Week 1 (24th-30th August 2010)
A strange feeling. Totally weird. After talking about this day for three years, it is so surreal to be finally walking. This morning at 9am, we stepped out with our camel-baks, sunscreen, well worn-in shoes and first aid kit. It was an awesome launch and send-off from these students at Freshwater College here in Cairns - a couple of hundred of them walked the first kilometre with us - helium balloons bobbing along on strings above them and then released into the wide blue yonder. Good on you kids...you're an awesome bunch.
      After 27km in the tropical North Queensland heat, our intrepid trio could be recognised, not only by their trademark shirts, but also by their six red legs. The damage was not only external, either. After complaining of a headache and eating mango and ice cream for dessert, Carnsey beat an early retreat to bed. A little later in the evening, Sav and Dave heard the toilet flush and Carnsey return to the room saying, 'what a waste of good ice-cream and mango.'

     Three mates - Dave, Carnsey and Sav - are walking 2000 kilometres from Cairns to Stanthorpe from August to November this year, to raise awareness about the 2000 language groups comprising 350 million people that don't yet have the Bible. You can follow their progress here at Sight or visit www.the2000walk.com...   | more...|

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LONG ROAD AHEAD: THREE QUEENSLANDERS PREPARE TO WALK 2000 KILOMETRES TO RAISE AWARENESS OF BIBLE TRANSLATION NEED...  | more...|

Politicians need to focus on the human face of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not discard it in favour of their own political agendas, the head of the World Council of Churches has said in the Middle East.

     "Politicians need to act and prevent this human tragedy," WCC general secretary, the Rev Olav Fykse Tveit, told ENInews after a visit to Palestinian families who have been evicted by Israelis from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheik Jarrah.

     He said that although there are many holy sites in the Holy Land, the people who live on the land are also holy. "This is not about political principles, this is about human beings. It is a shame that politicians are interested more in their own political interests than in bringing basic human rights," said Rev Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran theologian.

      JUDITH SUDILOVSKY reports for Ecumenical News International...  | more...|

I am grateful to God for His salvation. I grew up in Asia and became a Christian in the early 1980s. It was a genuine conversion experience from a mixture of Confucianism, Taoism and ancestral worship. It was not a one-off decision though. It took me about one year to come to a place where I knew that the God revealed in the Bible was indeed the very God I had been searching for.

     But little did I know that this journey would be so challenging. I came to Australia in 1989 and found myself in an exceedingly affluent nation. There is every temptation to pursue material prosperity rather than following a Saviour who died for our sins and demands His disciples to carry the cross and follow Him. I kept asking how I could be a faithful disciple of Jesus.
      I became an active member of a local church, and eventually I became one of the pastors there. I enjoyed the contemporary worship and the wide range of programs at the church. Things were going well. I baptised dozens of people in a short space of two years. I did a lot of preaching and teaching. But I became increasingly unsettled with the fact that every Sunday there were homeless people knocking at the church’s door, and I did little for them. There were many low-income people living in our neighbourhood and I hardly spent any time with them.

      A speaker at an upcoming World Vision-hosted theological forum on the nexus between social justice and salvation, SIU FUNG WU reflects on his personal journey...  | more...|

YOUR SAY: Australia remains in political limbo after voters delivered the closest election result in years with the country set to face its first hung parliament since World War II. What do you think of the election result and what does it say about Australia?...  | more...|

Sight's created a single page where you can view all our recent stories related to today's federal election. Have a look and help inform your vote!...  | more...|

YOUR SAY: What issues are most important to you in deciding your vote this election? Join in our Your Say special here...  | more...|

ESSAY: CONFUSED? DON'T WORRY, HELP IS AT HAND

As we enter the final week of the 2010 federal election campaign many voters are still trying to make up their mind who to vote for or even who the candidates are in their electorate or state.

     And while we are being inundated with mindless campaign advertising, there are some great online resources for doing personal research.

     For some voters, the main concern is to discover the policies of the various parties on the issues that matter to them, and there is a wealth of material available.

     The Australian Christian Lobby has published a checklist on 24 key issues affecting Christians and this can be found on the Australia Votes website. Each party can be checked out individually or compared in various combinations covering broad topics such as public Christianity, international justice, poverty, family or indigenous issues. The ACL also provides candidates forums in a range of electorates across Australia.

      PETER HALLETT, pastor and writer of the Australian Christian Voter blog, provides a detailed list of where you can go online to find out more about parties, their policies and the questions that matter most to you...  | more...|

ESSAY: A DIFFERENT VISION FOR A 'BIG' AUSTRALIA

I am in favour of a big Australia.

