Many people do not understand why we call our Church, Wesley Mission. They do not understand our heritage. They do not understand why we speak of Wesley Church, Wesley Theatre, Wesley Hospital and so on. Why we have in our foyer a 250 year old chair made by the most famous chair maker in history, Thomas Chippendale, identified simply as “JOHN WESLEY’S CHAIR”. Many people come to Wesley Mission because of what we are and what we do, members of School for Seniors, overseas visitors, young people, as well as regular worshippers – and few know our history. That is why I am constantly remind people of our heritage. Our heritage prepares us for our destiny. If you do not know from whence you have come, you do not know where you are heading!

Many organisations grow large then lose their purpose and power. The original direction and guidelines are lost. They lose their cutting edge. The greatest change in Australian churches over the past three decades has been the decline in significance and numbers of the mainline denominations, and the rapid increase of large congregations that do not belong to mainline denominations.

The mainline denominations have not adapted to the changing environ¬ment and have become out-dated and are dying of rigor mortis, what we call the “dinosaur syndrome”. Wesley Mission has not done that. We have kept our purposes and grown by adapting to the changing needs of society. We are concerned for our traditions but committed to the future. That is because we have seen ourselves as a pilgrim people on the move.

1. THE JEWS WERE A PILGRIM PEOPLE.

The Israelites were led by Moses through the wilderness of Sinai to the land of Canaan. As the people looked down from the mountain and saw the land that had been their destiny, Moses warned them before they entered it, not to forget that they would always be a pilgrim people. They were to remember every year their traditions through keeping the Passover, and by giving thanks to God who guided them all the way. They went on pilgrimages to Mt Sinai and Jerusalem for Festivals of thanksgiving.

A group of Psalms, 120 134 are known as “The Songs of Ascent”. They were sung as the Pilgrims walked up the mountain roads to Jerusalem. I, also, read the songs of the pilgrim when I stood by the Jaffa Gate: “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go unto the House of the Lord.’ And now we are here, standing inside the gates of Jerusalem! This is where the tribes come to give thanks to the Lord. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Psalm 122

Possession of that land has become the absorbing passion of the Jews. Those who suggest Israel should share territory with the Arabs do not understand history and what it is like to be pilgrim people finally reaching their destiny.

2. EARLY CHRISTIANS WERE A PILGRIM PEOPLE.

The early church knew this earth was not their home: “there is no permanent city here for us on earth; we are looking for the city that is to come…for the city which God has designed and built, the city with permanent foundations.” Heb.13:14;11:16 John saw a new Jerusalem, the city of God, which he prepared for us as our heavenly home. Paul said proudly, “We are citizens of heaven.” Peter called the early Christians facing persecution: “My friends, strangers and pilgrims in their world.” Christians were pilgrims, their destiny: heaven. While on earth, they were a pilgrim people, heading to a heavenly Jerusalem.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries some English Christians called themselves “Puritans” because they tried to purify the church. They were persecuted by the Church of England. Some became Baptists and some Congregationalists. The Uniting Church in Australia has this Pilgrim tradition in our heritage. Some Pilgrims were forced to flee England. In September 1620 they set sail in “The Mayflower” from Plymouth with 102 passengers. They were bound for America. They were known as the “Pilgrim Fathers”, the founders of America.

In 1630 William Bradford, Governor of Massachusetts USA, wrote the Pilgrims were a scriptural people who “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth.” They understood their heritage and sailed towards their destiny of a new land. In Australia early Wesleyans, Congregationalists and Baptists had much in common. In ethos they were similar in attitude to the authority of the state, the centrality of Scripture, the need of personal faith, and a commitment to Christ.

They were pilgrims on the way to heaven by way of a new country, a harsh and distant land. But it offered them religious freedom to serve the Lord. Christians over many centuries have thought of themselves as a pilgrim people heading for a new world of love and peace.

We have worshipped God’s grace and goodness as the first and primary response to the Lord. From 1812 when some farmers, freed convicts and soldiers gathered in a house in the area now under the approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, there has never been a Sunday in war or peace, in times of affluence and depression, during building and rebuilding, and in the times of both Sir Alan Walker and myself, up to the present, when the Lyceum Hall was ravaged by fire, there has never been a Sunday in 200 years when our people have not gathered and sung the praises of His grace. “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!”

For 200 years, our work has continued to grow. God has been faithful throughout all this time. We have undertaken during recent decades, hundreds of millions of dollars of buildings in order to do the work of ministry.

No church in the world has spent so much on new buildings as we have. There is no church in the United States, for example, that has over 4,600 paid staff as we had when I retired. How can we possibly afford all this? It is solely what I was taught when I accepted the call to be Superintendent in 1977: “You will find that this ministry sees on a daily basis the miracle of money. God’s work, done in His name, never lacks God’s supply!”

Over all the years, God has been faithful, and enabled us to accomplish great works. We are a people of commitment, personal discipline, and obedience to the Word, proclaiming the Gospel and serving those who cannot repay. We pray for God’s provision, and He is always faithful.

3. Wesley Mission IS A PILGRIM PEOPLE.

We are like the Israelites in wilderness. We are like the early Christians who lived by faith in God. We are like those Protestants of old who withstood persecution to witness to their faith in biblical principles. We possess the heritage of a pilgrim people.

a. Pilgrims remember their heritage of faith.

