The real cost of a night out.

A recent report found that the cost of alcohol abuse to our communities is around $34 billion a year!
This is twice as much as was previously thought.

Rev. Tim Costello (the CEO of World Vision Australia) has said 'If ever our leaders needed the courage to tackle the vested interests that resist effective alcohol policy reform in Australia, this report provides ample evidence that the ongoing tragedy of alcohol related harm in the Australian community cannot continue unabated.'
Basically he's saying that this is clear evidence that 'we' as Australians need to get in and do something about alcohol harm coz the problem is only going to get bigger if left alone!

What could you do with $34 billion?
Here's some examples of some other things Australia could use the money for (in one year);
* Buy a National Broadband Network so we can access the internet even in regional Australia!

* Get millions of African children out of poverty. According to UNICEF 300 million children go to bed hungry every night. But only 8% of these are victims of famine or other emergencies so it means the other 92% are just living in extreme poverty for no other reason than they were just born into it! (Have you ever heard of the $1 a day challenge? It's where you live on just $1 a day for a week or a month and the money you save you donate to those who have no other choice but to live on $1 a day, or less. Check it out here.)

* Pay the cost of the physical and economic damage from the Australian floods that occurred recently in both Victoria and Queensland. Were you affected?

What would you spend $34 billion on each year in Australia?

Think about it. Pray about it. ***

Evangelism

Ever heard of the word Evangelism?

We are going to look at this word over the next couple of weeks and work out why it's so important.

Take a moment to think about how you found out about God and how you came to making a faith decision...

Ever hear about the parable of the farmer who sowed seed everywhere, in the good soil, the bad soil and the hard, rocky soil? Check it out at the start of Matthew 13 or try reading it here.

That story is essentially a story about evangelism. It's about planting seeds of the Word of God into the hearts of everyone you know whether you think the message is going to be received well or whether it's going to be met with hardness. It's about making the story of Jesus and the bible a natural part of your world, a natural part of you that is evident to others.

Regardless of religion, everyone shares the good ideas they hear. We all want to tell others about the good things that are happening in our lives so that they can share with us and experience the same things. Like when you first got onto Facebook for example, someone would have added you or told you about it so you got on to see what it was all about and then you wanted to add other friends as well. The same can be said with God. Some people might want to know about God, some people might not, but it's only natural that we tell the world about God's goodness and love anyway.

Have a think about the beach, you all know what the beach is but imagine you didn't. Imagine you had never seen the beach before and had never heard about it. You had never seen the ocean, didn't know what Seagulls were or waves or sand. Then imagine someone trying to explain it all to you, or imagine trying to explain it to someone else and trying to convince them that it is real. Now think about it in regards to knowing God, if you had never heard about Him before and had never seen or experienced Him you might have a hard time believing when others speak about Him.

Who told you about Jesus?
How did they explain it to you?
How did it change your life?
Feel free to share...

Our alcohol 'culture'..?

Remember last week in this post we talked about the history of alcohol in Australia?
Right at the end I asked you to think about the word culture and what our Australian culture might look like and how alcohol and drinking might relate to that. Have any ideas?

What is 'culture' anyway?
Feel free to Google it but probably the simplest definition is: The way we do things around here.
Any group of people who spend time together, even here online, start making unsaid rules about what is normal, acceptable, desirable or undesirable. They have shared stories, shared values and the same kinds of understandings of what is socially o.k. They might have a language that is unique to that group, even though it might be technically the same language as other groups (English for example) they might have a specific way of using that language that is different to other groups. For example you probably use words and say things a different way to your parents do and when you are online you might use certain symbols, acronyms and hyphenations (lol, brb, <3, :() that they might not even be able to understand! That is your shared 'culture' with your friends and others.

A culture of a group is not beyond the control of those in the group however. Particularly for those that display leadership qualities, they are able to lead others in the group towards what they do and don't do, effectively changing the 'culture' of the group. But, just because you don't think you are a leader and have more of a tendency to follow doesn't mean that you don't have any power to operate differently to what the group is doing. You don't have to do everything your 'culture' tells you to do.

Culture is a flexible thing although it generally takes a long time to change. Culture is something that is negotiated over time by those who participate in it but you might not even be aware that it is happening. Think for a second about your group of friends. What do you think are things that are part of your culture? Is it the way you dress, the way you talk, the things that you do? How did you all agree that you were all going to act that way?

We have seen major culture changes in Australia in regards to smoking over several years. It used to be a common thing for a lot of people to smoke and you could smoke pretty much anywhere. Even teachers used to smoke in classrooms! How do you feel about that now? Weird right? Unhealthy? Gross?
This change in our culture from 'smoking is fine, even cool, something that is completely acceptable anywhere' to 'smoking is not cool, you're killing yourself and others' came from a variety of different factors. Some of the main factors were leaders in the health sector and government action taking a stand against it.

Thinking about all of these things where do you think we sit in Australia in regards to drinking being a part of our 'culture'? And do we have the power to change it? What do you think would have to happen in order for it to change, like smoking?

