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.

Ministry and the Body of Christ #3

'And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.'

All things? Does that include where we are living, what church we are worshipping at? The good people of Geelong are spoilt for choice in their city with several churches faithfully proclaiming God's Word. We did not know, on leaving Darwin, where we would be worshipping in Geelong, to what congregation He was sending us. Naturally, I wanted a church that would support me in my ministry. But that wasn't the issue, was it? We have six young children who would like to make friends their own age - but joining a church because of the number of children in the congregation is not mentioned in the Scriptures. In fact, the idea of choosing a church by how it can serve you is to completely miss the point. Should we not be joining a church so that we can be better equipped to serve and worship the King? I think so - so we had to let Him who sent us here, send us where He willed.

So He sent us to Reformed Presbyterian Church, less than 2km from our front door, a dynamic congregation across the generations, with - yes! - lots of young children. Where the Word of God is faithfully preached every Sunday.

'Okay, Jo,' you may ask, 'where does your minsitry fit into all this?' Would you believe me if I told you that today I met a couple in this church who had a deep interest in Timor-Leste  and were passionate about the work of the gospel? Would you believe me if I told you they actually read this blog? Yes, maybe you would, if you believed that this was not mine but God's ministry. Yes, maybe you would if you knew that all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose. Ah, I love talking about His Providence!

The Joy of Books

A move from one end of the country to the other is always a big one, but especially when you move with eight people - and all their books. The removalists grumbled about the number of heavy book boxes they had to carry. They wanted to know if I was a teacher, because teachers always seem to have lots of books. I love books and it is probably more than being a teacher. For me it's genetic. It's in my blood, inherited from my father. For me, books are special. They contain all our stories, our knowledges, our heart - put down as words on paper for future generations. In some cultures, such as Indigenous Australian cultures, this is shared orally, passed down from generation to generation. In my culture, the word is printed, rather than spoken.

But our prayer is that throughout the world, the Word be both printed and spoken. It is so important that the Bible be translated into the languages of the world, and secondary to that, Christian literature be available in peoples' languages. And the Word of God must be spoken, shared in season and out, preached to the people, proclaimed from the hill tops.

The photo on the right is a part of one I have already shared with you, dear reader. But I wanted to share it again. Here is a little girl after my own heart, clutching her precious book. Welcome, little one, to the family of bibliophiles around the world. This may be your first book. I hope it won't be your last....