The Uniting Church in the centre of Canberra, Adelaide, Launceston, Doncaster, and in other places in Australia, is called Pilgrim Church. That reflects their Congregationalist heritage. But Wesley Mission is also a pilgrim church, for we too live by faith. Our church grows by conversions, unlike much of the church in Australia that grew through transfers of members from other churches. Few members join us by transfer, but almost all join us by conversion and baptism.

We have offered a living Christ to a dying world, and our members live in the reality of their faith. Peter said: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” 1 Pet. 2:9 Faith is a personal possession and our heritage of faith is rich with significance. We have a living heritage. We are people who have felt our hearts “strangely warmed.” as John Wesley put it.

b. Pilgrims meet in thanksgiving to God.

The Israelites came to Jerusalem from all over the country each year for an act of thanksgiving to God. The Pilgrim Fathers met each year in a thanksgiving meal and service with an offering to God. America still celebrates Thanksgiving with family meals every November. We too end every year with a thanksgiving meal and service. This is part of our pilgrim heritage.

c. Pilgrims practise their faith.

Those Pilgrims in the early Church, in Britain, the USA and in the colony of Sydney proclaimed their faith and practised their deeds. From the very beginning there was an expression of their faith in practical deeds of Christian compassion. Wesley Mission always had a strong social conscience, a care for little children at risk, for fallen women and drunken sailors. Social justice was part of evangelical proclamation.

We have proclaimed that evangelism without social action is irrelevant to human need. Social action without evangelism is flowers without fruit. A born again Christian without a social conscience is irrelevant. A social activist without a regenerate heart is irresponsible. But together word and deed becomes the most powerful commitment both to Him as Lord and them as neighbours: relevant and responsible, flowers and fruit. This practical faith is part of our heritage.

Last month, a teenage surf lifesaver drowned while competing in the national championships on the Gold Coast. Matthew Barclay, 14, drowned while competing in an under-15 board race at Kurrawa Beach. He was the third teenager to die during national championships at the same beach since 1996. Surf Lifesaving Australia held a prayer and memorial service on Sunday morning as a mark of respect before the final day of competition. Thousands of surf lifesavers and their families took part in the service.

Among them were our son Peter and his wife Trina, and their four children. Three of our grandchildren were competing in those same titles as they did the previous year. The three are all gold medal winners and State title holders. To swim in the Australian Championships has been their dream as it was two years ago. But each time death has come to a fellow competitor.

What an image of our modern world: drowning while surrounded by thousands of life-savers! Outside of Wesley Centre, are visitors, homeless people, single parents, aged people, the disabled, dying of loneliness, alcoholism, drug addiction, poverty, mental illness and so on. We could be life savers to them, if we remember our calling as Pilgrims, and commit to our ministry. As our forefathers used to sing here with gusto: “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save!”

One man was famous in recent times for calling his friend “Pilgrim”. John Wayne in the film, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” used the term “pilgrim” 23 times in this classic 1962 film directed by John Ford of his friend Jimmy Stewart. Stewart plays the part of a small town lawyer who wants to bring law and order and decency into a community that is dominated by a powerful bully, Liberty Valance, who kills people who oppose him.

Stewart is determined to arrest him, but in any gun play, he hasn’t the experience, the inclination, or the plan to kill Liberty Valance. But against the odds, he is prepared to lay down his life for what he believes is right. He is Pilgrim, a man of faith and determination who against the odds stands up for what he believes. He receives last minute help from one who stands in the shadows. That is what we are. We do not have the money, the power or the plan to defeat the Evil One, but we stand up for what we believe to make this world a better place regardless of personal cost, but we have Another who helps us: “and behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadows keeping watch o’er His own”! (AHB 499)

d. Pilgrims know their destiny.

The Children of Israel knew their Promised Land. The Pilgrim Fathers believed they had an opportunity in North America to establish God’s Will on earth. A few years ago, I was in the lounge room of the Postmaster’s resid¬ence attached to the historic Hunter’s Hill Post Office in Sydney. In that National Trust classified building, the then postmaster and his wife had lived for 18 years. She was an invalid, but a remark¬able woman who knew every¬one from spending her days behind the Post Office counter in her wheel chair. She invited people to her home to hear me speak about faith in the Risen Christ. She gathered a large group of people. Many of the women were well ¬dres¬sed and expen¬sively pre¬sent¬ed and obviously en¬joyed living in some of the fin¬est homes in that ex¬clusive Harbour side point.

While I was speaking about what belief in the Risen Christ can do for a person, one woman who was caught up in my address inter¬rupted me, tak¬ing no notice of the other people in the room: “I don’t believe in God, yet every night before I sleep I pray that I will wake up in the morning. I am terri¬fied of dying. I cannot bear the thought of not waking up, and of being dead. But what sounds strange is that many times I wish I were dead, because I cannot stand living!”

While preparing this talk, a man rang me in despair. His marriage had broken, divorce had divid¬ed his family, his wife had gone overseas, his only child had been made a ward of the State and every legal appeal had now been ex¬hausted. The court told him Thursday, “There are no more opt¬ions. You can never see your son again.” He cried on the phone to me, “Dr Moyes, should I commit suicide? Is there any point in my living without my child?” As the line in “SHOWBOAT” says: he was “tired of living and scared of dy¬ing…..” Many people fearfully face death.

