Mark Driscoll getting fired up at the men in his church…

[If you cannot see the embedded video, click here to view it]

So, I’ve never actually consumed alcohol in my life. I mean, I think I remember tasting some of my Mum’s wine once when I was a kid or even possibly sipping a bit of my Dad’s beer to see what it tastes like, but I remember the taste repulsing me. A lot of people find it quite strange when I tell them, particularly those who aren’t a part of my community of believers. I once had to be breath-tested by a police officer and he didn’t believe me when I told him I had never drank alcohol, and I often get that response from people.

For me, it’s not entirely a faith decision, I only became a Christian when I was 19, and I had every opportunity to drink before then. After making a commitment to Christ, it only cemented my decision to never drink. I wholeheartedly disapprove of binge drinking, I believe that in any situation it is unhealthy and dangerous. Although I do believe the world would be a better place without alcohol, I don’t ever condemn anyone for having a drink. Basically every person I know drinks alcohol, so I’d lose friends pretty quickly.

That said, I think it’s negative effects (health, violence etc) far outweigh its positive effects. I don’t drink because I don’t think it will ever add anything to my life, it won’t make me happier, it won’t make me a better person, it won’t help me succeed and it certainly won’t help my financial situation.

I’ve always believed that alcohol represented delusion. It’s effects aren’t real, they are imagined. Alcohol doesn’t make you happy, or confident or relaxed, it gives you the illusion that those things are occurring, it tricks your mind, because the moment the alcohol leaves your system, you’re back in the same place you started. You haven’t become a confident person, you haven’t learnt how to relax and handle stress, you haven’t found any real joy, it’s all an illusion.

Becoming more confident, finding joy and peace are real things that can be found and learnt, but the truth is, you’ll never find them in a bottle. For me, alcohol has always been a counterfeit to the real thing. I find my joy, peace, confidence in Christ. It is within Him that each of us will find those things which our culture tries to counterfeit. Money, possessions, alcohol, they all offer things they can never give. I say give me truth, give me what’s real, give me what lasts. Don’t waste my time with anything else!

For all you boozers out there, the guys over at Life Education (remember Healthy Harold) are running a great event called Ocsober: an exciting fundraising program that challenges Australians to “Cut Out” alcohol for one month – during October – to help raise money and to educate children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Ocsober raises funds for Life Education’s drug and health education programs that support and strengthen primary and secondary schools drug and health initiatives. The money you raise will go directly to Life Education to teach more children the skills and the knowledge to say “no” to drugs and alcohol.

As Australia’s largest non government provider of drug and health education to children, Life Education works in partnership with more than 3,500 schools and reaches 700,000 children each year with important messages to help keep them safe. By becoming an Ocsober Legend, or sponsoring a Legend, you are giving more children the opportunity to live a safer, healthier life – free from the harmful effects of drug and alcohol misuse.

http://www.ocsober.com.au/

Stand Up Against Poverty

“Last year, over 200,000 Australians joined 117 million people worldwide to stand up against poverty.

This made governments sit up and take notice. Some governments immediately responded by increasing their poverty reduction focus.

This year you can help us make an even bigger impact in the fight against poverty and in so doing break the Guinness World Record set in 2008.

Stand Up Against Poverty is the largest solidarity movement against poverty that the world has ever seen. As 2015 looms ever closer – marking the end date of the Millennium Development Goals – we must do all in our power to help fulfill those goals.

On the weekend of October 16-18 join the global movement to end poverty by attending a Stand Up event nearest you, or by hosting your own event in your school, workplace or community.

Visit the Stand Up website for loads of information on how to participate and to see what it’s about: http://www.standupagainstpoverty.com.au/

It’s time to Stand Up and Take Action!”

My friend Richard Fleming, the Australian Manager of the Global Poverty Project, has committed to spend a month getting by on less than $1.25 (USD) a day, the same amount that 1.4 Billion people currently live off. In his words:

“As the Australian Manager of the Global Poverty Project, I have seen the presentation 1.4 billion reasons over 50 times now (yes there are many sections that I recite in my sleep).

However every time I see it, I am still astonished by the figure 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. I visualise the populations of India and China and I cannot believe that the equivalant population size live in extreme poverty – be that 1/5th of the worlds total population.

