Dear Friends,
As I sit to write this, I am sharing in the delight of so many about the result of the elections in the United States of America. We can be glad with the expatriate Americans among us, who have mostly come to this country to get away from what the majority of American people have at last rejected—a situation where the wealthiest country in the world has millions of its citizens in abject poverty and any talk of wealth redistribution is demonised as ‘communist’. Now there is hope at last for so many, and we can only pray that that hope may bear fruit in real change.
At the same time, our own election is still two days away. When you read this, you will know the result. We hope and pray that it may be good for us all.
Show Week seems to have come around very quickly. We hope that the thousands of visitors to Christchurch, and we ourselves, will see our city at its shining best. While some of us may go away for the long weekend, others will be here to welcome those who come to visit us. S. Michael’s School is fortunate to have Thursday as well as Friday off this week.
In the next couple of weeks we are counting down to the beginning of the Advent season, preparing to be prepared. The Scriptures chosen are about being prepared for what God has for us. In the Scriptures this is often expressed in terms of waiting and being prepared for ‘the bridegroom’ to return, or for Jesus to come again. Some words of a scholar, Eugene Boring, are to the point, ‘We are called to be agnostics about the time of Jesus’ return. We simply do not know. What we do know is what we are supposed to be doing in the meantime… the deeds of mercy, forgiveness, and peace that characterise kingdom people.’
Another (Jane Williams) suggests that preparing to be prepared, as is required of us already before Advent, ‘involves looking back over God’s dealings with us, so that we will know and be known.’ She then quotes Henri Nouwen’s wisdom: ‘When our gratitude for the past is only partial, our hope for a new future can never be full… If we are to be truly ready for a new task in the service of God, our entire past, gathered into the spaciousness of a converted heart, must become the source of energy that moves us towards the future.’
May God bless you all.
Peter Williams
Emergency Response Update from CWS
Pakistan earthquake: Survivors are living in the open without protection from the freezing temperatures. Children are developing illnesses such as pneumonia and flu. CWS partners are providing relief items including tents, blankets, clothing, food, water, medicine, stoves and household goods.
Congo crisis: Civilians caught behind rebel lines were without food and water after aid workers had to withdraw. Supplies are now trickling in. Many people are still sleeping in the open. Heavy rains have made them vulnerable to cholera, malaria and respiratory illnesses. CWS is calling for improved UN presence and renewed international efforts to broker a strong peace accord.
Ethiopia facing famine: A long dry spell threatens water supplies, crop growth and the health of livestock. What little food remains is too expensive to buy. CWS partners are distributing food parcels and agricultural help.
Zimbabwe: The humanitarian situation is worsening. Famine may soon grip the country. CWS supports Christian Care, which is running food programmes in ten districts. These have recently resumed after the ban on aid agencies, instigated by President Mugabe. Please continue to pray for a solution to the current stalemate.
Thanks received from Burma after Cyclone Nargis:
We are so grateful for your help… In my whole life, we’ve never been in such bad shape with no work in sight and empty fields, everything destroyed with no money to start again. Your assistance with rice and cash is doing more good than you can imagine—it is helping keeping the peace and harmony among us as a village. When hungry people get desperate, we have to deal with more theft, tension among us, with hungry children crying for food. You have helped to ease this desperation and tension in our villages.”
Help CWS respond to these humanitarian emergencies.
Donate online www.cws.org.nz, phone 088 74 73 72
or post to Christian World Service,
PO Box 22652, Christchurch 8142.
