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Thwack! Reality eventually hit me harder than the deftly aimed chair that smashed into my head.

My attacker turned and walked off, leaving me standing there, with my hands to my head, using them to carefully examine myself for any bleeding and swelling.

I stared vacantly at the chipped and faded paint on the concrete patio of the Housing Commission Block.

Amongst the broken shards of cheap plastic chair that lay strewn at my feet were the remains of another broken illusion - Courageous Peacemaking. Let me explain…

What I had envisioned looked something like taking a valiant stand against a nameless bureaucracy that was oppressing the poor to thicken their bottom line. There would I be in the midst, standing up to the tyrant, risking life and limb for the sake of the oppressed!

Some illusions need a swift hit from a chair to break.

My dreams looked nothing like getting a chair smashed across my forehead from a kid I know well with a myriad of issues that was goading and teasing another vulnerable young kid who had his own myriad of issues.

Living the dream and facing the reality do not come easy for me. Yet, when someone is abusing another, regardless of who they are, it is important to stand up for the victim.

Jesus stood between the crowd and the woman caught in adultery.

Sometimes ministry is about “getting in the way”. There are going to be consequences, not all of them great.

God is teaching us new ways to love these kids, showing us the way with the boundless love, grace extended by Jesus.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?

Nice sounding words, but to actually live these out requires nothing less than a life that abides in the True Vine.

I am pretty thick and need object lessons, I just hope that the objects don’t need to be swung so hard at me next time.

Thanks for your prayers. We are well as a family and looking forward to moving around the corner soon to a house where we can fit more people in!!!

Peace,
Jon, Lisa, Kshama and Kiera Owen

“No, get lost, I’m gonna shoot the gun, not you!”

 If there is ever a good time to make the above statement, it is not when you are just about to enter through the security screens at an airport.

 We all broke out in laughter when he realised where he was. Thankfully, all we drew were a few puzzled glances.

 Thus marked the beginning of our trip to Perth with Jar Jum, an Indigenous Dance Group (we were discussing the offer of a WA Noongar Elder to take us Roo Shooting out near Wave Rock).

As these usually brave and fearless young men nervously boarded the plane, all jostling for the window seat, I relaxed for take off, closed my eyes and thanked God for my life.

Just what my role is here in the Indigenous community is one I’m still trying to work out with fear and trembling.

 As a kid I often despised being so dark skinned in such a white country. Often I asked God why, wishing I wasn’t. I never go to the point of scrubbing my skin at night, but I got close a few times. I would wonder who was that little black kid running along I dashed past mirrors, freezing in disappointment when I realised it was me.

It has taken me a long time to realise that God does not make mistakes. 

Now, I can see it was all part of God’s Divine Plan. Being of Indian origin has been extremely helpful in establishing relationships amongst the local Aboriginal community.

 I enjoy a sense of commonality with fellow brown skinned folk. I am also keenly aware that the best way I can affirm their culture is to be proud of my own. God’s plan takes many twists and turns and has led me to a greater appreciation of the rich Indigenous cultural heritage of this land, as well as healthy appreciation of the richness of my own culture.

 God is shared and encountered in brown and muddy ways here in The Druitt…

 So, back to Perth, where Jar Jum is dancing and I’m preaching at a big Church. No one there could say God is only a God of the white man.

 God is the God of all peoples and nations - all one I Christ, but with different gifts to enrich one another.

 Thankyou for partnering with us in ministry,

 Jon, Lisa, Kshama & Kiera Owen

A recent conversation with one of the teenage boys from youth group gave me an insight into his concept of “Christian”. One of the leaders had let out a swear word, and this boy’s response was “You’re not a Christian! You swear.” This sentiment echoes the belief of many in our community – that a Christian is someone who doesn’t swear, smoke, or drink (but they still might bash someone). I had talked with this particular boy before about Christianity being more than just not swearing, but he is firmly convinced – like others around him – that being Christian means giving up the swearing, smoking and drinking. As someone living openly as a Christian in this community (with a slight potty mouth) I desire for people to know that my Christianity isn’t about not swearing etc, but it is about a deeper relationship with God. So the question remains; Does being a Christian living incarnationally in this community mean that I shouldn’t swear (thus people will continue to recognise (and sometimes respect) me as a Christian, or do I continue with my occasional but very “real” slight potty-mouth, in order that they may see that it is possible to be a “real” Christian who is more about a relationship with God than simply being well-behaved?

At a certain point in John the Baptists ministry, the Jewish authorities decide to investigate this man who seems to be gathering quite a few followers and baptising them in the Jordan River.

