Hi friends,
I received this urgent email from my good mate Ash in Bangkok today, I urge you all to read, click on the link, pray, forward on, donate if you can,
ta Barro
Hi stephen,
Could I ask for your urgent prayers and action for Burma today? On Saturday May 10, I met with Burmese friends here in Bangkok to get the latest news on the Cyclone Nargis disaster and to ask how UNOH could best help with the relief effort. Dr San Aung, Maung Maung and Zin Linn are part of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB). Led by elected Burmese MPs from the National League for Democracy (NLD), this is the peak body of Burmese leaders working for democracy.
But, what can we do? After listening to these Burmese leaders, I believe we can best support the relief effort by supporting NCGUB.
UNOH is setting up a UNOH Burma Cyclone Appeal so that Australians can donate on-line to help the relief effort through NCGUB/NLD Burmese workers on the ground.
For further details,
go here
starting over
Thought I'd try and blog again, this may only last a little while, have tried the myspace thingy, you can visit me
here, I have even tried the facebook thing, but haven't been so successful with that despite many promptings from friends.
I have also tried texting, and emailing and even occassionally do this really new thing called face to face where you go for coffee, sit down opposite soemone you know and talk to them, it's kinda cool but not sure if it will catch on
chow
On a bit of a roll, i came across this intersting clip of U2 playing Vertigo juxaposed to the Passion of Christ, complete with tests, temptations and triumphs. And oh I've just worked out how to get the screen thingy to work as well.
Had a bit of a whirlwind last few days. A fantastic last few days in Bangkok teaching both in the morning and the afternoon, a highlight was playing games with waterballoons on the last day with our kids and seeing heaps of adults gathering around and getting them invloved as well. It was great to see something as simple as that bring a communnity of kids and adults together. We finished up with a great time last Friday morning, Easter Friday sharing in a cafe in Klong Toey with the Oz team of 15, the
UNOH team and the Ta Rua church leaders all sharing about what God has been doing in their lives.
Left Bangkok Fri night midnight and back in Melbourne Sat arvo, great seeing the family again before getting up at 5.30am for our Foothills annual Sunrise Easter Sunday service at the Arby here in sunny Ferntree Gully.
Apart from all the usual catch ups this week has been great and full with our
FTG Community Meals night on Wednesday night which has grown to 45 in my absence.
Nandos even bought down and donated the food for the evening much to everyones delight. Thursday night was back to the Family Birth Centre for another
Secret Dads Stuff, another highlight working with dads to be then this morning I spoke up at
Soul Survivor doing a workshop entitled
"Crossing the Street" was great interacting with heaps of young people and getting more great ideas for
UNOH's upcoming
SURRENDER 07.
So in a nutshell it's good to ease back into life and be prepared to stay up all night for the
cricket World Cup.
Hi all, on the home run now, we are teaching twice a day, in the morning again this week at Rong Gow and in the afternoon, 5.00-6.30 I am back at Glua Prick. Was great going there last night and having heaps of the kids and adults come up and say "HI BARRO", it is incredibly hot and with not much rest in the arvo, but is amazing to see the way God teaches you things thru all of this, thanks for all of your prayers, great to be here during Easter Holy week.
7 days in klong Toey
Well I have been here in Thailand for just on a week now, and it feels that this is the first time I’ve had to catch my breath. I’m here again with UNOH as part of one of their ESL short term trips, coordinating the trip for 15 people from Melbourne, and partnering with the Ta Rua church here in the slum of Klong Toey. One of the biggest things you need here is FLEXABILITY. I thought I was going to be with a group taking 50 kids away to a beach side camp, and was so much looking forward to the beach, but in the end have been leading a team in the slum of Rong Gow. I am the person with the most Thai and experience on our team, having no locals at all, which at the beginning of the week I was feeling not real keen to say the least, but God has other ideas. The week has been fantastic with some great relationships with the kids and with the community.
One of the challenges we have had is that there has been some kids card gambling right where we do our lessons, which is on a stage directly under a freeway overpass. This is so sad, as well as highly illegal to see 10 year old kids introduced to this EVIL so early on, not knowing the language has been hard as we can’t speak to anyone about the issue there. But our strategy, as well as praying is to offer a better alternative and each day our group of kids has grown, so now we have about 22, 10-12 year olds who love to come each morning. We will go back next week to teach again and at night time teach also at Glua Prick community, a real challenge as the weather here is very HOT so tiring.
Another highlight has been spending time with Celtic muso Sammy Horner, who was with us for 2 days on route back to Scotland. I had never met him before despite having known of him for 15+ years thru John Smith and Sean Stillman and God’s Squad, and played heaps of his music. So was great to hang with him and we got on like a house on fire and he seemed very moved by his experience here in the community as he met Jesus thru the poor. So now is the halfway mark, its also been great seeing old friends, both UNOH workers here, Ash, Anj, Rod, Jodie and Chris as well as many Thai friends that I have met over the years as well, it is a real blessing and privilege to have sisters and brother from this part of the world. Will be interesting spending Holy Week here in a Buddhist slum, attempting to share the love of Jesus.
Tonight we had our first Ferntree Gully Community Meal Night. After about 6 months of planning and talking and procrastinating we finally got underway tonight at the local Ferntree Gully Guides Hall in Underwood Rd. We had sent out flyers during the past few days, spoken to many people, even the local paper would like to do a photo and story on us in the next couple of days.
But the important thing was we met and apart form the volunteers and kids, we actually had some other people turn up, which was great. It was a very relaxed night with roast chicken, mashed potatoes and pumpkin, served with salad, and finished off with some lovely mixed fruit for desert.
The highlight without a doubt was just sitting down all together and chatting over the meal and hearing similar stories of others saying they would normally be on their own for tea every night, which sucks. There was a great sense of community and a few of us were able to pray with one man who came in. I reckon tonight was one of those nights where we met a few angels. Looking forward to sharing with them and many more over the next few weeks. At this stage we’re aiming for every Wednesday night, 6.30-7.30pm, drop in if you’re in town…
The last few weeks have seen the beginning of
UNOH’s Submerge course. In partnership with
Tabor college, it is a Cert IV in Christian Ministry majoring in neighbourhood transformation to those neighbourhoods facing issues of poverty. We hold lectures each Tuesday night in Springvale and students are involved in 15 hours ++ practical ministry placement throughout the week, plus supervision and peer reflection groups.
It has been great to be involved in
helping set this up over the past few months, and I am currently lecturing on Bible Survey during our Tuesday nights. It is great seeing people “switch on” to the Bible and see God’s plan for redemption throughout it. Also get to show the famous
lego Bible stories as well.