Every football team has its own song. Every college has its own motto. In 1884, Rev William George Taylor, the then young Superintendent who brought remarkable new life to our ministry, discovered at the end of his first sermon, a slogan for our ministry. It was a wonderful service with many commitments to Jesus Christ, and a new breath of spirit into the old work. It came to him in a flash. The sentence was “A Living Christ For A Dying World.” That sentence is inscribed beneath the memorial window to Rev Taylor in Wesley Church, just over our large baptistry.

The English believers among our early convicts knew that they were heading for a land of freedom through the valley of the shadow of death. We too have a vision and know our destiny. We too are a Pilgrim people. We know where we are going. God has spoken: “I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Our early fathers liked to tell the story of John Bunyan. Why? Because in the years 1640-60 the Puritans exercised political control in the British Isles. The Anglican establishment was abolished in 1645. Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector. He allowed freedom for each community to follow the church order it preferred. But with the return of the Stuarts, and the restoration of the Church of England, some 2,000 Puritan clergy left their parishes rather than conform to the restored church. Many non-conformists were imprisoned over the next twenty-five years for illegally holding non-Anglican services, among them was John Bunyan.

John Bunyan 1628-88 was the son of a poor tinker. In the 1650s he served for a time in the Parliamentary army under Cromwell during the Civil War. Bunyan despaired over his spiritual state for several years. Finally he experienced assurance of God’s saving work in him. He joined the Bedford congregation, and soon began to preach successfully for them. After the Restoration in 1660 he was imprisoned in Bedford jail for twelve years. He was again imprisoned 1676. It was during these jail years that he wrote his books: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners 1666 and his own spiritual pilgrimage, “The Pilgrim’s Progress”.

In that book Christian meets other Pilgrims and some enemies like Pliable and Giant Despair. His hazardous journey takes him from the City of Destruction, through the Slough of Despond, to the foot of the cross; then on through the Valley of the Shadow, Vanity Fair and Doubting Castle to finally cross the river to reach the shining city. Bunyan’s language is a happy mixture of homespun phrases and echoes of the English Bible. The Pilgrim’s Progress soon established itself as a perennial classic. When Christian and the other pilgrims, Mr Great Heart and Mr Standfast and Mr Valiant for Truth come to the Enchanted Ground they sang:

“Who would true valour see let him come hither,
One here will constant be, come wind, come weather:
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.”

We join that tradition of valiant people who go forward in faith to be a pilgrim. God still does it if we are committed pilgrims like John Bunyan. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. Hold an assurance, a confidence, a conviction, a certainty that Christ has saved you. Testify to what you have felt in your heart by faith.

That’s our heritage. Our destiny is in Heaven. One of the great truths we must take with us is the fact that we honour our heritage, and we will achieve our destiny. We are a pilgrim people. This world is not our home. Our destiny lies in heaven. We live for that day when we too shall stand on heaven’s ground as a pilgrim of faith.

I have made the point frequently that much of Australia, including the State of New South Wales, is barren, dry, desert or scrubland—and too harshly inhospitable to support life. Only a small percentage of the 800,642 square kilometres of land in this State has sufficient good soil, abundant water, and the right weather to allow life to flourish—and allowing life to flourish is what we should be doing with this land. We should not allow destruction of precious land that has all the requisites for growing food; nor should we sell it, loan it, or give access to other people to destroy it with wasteful and damaging technologies.

Let us consider an activity that is known to be harmful—for instance, the long-established, unfettered mining exploration permitted by the State Government, this tearing up of the very fabric of life, with resulting despoliation of groundwater, and human and animal ecosystems and habitats, leaving them unusable afterwards, and taking all the financial profits offshore to foreign shareholders, so that it is not even we who get a benefit from this devil’s bargain.

That is an obscene scenario, but that is what is happening right now, as we speak. According to the 2006 Census the vast majority of people in New South Wales, 93 per cent, live in urban areas and tend not to have had any experience of the basic truth that we are utterly dependent on the land for our very lives. It would be news to many city people that food does not just arrive fully formed, clean and packaged, in our shops.

However, past generations were still living on the land and knew these things, observed the effect of the passing seasons, saw the interrelationship of weather and growth, worked in harmony with the life cycle of the animals and birds, and understood the primacy of soil and water.

Despite modern people’s technological savvy, they have no idea how this basic earthy reality works—they are more caught up in the virtual world of their electronic gadgets and have experienced nothing of the food chain. That disconnect from the reality of food growing, and our dependence on systems of water, soil, weather, and the labour of our fellow human beings, has led to the blindness that lets the mining industry ride roughshod over those few people remaining on the land.

Not all land is created equal, and not all land can grow food—it takes many different factors to make good agricultural land. The wilful destruction of our prime New South Wales agricultural land is genuinely wicked—in the original sense of the word, meaning evil. The claim that halting mining of agricultural land will impact on mining jobs is true, but if we do not halt mining it will impact on the wellbeing and livelihood of countless people, the inviolability of their homes, the value of their farms, the aesthetic attraction of the rural setting which sustains tourism and, most importantly, destroy an important part of the food supply for our population now and in the future. Exactly whose interests are paramount in this situation? Certainly not the mining industry’s!

Surely it is obvious that these prime lands must be preserved—at all costs—for the feeding of our people. That is not a Green political ploy; it is a logical, a Christian, and a democratic desire. The State Government needs to take steps now to protect the population from the effects of climate change, the current and expected future fluctuations in world economies, resulting changes in global and local markets, and the tumultuous changes that are inevitable with peak oil.