Men are sent out from the temple in Jerusalem to ask him who he thinks he is and what he is intending to do. John doesn’t hesitate in explaining his purpose: that of preparing people to meet Jesus, even announcing that the man himself is amongst them in the crowd (Jn 1:26).

My experience of moving and settling into Mount Druitt has involved the blessing of being introduced to many people. People understandably want to know who I am and why I made the choice of moving into their neighbourhood. Some friends from Mt Druitt Indigenous church find it strange that I would move away from family in Melbourne as many of these guys have a deep sense of connection with family and place of birth.

So as I get to know my new neighbours as friends, we get to have those conversations about why I would choose to move interstate, into a high density public housing estate.

I can relate a little bit to John when he is asked who he is, what drives him and what on earth he is on about.

A quick answer that dodges what the person is actually asking is to reply with a sentence that has the words ‘community work’ in it.

Bidwill, the Mt Druitt suburb in which we live, is heavily serviced, with many community groups involved in our neighbourhood. To the person trying to locate me socially on a map, these phrases would easily pin me to an identifiable point.

Yet, sharing this way only gives part of the answer as to why I’ve moved into their neighbourhood and why UNOH Sydney exists as a team.

I need to find ways to communicate to my new neighbours and friends that we are on about something much more. We want to help our neighbours see that Jesus isn’t far away, sitting in heaven with angels hovering around his throne. The living Christ is just as much down here in this mess, as much as he is anywhere else.

We want to testify to a God who loves us so much, and never stops longing to see individuals and their communities liberated from everything that causes destruction and dislocation. We want to introduce our neighbours to Jesus, who invites us on this adventure of following him, as groups of people committed to each other and the vision of seeing the kingdom of heaven come on earth.

Bruce Cockburn once said, ‘I want to kick the darkness till it bleeds daylight!’

The deeper we journey with our neighbours here in Western Sydney, the deeper we are led along pathways full of complexity and mystery that reveal scars that tell of unfathomable pain, frustration and injustice. The paths at times seem so dark and uncertain; words often seem so inadequate.

We find comfort in the disciples’ time with Jesus.

After the initial surge of excitement of being chosen by a renegade Rabbi, they must have been very disappointed.

Instead of being prepared for a world of ministry that equipped them with the surgical tools to diagnose and the precise answers with which to prescribe, they were plunged deep into the world of relationships.

Relationships are messy and unhygienic, and led down paths they’d rather not take.

Yet, relationships are of the utmost importance to our Indigenous brothers and sisters and we follow a God “who is a relationship” (Billy Williams).

So, along the path we go, not to asking God to give us the right programs, but to make us into the right people.

Occasionally through these relationships we see programs emerge through people coming alive in Christ. A kid’s dance group is about to start to give single parents a well deserved rest, and an Indigenous Dance Group is supported to show young kids that there is a path the discovering an authentic Christianity that is authentically Indigenous.

We see light beginning to shine through the darkness as a woman smiles as she says, “maybe there is a God and maybe He’s on my side”.

The Holy Spirit has a habit of messing around with my personal agendas, let me give you an example.

I grew up being quite content to offer my leisure class prayers to God. Prayers that focussed almost exclusively on personal comfort and preferences.

Then I began ministering amongst the poor and I heard an entirely new set of prayers.

Prayers like, why did this happen to me?

The one that struck me at a heart level was from a 9 year old Asylum Seeker. When asked what she would like us to pray for, she stared at the ground and then looked up with tears welling in her big brown eyes and uttered, “Could you pray that we don’t get deported? I don’t want to die…”

How could my prayer life ever be the same again?

You see, no longer could I offer my leisure class questions to God, instead through the innocence of a child I have been led to seek God in the dark places. To ask: “Why Lord, do so many women here suffer from abuse? Why are so many children afraid to go home”?

My prayer now has moved from the level of “give me” to “use me” Lord, equip me to be a part of the response to the cries of the broken. New creation awaits for many families living in poverty and I need to learn how to pray, I can thank a 9 year old theologian for her valuable lesson.

Luke 10:21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.

Today marks the 10th year, to the day, that I have not had a drink. I am pretty proud of me! 10 years sober hey? Now I know I really must have found something better than grog - and I have through God and it is Hope!

I’m in Malaysia at the moment for an unexpected death in the family, will try and keep my thoughts around everything through this kind of on-line journal.

Stranegly enough, I have 3 preaching gigs this weekend, how bizarre and uniqure an opportunity - to preach to people who are like me (in what exact sense yet, I do not know!)

It’s good to be back!

I was sitting with my mentor the other day when he asked my 5 short questions, then he waited an hour for me to ramble on. Then he asked me them again and I fell to pieces. Anyone can ask a question, it takes a master crafstman to know how to use the tools precisely…