Whilst I can try to comprehend the size of the population living in extreme poverty, I do not think that I really comprehend the severity of extreme poverty.

In ’1.4 billion reasons’ we remove the monetary value of extreme poverty and focus on the ‘lack of choice’ that it provides the individual. Noting that it can only just buy your basic meal (2 bowls of rice and vegetables), what happens when a family member becomes sick, who pays for you children’s school fees??? This is the lack of choice they face.

So even though I have lived within poor developing countries – the stupid thing that I am about to do is spend the next month getting by on less than $1.25 (USD) a day.

I have made many stupid decisions in my life… however this one might just top it off!”

You can follow his progress here.

Today, just like most other days, the deaths and needless suffering of millions in the developing world failed to register a blip on the radar of Western media. So, because our commercial media won’t do it’s job, I’m going to do it. Here’s what happened today:

30,000 children died needlessly of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. There is enough food in the world to feed each person.

27,000,000 slaves continued to live in bondage. There are more slaves today than ever before in human history.

300,000 child soldiers continued to fight in wars around the world and were forced to abduct and kill other children. Most are adolescents, although many are 10 years old or younger.

1,000,000,000 people went without safe water. More people die each year from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. In the developing world, contaminated water accounts for 80% of all diseases and claims the lives of 5 million children a year.

2,400,000,000 went without basic sanitation and 1,000,000,000 spent the night without adequate shelter.

27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are still underweight or have stunted growth.

More than 880,000,000 went without medical care or basic health services.

11,400,000 AIDS orphans woke up without a mother or father and worked like a dog to scrape together enough money for just one meal.

35,000,000 people went on living with HIV, 500,000 of them are children.

121,000,000 children never got to sit in a classroom and continued to miss out on basic education.

Between 200,000 and 400,000 women who have been sold into prostitution this year continued to be raped over and over.

So, here’s what I don’t understand. A blonde playboy model with a screwed up family dies, and all of a sudden it captures the attention of the world’s media with front page cover stories and TV headline news. WTF?

I mean, what does this say about our society? Do we not care? What the heck happened? At what point did we decide that this stuff wasn’t important enough to know about? I’m completely and utterly lost! What is it? Somebody tell me how it is that this stuff never gets reported? Either our commercial media outlets are complete and utter failures (which I think they are). Or the media is simply a reflection of society, that simply gives us what we want to see and hear. Both scenarios are screwed up!

I’m angry! If you actually care about half the stuff that I just informed you about, then heck, you should be angry as well. So what do we do? Well, first read my article “Whose Media?” and learn about the new democratisation of media and how you can actually play a role in producing the news. Second, just CHOOSE. Watch SBS instead of the commercial stations. Watch the World News instead of Home and Away. Read Adbusters or New Internationalist instead of Ralph or New Idea. Listen to ABC Radio instead of SeaFM every now and again. Find a good blog, or go to Digg or Delicious. Share this blog. Post it on your friends walls, email it to people. I didn’t make any of this stuff up, it actually happens, every day! Make visible what our media makes invisible.

“Modern society prefers the picture to the object, the counterfeit to the authentic; the reproduction of reality to reality itself; what appears, to what is really there. Delusion is its sanctity, truth is its profanity” – Ludwig Feuerbach

Well, it’s official. The Project is on the radio! I’ll be a guest on a station in Western Australia: Radio West 747 Esperance. I’ll be doing a segment with Josh Withers on the Morning Show each Thursday discussing some of the issues that are addressed on the site and on the blog. So, if you’re in Western Australia, have a listen, otherwise I’ll try and post the mp3s of the show on the blog for everyone else!

So, I just saw a TV commercial about Herpes, you can watch it here: http://www.thefacts.com.au/on-tv/

Basically, the commercial shows a whole bunch of different types of underwear while a voice-over claims that “Herpes doesn’t only affect one type of person, in fact, Herpes is so common that you can catch it even if you’ve only had a few sexual partners.”

So what does the commercial propose in order to see an end to this common and irritating sexually transmitted disease? “If you have recurring symptoms like redness, tingling, or itching anywhere inside your underwear, next time they appear, see a doctor.”

Wow!

Hey, so I have a crazy “out there” idea, how about not having so many sexual partners…

But then I realised, the commercial was commissioned by GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company. They don’t want to eradicate Herpes, they just want to sell Herpes medication!

