provide a 2 for 1 scholarship deal, but it was still far more money than the family could afford by themselves. We had been seeking Ian and Curly’s advice all through this saga and without fuss they helped provide the needed financial support to make this opportunity happen for Em. This school term Em will finish primary school, and though she nearly died last year because of a vulnerable immunity system and living in a slum, is as a bright and gorses young woman who now speaks English well too. It’s hard not to compare Em with another young neighbourhood girl named Nong Lek who also had Down Syndrome. She died from starvation and in her own diarrhea in January because she couldn’t get the help she needed in time. Almost certainly Em would not be alive today too if it were not for the Cowlett’s love and support. This kind of compassionate difference that Ian’s life made and keeps on making in the lives of so many like Em was not done for show. I know he may not have even wanted this kind of story known, but it is a concrete demonstration of the kind of person Ian was. One who spent his life doing whatever was in his power to do to help others through Christ.  I’m sure that only when we see eternity will see the size and scope Ian’s life’s impact.

If the parable for the sheep and the goats found in Matthew 25:31 is true, then to get into heaven we need a testimony of reference from the hungry, sick, naked and the imprisoned. Did we care for Jesus disguised in these ‘least of these’ or not? Even knowing Ian in just a small way, I’m sure heaven is now full of a loud and continuing symphony from such testimonies from all walks of life. This is not about trying to ‘make enough merit’ to earn heaven, but so experiencing the love God, appreciating the sacrifice of Christ for us, that it is evidenced by the way we give our life back to God in return and connect with those vulnerable ones on God’s heart. As we sing in the old hymn  ‘Love so amazing, so Devine, it demands our soul, our life, our all’.  Like few people I know Ian deeply experienced Jesus’ love, understood what Jesus was trying to do, believed what Jesus believed and joined his life in Christ to see a more just world emerge. 

Mark Riesson had warned me of Ian’s tragic stroke on Thursday, but I was on a motor-bike taxi with my son Aiden when Kim Thoday called me with the final news. I must admit I smiled between sobbing tears, knowing of Ian’s love of motor-bikes and finding out this way. Though the 75 cc Honda postie-bike was probably not exactly what Ian would have had in mind as a real bike, a deep emotion welled up in me and continues as I try to write this note. Being here in Bangkok and away from Oz it is still impossible for me to imagine that the world lost Ian Corlett last week. To miss being with you all at this special time to say good-bye is also difficult.  I guess this might hit me when I visit Adelaide in August and our regular catch-up time doesn’t happen. Though I do feel distressed right now and will certainly miss Ian more as the years unfold until we meet again in the next life, I do have a spooky feeling like he is still cheering us all on. He is part of that ‘great crowd of witnesses’ the book of Hebrews talks about and I’m sure he’s cheering us all on like he would the Bull-dogs. [Just quietly if the week-end is anything to go by, with the Bull-dogs new heavenly cheering, you wouldn’t bet against them winning the premiership would you?] 

 Please know our hearts and prayers go out to Curly and Bec and all the kids at this time. I can’t imagine what it is like you for, but I do know that the Jesus who suffered and defeated death is close by you now.  

 Brother Ian, I and the world will miss you terribly; we love you so very much, and are so grateful for your thoughtful and compassionate life. If ‘faith, hope and love’ are the only things that truly ‘remain’ after we’re gone from this earth, know your faith, hope and love will continue to light up our lives. And know this comrade… we will continue the fight to see that the kingdom comes more fully here on earth as in heaven. Amen.     

John 7 
 
Grace: That we would obey Jesus and His teachings 
Commentary: Ch 10 - “Come to me” cries Jesus.  
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, pg 132

John 6:1-71 
  
Grace: That we would respond with justice and compassion to the needs around us 
Commentary: Ch 9 - Food for life.  
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, pg 115

John 5 
  
Grace: That we would identify how the powers effect us and our responses of Christ and the poor 
Commentary: Ch 8 - From despair to life.  
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, pg 101

John 4:1-42 
  
Grace: That we would cross barriers to allow ‘outsiders’ to experience Christ 
Commentary: Ch 7 - Jesus came to bring us life.  
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, pg 89

John 3:1-21 
 
Grace: That we would value growing and learning to be more like Christ through spiritual exercises and simple lifestyle choices 
Commentary: Ch 6 - Born in the Spirit.  
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, pg 73