Cemetery dweller's journey 'from hell to heaven'

Here is a great article from the Sydney Morning Herald on the difference Micah Projects has made in many peoples lives.

Not too long ago, Robert Pearce was sleeping under a tree in a Brisbane cemetery.

Now, he’s living in a unit on the city’s southside and celebrating Christmas alongside newfound friends.


Micah Projects is a community based not-for-profit organisation with a vision to create justice and respond to injustice at the personal, social, and structural levels in church, government, business and society.

They believe that every child and adult has the right to a home, an income, healthcare, education, safety, dignity, and connection with their community of choice. Micah Projects provides a range of support and advocacy services to individuals and families.

Micah Projects began as an initiative of the St Mary’s Community in South Brisbane, a community of catholic people from across Brisbane. People, who with a passion for social justice as a contemporary and critical element of faith in action, continue to support, collaborate, and provide spiritual nourishment to anyone who chooses to participate.

In the early hours of one morning in June, Mr Pearce was approached at the gazebo by volunteers working on the 50 Lives 50 Homes campaign.

The social workers wanted to try and arrange accommodation for him. They were true to their word.

Mr Pearce finally ended his long stint of homelessness nearly three months ago when he moved into an “absolutely beautiful” new public housing unit at Moorooka.

The rent comes straight out of his pension.

“You just couldn’t possibly believe how fantastic it is,” Mr Pearce said.

“It’s sort of taking you out of hell and putting you into heaven. Everything’s brand new.

What a great thought for Christmas... does our faith result in people being taking out of hell and putting them in heaven? That was the intention of Jesus choosing to become one of us.

The Real Santa Claus - Part 2

When Myra passed into the hands of the Saracens, some saw it as an opportunity to move the saint's relics to a more hospitable location. There was great competition for the relics between Venice and Bari. The Barese won the race and the relics were carried off under the noses of the Grecian custodians (Nicholas was Greek), the Saracens, and the Venetians. Legend has it that this race was pretty intense and resulted in the body of Nicholas losing an arm along the way. The Venetians could not go home empty handed however and managed to return to Venice with the relics of the Apostle Mark and the resulting edifice to house his remains is St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. On May 9, 1087, the relics of Nicholas were safely landed at Bari. A new church was built to shelter Nicholas' remains and in the form of St Nicholas’ Basilica.


St Nicholas is popular and he's said to have been represented by medieval artists more frequently than any saint but Mary, and nearly 400 churches were dedicated in his honor in England alone during the late Middle Ages.

He is the patron saint of children and probably from this the custom arose of giving gifts to children in the name of Saint Nicholas on his feast day, December 6. The Dutch actually exchange gifts on the eve of this day, December 5. It was them that called him Sint Nicolaas, or more commonly Sinterklaas and it was this name and idea that has transferred into our modern day Santa Claus.

On Saint Nicholas Day it is traditional for the clergy of the basilica in Bari to lower a flask into the tomb of Saint Nicholas to extract some of the myrrh which is believed to exude from the relics. Containers of this myrrh are sent all over the world, and believers have reported numerous miracles as a result of being anointed with it. This is still collected each year and can be bought at the shop next to the shop for between 500 and 1000 euro a bottle!

From what I understand, St Nicholas is the only Saint shared by the Catholic and Orthodox Church. The Basilica in Bari is in fact a very unusual church in that it is shared by the Catholics and the Orthodox. Every week Orthodox services are conducted in the crypt and on Sundays Catholics have their services in the main area. The church and the city is a connecting point between the catholic and Orthodox churches with many pilgrims coming from the east and the west. In May a statue of St Nicholas is paraded around the city as a celebration of the arrival of the relics.

An interesting thing to note form all of the images of St Nicholas is that he is generally portrayed as having very dark skin. The central top image below shows a reconstruction by scientists of what Nicholas looked like.

This is a far cry of course from our images of Santa Claus today.

The Real Santa Claus - Part 1

Saint Nicholas is the man behind the legend of Santa Claus. Historically speaking there's not much we really know about Nicholas, despite him being one of the most popular saints in the Catholic and Orthodox churches and being popularized by the idea of Santa Claus. We do know that he was probably the bishop of Myra (near modern Finike, Turkey) sometime in the 300s.



Nicholas was born sometime around AD 280 in Lycia to wealthy, Christian parents. A lot of Nicholas’ life is surrounded by legend and myth. It is said that when he was still a boy, Nicholas’ parents died in a plague, leaving him with great wealth. He used this wealth for charitable work. His uncle, the Bishop of Patura, became his guardian and ensured his education in the church and Nicholas became a priest at a very young age.

Once, while traveling by sea to Jerusalem, a storm threatened the safety of Nicholas and the ship’s crew. Legend has it that Nicholas prayed to God and immediately the storm was calmed. Upon returning from that trip, he visited a church in Myra. A priest was outside the church waiting. When Nicholas arrived, the priest asked his name. As Nicholas answered, the priest began praising God. He explained that God had told him to wait outside the church and the next person to come by, named Nicholas, would be the new Bishop of Myra. While Nicholas at first humbly refused, he eventually became their Bishop. Because of his young age he was called the Boy Bishop.


Tombs and Ampitheatre in Myra, Turkey

One popular story about Nicholas is that of a man with three daughters. The man was poor and could not afford dowries for his girls. At the time, this meant they would have to succumb to a life of prostitution. Hearing this, Nicholas dropped a bag of gold down the chimney (or, according to some, threw it in the window) on the night before each girl needed a dowry for marriage. One story says the last bag of gold Nick threw in landed in a sock, hanging to dry above the fireplace. Sound familiar? Another version of the story tells of Nicholas’ request to remain anonymous until after his death. It was these types of stories that helped develop St Nicholas into the images we have of him today.