What is critical to our future food security is our wonderful New South Wales farmland, such as is found in the 7,000 square kilometres of fertile black soils in the Liverpool Plains. According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, crop yields on the Liverpool Plains are consistently 40 per cent above the national average. This is due to the high water-holding capacity of the soils, the region receiving dependable rainfall, and the excellent underground aquifers for irrigation. We should let nothing endanger them.

The future of every organic farmer in this part of Australia, which brings added value to their crops and assures overseas sales for the benefit of Australia, is placed in total jeopardy if mining access continues. As discussed before, the Liverpool Plains yield 40 per cent of the national average. The 16 year average produced by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries shows consistent, drought-proof winter and summer annual crop production to be over 180,000 tonnes of wheat, over 200,000 tonnes of sorghum, over 5,000 tonnes of oats, over 2,000 tonnes of soybeans, over 60,000 tonnes of barley, over 29,000 tonnes of corn, over 19,000 tonnes of sunflowers, and over 1.2 million tonnes of cotton.

According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, the food bowl of Liverpool Plains brings to our table each year the following items: 365 million loaves of bread, 62.5 million packets of pasta, 144 million bottles of beer, 5.4 million packs of muesli, 8 million litres of sunflower oil, 58 million boxes of cornflakes, 276 million pairs of jeans, over 200 tonnes of sorghum for cattle and chickens, $110 million worth of beef production and massive production of chickpeas, soybeans, mung beans, canola, olives, turkeys, pigs, lamb and wool, lentils and pulses.

Dr Susan Thompson, from the Planning and Urban Development Program at the University of New South Wales Faculty of the Built Environment, recently expressed at a conference her view that policy regarding long-range food sufficiency should be included in State and local government planning, and should take into account all aspects of land use, health and equity, and I agree with her.

The impact of climate change and decreasing rainfall in New South Wales makes it all the more critical to retain agricultural areas where the conditions are good, such as the Liverpool Plains and the Upper Hunter. These areas are the State’s food bowls and they grow enormous quantities of grain and seed crops, including wheat, canola, sunflower and sorghum, in wonderful abundance. The flat farmlands are dependent on underground aquifers and surface drainage, both of which would be contaminated and otherwise physically damaged by the various forms of mining proposed by the industry.

Mining contaminants include heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, as well as carcinogenic and radioactive compounds, which should not be allowed into the environment and water tables. There should be a strenuous effort to strengthen the laws protecting our precious arable land and the water that it requires for safe, uncontaminated crops.

The Government claims that it is committed to ecologically sustainable development of all industries, including the mining industry. How then is it that the Mining Act, as it stands, destroys livelihoods, heritage value, groundwater and streams, and leaves behind ecological disasters, with the proceeds going into the pockets of overseas investors, not even our national coffers? This is madness and it surely is not evidence of ecologically sustainable development.

It is, rather, ruinous development and terribly harmful to the people trying to make a living on the land. The “right” to have your land “remediated” after it has been violated and destroyed in the first place is meaningless. So-called remediation cannot bring back the exquisitely complex fabric of life that was there before it was obliterated.

There has been much admirable action by community members in protesting against current policy. Farming families in the Caroona area have banded together to blockade, on a roster basis, any workers from BHP from accessing property that had been granted to them for exploration by the State Government. Friends and neighbours and local citizens have supported the farmers for many months now in keeping BHP Billiton from getting onto their properties.

People who want to live their lives on the land, and who want a future there, whether their families have been there for five generations or have just recently shifted there from a city, should be supported to do so. We need these people on the land to grow the food that city people depend on. It is inspiring to see such communities sticking together against the rich multinational corporations whose economic interests are given preference over those of the people who live there.

The frame of mind that allows governments to sell access to minerals out from under people in their homes and farms is from another age, and is anything but enlightened. This profligate world view is not one that has any regard for social justice, and seriously needs to be urgently re-examined by us today.

The Mining Act came into effect before the term “climate change” was ever heard of, when the outback seemed to go on forever and the Australian population was small. We no longer live in that age; we live in a time when every square metre of rich ground with good running water needs to be recognised for the amazing blessing that it is, and must be cherished and protected.

I would like to emphasise that point: our scarce food-bowl country in New South Wales must be recognised as such by the Government, and cherished and protected by the Government. While in Parliament, I received hundreds of messages from people who have telephoned, written and emailed me concerning my stance. Not one person who contacted me supports mining, or exploration for potential mining, on agricultural land.

The Liverpool Plains agricultural area relies partly on groundwater for irrigation purposes. Irrigation licence allocations have been cut back severely under the Water Management Act—up to 90 per cent for some individuals—and local people are very aware of their water allocation. Mining exploration processes would take even more water away, which would also permanently contaminate it, rendering it unusable for any other purpose.

The New South Wales Farmers Association does not support the use of the existing Department of Primary Industries land classification system for defining prime agricultural land because it is based on obsolete data. Agriculture is mankind’s most important activity, as we all have to eat to survive. Paul Ehrlich, in his book One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption and the Human Future, posits that: “Modern civilisation’s most important challenge is the provision of an adequate diet to everyone; in a world where people in many other parts of the world are starving everyday it is an abomination for us to allow the destruction of arable land.

Resources such as agricultural lands and sources of fresh water are elements of natural capital that are being lost or degraded at an alarming rate and being turned into non-renewable resources”

This problem of the destruction of land is not new. I remember from my studies of the classics, in particular philosophy in classical Greek, the philosopher Plato in his Critias described land deforestation and agricultural deterioration in the Greece of 650 BC with words that could be used today when looking at the aftermath of mining exploration: “What now remains compared with what then existed is like the skeleton of a sick man, all the fat and soft earth having wasted away, and only the bare framework of the land being left.”