Hmmm...

Reflecting on the New Testament...

This is our last post on the New Testament before we move on but we are going to reference the New Testament in almost every post after this so take some time to reflect on the following questions;

What New Testament books have you actually read?

What New Testament books do you think you might like to read or like the sound of?

Can you think of a space in your week that you could set time aside for New Testament reading? Remember in this post we talked about setting some time aside in your week to read the Old Testament like on the bus or after you get home from school. How have you gone with that? Maybe you could add reading some of the New Testament in there too??!
There are some bibles like this one that give you a reading from the Old Testament, the New Testament, a Psalm and a Proverb to read everyday so that you can mix it up a little bit but still stay on track. You can also set up your smart phone apps to do the same things and give you a bible reading everyday and here's one online...

If you find reading your bible a struggle then maybe start with prayer. So long as you are communicating with God on a regular basis he will help you discover more about Him and keep growing in your faith. Maybe you need to pray for concentration or to not fall asleep while reading your bible, maybe you need to pray for a buddy you can read the bible with together. Or maybe you need to pray to be given a bible that explains things for you in the best way possible.

If you're really into the New Testament and want to find out more about all the books and the history etc. check out this link on Wikipedia and here's a print out to help you remember the books of the New Testament;

Remember when we were talking about those different parts of the bible like the gospels and the epistles here are some links for you to find out more information:
Wikipedia's definition of 'Gospel'.

Wikipedia's definition of 'Epistle'.
and the 'Pauline Epistles' or letters of Paul

BUT, the best way for you to find out more about the New Testament is for you to read it yourself, so get going!

If you're more of an 'is there a movie version?' kind of person try to get your hands on the movie The Gospel of John that was made in 2003. Click Here for a preview on Youtube.
Sometimes they play the bible movies on Sunday afternoons, particularly around Christmas and Easter. Next time you're channel surfing and find one maybe check it out rather than continuing to flick onto Rage ;)

Think about it. Pray about it. ***

A history of drinking in Australia

Do you know most Australians drink with a meal, to be sociable, or to celebrate? (Roy Morgan Research 2010, commissioned by The Salvation Army)

BUT there are also large numbers of people who 'drink to get drunk' or to 'feel normal', this is pretty disturbing. But I bet you all know what I'm talking about.

A lot of people have drunk to 'escape' pretty much since the First Fleet arrived in Australia. There wasn't much else to do in the early colonial life and those days were harsh. Britain was just developing their alcohol industry at that time and they had just come up with distilled spirits like gin, rum, whiskey etc. This was the fastest, cheapest way to escape from reality and as a result on average people drank 13-14 litres per person per year! (Fitzgerald and Jordan 2009)

 

 (Photo sourced from Salvation Army IHQ here taken by Ewan Arnolda)

Therefore when the First Fleet arrived on Australian shores from Britain they brought their spirits with them.

Drinking was central to life in the early days of Australia, there weren't many laws around it and they kept changing all the time depending on how the alcohol trade was going. Over time, the harsh Australian environment created aspects of our Aussie Culture which most of us would value such as 'mateship' and a belief in a 'fair go'. The place of alcohol was almost 'compulsory' for relaxing and celebrating and has become cemented in our way of life. I'm sure you all see it yourselves in your family and friends, it's the Aussie culture to get home from work and crack open a beer or to have a few drinks at a birthday party or wedding. You might have even heard some people say it's un-Australian not to drink! Not to mention it's also created a very large and powerful alcohol industry which makes a lot of people a lot of money.

As our country has become more urban and suburban our alcohol consumption has toned down a bit, there are now a lot of other options for leisure and relaxation other than drinking. Drinking in Australia was at its lowest in the 1930s at about two or three litres consumed each year per person. This also however happened to be around the time of the Great Depression where average people did not have much spare money to spend on luxuries such as alcohol, they were just trying to feed their children. Christians were also prominent at that time in what was called the 'temperance movement', Google it to find out what that was all about. There were a lot of moral arguments occurring at that time and people were accused of 'wowerism'. It sounds like a pretty pathetic thing to call someone these days but back in those days a poet called C.J. Denis coined the term and it stuck. A 'wowser' was pretty much someone who was against other people having fun, probably what we would call a 'killjoy' these days.

(Photo sourced from The Salvation Army here)

Since World War II alcohol consumption has steadily risen yet again and today Australians drink an average of 8.5-9 litres of pure alcohol a year. This number isn't any higher than most other countries but the difference is Australians like to see ourselves as hard drinkers. I'm sure if you haven't encountered this yourself than you've seen it on TV, Aussies love to compete against other nations in drinking competitions claiming to have 'drunk them under the table' for example. Also there are negative habits developing in Australia around who drinks (such as children, youth, boys vs. girls) and how we drink, specifically to get drunk. Also about one in ten drinkers drink at dangerous levels that have both short and long-term consequences and damage. About 60% of all alcohol consumed in Australia is done at higher levels than National Health guidelines recommend (National Health and Medical Research Council).