Under the persecution of Diocletian and Maximillian Nicholas was imprisoned.

During his life it is suggested that he had an important role to play in the development of Christianity. When Constantine became emperor, Nicholas was released with countless others and returned to his preaching only to find a new threat: Arianism. According to one biographer (writing five centuries after Nicholas's death), "Thanks to the teaching of St. Nicholas, the metropolis of Myra alone was untouched by the filth of the Arian heresy, which it firmly rejected as a death-dealing poison." Other biographers claim Nicholas was involved in the Council of Nicea and was a key spokesperson against the heresy. However Nicholas isn't mentioned in the records of the meeting.

Wherever the truth lays, between legend and fact, Nicholas, Bishop of Myra was an inspirational figure for the church. By the reign of Justinian (d. 565), Nicholas was famous, and the emperor dedicated a church in Constantinople to him. By the 900s, a Greek wrote, "The West as well as the East acclaims and glorifies him. Wherever there are people, his name is revered and churches are built in his honor. All Christians reverence his memory and call upon his protection." The West became even more interested when his "relics" (that is his decayed remains) were taken from Myra to Bari, Italy, on May 9, 1087.

Bari is where we live, and tomorrow I will explain a bit more about his influence on the church, and the development of the modern Santa Claus.

Pastors Gathering

Recently we helped to organise a gathering for the Leaders for the Assemblies of God here in Italy. The purpose of the meeting was to help create a real sense of a movement amongst the churches. At the moment the churches a joined through relationship. This will go only go so far. What any movement needs is a sense of togetherness. This can be created through rules and regulations that people must adhere to, or by a commitment to a common set of values that drive a movement forward.



I prefer the idea of a set of values that bind the churches together, giving an identity and unity while allowing for diversity.

For this meeting we invited Peter Sleebos, the President of the Assemblies of God in the Netherlands and his wife Corrie. They are a fantastic couple who have done some great things in the Netherlands. Under their leadership, in the last 10 years, the Assemblies of God in the Netherlands has grown from about 50 to 200 churches and making an impact across the nation.

It was a significant time with the Pastors as Peter Sleebos challenged them to seek God’s purposes for the movement and to understand who God has called us to be as a movement of churches.

Corrie ministering to the ladies.

The all important 3 course lunch!

The Digital Story of the Nativity

The Power of Pictures

I love Mark Batterson's recent post on the importance of painting pictures. A picture, he says, is word ten million words.

He notes: Nothing is more powerful than a picture. It can move in ways that words cannot. It bypasses defense mechanisms. It gets past the mind and invades the soul. A well-painted picture changes minds in ways that words cannot. That's one reason why the parables are so powerful. Jesus painted pictures.

Batterson, whose church meets in movie theaters sees the movie theater screens as postmodern stained glass.

The modern church was very wordy. And there is nothing wrong with words. But we also need pictures! And if the gospel is going to capture the imagination of our generation I think it'll be worth words AND pictures!

Teaching Opportunities in Thailand

We just received a newsletter from our friends Malcolm and Sandy Potter who are based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They are from Cromwell in New Zealand and have been serving in Thailand for more than 10 years now. They are a fantastic couple who have had a focus on helping to establish Baan Fai Mai Tribal Youth Centre in Mae Chaem, about 3 hours from Chiang Mai. When I first visited the original Youth Centre about 12 years ago it was in a rundown building offering not much more than a shelter for Tribal Children. Through foul means this property was effectively stolen and the funds pocketed by a ‘trusted’ national worker. Now, under the work of the potters they have established a new, wonderful property to serve the needs of Tribal Children who are sent to be educated in the local High School. It has also becoming a missions centre as the students go back to their previous unreached villages to share the gospel.

In their newsletter the Potters describe the needs of the school that they have sent their children to on Chiang Mai. Grace International School serves the children of missionaries from more than 26 different nations. More than one third of the world's population is within 3 hours flight Chiang Mai so it has become a strategic centre in Asia for missionaries.

The school occupies it purchased 11 years ago that use to house a popular athletic club. While the school has enjoyed the gymnasium, athletic courts, weight and racquetball courts and Olympic-sized swimming pool for more than a decade, the Nittibukon, an association representing the surrounding neighborhood, recently sued to regain control of the property.

The court case concluded in August with the judge ruling in favor of the association, meaning, in effect, that Grace International School will have to restore the property to its original condition and turn it over to the association

The schools is halfway to raising finds to purchase a new property. You can check out the Saving Grace website for details on how you can help.

Also, Grace School is looking for teachers to come an serve at the school. In order to provide quality, low cost education to the children of Christian workers in Southeast Asia teachers and other foreign staff come as volunteers through sending agencies and raise 100% of their own financial support. Teachers serve the same way as missionary does, with support from back home. This is an exciting opportunity for teachers to serve overseas in an English speaking environment. Grace is looking for teachers for the 2011/2012 year.

So if you are a teacher, and after an adventure for a couple of years or more, than why not consider this? I have visited Chiang Mai 9 or 10 times and love it. It is a great, inexpensive city with all your modern conveniences as well as the charm of 'real' Asia. It is the close to stunning mountains, rivers and waterfalls. You can find out more information about serving there on the schools website.