With a few students in Sydney, a few in Melbourne and the rest in Bangkok, this year has been a very different kind of experience with training – especially for the Submerge program.

It started in Bangkok: all the interns met there for two weeks in February, and experienced a taste of the Bangkok and proposed Mae Sot ministry, as well as doing the first teaching block (Radical Discipleship). Then, the Sydney and Melbourne folk returned to their locations and the Bangkok students remained where they were. And the year has been whizzing by ever since!

Our students come from various locations: of the 9 who began the year, 2 were from New Zealand, one from Queensland (really from Canada just arrived in Queensland); 5 from Victoria and 1 from NSW. They have been getting lots of practical experience working in the various areas that UNOH connects to. And they have been getting some serious study and reflection time too: subjects like Christian Community Work; Theology and Practice of Community Living; The Bible and God’s heart for the Poor; and more.

And July has seen Sub-merge interns come together again for a special “Discernment Retreat” in Sydney and then Ron and Arbutus Sider UNOH Open Seminar “Shalom and the People of God”. Please keep our students in your prayers: it is a demanding and tiring year and much is expected of each of them.

If you are keen on Sub-merge 11 we are almost full. Please get your application into Jim ASAP. Jim@unoh.org

UNOH Training is more than our Sub-merge mission formation program however. It includes various other activities that we run each year to:

Help equip people to do more practical service for the poor and marginalized

Help people grow a passion for caring for the poor

Help people understand more about what UNOH is.

Jesus has the power to bring what is dead to life. To be honest, what is dead in our area stood out to me a lot more blaring in the last six months than the life part. Maybe it is because I’m new and learning the realities of life in a poor neighbourhood, it is far less inspiring than the glamorous imaginings of what it looks like for God to bring life to the poor. Thankfully God reminded me, once I took the time to be still enough

for long enough to listen, that he has the power to make what is dead alive! It seems really dead here sometimes, but little by little there is the miracle of seeing light in the darkness. A friend who is pregnant shares her joys and fears, saying that our little craft group are her best friends, her sisters. The child whose parents struggle with drug addictions has a really tough life, but his birthday is celebrated with giggles and others such noises of delight as presents that are just for him are opened and a cake is jubilantly eaten and the icing smooshed between his fingers. What beautiful signs of life and goodness. Maybe it’s just all the brighter because the pain is shared too.

A foretaste of Burmese dishes experienced at Surrender this year

We have seen some big changes in the Springvale team over the last few months, and though at the moment our team is small, we feel very privileged to be involved in some exciting new ventures within our neighbourhood.

 Many of you have heard about, and possibly experienced the Burmese food tent at Surrender earlier this year. The feedback we received from our neighbours was that they were extremely excited, energized and empowered by running the tent at Surrender. So much so that they began talking and dreaming of opening a Burmese food business in Springvale. 

After some time discerning the future of the Springvale team, we decided that we would like to support our refugee friends in beginning this venture, and it was then that the dream of the Free Burma Cafe became a reality.  The cafe will be  a community hub for the Burmese offering employment and belonging for this group, as well as a centre for advocating for the greater Burmese cause (and of course a great place to get a coffee and Burmese food!).

Though we know we have a lot of work ahead of us in the next few months, the support and generosity of those around us has been overwhelming.   We recently had opportunity to share our dreams with the broader UNOH team, and the encouragement that we have received was humbling.  It has been wonderful for us to realise that though our immediate neighbourhood team is small, the UNOH family is big and we are truly grateful to be able to be a part of this inspiring group of people.

If you are interested in hearing more about the Free Burma Café then please find us on face book or contact Peter on peterd@unoh.org or naomi@unoh.org

If you would like to financially help to kick-start the venture please go to www.unoh.org

The sounds of screaming and glass smashing, jolts me out of the bed time story I am reading Aiden. I go outside just as another bottle smashes at my door showering me in glass. Watching through one of many spaces in our wall I see a long standing neighborhood feud has erupted again. Three weeks ago there were guns fired and knives drawn, but this time just glass bottles and knives with thankfully no guns in sight. Three little 4 year old kids, wander into the fray as if it is the most normal thing ever.

