If you only find God in loud extravagant worship then you need more and more if it, like a drug.

God is not a drug.

God is as refreshing as stream of living water in the desert.

If ony we spent more time in the deserts!

Father’s Day - I often wonder about the value of these “celebration” days.

One of our neighbours locked himself inside all day today.

For him this is remembrance day: when he remembers his kids never call him…

Two other guys were sitting outside getting very drunk very quickly, racing to beat their hearts in it’s desperate race between acute pain and numbness - numbness had a temporary victory, but they know pain will always win.

Much like Christmas, for many around here it is more like sticking a finger into an open wound than it is about celebration.

Ours is one of the most violent areas in NSW (32,000 Police Attended DV reports in 2006), and yet, I really wonder if it all that rage is really just a cover for male sadness…

In all of the “middle class outrage” (Stephen Said) about having lead paint in toys bought for little Janey and Mikey has anyone stopped to spare a thought for the poor of China who had to apply the paint in the slave trade that is known as Mutlinational Toy Manufacturing Plants?

Anyone?

Boycott Barbie?

Check out this link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/22/2011883.htm

Sometimes God gives us the right words to say in troubled times,
Sometimes there is enough food for every visitor the house,
Sometimes the kids in our units have full bellies,

I wish it could be all the time…

Here is a letter written by my wife, Lisa Owen, that she recently wrote to our PM, if you are concerned you should do the same too:

Dear Mr Howard,

I would like to express my concerns about the proposals put before parliament in relation to the 73 communities in the Northern Territory. I do not disagree that there is cause for concern, and that there have been indications that there are amongst other things, sexual abuse of children taking place in some communities (as has been known for the past 5-6 years).

What I cannot understand is how current policy can heal sexual abuse by perpetrating another form of abuse.

These policies require the racial discrimination act to be repealed - this is not only an injustice for Indigenous Australians but for many other Australians as well. This is disgraceful as Australia prides itself on being a multicultural community.

Current proposal also requires the land act be repealed - opening opportunities for further exploitation (particularly by mining companies) of people who have already suffered so much at the hands of their colonisers.

That 50% of Centrelink payments be required to be set aside irrespective of whether a family has misused money in the past is purely racist - this is not happening to non-Indigenous Centrelink recipients.

To have a government appointed observer sounds an awful lot like returning to the days of the mission manager and places and unhealthy amount of power in the hands of one person.

I believe the issues of housing, education, health and government neglect need to be addressed. There is no point in identifying that aboriginal people are not sending their children to school, and punishing them for this when there are 1000 children of school age in a community and only 300 school places.

Please consider that there must be alternatives that are not racist, land grabbing and reminiscent of the stolen generation days.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Owen

Wow, what a woman!

Here is a letter written by my wife, Lisa Owen, that she recently wrote to our PM, if you are concerned you should do the same too:

Dear Mr Howard,

I would like to express my concerns about the proposals put before parliament in relation to the 73 communities in the Northern Territory. I do not disagree that there is cause for concern, and that there have been indications that there are amongst other things, sexual abuse of children taking place in some communities (as has been known for the past 5-6 years).

What I cannot understand is how current policy can heal sexual abuse by perpetrating another form of abuse.

These policies require the racial discrimination act to be repealed - this is not only an injustice for Indigenous Australians but for many other Australians as well. This is disgraceful as Australia prides itself on being a multicultural community.

Current proposal also requires the land act be repealed - opening opportunities for further exploitation (particularly by mining companies) of people who have already suffered so much at the hands of their colonisers.

That 50% of Centrelink payments be required to be set aside irrespective of whether a family has misused money in the past is purely racist - this is not happening to non-Indigenous Centrelink recipients.

To have a government appointed observer sounds an awful lot like returning to the days of the mission manager and places and unhealthy amount of power in the hands of one person.

I believe the issues of housing, education, health and government neglect need to be addressed. There is no point in identifying that aboriginal people are not sending their children to school, and punishing them for this when there are 1000 children of school age in a community and only 300 school places.

Please consider that there must be alternatives that are not racist, land grabbing and reminiscent of the stolen generation days.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Owen

Wow, what a woman!

On Sunday the 5th of August I’ll be preaching again, so if you haven’t heard my only sermon, feel free to come along to either:

ONE Community Church - Blackburn (184 Surrey Road) - 9am or 10.30 am

Ballarat Family Church (124 Gillies St, Ballarat) at 6 pm

Small Boat Big Sea (Manly?) at 6 pm next 12th August.

I’ll also be at the footy Essendon v Hawthorn in between those two times if you want to hear my saying some things that I won’t be saying in the churches too!

After a few weeks in Melbourne, for the fantastic Surrender Conference, Lisa is headed home, I’ll follow a few days later after the weekend. A neighbour called and told me he’d wait up and leave an outisde light on for her.

I love where I live, where else would that happen? In Glenhaven? I do not think so.

Many friends assume that we are bringing love into Mt Druitt, yet I feel a deeper call: to take the love we experience in Mt Druitt and proclaim it to my friends!

Who knows, we may begin sending RAKS teams out from here into “rich suburbs” soon!

There is a lot of love to go around here, especially when people do not have money to insulate them from the business of getting along together.

Yesterday I began assisting at a Fathers Group in the local area. All of the fathers have been referred there because of domestic violence, ie they beat their kids up, badly.

All of the children there bar one had deveopmental delay and bruising. The group seeks to help them be better fathers, teaching them non-violent ways of parenting, and non-violent life skills.

Sounds great doesn’t it? It is…It is also alot of hard work.

Talk about confronting all of my fears, anxieties, projections and inadequacies all at once!

After a while, I heard stories that went past the facade and into personal pain, struggle, abuse and neglect that was now being visited upon their own children.

“IF WE CANNOT TRANSFORM OUR PAIN WE WILL ALWAYS TRANSMIT IT” - Richard Rohr

I could not agree with that more.

I came home agitated, I had to decentralise, or more accurately, move whatever I have come to define as “me” away from the centre to allow God back there.

This is where I have read a lot about meditation and prayer. I do them, they help.

I have also found that humour leads me back to the edges, a good 2 minute laugh can do the work of 20 minutes meditation for me.

Now, if I could only remember where I put all those laughs…

Often we are invited to discuss the question of “Sustainability in Mission” Sometimes I even feel like I am in some sort of place where the two words actually fit together, and other times I will tell you there is no such thing.

I reckon that it is not so much about rhythm as it is about tempo. Seasons come and go, I need to learn how to go with them. Right now we are really flat out and other times there are less intense times.

The waves of busyness rise and fall – unfortunately I have never been a good surfer…