the song

The Final and Greatest Adventure

On Saturday night i watched a film called 'Into the Wild'. It was incredible...

Chris, a college graduate is over his life at present, he needs a new experience, so he decides to go into the wild. Along this journey he meets alsorts of people. We hear his thoughts and struggles- Chris' jouney is about escaping, and finding, searching for truth, simplicity and freedom. He finds it in many places- After working on a farm for a while, Chris leaves, and finds a town, with a river running through it. He drops into the rangers office and asks wehre he can launch onto the river, the converstaion leads to the fact that Chris actually needs a permit to kayak down the river, and he asks how do i get one... he has to apply:

Ranger Steve Koehler: Next available is May 17, 2003.

Christopher McCandless: 12 years? Twelve years - to paddle down a river?


CHris soon skips that hurdle and just paddles down the river anyway. Chris finally arrives in Alaska- his final destination. After this journey, he is finally alone, and can soak up the wild. This is it.

The last written line in the movie is this:

Happiness only real when shared

After this journey, now finally alone with his thoughts, Chris concludes that happieness is only real when its shared. Previous comments that:

No, man. Alaska, Alaska. I'm gonna be all the way out there, all the way
out there. Just on my own. You know, no watch, no map, no axe,
no nothing. No nothing. Just be out there. Just be out there in it. You know,
big mountains, rivers, sky, game. Just be out there in it, you know? In the
wild.

It is in this place, his search for truth comes to an end. In all the beauty, and wild, still happiness is incomplete. Chris comments to a friend during his travels :You don't need human relationships to be happy, God has placed it all around us. But Perhaps what Chris found, was that we need it all, we were made for it all. For the Wild, for each other and for happiness.

Watch it! (and its based on a true story...)

Food

On October 16 and 17 it is World food day and the day for erradication of poverty.

*The causes of poverty include poor people's lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries, conflict, and hunger itself.

*The world does produce enough food for everyone. However the distribution is the issue. many countries dont have the land or resources to grow enough food, or in some cases it is the long term planning by governments that sees countries fall short (underinvestment in Agriculture).

*Conflict as a cause of hunger and poverty. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that as of December 2006, there were at least 22.7 million displaced, including 9.9 million refugees and 12.8 million internally displaced persons (UNHCR 2007). (Refugees flee to another country while internally displaced people move to another area of their own country.) Most people become refugees or are internally displaced as a result of conflict, though there are also natural causes such as drought, earthquakes, and flooding.

*Climate change, high oil prices, increased demand from China and India, population growth and the growing pressure for biofuels are just some of the reasons for soaring prices.

* the dominance of big companies and subsidies of their farmers by richer countries

*In 2007, World Food Programme provided 3.3 million tons of food for 86.1 million people in 80 countries worldwide: 62.3 million people in emergency and relief operations, 23.8 million people in development projects.

This is huge, and yet so simple- how can i have so much and someone else so little. I cannot even imagine what its like to be in the situation of a family of 6 in Ethiopia during a drought. I work in an office next to a food bank, and still There is no way we can compare poverty here in NZ to poverty around the Globe. Here are a couple ideas for us to help contribute positivly to our world:

*Donate and or spnsor a child. Just make the D today.
*Visit Freerice.com every morning when you sign into your computer
*Cut back on the lattes this weekand give that $3.00 (or $20) away
*Fast... Sacrifice what you'd spend on food on thursday or friday and give that away.

Any other ideas? Post a comment and share it with us!