Plato’s warnings went unheeded, as our warnings today are not being heeded by the Government, because throughout history the rich and powerful have taken, used up and spat out whatever they wanted in order to please themselves. I hope the future will be very different. I will quote only one other person, a remarkable German scholar of mining and metallurgy: “The strongest argument of the detractors is that the fields are devastated by mining operations Also, they argue that the woods and groves are cut down, for there is need of an endless amount of wood for timbers, machines, and the smelting of metals. And when the woods and groves are felled, then the beasts and birds are exterminated, very many of which are pleasant and agreeable. Further, when the ores are washed, the water which has been used poisons the brooks and streams, and either destroys the fish or drives them away. Therefore, the inhabitants of these regions, on account of the devastation of their fields, woods groves, brooks and rivers find great difficulty in procuring the necessaries of life. Thus it is said, it is clear to all that there is greater detriment from mining than the value of the metals which the mining produces.”

That was written by Georgius Agricola in 1556, nearly 500 years ago, and the description of mining’s destruction of the environment is still perfectly apt, is it not? The protection of our prime farmland and its water resources is long overdue.

Charles Colson, once one of the most powerful men under President Nixon has died. He was imprisoned for his part in the Watergate cover-up, was amazingly converted in prison, when released established one of the world’s greatest organizations for helping prisoners and their families, and became one of the 20th Centuries most listened to broadcasters and commentators. I knew him well for more than 30 years, premiered “Born Again” in the Lyceum theatre, and interviewed him regularly on my TV and radio programs. Here is my take on his life and influence and his own testimony of his life. Click here:
http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2007/08/10/chuck-colson

Walking around our dam, our son Peter noticed an inlet pipe was not allowing water into the dam. He disconnected it, and found caught in it the dead body of a bandicoot. A few days later we found further up the pipe, the dead body of a female bandicoot. She had ventured up the pipe thinking it could be used as a nest for her young. She couldn’t turn around and could go backwards. Then the male followed her into the pipe and he was trapped also. I felt sad as I looked at their bodies. Bandicoots are welcome visitors in our garden.

The Bandicoot is a small marsupial. Once abundant in the backyards of suburban homes, unfortunately like many other native mammals, many species have been declining in numbers. The bandicoot ranges in length from about 15 to 56cm and weighs under a kilo. Its fur is coarse and may be orange, greyish or brown in colour with soft white fur underneath. In some species the fur is striped. Its head is long and narrow with a long snout with sharp teeth.

The bandicoot has many incisor teeth, as in the flesh and insect-eating marsupials, and the second and third toes have grown together, as in the herb-eating marsupial, the kangaroo. The bandicoot has large hind legs that are used for hopping. The hind feet have a long central toe and a somewhat smaller outer one. The second and third toes are joined together with only the claws free. They have three long central claws on the forefeet for collecting food, much of which is obtained by digging.

All species are nocturnal and hide during the day in their nest, a hollow log or crevice. The shallow nest is lined with sticks, leaves and grass. Their nests are not permanent. Their diet consists mainly of insects, worms, plants, but they also eat lizards and some small mammals, such as mice. They dig little conical pits looking for beetle larvae. They provide a useful service by eating insects, snails and mice. They also feed on fruit and underground bulbs.
The female, who is smaller than the male of her species, usually bears two young, which are carried about in her well-developed pouch. The pouch contains from four to eight teats. In the warmer states of New South Wales and Queensland the breeding season is continuous. The common gestation period is about 12.5 days, the shortest known for any mammal. They spend their first nine to ten weeks in their mother’s pouch. They grow quickly and are weaned at the age of about 11 weeks. At birth the young is about half an inch long with well-developed fore-limbs. The young bandicoots remain fused to the teat for about five weeks. Hair appears when the animal is about six weeks old and a week later their bodies are covered with a fine smooth coat.

There are two main types – the long-nosed and short-nosed. Bandicoots are one of the few native mammals to have remained abundant close to the major cities of Australia. In suburban Sydney it is the long-nosed species that can be seen. I knew they were in our back yard as I had seen their long thin holes in the lawn and vegie garden as they sniffed out worms and grubs.

The Bilby, or Rabbit-eared Bandicoot, is so named because of their long rabbit-like ears and their habit of building and living in long burrows. They are the only bandicoots that burrow, going down as much as 5 feet or more, and are most active at night. They use their burrows for shelter during the day. Some people promote the Bilby instead of the Easter Bunny so chocolate Bilbys are seen each season in the stores. The Bilby is an endangered species. The long nosed bandicoot is not but the death of a pair by our dam was a sad discovery.

How to be Happy Though MarriedBible Truth Publications, Ballarat1976
Making the Most of HospitalBible Truth Publications, Ballarat1977
He’s an AlcoholicBible Truth Publications, Ballarat1977
The Secret of Confident LivingVital Publications, Melbourne1978
Jesus Christ Superman or Saviour?Vision Press, Sydney1979
Be a WinnerVital Publications, Melbourne1982
Discovering JesusAlbatross, Sydney1984
Discovering JesusLion, U.K. and U.S.A.1984
Twelve Steps to SerenityHodder & Stoughton, Australia1985
Twelve Steps to SerenityHodder & Stoughton, U.K.1985
The Authority and Relevance of the Bible in the Modern WorldBible Society in Australia1985
Discovering PaulAlbatross1986
Discovering PaulLion, U.K. and U.S.A.1986
Listen to the SpiritJoint Board of Christian Education, Melbourne1986
Discovering the Young ChurchAlbatross, Sydney1989
Discovering the Young ChurchLion, U.K. and U.S.A.1989
When Box Hill was a Village
Leaving a Legacy Ark. Sydney, 2005.

