Churchless Christian

Yesterday I got the news that I had been accepted for a Transfer to Christchurch through Community Probation & Psychological Services which I work for. I think we are still in shock but basically I am starting work down there in the last week of August.

Some of the reasons we are moving are

1. We want to give the kids an experience of seeing the South Island (Lord Of the Rings Country) and this is a great way of seeing it on a limited income!

2. We now have a good number of our family and friends living in Christchurch including parents, siblings, nephews etc.

3. Autism NZ is based in Christchurch and will provide some good back up for Isaac and Alex which we are in desperate need for.

4. It will be a good move career wise for my job (which I am finding really rewarding) in the future.

5. We feel that we have got a bit boring lately and its time for an adventure.

6. Its a lot cheaper to live then in the big smoke for a Govt employee!

At the same time we feel really emotional about leaving after being here for around 12years and all the special people we have had the privilege of getting to know. BUT Christchurch is only an hour away by plane and only around $180.00 return! We have made a decision to get a house with a spare room so you had better come and use it ! We will be up and down as we have committments up here etc.

I was planning to tell people personally but with working 7 days at the moment and the news already getting out I thought I had better email it out. Please send it to others as I have lost a lot of peoples addresses.

Please pray for us at this time for peace for the kids especially the younger two and also as we juggle the finances to get down there etc etc.

Three independent New Zealand research projects show half of those who leave gangs do because they become Christian.

Arthur C. Brooks demonstrated in his 2006 book Who Really Cares? that religious believers in the US are far more giving than secular liberals, donating considerably more money, giving more blood and volunteering more of their time. They're more generous to all charities, including non-religious ones, and are some 57 per cent more likely than a secularist to help a homeless person.

When it comes to volunteering, there's no contest. Without the churches "dealing with many of our social ills," says George Gallup, "the tax burden would be crushing".

Last month, the Anglican Church in Britain released a commissioned report called Moral, But No Compass, which showed if a monetary value was put on the charitable work done by its congregations and clergy - some 50,000 volunteers providing a multitude of services "without judgment or conditions attached" - it would run into hundreds of millions of pounds. Yet the Government's secular agenda and a climate of liberal suspicion are undermining that work. Tapu Misa