JESUS CHRISTIANS NEWSLETTER, JULY, 2010
New Member
We have a young new disciple, name Trevor, who met us while visiting Australia from Canada. It is early days yet, but Trevor appears to be very keen about spiritual things, even though he was a self-professed atheist just a few months ago. He is participating in all of the activities planned for the reunion, and we were even able to get a berth for him on the cruise.
Reunion
The international Jesus Christian reunion officially started this month, so most of our news is from Australia.
Video Production
Half of the team has been distributing books, mostly in Sydney, and the other half has been piecing together footage shot in many places around the world, as they race to complete two video documentaries before the end of July.
One, called "The Tyrant Within", is about the Mark of the Beast. It examines the various approaches taken to this topic by religious groups as well as conspiracy theorists, settling on an interpretation of the passage which emphasises the need for us to examine our own motives with regard to money, and how it influences us spiritually.
The other, at least tentatively called "Beyond Justice", deals with three different Jesus Christian experiments involving substitutionary punishment, one of them being the incident in Kenya which was in response to the police practice of whipping offenders, and the second was the trial in Long Beach for Joe's family.
Johnson Apology
A new development with regard to Joe's family is that his mother has posted an apology for "all the trouble that has happened". Her apology (and subsequent attempts by Joe to determine how much responsibility she personally accepts for the attack on Reinhard and the lies that followed it in court depositions) can be viewed here:
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Phantom Runs
It has been particularly exciting to participate in group phantom runs and daily training sessions, with so many people running together on the same track.
We have finally found a training regimen which is harder than the old repetitions (six 400 metre runs at five minute intervals), and that is something that we call repetition relays. Runners push themselves to the max four times in twenty minutes, in an effort to help their team. (And usually end up wrecked for the rest of the day as a result!) It is leading to new levels of fitness for many of our members. (Although Casey, who has not been doing them, just posted a time of 10:49 today, the fastest time posted by any of our members for quite some time now.)
Musical Performances
Jesus Christian musicians are rocketing to fame with three public appearances in eight days in Australia, and more scheduled as crowds pick up at each performance. Because we are trying to keep our location secret during the reunion, we cannot say where the shows took place, but rest assured that these venues are, like, really huge... with more than fifty people at one performance! Seriously, the shows have been very well received, and we have been getting many requests for more appearances, including a special "Christmas in July" show.
Visit from Boop
Boopalan has dropped in for a visit with the team still left in Kenya, where he has been a big help as usual, lending a hand in the garden, helping with electrical repairs, visiting high school students in the local area, and doing other chores around the compound. He also helped Rob with repairs to the solar hot water heater, which was hooked up incorrectly by a local plumber.
World Cup
Because the English teaching program in Kenya is on hold at the moment, there has been more time for the Kenya team (especially Karl) to visit the local "cinema" (a TV in a hut) to watch soccer games from the World Cup in South Africa. Locals were very disappointed to see Ghana eliminated as the last African team in the competition.
Over in Australia, Fran in particular stayed up much of the night to see Argentina bundled out of the competition by Germany, 4-0. Now that our favorites have been eliminated, maybe we can get some other tasks done!
Orphanage Visit
Two local regulars, Jesse and Julius, visited for a few days during the month, and did a lot of work around the compound. We went to the orphanage in Kakamega and played with the kids there while Jesse and Julius were with us.
Book Distribution
Our team of book distributers continue to do well in Nairobi and other towns, getting out thousands of books to schools around the country this month.
Air Link to Nairobi
The local airstrip, which is rarely ever used, has started getting a bit of traffic recently. There are now two flights to Nairobi each day and sometimes we see helicopters coming and going.
Adopt-a-patient
Casey has started up a website to promote the adopt-a-patient program which he started in Nairobi. With this program, volunteers take responsibility for visiting individual patients at a local hospital. The program has been steadily growing over the past year, and is much appreciated by both the staff and patients at the hospital.
Here is the link to the web site:
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www.adopt-a-patient.webs.com]
New Articles
Five new articles have gone up this month, including a letter from a young woman who visited our community and then faced irrational opposition by friends and relatives afterwards. Her observations give an accurate reflection of what many face when they befriend us. Jeremy looks at what it means to "call on the name of the Lord" in an article called "Once Saved, Always Saved"; Simon challenges people to resist condemnation in his article "Choose Your Tree"; Bob shows how it is easier to love people if we understand that they are just products of their own environment; and Dave has written about the concept of any
action being the start of a downward trend in "The Slippery Slope".
You can see all of these articles by clicking here:
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www.jesus-teachings.com]
Forum Topics
As usual, there are a lot of new topics being discussed on the forum. We encourage all of our readers to join the forum and share their thoughts on some of these topics.
An inspirational call by Paul for all of us to "Think Big":
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Discussion about censorship on the internet, started by Ross:
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A near disaster reminds Rob about just how tenuous our lives are:
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Comments on the movie, "The Matrix", by Epsillion:
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Discussions about the Exclusive Brethren from a young ex-member of that group:
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A new look at the whole idea of prosperity, and what it means for a true Christian, by Simon:
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Some thoughts about Vanity, started by Catherine:
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How do we change the system (or CAN we change it)? by Alf:
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