Chapters in Published Works:
Richer Every Day Radio Station 2CH, Sydney1984
The Work of an EvangelistWorld Wide Publications USA1984
A Vision ImpartedWorld Wide Publications USA 1984
The Million Dollar Round TableM.D.R.T. Publications USA 1985
In Word and Deed- Evangelism Paternoster Press 1985

Author:
WordTalk (over 1,000 titles) published weekly – 8 pages
sold nationally – 1,000 copies 1976-1996 in each title TRA Publications

Newspaper Columns, Magazine Columns:
The Moorabbin Standard News
(weekly) Standard Publishing Co.1967-1978
The Australian Christian
(fortnightly)Austral Printing & Publishing1968- 1978
Uniting (fortnightly) U.C.A., NSW Synod 1979
Mission Talk (weekly) Wesley Mission 1979-1996
Habitat for Humanity NewsHabitat for Humanity Australia 1989- 1996

Editor:
Focus (weekly)Ascot Vale Church of Christ1957- 1964
The Bulletin (weekly)Ararat Church of Christ 1965-1966
The Sentinel (weekly)Cheltenham Church of Christ 1967-1978
The Bulletin (weekly)Rotary Club of Cheltenham 1974-1977
Impact (quarterly)Vision Press, Sydney 1979-1995
Front Lines (quarterly) Wesley Mission Sydney 1990-2005

Electronic Magazines:
A Christian Voice in Politics (weekly) 2002-2007
A Christian Voice. (weekly) 2007-2012

Books Awaiting Publication:

Critical Works:
“Transforming the City Church”
Hardbound, privately published. Melbourne.1979
Thesis (130,000 words – soft-bound, UTC Library) 1979

“Evangelism and Social Responsibility”
World Theological Fellowship, Michigan.1982

“Christians and Society” – A Christian View of Life and Work1991

“The Church’s Response to Changing Trends n Australian Society”1992

“A Fresh Look at New Testament Baptism” 1993

“Australia’s Changing Workplace” (Nat.Assoc.of Personnel Consultants)1994

“National Health” (Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party) 1994

Studies for Staff and Church Consideration:

The Electric Church: The Church’s use of the media. 1981

The Church’s Role in Healing 1982

The Social Consequences of Organised Crime 1982

Transforming the City Church – (abridged)
Theological Considerations in a new 1982
Lyceum Property Develop¬ment

Word and Deed: The Church and Social Justice.
World Conference, Amsterdam.1983

Habitat for Humanity – Housing Low Income People 1988

Alcohol – The Turning Tide1988
Volunteers Orientation 1988
Seven¬th World Congress on Prevention of Alcoholism 1991
and Drug Dependency (contributor)

Strategy for the Future1991
Report to the Nation1992
Good News for the Poor1992
Legislative Council Standing Committee – Drug Abuse Among Youth 1992
Wesley Mission’s Millennial Megatrends1996

Coptic Christians are always quick to point to St Mark, their founder. Thomas C. Oden’s new book, The African Memory of Mark: Reassessing Early Church Tradition centres on Alexandria, where the church produced both the early church’s greatest defender of orthodoxy (Bishop Athanasius) and its most infamous heretic (Presbyter Arius).

From various African sources, Oden reconstructs a church’s memory of an African apostle, born in what is today Libya. Young John Mark’s family migrated to Jerusalem, where he became one of Jesus’ earliest followers and, significantly, the writer of the earliest Gospel. Mark’s father was likely a cousin to Simon and Andrew, and their family home in Jerusalem became a focus of Christian activity. It was the place where the church prayed when Herod imprisoned Simon Peter. It was also likely the place where Jesus’ core followers gathered to await Pentecost.

John Mark became a key evangelist. His disappointing missions with Paul and Barnabas (another relative) are well known, but African Christians also remember his successful missions to his Libyan birthplace and then to Alexandria, the ancient seat of culture and learning in the region. In 1 Peter, we find this verse: “She who is at Babylon … sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son” (ESV). Many interpreters treat Babylon as a code word for Rome. But Babylon was also a neighbourhood in Alexandria, an urban enclave for expat Jews. That is where the African memory places Peter and Mark.

The African church also remembers Mark’s martyrdom, battered by being dragged through Alexandria’s streets by horses. Mark didn’t die before he appointed successors in Libya and Egypt. Mark’s first convert, a shoemaker named Anianus, succeeded him. He heads the list of bishops, beginning in A.D. 68. The first authoritative list of our present New Testament books came from one of Mark’s successors, Bishop Athanasius, in A.D. 367. The list originated in Alexandria, and was confirmed over the next 30 years by councils in Rome and Carthage. We have our New Testament because of the faithfulness of Mark’s successors.
(Thanks to Dr David Neff Christianity Today Nov 2011)

Last Sunday, Surf lifesavers paddled out and released wreaths in a moving memorial service for the teenager who drowned while competing in national championships on the Gold Coast. Matthew Barclay, 14, drowned while competing in an under-15 board race at the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships at Kurrawa Beach on Wednesday. He was the third teenager to die during national championships at the same beach since 1996.