Eventually four armed policeman arrive and try and calm things down. Sadly they are open to help the highest bidder. They take 15 neighbours off to the police station, some voluntarily others by force.  All a bit shaken I try to be of some comfort to the little kids who have been left behind while the parents go to the police station. They are just relived it is not them being beaten up for a change.

Growing up with this type of violence as normal is a disturbing view of what their future holds. Jesus says” Let the children come to me for the Kingdom of God is theirs”. I so desperately want to make that happen – yet feel so powerless. How can these little ones come to God and experience his kingdom when life is just full of violence and fear? 

The next morning as these little kids straggled into our school, bleary eyed after the late night dramas, I felt so desperate to find a way to bring them into Gods kingdom. There are so many little boys that no one wants, or seems to care for. It is no wonder there are so many disenfranchised young men. When 2 and 3 year olds are left to wander around all on their own, unfed, barely clothed and starving of love and affection what else can we expect of them as adults.

As I sit and write this tonight I check on 67 kids enjoying the space at the community centre. Almost all of them are young boys – the lost boys of Klong Toey. I sense God encouraging me as I see the smiles and the fun, as some play soccer, others learn guitar, Gorn and his little friends sit watching Power Rangers on TV, and another group swarm over the playground like little ants at a picnic. Barely an adult in sight and it is 7pm. As I watch, I sense I am standing in a place of hope in the midst of despair, a free space outside of the narrow, crowded, angry lanes where our houses sit packed together like sardines. God is here, He does care and He is showing us more and more ways to lead the little ones to Him. We can be here for them, modeling an alternative, broadening their horizons showing them a life beyond the invisible walls of the slum. Could these be the future leaders of God’s movement in this neighborhood? I even dare to dream that maybe we can break the cycle of violence and hate, one boy at a time. Our task as Christians here is to be the hands and feet of Christ and walk with these kids into a brighter future that only Gods love can offer them.

Arriving back to this immense challenge I feel an overwhelming joy. Yet in my spirit I know it will be a long hard road full of tears speckled with laughter, but an absolute privilege and real buzz!!

Anji Barker

Aiden and his neighbourhood friends from Klong Toey

He was the first to ever extend us a welcome in Mt Druitt, knocking on our door, welcoming us to the neighbourhood and inviting me over. He reassured me not to be afraid about living in our place, after all, the murder had occurred in the other house, not ours. I’ve never really been able to trust his reassurances since that first one.

We traded small talk over the next few weeks, he loved NRL and in particular the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Amidst the banter, I shared about our faith in Jesus. Mid conversation, he paused, looked at me intently, and told me never to mention that

God S*&t around him again. We’ve remained really close over that time.

“The cost of our friendship is not people’s souls”

I have also grown to love this man. We often joke that he has a Heart of Gold, with the Mouth of a Sewer. Family is never mentioned.

It seizes him up in pain occasionally, especially in his drunken moments or around significant moments in the calendar – a birthday, or Christmas, and he will isolate.

At a routine hospital day procedure I agreed for him to put me down as the next of kin – a decision I would soon regret. 3 short months later, he took a bad turn, and ended up in ICU, his life hanging by a thread. “Oh, and by the way Mr. Owen, we have you as the next of kin”, the doctor looked over the rim of glasses at me.

A day later he rallied temporarily, came out of unconsciousness, and looked me straight in the eyes. His eyes were full of fear – “don’t leave me, please” he pleaded, “I’m terrified of dying alone”. Then he collapsed again, into a two week induced coma from which he almost didn’t wake. Many of you prayed for him.

I desperately reached out to family, and found the one daughter he professed to still loving one night in a drunken stupor a few years back. She rushed to his bedside, for a beautiful bedside reunion. He sobbed deeply, in his coma.

