Adam was a white man?

This week I read a class of 10 year olds my book, Mundu Ne'ebe Maromak Halo. They were very interested, but it wasn't until we got to this page that the real discussions took place:

"Wasn't Adam a white man?" asked one of the children. "It doesn't say in the Bible that he was a white man," I replied, "or black." They needed a moment to digest this and I went on to explain that the Bible doesn't tell us what Adam looked like at all. What the Bible does tell us is that from Adam and Eve came all the peoples of the world.

And then one of the children had an "Aha! moment" - those moments that every teacher knows is the reason they love being a teacher:

"That means we are all related!".

And the little pale skinned boy with freckles looked at his dark-skinned friend and grinned.

We are all related. Oh yes, we are!!

From Mandurah, With Love

I have never been to Mandurah in Western Australia, but I would like to go some time. And if I go, I would visit my friends at Peel Presbyterian Church. Not only did they buy a stack of my books but sent a love gift also. I am a little in awe of the fact that a congregation on the other side of the country, who have never met me, are praying for me and encouraging me. Maromak diak. God is good.

As plans are set in place for the publication of the next book, our great God is setting in place the means to publish it.

Radio interview

I was interviewed by Jenny Baxter of ultra106five, a Christian radio station in Hobart, Tasmania. You can hear the interview here.

Katoliku ka presbiterianu - ita sarani! Ita adore Maromak ida!

I will translate my title here for my non tetun-speaking friends: Catholic or Presbyterian - we are Christians. We all love the one God! I know for many Timorese it is heart-breaking when Catholics and Protestants cannot live together. But the Church doesn't belong to men, it belongs to the Living Christ. Please may I bring this article to your attention and ask you to pray for our friends in Timor-Leste.

Activity of another religion destabilize existence of Catholic Church *Suara Timor Lorosa’e, July 21, 2011 language source: Tetun

Many people are concerned about the existence of new religion in the country as it will threaten the existence of Catholic Church in the country. MPs from Fretilin yesterday met with Bishop for Dili Diocese, Monsignor Alberto Ricardo da Silva, talking about this issue, said MP Francisco Miranda Branco. "We are concerned about the new religions in the country, therefore we met with Bishop da Silva to talk about this issue," MP Branco said. It is important for the Catholic Church leaders to better strengthen their relationship with the state in dealing with issue

Her needle for the King

We are very excited to share with you that a new illustrator has come aboard Grasa Mesak. Jeana Blackert is a Geelong-based textile artist whose beautiful, poignant embroidery illustrations are perfect for the tender parable of the Prodigal Son. It is a big commitment for any artist to complete an entire children's picture book, but it is an even bigger challenge for a textile artist working in such a labour intense medium. But Jeana is also a committed Christian and for her this truly will be a labour of love for her King.

Please pray for Jeana as she does preparatory work for this project and don't forget to check out her website.

Some images from 'Miguel Nia Jardin'

We thought we would share some images from the book with you. If you don't already have a copy, please consider buying one, as we cannot publish another book for the children of Timor-Leste unless we raise the funds to do so. We sell the books in Australia for AU$10.00 which includes postage. Postage is not included for international sales, I am sorry.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy, or feel you may be able to sell multiple copies for us, please email us at grasa DOT mesak AT gmail DOT com (replacing 'AT' with '@' and 'DOT' with '.').

My son and I planted corn seeds in the ground with the intention of drowning them and photographing their demise. But monsoonal rains did it for us with perfect timing!

Scanned line drawings with photo collages. Corel PhotoPaint was the program I used for manipulating and cutting out the photos. The pages were put together in Corel Draw which I think works quite well for this type of publication.

I wanted to get a sort of tumbling downward feel to this. The line drawings have a touch of coloured pencil. The tree is the old mango that grew in our garden in Darwin and the snake is courtesy of my sister-in-law's father.

A book begins ... with an idea

Every book must start somewhere. Sometimes it begins with a casual suggestion. In this case, my brother suggested, 'Why not a parable?' Why indeed not? I put the idea to our friends in Timor-Leste. And at this stage it looks like the next book may be about the Prodigal Son. It is a case of...watch this space.
And watch closely, because I will not be writing it. Rather, it will be written in Timor-Leste. Most likely by one of the pastors of the Igreja Evangelica Presbiteriana ba Timor-Leste. They know their people. They know their culture. They can teach their children far better than I. It was never my intention to remain writing these books, although I am more than happy to continue the illustrating at this stage and certainly the publishing. But to be publishing books written by faithful men and women of the church in Timor - that was always my vision.

Please uphold this new venture in your prayers.