JESUS CHRISTIAN NEWSLETTER #128, OCTOBER, 2010
Farewell to Australia
The start of the month saw many of us flying home from the reunion in Australia. In the end, only Ross, Barry, and Trevor were left minding the Oz base.
Paul and Ulrike in New Zealand
We failed to report last month on the visit Paul and Ulrike made to New Zealand just after the cruise ended. It may have been their last chance to visit with Paul's family, as their passports are expiring this year, and there are not plans to renew them. Paul's parents are both in their late 70s.
While in the Land of the Long White Cloud, they distributed 1,000 dvds, and Paul was interviewed by an independent radio station on the topic of freeganism.
Visit with Boyd and Sheri
On their way to Kenya three weeks later, Dave and Cherry also passed through New Zealand. They had a great visit with their daughter and son-in-law (Boyd and Sheri), granddaughter, grandson and his wife, and two great-granddaughters. It was wonderful to be able to catch up on what has been happening in that family over the past twelve years since Boyd and Sheri left the Jesus Christian community.
Autonomous Teams
We now have several autonomous teams working on three different continents, in addition to those of us operating as a single community.
In England, Roland, Sue, and Danny continue to work as a family on their own, but in close co-operation with ourselves.
In the U.S., the twins have started up their own faith missionary base.
And in Kenya, Karl and Giddy have moved in with Casey in Nairobi, to get out thousands of Christian books to travellers on buses in the city. The third book in the "Survivors" trilogy, "Destroyers" has arrived and is causing quite a stir, since it describes the story of a young Kenyan man going through the last days.
Russell Crowe
Before leaving Australia, Jayme and Jeremy bumped into actor Russell Crowe while on a faith outreach in Sydney. They gave him a copy of the dvd "More Than Just a Band" and he said that he might email his thoughts after viewing it.
Survival Outreaches
Survival outreaches are continuing on three continents, with some good faith-building experiences.
Trevor and Barry spent a week on the streets of Sydney near the end of the month, while Ross tended to some business matters.
About the same time Jesse and Reinhard did much the same thing in Los Angeles. They spent two days distributing free literature, then switched over to free work, including some volunteer work at the local museum. They also made signs saying "The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil", and "Don't take the Mark of the Beast" which elicited many positive comments from passersby at a local college but no deep conversations.
High School Reunion
On their way through Los Angeles, Dave and Cherry joined in with distributing copies of "Listening" there for a couple of days. They experienced great hospitality from Jesse's family, who invited the whole team to spend the night.
Original plans were for Dave and Cherry to attend a high school class reunion in Sacramento, but they decided against the extra expense at the last minute. Dave did, however, prepare a series of profiles on what members of his class have been doing for the past 48 years since they graduated. It took about six months of emails around the world to gather the material for the yearbook update, but apparently it was well received at the reunion, which included all former students of the tiny school where Dave and cherry first met 50 years ago.
Catching up with Friends
After having been away for three months, people in the U.S. and the U.K. were busy catching up with friends whom they had not seen for a while.
In L.A. there were a number of freegan contacts (Ryan and Eric, in particular), as well as the Catholic Workers to visit. Another visitor, Roy, shared about his travels around the U.S. without using money. He is planning a similar overland trek to Argentina... again, without taking any money with him.
In the U.K. members of the team were greeted at the airport by Nigel, a friend for more than fifteen years. Nigel took them to his flat, where they viewed some of his most recent artworks. Betty (from Uganda), who appears in the new video on the microchip implant, was keen to meet up once again, and she has been going out fairly regularly on the streets, distributing books and DVDs.
Fran and Kim got in some extra time with their relatives before leaving Australia near the end of the month.
Sky-diving
Before they left, however, Fran finally got his chance to sky-dive (after yet another cancellation due to bad weather). Amazingly, his mother jumped with him. You can see a short video of Fran's jump by going here:
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jesus-teachings.com]
Adopt-a-Patient becomes Visit-a-Patient
Casey discovered another charity using the name "Adopt-a-Patient" and there was some talk of the two movements merging. Casey decided to change the name of his program to "Visit-a-Patient", but some good ties have been formed between the two charities.
Since returning to Kenya, Casey has made a small football shooting net for children at the hospital. From all reports, it is getting a lot of use.
Another Typhoid Outbreak
Volunteers at the centre in Kenya have been hit with typhoid once again. However, the symptoms were quite mild by comparison to last time. It seems that once you have experienced typhoid, your body builds up semi-immunity.
Veg-powered Vexations
The U.K. team has been busy with repairs to their various vehicles since returning from Australia. Complications relating to the switch to recycled veg oil as fuel have resulted in some teething problems. They are presently using a flocculant called magnasol to remove moisture from the oil, but there are rumours that this chemical can also cause excess wear on the engine. Time will tell.
The Web Site
Fran has been busily tidying up the various components of our web site, as well as putting the finishing touches on the two DVDs we produced in Australia. We hope to have copies of the DVDs out on the streets by the end of October... at least in the U.K. But you can watch them now (minus subtitles) on Youtube. Check out these links:
Beyond Justice: [
www.jesus-teachings.com]
The Tyrant Within: [
www.jesus-teachings.com]
New Articles
There are several 'new' articles on the site (http://jesus-teachings.com/new-articles), some of them actually three or four years old, having been discovered in a clean-up of old archives. They include:
Idiot Savants
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What is a Heretic?
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Let Your Light Shine, Pt. 2
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Thou Fool!
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Discussion Topics
As usual, the forum has been quite lively. Sadly, we discovered that a prolific poster on the forum during the previous month "Peter Strong" was really a stooge, trying to gather dirt on our community. It all comes out in a thread called Sorta Scammy Somewhat Scummy, Real Sick Shadie. That is exactly how we felt when we realised that we had been conned. Nevertheless, "Peter's" total failure in getting anything on us made it an educational exercise and a bit of a success overall. Here is the thread:
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A much more positive vibe comes from this inspiring video sermon called "Lukewarm and Lovin' It," sent in by Irish Dave. Please do take the time to watch it. You'll never be the same.
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There may be a slight breakthrough in Joe's family situation, as his father has started communicating once again after four and a half years. Read Jared's posts here:
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And share your own thoughts on what is happening here:
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When the Truth Hurts: excerpts from correspondence which dramatically illustrates the way people reverse their position when "the penny drops" and they realise that truth requires a response from them personally.
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Alex Jones: Prophet of which god? started by Little Rose.
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Managing Time Well based on some notes that Cherry made some time ago.
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www.jesuschristians.com