Since his miraculous recovery, he is a different man. This was borne out recently in a conversation where he confessed, “Look, I don’t hate God, I was making that up, I do believe in God, I was just upset with Him”. Look, he is still about a million miles from being a professing follower of Jesus, however, whilst we are still working on that, the fascinating thing is this: He has a little more joy in his life, a skerrick more patience, increased kindness, goodness and love. As for gentleness, well he still is pretty much a dismal failure in that category.

Yet, isn’t this evidence that the Spirit is at work in his life? I certainly think so. Do you?

Galatians 5:22-23 “For the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Against such thing there is no law.”

Kshama, Hope, Amy, Christine and Kiera at Uncle Roy's 80th birthday

I arrived in Bangkok 2 nights ago, and can remember sitting in the taxi thinking…this is home now, taking in all the sights and listening to rod and the taxi driver speak gibberish (Thai) and understanding one in 20 words. I remember walking into the slum, looking at neighbours, looking at the open water sewers, smelling the smells, observing the sights, listening to all the noises. Yep Thailand sure is different to Springvale. After putting our gear in the house and setting up the fold out matt, I wandered round the corner to buy some water, as the tap water is undrinkable. The first corner I turn, I am met by about 15 people, crowding around some sort of gambling game. I shuffle past and turn another corner and arrive at the shop. The young assistant asks me something in Thai, I have no idea what she is saying and just blurt out my pre-prepared phrase, nam plao (bottle of water), I produce the 5 baht, get my bottle and turn and walk…succesful! Shuffle back home past the gambling, and into our little house, before washing my feet, cleaning my teeth and dropping exhausted into bed. The new journey has started!

The last two days have been spent orientating myself in the neighbourhood.. Meeting people, getting frustrated in my lack of Thai. People talking to me, wanting to get to know me, but I am dumb, my mind works fine (some times) but I just can’t communicate. I wish there was a mouth piece that you could attach that would allow you to speak out English and it would translate it into Thai as it leaves your mouth! Not that easy I guess! But its fun learning anyway. I am amazed at the warmth of the people towards me. People are so welcoming, which I guess is a testimony to the good reputation that UNOH have here. It is seriously such a buzz to work alongside the unoh crew here.

Yesterday Rod and I went to the shops, I bought some sheets and a pillow ($8 pillow that said it was the best of the best, and it lived up to its name) and a few essentials. Forgot to buy a towel, so one of my shirts has doubled up as a towel, don’t need to dry much as its pretty warm.

This morning we took 31 kids to a local swimming amusement playground on top of a shopping centre. All the kids were from the slum and they were so excited to go. In fact, every time we go out of the slum in a car, the kids voices get louder as we exit the slum. It’s like they are out of their prison, like a bird let free from a cage, their spirit lifts. Sitting in the back of the ute with 15 kids and 2 helpers, we make our way to the water park, the kids are excited, and to tell ya the truth, I’m pretty stoked too. I look at each child in the ute. Some of the kids I know a bit of their story, for others, I know nothing. But the fact that they are born in a slum, and live in our area, means most of them probably don’t live with a parent, many don’t have parents, in fact, one of the girls mum had died 4 weeks earlier, collapsed suddenly. Others are abused, most don’t get enough food and the food they get isn’t exactly 5 fruit and 2 veg. At one stage I look down at the kids feet, I notice one of the boys flip flops with this slogan, ADDA, Let’s walk together. I was struck by the words, which seemed like a prophetic word to me, but also a heart cry of the Thai people in this slum, “Please walk with me I want to walk with you, your friendship and involvement in my life is important.” It was quite a profound moment, and I sat there pondering this call for a while. It is the call of the poor, hungry, lost and broken of this world…”Let’s walk together”, I am not a problem that needs a solution, I am not a statistic…I am a person, and I need you to be my friend and to walk with me, and to sit where I sit and to feel what I feel and to smell what I smell…and once we’ve done that together, we will then be able to enhance each other’s lives, to understand each other, to learn from each other, and together we will find the hope of Jesus. This beautiful child’s shoes brought good news to me. Today I learnt something from that precious little boy. He taught me what he needed, and I caught him in the pool when his legs weren’t long enough to touch the ground. Today was a precious day, who knows what tomorrow holds. Life is better when we slow down enough to walk together with our neighbour. Thanks for your prayers and support. The Bangkok chapter of my life has started, who knows what adventures it holds.