Surf Lifesaving Australia held a prayer and memorial service on Sunday morning as a mark of respect before the final day of competition. Thousands of surf lifesavers and their families took part in the service. Among them were our son Peter and his wife Trina, and their four children. Three of our grandchildren were competing in those same titles as they did the year Saxon Bird was drowned. The three are all gold medal winners and State title holders. To swim in the Australian Championships has been their dream as it was two years ago. But each time death has come to a fellow competitor.

A few years ago, I was in the lounge room of the Postmaster’s resid¬ence attached to the historic Hunter’s Hill Post Office in Sydney. In that National Trust classified building, the then postmaster and his wife had lived for 18 years. She was an invalid, but a remarkable woman who knew everyone from spending her days behind the Post Office counter in her wheel chair. She invited people to her home to hear me speak about faith in the Risen Christ. She gathered a large group of people. Many of the women were well dressed and expensively presented and obviously enjoyed living in some of the finest homes in the exclusive point.

While I was speaking about what belief in the Risen Christ can do for a person, one woman who was caught up in my address interrupted me, taking no notice of the other people in the room: “I don’t believe in God, yet every night before I sleep I pray that I will wake up in the morning. I am terrified of dying. I cannot bear the thought of not waking up, and of being dead. But what sounds strange is that many times I wish I were dead, because I cannot stand living!”

While preparing this talk, a man rang me in despair. His marriage had broken, divorce had divided his family, his wife had gone overseas, his only child had been made a ward of the State and every legal appeal had now been exhausted. The court told him Thursday, “There are no more options. You can never see you son again.” He cried on the phone to me, “Dr Moyes, should I commit suicide? Is there any point in my living without my child?” As the line “SHOWBOAT” says: he was “tired of living and scared of dying…..” Many people fearfully face death.

A Life Line counsellor of 35 years’ experience once wrote to me: “Every shift as a telephone counsellor has at least one clear mention or imputation of suicide. I believe that most callers have considered it, even if it is not mentioned. One 84 year old man did not know how to face the rest of his life. His son, aged 59, his only support, died in a bypass operation. Now his father longed for death but it would not come. His son should have had extended life, but death came early for him. The previous Saturday I received a call from one of our young counsellors. She was in tears. She had spent three hours with a 14 year old caller who had been raped that morning by her father. To the girl the only solution to the trauma was death. This morning a widow rang me. She was 69. Her husband had died. She could not express her grief without embarrassment. She was crying on the phone saying: “I don’t let my children see me like this. The tears just come when they are gone. The family is fed up with me. You see, while I’m not rich I am comfortably off. Since I don’t appear to have any problems, they think I should cope. I don’t want to live, but I don’t know how to kill myself. I want to kill myself. I want to die. I cry every day. I had a near fatal liver operation six months ago and the doctors pulled me through. But what for?”

Each of these people was seeing death as an exit from problems. But death was something to be feared. They wanted to be dead but were afraid of dying. Is there any way we can fearlessly face death? Can we look death in the face and be totally unafraid like so many brave Christians?

Death and dying are still the great unmentionables in our society. Once sex was the subject never to be discussed. Today death is the unmentionable subject. Our Victorian grandparents were afraid to talk about sex, but they would laugh at us for not being able to handle what they did so easily: the experiences of dying and bravely facing death.

On Easter Day, Jesus Christ came back from the dead. The stone was rolled away. The seal was broken. The grave was left empty with the grave clothes rolled by themselves. Is there any way we can fearlessly face death as did Jesus? Are there any good reasons why we should face death fearlessly? I think of eight reasons to face death fearlessly.

1. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE SUFFERING HAS A PURPOSE.

His suffering was redemptive: some good came of it. I can tell you after training Counsellors every Tuesday night for more than 25years, that so many of the people who ring Life Line are troubled by dying as a result of suffering. But when Jesus came out of the grave He brought good news on the matter of suffering.

He declares that when we suffer, it is not a pointless, fruitless pain. So the writer to the Hebrews writes: Heb 5:8-9 “Although he was a son of God, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

We can learn from Him how to use suffering, see it as part of God’s divine purpose that cannot be defeated. Jesus assures us that suffering can be borne by the person who trusts God, and leans back upon His arms and says: “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” Suffering has a purpose. Peace can fill the suffering heart and take away fear.

2. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE EVIL IS ON A LEASH, GOD LETTING IT GO SO FAR ONLY BEFORE REELING IT IN.

That makes you brave. Whenever I am appalled by the viciousness of people and the cruel way they seem to get away with sin, I remember the Cross. God allows evil to have its sway, but then He reels it in. God is in control.

When they laid the body of Jesus in the tomb the Chief Priests and Pharisees, Pilate and Herod Antipas, the mob who cried out for his death, and the soldiers who had to do it, were all satisfied. They had done their job well. It looked as though evil had triumphed! But when the stone was rolled away, life came forth. Evil is on a leash, God lets it go so far only before reeling it in. That helps us face death fearlessly.

3. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE INJUSTICE MAY APPEAR VICTORIOUS, BUT JUSTICE ULTIMATELY TRIUMPHS.

That encourages you. Today money corrupts power and justice favours the influential. Little people are pushed around and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Barabbas is set free and Christ is crucified. That occurs today. But although the unjust seem to get away with it, “the mills of God grind slow, but they grind exceeding small.”