Info taken from worldhunger.org, oxfam.org.nz, freerice.com

Public Election Debates by Oxfam

In the run up to the elections (the New
Zealand elections not the American)
Oxfam New Zealand are hosting a series
of debates for the public to participate in.
The series of debates are taking place in
Auckland and Wellington and will include
politicians from New Zealand’s political
parties.
People who can’t make the debates are
encouraged to send their questions to:
campaigns@oxfam.org.nz

The topics of the election debates are as
follows:

“Tackling Climate Poverty”
Moderator: to be confirmed
Confirmed speakers: Nick Smith
(National), Jeanette Fitzsimons (Greens),
Kath McCabe (ACT), Minister David
Parker (Labour)
Monday October 13 6:00- 7:00 pm
Lecture room WA 220, WA building
Venue: AUT, Wellesley St East Auckland

“Ending Global Poverty and Building a
Safer World”
Moderated by Bill Ralston
Confirmed speakers : Minister Phil Goff
(Labour), Keith Locke (Greens), Kath
McCabe (ACT), National (name tbc)
Tuesday October 21 7:00- 8:00pm
Lecture room WA 220, WA building
Venue: AUT, Wellesley St East Auckland


“Make Trade Fair”
Moderated by Barry Coates, Executive
Director of Oxfam New Zealand
Confirmed speakers: Minister Phil Goff
(Labour), Tim Groser (National), Ken
Graham (Greens),
Tuesday October 14 5:30– 6:30pm
Venue: Lecture Room GBLT2, Government
Buildings, Pipitea Campus,1 Lambton
Quay, Victoria University, Wellington

Weights and Measures

I was at the Fairtrade Association last week, one story really hit me, sadly i cant recall all the exact facts and fingers but the general idea goes something a little bit like this.

A very large fairtrade coffee co-op with over 50000 farmers can only sell a very small percentage of its product as fairtrade, because there is not enough demand for it, so sells the balance on the world market. Given the small percentage of fairtrade coffee people where starting to ask why so many farmers wanted to be a part of the co-op when so little of the coffee was receiving the fairtrade price.

The farmers response make a pretty big statement, "the coffee beans always weight more when weighed by the co-op"

Sadly we live in a world where justice is not always done, but heres yet another example of a good reason to support fairtrade.

Rock and the church

I scored this fantastic book at the local op shop yesterday- entitled 'Rock and the Church'. Before i do some quoting, the context is everything. This book is by a gentleman called bob larson, the book published in 1971, and i am assuming followed a raft of books on this subject. This book is a peice of history, I had to have it!

I can identify with some of this book, in the last chapter Bob states 'the spiritual drop out rate remains high'- Man i think that is prophetic, as we have the same transition issues between youth and adults remaining in church. However the core message of this book is that 'Rock music is creating crisis in the church...' he continues 'As in every moral crisis, Gods people are forced to take a stand against that which is evil.' I have had a great chuckle reading some of this book But also i see the consideration and isssues found in Bobs arguments- here is some of the arguments *Christian Rock attempts to con the world by Madison Avenue Approach taht appeals to the unregenerate masses. Its interesting because this raises a good point for our worship industry (named by brian Mclaren- Youtube him and listen to what he has to say).

*Christian rock presetns a false perspective of the chirtian life by trying to show how groovy it is to be a christian. -Jesus message is totally counter cultural! *Christian Rock songs focus on ambiguous ideals of love, peace and philosophical humanism while neglecting to emphasise mans sinfulness and his need for salvation. *Christian Rock identifies with the same life and music styles of the rock culture with an "add Jesus to your bag"philosophy that offers no alternative to those fed up with that style of living.

Bob is really concerned with how the gospel is presented- that is so eveidently one of his major concerns. And we have to same concern today. What language are we using? are we invitational or manipulitive when presenting the gospel message? Bobs message is filled with things we grapple with today, but yet culturally contextual.

Can you think of things that may be the 'Scnadal' for the church today? Shirley- an amazing woman i work with says that 'the chuch excludes to many people and their oppinions'. Stew points out a couple, one being the attractional model/prosperity dotrine church vs alternitive ways of doing church. A real hot button issue for the church may be homosexuality. What ever the scandal of our time, i reckon our eyes need to fixed on the person of Jesus becuase often the scandle of our time is not where we need to be spending our energy. Keeping our eyese fixed on the bigger picture is where we will find truth... adn the truth shall set us free.
What do you think?