Thankyou one and all for your prayers, encouragements and support. My birthday was spent flying from Melbourne to Bangkok. What a present, a new country, 80.000 new neighbours, so many new faces, and the blessing of many friends and family as I left Springvale, Australia.

Kop Kun Krup (Thank you).

-Pete “Mully” Taylor

UNOH Bangkok / Mae Sot 

The local boys head to the Thai All-stars vs AT Madrid game

Each night as I go to bed my feet ache, I feel as if I have walked a thousand miles, and actually in terms of life’s dramas, some days I have. Yesterday for instance, started with at 5.30am as we have started a Fresh Food Delivery Service, to employ young men. The customers order their produce through our online shop, and the guys here go and buy the fruit, veggies etc..from the local market,  and deliver it to apartments and condos for a fee. So far it is proving a real hit www.hhdelivery.com. The deliveries on their way by 7.00am and the preschool kids start arriving. I have a chat to a grandma who wants to show me her -granddaughter’s dental work that our centre had organized the day before. The 4 year old girl has 13 very rotten and infected teeth still to be pulled out but grandma is so happy that last night she was able to eat proper food.

The unoh team gather at 8.30am and we share in our daily communion. The team is now 7 people, having Ashleigh Newam and Amy Nettlebeck from Ringwood CofC  helping us this year. After communion it is off to the handicrafts room to see what orders await and what things need sending. Things among the women are tense after two of them had a screaming match the previous day. Sometimes a fun place to work,- sometimes stressful!

Budget reports completed, and my neighbor arrives to be driven to the hospital for her Tuberculosis check up. She is dying, she has aids and drug resistant TB. Three hours of waiting in the heat resulted in seeing a doctor for 20 seconds and coming away with two large bags of medication and syringes. She will require twice daily insulin injections plus thrice weekly TB ones. This will need to be done by a UNOH team and one of our teachers- not me I am scared of needles.!

Back at the community centre emails await, some booking enquiries for the Helping Hands Cooking school,  and a catering Job for Helping hands Catering service. A trip to the market to help source some of the more western style requests for tomorrows delivery orders and eventually arriving back at home at 6pm.

Not there for 10 minutes when a neighbor who has an autistic son (3yrs old. ) comes over asking for help to find a school that will take her son. Disability is still treated like contagious disease in Thailand and this mother weeps as she tells about her struggle to care for her son with no support or help from anyone. I take here to the Community centre to meet with my boss who is a specialist teacher. She does an assessment and sees that this boy needs all sorts of help before being ready to come to our school. A plan is put in place and I start thinking of contacts we have who can help this family.

7.30pm I walk home again this time with Ashleigh and a single mother with 4 children, who is part of the handicrafts project. She is needing some samples to copy that I have at my house. Before they leave I am given an 18^th month old baby to look after while his mum, and 10 year old sister go and beg for money. They pick him up again at 11pm. By then Ash has returned from Soccer and has various neighbors in and out watching the world cup-more soccer of Course!

Needless to say that as I crawl into bed with exhausted feet, and I am grateful to God that my own kids are on a holiday with their grandma. They are out of this oppressive heat and the chaos of life, for a little precious time, that I also look forward to in a few weeks.