Eventually justice triumphs. In a rat race where only rats win, God still ensures that justice is done. That makes you brave! Right prevails. Injustice may appear victorious, but justice ultimately triumphs. You can face death bravely.

4. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE TRUTH IS SHOWN TO BE STRONGER THAN FALSEHOOD, LOVE STRONGER THAN HATE, LIFE STRONGER THAN DEATH.

The great virtues sung by poets and taught by philosophers were inverted by the cruelty of the Cross. But with the resurrection of Jesus God vindicated those qualities He had placed into the centre of the fabric of life.

God vindicates the qualities of life not the negatives. Today many people deal in lies, hate and death. But be assured of the eternal values of truth, love and life. Jesus does that in overcoming death. So we march forward unafraid.

5. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE JESUS HAS PIONEERED THE WAY TO LIFE ON OUR BEHALF.

The Bible calls Jesus the pioneer of our faith. He went before us through death and established our future. Therefore, we need not fear death, as He has pioneered the way and assured us all is well. When Jesus died upon the Cross, was buried, and then raised by the power of God to new life, He was what the New Testament called the “first fruits of them that believe”. 1 Cor 15:10

He was the first of all who would trust in God, to discover death was a doorway into eternal life. When you trust Him you follow in the way He has pioneered unafraid!

6. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE HE OVERCAME DEATH SO IT IS NO LONGER INVINCIBLE.

But Jesus did. “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free.” Death was no longer invincible: “O death, where now is thy victory? Where now is thy sting? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 15:54-55 Death is no longer invincible. We do not fear, for Christ has broken the power of death.

7. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE IF WE DIE IN HIM, WE SHALL RISE WITH HIM.

Jesus said: “Because I live, you shall live also”. John 14:19 Paul wrote to Timothy: “If we have died with Him we shall also live with Him”. 2 Tim 2:11

Because we will live with Him, we need not fear death. The most amazing thing about the first Easter was not that Jesus was raised by God’s power from death, but because of our faith and trust in Him we too shall be raised by God to enjoy eternal life. The resurrection of Jesus was the first of the resurrections of all who trust in God through their faith in Jesus. If we die in Him, we need not fear as we shall rise with Him.

8. YOU CAN FACE DEATH FEARLESSLY BECAUSE EVEN IN THE WORST OF LIFE, WE ARE STILL IN GOD’S HANDS.

Many people fear the act of dying. They are fearful lest they die in frailty, senility, in tragedy, accidentally or painfully. The fear of such pain frightens them. But Jesus endured the sufferings of such proportions and still died praying for the forgiveness of men and in such confidence in God in whom He committed His spirit that we too, even in the worst of life know that we will always be in God’s hands.

“We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” As Paul wrote: Rom 8:37-39 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do you not want to be free from the fear of death? There is nothing in life…nor death…that makes us fear. The resurrection of Jesus shows that God reigns!

The Book of Hebrews speaks about how Jesus will, Hebrews 2:15 “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

Fear of death holds people in slavery, a bondage that limits and confines them in every way. Do you not want to be free from the fear of death? When Jesus was raised from the dead, and the seal on the grave was burst asunder, we received the message that even in the worst situation, we are still in God’s hands and God can free us from the slavery of the fear of death. That gives you courage to face death!

The trouble is that many Australians do not know the Easter message and cannot understand what it is all about. One newspaper reporter from “The Sydney Morning Herald” interviewed me about what I had said at one Opera House televised Service which was telecast to the nation: I replied: “In Australia large numbers of people believe in the Risen Lord and live experiencing His personal friendship. The resurrection did not just occur in Jerusalem, over there, then, but occurs here, now, in Sydney whenever people open their hearts and invite the Living Lord into their lives.”

I had said it clearly. She then asked, “Yes, but did you say anything about Easter?”

The Easter message is that you can live fearlessly facing death, because you know that everything is in God’s hands; you know you have the risen Lord within you and you know that life triumphs! That is the message of Easter. You no longer need be afraid. No more tired of living. No more scared of dying.
“Because He lives I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives all fear is gone.
Because I know who holds the future,
Life is worth the living just because He lives.”

Although different places have their persecution and difficulties, none of us would want to be living in Syria at this time. In spite of the Government’s continued shelling of houses and the rising death toll among citizens, Christians in Syria celebrated Easter. Both the Western Easter (8th April) and Eastern Easter (15th April) are recognised as public holidays in Syria.

Syrian Christians continue to suffer, along with all Syrians, amid ongoing violence and political uncertainty. This year, churches held few public processions so as not to make Christians an easy public target for any attacks.
Syrian Christians, like many in Egypt, face a dilemma of allegiance. They regard the current regime as having been a protector for many years and fear that any replacement regime is likely to prove more hostile. Yet along with others, they know that open allegiance to either the government or to the opposition could bring retaliation from the other side.

In the past year, thousands have fled from the city of Homs, including large numbers of Christians. Thousands of Syrians have sought refuge in Lebanon. There have been reports of the targeting of the remaining Christians by both government and opposition sides, though most Church leaders point out that any such targeting is politically rather than religiously motivated.

Some Christians fear that the emergence of radical Islamist groups, as in Egypt, within the disparate opposition movement may lead to increased targeting of Christians. It is to be hoped that the peace process engineered by the United Nations is given a chance to work.