Recycle your clothes

I made a commitment a few years ago to buy all my non-essential clothing (essential being underwear and some business attire) from op-shops only. I’ve stuck by that commitment and although I was possibly born without a fashion sense, I’ve found some pretty sweet items of clothing over the years that have cost me next to nothing. On top of that, by essentially recycling clothing, I’m helping to reduce waste, save money, and stop purchasing clothing that was likely made in a sweatshop. So, ditch the new clothes and go vintage or hold a swap meet with your friends and trade it instead of trashing it!

Here are 3 really great sites that you need to check out:

The Clothing Exchange: http://www.clothingexchange.com.au/
“Since 2004, hundreds of super-savvy ladies have made their way to our signature swaps with bags-full of fashions, fads and styles in tow. Our regular exchange events are a treasure trove of fabulous frocks, nice knits, slick suits and a colorful array of accessories. When the shop opens excited guests share histories of garments given and parade the one’s they’ve got. Buttons are the only currency that counts to buy a whole ‘new’ wardrobe at the exchange! Swap to shop and save your pennies and the planet!”

Freecycle: http://www.freecycle.org/group/AU/
“The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,801 groups with 6,576,000 members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely non-profit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them’s good people). Membership is free.”

Swapstyle: http://www.swapstyle.com/
“Swapstyle is an online fashion swap party where you can swap clothes, swap accessories, swap cosmetics, swap shoes and lots more with people from all around the world at any time, day or night. And it’s Free!”

I received an annual report the other day for Anne, my World Vision sponsor child. When I looked at her photo, smiling from ear to ear with her big white teeth, I almost cried. This child lives and breathes simply because I give up a measly $40 a month! How incredible!

But there’s a great story behind how I chose my sponsor child Anne. My friend Ashlee works for World Vision and I asked her to choose a new child for me after my original child left the World Vision system. I asked her to find me a cute kid from Africa.

For some reason, Ashlee politely rebuked me for what she understood as a grave injustice. “Why does the child have to be cute?” she pleaded. She proceeded to explain how the ugly kids always stick around the table a lot longer than the cute ones and sometimes don’t get chosen at all.

What a horrible reality! So I told her, “Alright, find me the butt ugliest kid you can possibly track down and I’ll sponsor them.” Well, she sure did! Anne was definitely far from cute. But no less deserving of sponsorship than any other child on that table.

It’s interesting to see how little prejudices like that play out without noticing them. Am I more inclined to be friendly to a person if they are good-looking? Check this out. How much importance do we attach to outward beauty? How often do we see overweight or ugly people leading worship, doing the news or being featured on our flyers?

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” – 1 Peter 3:3-4

Well, its been just over 6 months since The Project has launched and I’d like to thank everyone for all your encouragement, support and positive feedback. I also want to take this opportunity to give you some key information about The Project and also the vision for the future…

interact
First of all, The Project was always meant to be community-based, which means I need YOU! If you feel like contributing in any way, like writing an article for the blog, sending me any interesting links to great organisations, films, books, or anything that relates to the topics explored on the site, or even if you have any feedback at all, positive or negative, please get in touch with me: info[at]theproject.org.au (replace the ‘[at]‘ with an ‘@’). Also, if you have any reactions to any of the blogs, go ahead and write a comment on the blog, that’s what they are there for!

share
If you like what you read and see on The Project site or on the Blog, please let your friends, family, community groups or church know about it. I’ve made it super easy to subscribe via RSS if you have a feed reader, or via email so you get updates and blogs right in your inbox. Also, if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so: RSS, Email.

tools
As you may have noticed, I’ve added a new tool that lets you share or bookmark blogs that you like on sites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Facebook, Myspace, etc. Just click on the “Share” tool at the end of the blog to share.

facebook
I just set up a facebook page for The Project. Please become a fan here.

future
In the near future, I am hoping to turn The Project into a non-profit organisation. It will be used as an umbrella organisation for projects dealing with issues ranging from affordable sustainable housing, food waste, homelessness, and will include documentary film making and some exciting ministry stuff. It will also exist to raise awareness about global issues and to provide practical local solutions. I will be sure to keep you all posted.

Well, thanks again for all your support!