Feet have significance in Scripture and in many cultures they have meaning- in Thai culture they are considered the dirtiest part of the body and showing the soles of your feet is very rude. Yet it was feet that Jesus washed, and it is our feet that take us to these places where we are called to serve, to be salt and light. If we take that seriously our feet will be very tired and sore! Yet we rest in the confidence that Christ has walked these same footsteps and others will come after us to finish the kingdom job that overwhelms us.

‘An apple tree’s purpose is NOT producing apples … but reproducing other apple trees’.

This Bob Logan metaphor has informed UNOH from our beginnings. We never wanted to build a mega UNOH institution as a vehicle for our own benefit. Rather we have sought to raise up teams of Christian workers able to go and pioneer, reproduce and multiply strategic and prophetic neighbourhood mission among the urban poor. In fact one of our core convictions as a community is ‘organic growth’ which we define as ‘using reproducible models of nurturing, training and raising-up of new teams and leaders as the means of growing UNOH workers and local Jesus-centred movements.’

Enabling each part of UNOH to grow and multiply organically has proven a real challenge, but is also one of our most important organizing convictions. This is because organic growth is about our health and maturity as a missional community. If an apple tree is unable to produce fruit for new trees it is a clear sign of unhealthiness. So too an important sign of health for UNOH is our investment in the growth and release of new workers for other places. This requires UNOH workers to constantly be in pioneering, momentum-building or releasing mode. For example, rather than stock-piling more and more full-time UNOH workers to build a large, complex UNOH institution in a neighbourhood, we require small, adaptable teams, who need to raise-up and support new volunteer local leaders to see transformation through Christ happen. UNOH workers then can be like scaffolding able to help build local Jesus movements, but then be released to help build again. This process can take years, but the key is we aim to stay until we can multiply ourselves, local movements and disciples of Christ. We do this not simply because there are so many urgent needs in urban neighbourhoods across Asian-Pacific cities, but also because of the inbuilt health and maturity benefits it provides for us as a community and as workers.

In practice ‘organic growth’ actually slows down UNOH’s ability to expand quickly, but it makes our growth more sustainable. If, for example, somebody comes to UNOH with a heart to urgently go and do something great for Christ somewhere, it’s tempting to just say ‘go for it’ and stick a UNOH logo on them. But this is short-sighted and the loss of so many well intentioned workers with high potential is far too common in missions. In contrast organic growth requires UNOH to be more like a tribe than a franchise or to use our opening metaphor; only apple trees can reproduce other apple trees. New workers need to grow up, be known and to catch our DNA with experienced UNOH workers before going on to multiply and adapt as authentic expression of UNOH. This investment in others growth is significant, sharing life on life, but it’s also the investment all UNOH workers have received. Maturity requires us to freely give back in return. Organic growth then forces us to slow our growth down in the face of overwhelming and urgent opportunities, but we hope that UNOH can have an integrity, closeness and sustainability as a community in the long run as a result.

In this edition of FL we are excited to announce that two new chapters of UNOH are to be launched into some of the toughest neighbourhoods in Auckland and Mae Sot (Thai/Burma border). Experienced UNOH workers currently in Melbourne and Bangkok chapters have been in a community discernment process and are ready to be released to start these. As you reflect on their updates inside this edition you can see that there are lots of serious barriers to overcome for these initiatives to become realities and transformative. Yet, the risks are worth it. Not just for those workers stepping out in faith, or even the new neighbourhoods who will receive them, but also the existing UNOH chapters who step up to rework their current ministries with local leaders. Please do all you can to join us as our adventure keeps growing.

Ash Barker, UNOH Director.

The May 2010 edition of Finding Life is available in PDF in the right hand column of this blog.

Or this link

http://unoh.org/urban-hope/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/FL_MAY2010.pdf

Red Letters present Ron Sider, Ash Barker, Jim Reiher, Dave and Denise Tims in New Zealand on Politics, Money, Evangelism, Justice and Neighbours.

