Identity

From all places I get an email from England from a girl I used to go to school with. She informs me of a book that has been written by one of our ex-school mates, so I pursued it and here is an exert from it.

To summarise the opening chapters of his book; Peiper was raised in country Victoria and grew up in a dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic and at times violent father. At sixteen, Allan's parents separated, but when his mother decided to go back his wife-beating father, young Peiper had enough and left home for good. Within a year, after working a factory job and saving every dollar, the Australian junior champion would find himself in Belgium, chasing the dream of becoming a professional road cyclist.

"You know, I was just spurred on by the fact that I couldn't go back," Peiper recalls of his bold decision to travel halfway across the world to live in Belgium. "I lived in rat-infested houses with twenty other people, where there was no front door and I had one blanket and very little food, but there was a brotherhood there between us because we were all the same."

The book goes on to chart a course through Peiper's four years racing as a junior in Belgium before he turned pro at the age of 21. Central to the story is his relationship with the family of Belgian champion Eddy Planckaert, who took the young Australian in and helped shape his career. He learnt early on how to wheel and deal in order to survive, even stealing produce from the fields, but when I suggest that it all sounds like a romantic existence for a young Australian cyclist in Europe, there are some reservations. "Looking back you might say romantic but it was a life struggle in those days you know and I sold races to win races. I made deals with two or three riders in the same race that they'd pay me if they won, but I still sprinted for first prize; if I won I took the money for first prize and if they beat me I took the money they paid me and my second prize."

Just co-incidentally I went out with his sister for a season and I got a glimpse into their family life. In town their father was the Bank manager and the wife well attired and strong. But what we didn't see as teenagers and what Allan reveals in his book is the inward pain of a broken yet together family. A place where saving face is more important than facing ourselves. I recall that drive in me (we both have a little in common in our backgrounds). A need to be approved, and a need "To show people that you are significant". It creates inside us insecurities that will drive us to any lengths to prove ourselves.

In the end it drove both of us on a Spiritual quest as well, an insatiable need that could only be filled by the Father. For Allan, a journey of spirituality where he explored meditation, yoga, visited India twice, and sought solace in the dreaming country of Australia's Western Desert in the search for meaning. I am not sure if he is still in pursuit or not. Or whether this book is part of his healing, but the thing that I ponder now is how easy it is to slip back into those coping mechanisms when you drift in your relationship with our Lord. How quickly old thoughts take flight back into our minds and how we re-act rather than respond to people.

Many times we find the church can let us down, but it is the vessel that God has chosen for us to grow up in and learn to get over our own misgivings and forgive those of others. It is a place where we need to see things as Peiper did. We are all the same, just beggars in search of a little bread, saved by Grace. It is this attitude that will make a difference in the world in which we live.

Life is JUST TO short not to.

Well those are my thoughts
Pastor Rob.

Wonderment

I have been pondering many things of late, not the least of all is the seemingly tangible presence of God. Don't get me wrong I know He is there all the time by faith, but I mean His strong over whelming reality that I have felt before. People still come in to New Life Church and say "Wow, his is different you can really feel God here", but I hunger for more. I know it is coming but I still pray "Come Lord Jesus Come quickly to fill us a fresh"

Then thanks to friends and fellow workers Jeff and Kate (and Mick) I came across this web site - www.irismin.org - Jeff and Kate have just returned from seeing these guys in Adelaide. I read an article that stirred my heart and set some things spinning in my heart. Here is a portion of it.

"Much of eastern Congo is in ruins. Roads and railways are washed away. Hospitals are destroyed. Electricity is rare. Government troops and rebels are both the cause of torture, beheadings, rapes, massacres and burned villages. There has been a peace deal and an election, but the dying continues, greatly aggravated by hunger and medical neglect. We were just back in Joseph's village where we bought property and built a church and school. Many of our church ladies have been raped by soldiers. Their husbands won't come back to them, and they are full of STDs. Children die every day in our school. Many eat only a handful every three days. There are no jobs. Soldiers are hungry, desperate, often unpaid and dangerous. The village children in rags have seen so much violence that they make AK-47 toys out of banana trees.

Yet in the last few days at our church in Kalonge we have seen the presence of God overwhelm the prevailing mood of despair. Never in all the world have I seen greater intensity of prayer and worship. They sob, they agonize, tears pouring down their faces. Their powerful voices soar with electrifying worship. They laugh in the Holy Spirit with joy unspeakable. Their joy to suffering ratio sets a world record in my experience. Their memories are healed. They look forward with huge anticipation to what lies ahead -- revival across Congo! We began with 28 churches under Joseph last year, and now we have 85. The word has gotten out: God does miracles and makes people happy! Key leaders are joining us from the government. Joseph has a fiery vision from God for touching all of Congo. And yet again we are starting at the bottom with the least of these, right here in Kalonge. They deserve our support, our hard-earned money, our time and our lives.

Oh and how this sets my heart ablaze, while we bemoan the music, the seats, the lighting, they in their incredible despair rejoice and God sends His Spirit. Nothing is more needed in this self obsessed western World than a visitation of God. Revive our hearts, oh Lord.