Sunday 18 May 2014

Praying for 230 girls

On 15 April, two hundred and thirty precious young girls were abducted from school to satisfy the evil desires and objectives of Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria.  At the time of writing it appeared that these girls had likely been sold as slaves.

Can we imagine the families’ horror and grief, their frantic efforts to find their girls, while the government has been slow to react?   If we let ourselves we can imagine  -  and we should, because it is the voices of the people that motivate leaders to action.  International social media campaigns have spread awareness and, perhaps inspired by these campaigns, many countries,  including New Zealand, have offered help, placing pressure on the Nigerian Government to search for the girls.  Nigeria’s delays however may have already led to great suffering.

This raises the question – if the girls were Christians, attending Christian schools  (see the Robin Harris’ blog in the spectator.co.uk.), why then did God allow this terrible thing to happen?  The short answer is that there is great evil in the world, but also great good and we can be reassured that “God works to turn all things for good for those who love him” Romans 8:28.   Already we can see some good as the religious war and political corruption in Nigeria are being exposed to international attention.   Maybe the issue of slavery – 27 million people, largely women and children, are enslaved in the world – will be addressed.  And maybe we will one day hear individual stories of strength, comfort, renewed faith to come out of the situation.

In the meantime what can we do?  We can lobby our Government to continue to place pressure on Nigeria to commit to finding the girls.  We can pray that the girls and their families will find their strength and comfort in God.   We can pray for, and campaign for, an end to slavery worldwide.  And we can treasure our own girls for, as the old saying goes, “there, but for the grace of God, go I". 

Larisa Hockey - Mangapapa Church


A christian since Youth Group days, Larisa Hockey is one of the Worship Leaders at Mangapapa Church, where she has attended since moving to Gisborne in 2006 with local-born husband John.  She believes in the word of God as the basis of a fullfilling life, and that Christians have an important role to play in issues affecting our community, country and beyond as they are called to be "the light of the world."

Monday 12 May 2014

Anzac Thoughts


What is it that makes people turn out in their thousands for Anzac Dawn Parades? 

For generations who are comfortably distanced from war the commemoration service seems to stir a deep need in people.   Dawn Parade is sufficiently secular and occurs sufficiently seldom that it provides a reason and the means to ‘act out’ that felt human need which has much to do with the human faculty of memory.

This deep need is akin to the need of human beings to worship a God. It seems human beings are hard wired to acknowledge someone or something that is completely outside, or other,or more perfect than all that we know makes up the human person. Nostalgia, the yearning for a more perfect time, is a common symptom of this hard wiring. The self-help industry provides many alternative means for fulfilling this longing. Science is getting better at explaining such human frailties but in the end science fails to explain completely what Christians would say is simply a longing for perfect love.

The followers of Jesus Christ see something of this otherness, or perfection in him. In Sunday worship Christians remember Calvary and the power of God who raised Jesus from the dead to life.  Resurrection memory contains the kind of perfection for which human beings long whether they are conscious of that longing or not.Worship of God allows Christians to ‘touch’ the perfect love of God each Sunday and this ‘touching’ satisfies human nature in a deeper way than those secular, quick fix solutions.

Ask anyone who went to a Dawn Parade what they were remembering and it will not just be fallen soldiers. Absence of loved ones and the general, more impersonal theme of suffering, death and resurrection will be in the mix somewhere along with the human longing for peace which perfect love brings.
                                                                                                                                     Sue Jones

Sue is a member of the Wairoa parish of St. Peters and a past member of St. Mary's Gisborne where she continues to have connections.  Sue is a paid, published Catholic writer.  She had her first article published in 1987 and since then has had dozens more published in Catholic publications in N.Z.