Ron Sider // Politics & Money

Thursday 22 July, 7:30pm-9:30pm

Carey Baptist College // 472 GT South Rd, Penrose

Ron Sider // Evangelism & Social Justice

Friday 23 July, 10am-12pm

Eden Community Church // 72-74 View Rd, Mt Eden

Barker, Reiher, Tims

Saturday 24 July, 9:30am-5pm

Eden Community Church

$20 per session / $50 for all 3 at the door

RSVP mick@michaelduncan.org Phone 021 364 100

Ron Sider. In the late 1960’s, faced with the glaring needs and blatant injustice of the inner city, Ronald Sider began to work toward developing a biblical response to social injustice. In 1977, Ron’s ground-breaking book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, was published. Hailed by Christianity Today as one of the 100 most influential books in religion in the twentieth century, Rich Christians has sold over 400,000 copies. Among his many books are Living Like Jesus (1999); Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (1999-2006); The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (2005); and The Scandal of Evangelical Politics (2008).

Ash Barker is the founding director of Urban Neighbours Of Hope which began in Springvale (Melb, Aus) in 1993 and now has chapters of workers loving God and neighbours in some of the neediest urban neighbourhoods in Melbourne, Sydney and Bangkok. Ash with Anji have two children and have lived and served Christ in the largest sum in Bangkok, Klong Toey, since April 2002. A sought after speaker and the author of six books including “Make Poverty Personal”, Ash has a passion to live a life that is good and can matter for Christ among the urban poor.

Jim Reiher. Green’s Party Australia. Jim is both political policy activist and Christian theologian (Author of Discipleship and Wealth, James).

Denise and Dave Tims have pioneered new missional works in neighbourhoods amongst Maori communities in Whanganui, Gisborne and are currently considering a new initiative in South Auckland.

UNOH Seminar: “Shalom and the people of God”

with Ron and Arbutus Sider

Friday and Saturday, July 16th and 17th (9:30am to 4:30pm)

at UNOH’s Centre for Urban Mission, 2/6-12 Airlie Avenue Dandenong

Ronald and Arbutus will share about the peace or shalom of God and how that affects God-followers. The seminar will examine “Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom”; “Holistic Ministry: Combining Good News and Good Works”; “Living the Kingdom: Christians Can Overcome Global Poverty” and “Living the Kingdom: Thinking Biblically about Politics”. Other Presenters include: Shirley Osborn and Ash Barker.

Cost: $100 (unaccredited) or $70 for those on health care cards. Bookings and further details with Jim: jim@unoh.org

Special Surrender Open Night with Ron Sider

Friday, July 16th (7.30pm)

at St Martins, 215 Wellington Street, Collingwood

After the success of last year’s Surrender open night with Richard Rohr, please don’t miss the second annual Surrender open night with Ron Sider. This is a free night, but an offering will be taken up (half to indigenous ministry and half for costs associated with the Siders’ visit).

UNOH Celebration and Commissioning night with Ron Sider

Sunday, July 18th (6pm)

at Monash City Church of Christ, 44-48 Montclair Avenue, Glen Waverley

Come and celebrate what God is doing through the UNOH community. All of UNOH’s workers from Bangkok, Sydney and Melbourne will be together in one place for music, commissionings and a talk by Ron Sider. This is a free night, but an offering will be taken up for UNOH’s proposed new chapters in Auckland and Mae Sot.

To book or more information:

jim@unoh.org  phone  +61 3 9701 7114   Fax: + 61 3 9701 7115

www. unoh.org

Ron Sider. In the late 1960’s, faced with the glaring needs and blatant injustice of the inner city, Ronald Sider began to work toward developing a biblical response to social injustice. In 1977, Ron’s ground-breaking book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, was published. Hailed by Christianity Today as one of the 100 most influential books in religion in the twentieth century, Rich Christians has sold over 400,000 copies. Among his many books are Living Like Jesus (1999); Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (1999-2006); The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (2005); and The Scandal of Evangelical Politics (2008).