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6 Nov 2009
Hello brethren,
I hope you are all in health and had an enjoyable week. One of our brethren
as I am advised, has undergone bowel cancer surgery this week and hopefully
several of us will be able to visit him in hospital tomorrow. So please
place Vince in your prayers over the next period during recovery with the
hope the problem is resolved. We missed Vince at the recently held Feast.
The lead story on the news early this morning was of course the Fort Hood
shootings. It now seems only one shooter was involved, who is an American
born Muslim. I say "is" because it had been thought he was shot dead by the
armed response to his shooting spree. On the evening news though there was
the base commander hours later saying he, the shooter, lo and behold, was
alive. Perhaps now there will be some possibility to get an answer as to
"Why?".
A few weeks ago I mentioned that K. Rudd, PM, had apparently stitched up a
deal with Indonesia that involved a $50 million "aid" package (on top of all
else we provide) for agreement Indonesia would take 78 Sri Lankans rescued
in Indonesian rescue zone waters by an Australian Customs ship. Well, that
has no panned out so well. As most would know the "Indonesian solution" has
been in limbo for three weeks with local Indonesian authorities expressing
their dissent from Jakarta and President Sussilo Bang Bang Yudihono (sic)
and more importantly the 78 guests on board refusing to disembark the ship -
unless it is to an Australian port - or Christmas Island; where they could
join the over 100 other Sri Lankans who have been detained off other boats
in Australian waters just in the past 3 weeks, including 27 survivors of a
boat that sank near Cocos Island in the last week, with about a dozen lost.
That boat apparently was coming direct from Sri Lanka, thus avoiding the
Indonesian middle men. With the Rudd governments relaxation of immigration
policy and the consequent “express lane” processing of queue jumping refugee
claims (permanent visas were issued this week to a number of asylum
claimants who landed by boat only in early to mid September without papers -
how do you properly assess people without any ID so quickly?), it is
inevitable that many more will risk the trip across Indian Ocean in vessels
not fit for ocean crossings.
The week also brought news of Israeli interception of an Iranian arms ship
and a denial by Hezbollah of any connection to those arms:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256799098694&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Just today Mr. Abbas, Palestinian President, announced he will not run for
re election. The below article is of interest.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1257417385046&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Only one month to go for Copenhagen. It seems that the UN through several
announcements has been softening up an expectant world, (especially the
rabidly faithful believers, including the 15,000 faithful jetting in for a
week or more of junket fun) for the real prospect that no final deal will be
done on a climate change treaty at this meeting. We can only hope.
Turning back to our local area the GTA telecast last Sunday on Prime TV, TVS
and QCTV brought in 53 responses to a program on “Grace or Law? or is
there something we must do?” It offered a three sermon series on Galatians
as well as a booklet, “Saved by Grace?” Over the phone we offered the
sermons on tape, CD and DVD to those who called in. We had 13
new contacts.
This week on GTA the other side of the coin, “Saved by Works?”
Enjoy your Sabbath and the rest it brings from the weeks pressures.
All the best
Murray Allatt
Sydney
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