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Global Mission Office

One of the real challenges of this job is processing the deluge of information that comes my way. Not only the volume but the variety is quite overwhelming at times. Then there is the ever growing number of requests for information. Needless to say, the search function on 'my documents' is in regular use on my computer as I desperately search for where I carefully saved it all.

Global Mission Office webpage

The Church website is an invaluable tool for the dissemination of information. It is also easy to find. I am working hard in association with the Communications Team to raise the standard of the style, content and presentation of the Global Mission page as part of the overhaul of the whole site.

Please take a look on the Global Mission Office Webpage particularly if your Parish is thinking of supporting a project and would consider Vanuatu as a good option. I have just put up a list of the current possibilities and would gladly discuss the details with you further. I can also mail the information to those who don't have access to the web.

Global Mission Gazette

A new publication, the Global Mission Gazette is being developed to complement the webpage. This bi-monthly publication will contain a range of information to encourage kiwi Presbyterians to become involved in Global Mission. Essentially the publication is intended for 'people in the pews' who are interested in Global Mission and it will be posted to them directly free of charge.

I am very grateful to Mrs Lori Hill who has agreed to be the Editor of the Global Mission Gazette. Lori, husband Andrew and their four children have recently returned from Kenya where Andrew served for four years as a surgeon at Kijabe Hospital under the auspices of AIM.

As we hope to post the first copy out during June, please invite the members of your congregation to register their interest by contacting the Global Mission Office or Lori directly on globalmissiongazette(at)xtra.co.nz.

Kidz Gazette

A Kidz Gazette will be included in the Global Mission Gazette in a 'photo-copy' format in the hopes that it will be a useful resource for Sunday School teachers, 'Bible in Schools' teachers and parents as a means of highlighting the news of the world to children. It will include puzzles and a competition. Please ask your Sunday School to sign up too.

Our Environment

 was always really pleased with how my students at Saint Kentigern College and School responded to lessons on the environment. The lessons usually resulted in letters to the Prime Minister and Mayors of Auckland, paper recycling on campus and even a worm farm. Comments about the beauty of New

Zealand made recently by international guests, reminded me of our responsibility as custodians of all of creation. Our New Zealand Government is certainly taking up the challenge and has recently launched two very good websites. One is about the process of establishing an Oceans Policy for Aotearoa. You may wish to participate at
http://www.oceans.govt.nz/

The second is all about how much rubbish we throw away.
http://www.reducerubbish.govt.nz/.

More technical information on the environment can be found on
http://www.climatechange.govt.nz/

TearFund makes a stand

Council for World Mission (CWM) recently highlighted the strong stand that TearFund has made with regards to the failure by world leaders to deliver on poverty issues such as water and sanitation, debt relief and trade at the recent G8 trade talks held in France. TearFund stated that no new money for safe drinking water and sanitation had been provided by the world's wealthiest nations. The one billion euro 'Water Fund' was described by TearFund as "little more than a drop in the ocean, compared to the total US$60 billion a year that's needed. This isn't even new money - its simply stale crumbs." Read more on
http://www.tearfund.org/homepage/index.asp

This transpired despite the Christian led efforts which included a 'human chain' and an open letter published by the Guardian newspaper. It is estimated that 170,000 children died during the 3 day period that the G8 met from diseases carried by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

The World Council of Churches challenged the same summit to actively support the fight against HIV/AIDS. You can read more on
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/english.html

The CWM website carries loads of interesting information such as the above as well as offering an opportunity to debate issues on-line. Find out more on
http://www.cwmission.org/.

To subscribe to their regular 'CWM News' sent out by email, send an empty message to:
cwmnews-subscribe(at)yahoogroups.com

The aftermath of the war in Iraq

It really does seem to have slipped from the news! You can read the text of a very thought provoking interview on the impact of the war, conducted on the 04 June with Rev Dr Konrad Kaiser, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). He also mentions the 'roadmap' to peace for Israel/ Palestine. Articles are listed in date order onn
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/pressreleasesen.nsf

Our partner ACT International also has a lead story on the aftermath of the war on their website http://act-intl.org/.

Polio

Another site that packs a real reality check punch is the Unicef site. Unicef addresses the plight of children worldwide, and is currently raising the alarm about the highly infectious Polio virus that can cause total paralysis in hours. Seems even worse than SARS! It remains aggressive in Nigeria and northern areas of India where our partner, Church of North India has the Christian Hospital at Jagadhri that we support so actively as a Church through the 'Friends of Jagadhri'.
http://www.unicef.org/

And from our 'you will never believe this story' files

The Malaysian government decided to solve their disease-carrying mosquito problem by spraying the infested areas with DDT. This worked, but the cockroaches then devoured the dead mosquitos. This was followed by the region's gecko lizards consuming the roaches. The geckos did not die from the residual poison (surprisingly), but their central nervous systems were greatly affected, causing the lizards to slow down. Moving up the food chain, the cats ate the slow-moving lizards and started to die off in large quantities. Of course, fewer cats means more rats, and the country's rat population soared. As a result, the World Health Organization was forced to step in and ban the DDT. In an effort to restore the ecological balance, they flew in planeloads of cats to kill the rats.

Source: The Best, Worst, & Most Unusual by Bruce Felton and Mark Fowler, 1994, p. 180, Galahad Books