     But I don't mean a big Australia in population terms which has dominated so much of the federal election campaign. I mean a nation that is big in terms of its vision, its compassion and in identifying its place in the region and the world.

     Sadly the election campaign appears to have become a foreign policy-free zone. It is also a campaign bereft of hope. Neither of the major political parties has sought to define Australia's role in the world. For a host of reasons we are a fortunate nation that has escaped the worst impacts of the global financial crisis.

     Little wonder that more than one political commentator has lamented the domestic, poll-driven nature of this election by citing the acerbic reflections of 19th-century French democrat Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin: "There go the people - I must follow them, for I am their leader."

      In article first published in the Sydney Morning Herald, TIM COSTELLO, chief executive of World Vision Australia, puts a different spin on why Australians should be thinking big...  | more...|

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CHRISTIAN VALUES: 'CANBERRA DECLARATION' UNDERLINES IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY AND SANCTITY OF LIFE

DAVID ADAMS reports...  | more...|

ESSAY: LET'S VOTE FOR OTHERS

With Australia's federal election to be held on 21st August, SIU FUNG WU says it's important Christians consider the wider ramifications of their vote...  | more...|

FOR MORE ELECTION-RELATED COVERAGE...  | more...|

Up to 20 million people have been affected by the worst floods in Pakistan in 80 years, prompting calls for the a greater international effort to address the disaster.

     The United Nations said this week that while the response to their request made earlier this month for more funds to address the disaster has been encouraging, they still only had less than half the $US460 million needed.
     “Watching this disaster unfold, the world increasingly understands its immense magnitude,” said John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

     More than 1,600 people have died as a result of the floods and, according to UN estimates, eight million people require urgent relief while more than four million are homeless. Pakistani Government estimates suggest as many as 20 million people – one in nine of the entire population - are affected.

      DAVID ADAMS reports...  | more...|

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AT LEAST 1,500 DEAD IN WORST FLOODING FOR 80 YEARS

At least 1,500 people are believed to have died in Pakistan thanks to landslides and floods caused by the heaviest monsoon rains in years.

     Entire villages have reportedly been washed away and, according to UNICEF, around 3.5 million people – a third of them children - have been affected by the deluge in the north with homes flooded, damaged and destroyed and crops lost.

     Experts have said the flooding, which has impacted a third of the country’s 135 districts, is the worst since 1929. Khyber Pakhtunkha (KPK), in the mountains of north-western Pakistan, is the worst-affected province, along with Baluchistan and Punjab.

      DAVID ADAMS reports...  | more...|

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Organisations running appeals...  | more...|

With the approach of Marriage Week, let's take a brief look at marriage and its importance.

     Through Scripture we can see how important marriage is to God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer whilst in prison at the hands of the Gestapo in the Second World War wrote a sermon for his nieces wedding. The sermon was smuggled out on the eve of her wedding and read out at the service. This is a part of that sermon, taken from his Letters and Papers from Prison:

     "God is guiding your marriage.  Marriage is more than your love for each other.  It has a higher dignity and power for it is God's holy ordinance through which he wills to perpetuate the human race until the end of time.  In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in your marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom.  In your love you see only the heaven of your happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind.  Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal - it is a status, an office."

      With the approach of Australia's National Marriage Week (12th to 18th September, organiser DENNIS OUTRED takes a look at why marriage is so important for a happy, healthy society...  | more...|

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SIGHT-SEEING: ISLAND FEVER?

When coming to the topic of evangelism there is need for a church community to remember those continents and far off places where the Gospel has not been preached and to provide resources that may be scant or nonexistent for the continuation of the work in those areas. The importance of wealthier communities supporting and sending people into these regions so that all people have opportunity to hear the 'good news' is a Christian duty. The Pacific islands in particular have been a long term focus of the church for over a century and there is now a well established presence in these fields where the Gospel has had a large impact.

     You could say, however, that the back of the Pacific islands has been broken for many years now as population ratios of non-churched nationals to church membership is lower than in western countries like Australia. While there are some isolated pockets of outlying villages still clinging to traditional forms, the Christian impact on the Pacific islands has been significant, all encompassing and extensive.

