tour of Africa, showing pictures and sharing stories of traveling around the
continent. It was hard not to feel that we really have a lot of blessings in our
life in Australia, yet the smiles and joy on the faces in these poverty-stricken
places were quite real and authentic. It is a true testimony to the spirit of these
people that they can achieve so much with so little.
Our trivia night was very Bible oriented, so the organizers made sure to
prevent an all-powerful team of ministers and disbursed them each to different
tables. The teams were competitive until Julian’s team came from behind to
steal the win.
David Millar wowed us the next morning with a demonstration of a rod
turning to a serpent and making water turn to blood. Much in the same way
that Moses took these real demonstrations to Pharaoh, we were reminded that
we have to confront the Pharaoh in our own life, who wants to enslave us, and
will not let us go until we put in the effort to see what spiritual work needs to
be done.
On the final day I ran the family session, “That’s Not Fair!” It’s a phrase
we’ve all said at one time or another. The point was that the Lord doesn’t give
to us equally, and that we have to raise our thinking up higher than a basic,
animalistic type of fairness. To do that, some part of us must die.
We’ll do it all again next year in Queensland. Please consider joining us for
fun, learning and friendship.
(See photos of the camp on page 170)
faithful fridays in the land of oz
The Rev. David Lindrooth
Director, General Church Outreach
The team at General Church Outreach has never been busier as it charts its
way in communicating the truths of the New Church to a wider audience than
ever before. As always, our goal has been to communicate the value of these
truths, emphasizing the help they offer to a person’s daily life – the starting
point for faith.
Outreach also strives to provide content that can feed the growing interest
sparked by our initial contact, so that a person can be led gradually to fully
embrace the faith of the New Church, ultimately leading to membership and
participation in one of our congregations.
Front and center in our efforts is what we call Journey Video. Online
video is the fastest growing segment of internet use today, with many people
preferring to view short films on their smart phones or tablets instead of
traditional written content. Because of this trend YouTube has grown to more
than 1 billion users in the last year.
Journey Video has been producing content to showcase the New Church
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