      DANNY BELL suggests it's time we started looking homeward when it comes to missions instead of another 'island experience'...  | more... |

SIGHT-SEEING: THE GOSPEL - A SIMPLE PRESERVATIVE

"Why do Christians feel the need to tell everyone about their faith?” a friend asked me one day, clearly struggling to be polite and listen any longer. The question was not posed from curiosity; she obviously felt that my necessity to tell her about the God who had swept me off my feet was an invasion of her privacy and an unwanted challenge to her own Buddhist beliefs.

     I am sure that as a new convert my zeal was partnered with insensitivity. Urgency consumed me and I could hardly contain all that I had learned about my God. I cannot remember what I answered that day but I have since discovered there are many ways to answer this question.

      God in His infinite wisdom confounds our complex logic with a Gospel so simple that a child can share it.

     There is a central component to the Gospel message that Christianity has inherited from its Judaic roots; it begins with the transformation of an individual and burgeons into the deliverance and rescue of institutions, communities and populations.

      BEV HOLMES-BROWN reflects on sharing the Gospel...  | more... |

OPEN BOOK: HINDSIGHT FOR THESE LATTER DAYS - WE SEE JESUS' DEATH AND SUFFERING

This part of the letter might seem a little vague, until it is pointed out to us that here we have a poignant reminder of Jesus' suffering. On Calvary's cross, and in that suffering, the Lord Himself was praying in the words of Psalm 22 which begins with those well-known words: "My God, My God, why have you left me in the lurch?"

     That is the opening line of a psalm which recounts David's personal confrontation with unimaginable terror. We know this now, despite the fact that some of the people attending His agony were confused by Jesus' final cry. This now is to be understood as the cry of the Davidic King, not a cry in re-enactment of the bereft prophet Elisha who waited in vain for Elijah to come back and help him. And further on in Psalm 22, after all the evil has been recounted, we also read of the stupendous victory that God has granted His suffering one. And so David continues: "I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the midst of the congregation (where) I will the praise Thee" (verse 22).

     BRUCE C. WEARNE shows how the writer of Hebrews connects his readers directly to Jesus' death and suffering...  | more... |

THE WORD: CREATOR

God is the creator. The creator is God. Only God could be the creator and only the creator could be God. God is the self-existent one who is was and always will be. He is life and He gives life. He is the life of the cosmos and He is its source.

     God is life. He is the fire that burns without consuming the bush, as Moses witnessed. He is light and life independent of all He has created.

     “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1: 1) This isn’t a fable nor a once-upon-a-time story. The Bible’s ‘beginning’ reveals God Almighty at work creating. God did not create with pre-existing eternal materials. The heavens and earth are not eternal. God created.

     He is the author and sculptor who brings light out of darkness and order out of chaos. He speaks and it is.

     LLOYD HARKNESS looks the difference between the creator and creation... | more... |

LIFE'S TOUGH QUESTIONS: DOES THE BIBLE TELL US HOW THE WORLD WILL END?

Over the history of the Christian church there has been much fascination with the Second Coming of Jesus and with when and how it will happen. The fact that it will happen is not disputed by the vast majority of believers, but when and how it will happen has been the subject of much conjecture and debate by many different strands of Christendom.

     Why is this so? Why the almost fanatical obsession by some Christians over ‘end times’ issues and Biblical prophecy? I think it comes down to human nature and our God-given intuition that we are made for something more, something better than the blood, sweat and tears that this life brings for every single one of its inhabitants.
      When I was a young Christian, I was convinced that I was living in the end times, mainly because certain people told me I was. I was therefore convinced that I was never going to die because Jesus was going to come back in my lifetime. All the signs were pointing to it. Wars were increasing, and there seemed to be more earthquakes and other natural disasters occurring. From what I learned about the Bible and from what I saw on the nightly news, I really believed that everything was going to get worse. I even heard a preacher get up once and give some statistics showing that the number of earthquakes in the 20th century had increased dramatically. This was another clear sign that Jesus was coming back soon.

     NILS VON KALM on the question of what happens when Jesus returns... | more...|

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MUSIC: YOUR TOP 10 SONGS?

We're compiling a list the 10 songs Sight readers would take with them if they were stuck on a desert island. The list will be compiled based on the number of votes received for each song. To put your votes forward (and only one entry per person please!), send your list of 10 songs (title and artist) to editor@sightmagazine.com.au marked '10 songs'. We'll be posting the first version of the list shortly and then update it as votes come in!

MUSIC: A 'NEAT' DISC FOR OSTEEN FANS

If you’re an Osteen fan you already own this album, if you have no idea what an Osteen fan is you still may have a case to own this album. No, Joel and Victoria don’t sing on this one, this seems to be more like a companion disc to the rest of church's output.

     Writers like Chris Tomlin, Israel Houghton (This Is His Church), Peter Furler, Steve Taylor and even Bill and Gloria get a gig on this one (that’s Gaither for the uninitiated).

     It’s slick, well-produced modern church tunes led by voices that are very familiar these days in Cindy Ratcliff and Israel Houghton. Don’t let the ‘slick’ thing worry you though - it’s just the kind of thing the US does well, very accessible, poppy and yes, even honest!

     JUSTIN MICHAEL enjoys Lakewood Church's Hope For Today Worship...  | more... |

ON THE SCREEN: SCOTT PILGRIM'S CINEMA ADAPTION A LIGHT-HEARTED FROLIC WITH A SOFT CENTRE

Man, oh man, what a great film. I've been a fan of the great series of graphic novels by creator Bryan Lee O'Malley since I picked up Volume 1 last year. Since 2004 there have been six of the enchanting black and white digests, with the final volume, entitled, Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, having just been released.

      The books, from publisher Oni Press, centre on slacker Scott Pilgrim, who in his own words remarks,"I don't need fun to have a good time." Basically the story is like a manic soap opera that wears its much loved influences boldly on its sleeve. Those influences include pop culture, from comics to video games and classic TV series, and O'Malley manages to weave all that and more in his seemingly rambling, but not really, tale of Scott and his numerous friends as he must defeat the seven evil exes of the new love of his life, Romana Flowers.

     KRIS BATHER enjoys the transformation of Scott Pilgrim from graphic novel protagonist to silver screen star...  | more...|

CASTING THE NET: BIBLE.IS

It's the Bible at your fingertips. Faith Comes By Hearing, a US based non-profit organisation which aims to provide 'heart language' audio Bibles to the world's poor and illiterate, has released a free new Bible app for the iPhone. Features of the app include a dramatised recreation of the Bible which boasts more than 180 characters, music and sound effects as well as audio versions of the New Testament (in 63 versions and 37 languages), the complete Bible in English and the ability to simply share verses on Facebook.

     DAVID ADAMS on an iPhone app that allows you to read and listen to the Bible... | more... |

FOR THIS AND MORE OF WEBSITES, FILMS, BOOKS, COMICS AND MUSIC, GO TO OUR REVIEWS PAGE here

ORIGINS: PENGUIN'S BOOKS FOR EVERYMAN MAKE 75

It’s 75 years since Penguin Books was founded in the UK with the idea of democratising great literature – making it readily available to everyone at an affordable price.

     Founder Allen Lane reportedly coming up with the idea for the Penguin paperbacks when travelling home after a weekend in which he’d visited Agatha Christie in Devon and finding a lack of cheap, good quality fiction at the train stations.

     The first 10 books, costing as little as six pence (the price of a pack of cigarettes at the time) were published on 30 July, 1935, and the initial authors included Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie.

    DAVID ADAMS looks back at Penguin's beginnings...  | more...|

SIGNIFICANT SIGHTS: FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE CHILD SOLDIERS OF UGANDA

"African grass dances rhythmically in the hot afternoon breeze. At the end of the dusty track stands a smooth, round mud brick hut in a clearing of finely-swept red earth. Its grass-thatched roof – tightly packed bundles of straw and bamboo – sits atop the mud walls like a Chinese hat. Smoke from a charcoal stove fills my nose while scrawny chickens scratch the dirt at my feet.

     Melbourne-based singer/songwriter LEVI McGRATH is currently on a national tour sponsored by World Vision. Small House Records have just released his latest album, Children of War, written after McGrath spent five months in Uganda last year during which he was involved in rehabilitating child soldiers. Here, the musician reflects on his time in Uganda...  | more...|

TRENDSPOTTER: AND NOW HERE'S THE NEWS - WITH A NICE GRAPHIC

The boring name for it is data visualization; the more interesting names include ‘infographics’, ‘visual journalism’ and even ‘charticles’. The rise in the role the internet plays in the way we are informed has led people to look harder for new ways of presenting information. Now we all know a good graphic can sell a concept in a way that a well-written 2,000 words on the subject can’t and it's fair to say the concept of the infographic has been around for centuries (London’s tube map and the nightly news weather charts are well-known examples). Yet it's also true that the internet has led to a surge in the use of the infographics, both among traditional and non-traditional media outlets,

    DAVID ADAMS on the trend for infographics... | more...|

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