Those that are particularly affected are young people, the addicted and Indigenous Communities so if you are a young Indigenous person with a history of alcohol addiction in your family the picture looks pretty grim.

The Salvation Army in Australia would probably identify these groups as amongst the 'least, lowest and lost' (like William Booth talks about) in this country. These groups don't have much power and are 'at-risk' but our alcohol industry is rich and powerful and still powers on promoting alcoholic products as attractive, no matter what the harm.

At the beginning of Australia's history alcohol harm was seen as a moral issue, it has since transitioned into being a medical issue and even a public health issue. However even more recently there has been a discovery that Australia's thirst for alcohol is even bigger again, it's now considered a problem with society. This means that drinking is encouraged through family and social settings in workplaces and on roads, the problem is far bigger than the individual drinkers themselves, it's now something called 'social harm'. Alcohol abuse is now a part of our very culture.

Think about the word 'culture', what springs to mind when you think about it?
Now think about the Aussie way, what are some things that make us uniquely 'Australian' compared to other countries.
Does alcohol and drinking make up a large part of that?
How do you think the average Australian feels about alcohol in this country?
How do you feel about alcohol?

Hmm... Think about it, Pray about it...***

(Information sourced for this post is sourced from The Salvation Army Alcohol Culture Initiative Learning Module)

In with the New...

Today we are moving into the New Testament. This is the part of the bible where Jesus comes on the scene and becomes the focal character of our lives.

As we said in this post, the bible is currently the highest selling, most read, most illegal and celebrated work of literature in all history. Even though we believe that this astounding book is the inspired word of God a lot of time it can sit unread on the bookshelf.

Now get ready, this post is a little bit longer than normal but it holds LOADS of really interesting information, here we go...

The New Testament was written about Jesus and the early church and forms a foundation for Christian faith.

As we did with the Old Testament think about stories that you might know from the New Testament. It might be stories about the life of Jesus, the acts of the twelve disciples or the start of the Christian Church. Now try and build a timeline of these stories and events, start with the birth of Christ (Christmas) and work through to Jesus dying on the cross (Easter) and beyond.

Last month in this post I asked the question; Are you a big reader? Or, do you enjoy reading?

Think about this again, do you ever read much of the New Testament? Do you have any favorite books or stories in the New Testament? What is it about these stories that you like or dislike?

So what is the New Testament?
The New Testament is the name given to the books that make the second part of the bible. The New Testament tells the story of the newer covenant, the sacred agreement that God made with humanity through Jesus.

Who wrote it?
The New Testament was written by the apostles (or disciples) and theologians (spiritual smart guys) of the early Christian church. The Gospels (first-hand accounts of Jesus life on earth) were traditionally thought to be written by the names given to them. For example, Matthew was written by Matthew, Luke by Luke etc. (Acts was also written by Luke). The final book Revelation was written by John. Some of the books say who wrote them at the start if you pay attention.

What is in it?
There are 27 books in the New Testament.

The Gospels: biographies or life-stories of Jesus. From these books we can get a picture of who Jesus was, what He said and what He did. There are four of them: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Acts: These are the acts of the Apostles, basically what the disciples of Jesus did after Jesus died on the cross and rose again. It's the story of the early church.

Epistles: The Epistles are personal letters of instruction and encouragement written to various churches. They offer wisdom, instruction and insights into how the early Christian church worked and we can get a lot of wisdom and instruction from them too. There are two different types of Epistles: Pauline Epistles (letters written by Paul) and General Epistles, nope these weren't written by the General of The Salvation Army, they were just written by other apostles ;)

Revelation: The Revelation of John is a book of visions, theology and poetry about the spiritual battle for the world and the ultimate victory of God. Revelation uses loads of symbols but has a lot of historical and political references too. As you can see church has always been wrapped up in politics whether we like it or not! :) Revelation is often hard to understand so if you want to get into it it's helpful to do it with your leaders or your Corps Officer.

Also; There are loads of weird words in the bible that I have even used just here like apostles, epistles, gospels that don't really get used too much these days. Don't be put off, it's easy to get confused and a lot of adult Christians still get confused as well, if you can get past the weird language there is a lot of stuff in the bible that is really relevant to your life today as a young person, trust me!

So why is the New Testament so important anyway?
Just like the Old Testament we believe that the New Testament is inspired by God but the extra important thing for us to remember is that the New Testament tells us the story of Jesus; who He was and what He did. In a way the New Testament is like the climax in a movie, we've had the introduction, we've got the background behind the characters and now the action is just about to start...
The New Testament gives us the full picture of the salvation that God offers us. Jesus is the most important point in the entire story of the bible!

This helps us model the personality, life and teaching of Jesus onto our own life so we can get to know God better. This is called Progressive Revelation which I spoke a little bit about in this post. It means that the message of the Bible becomes clearer as it goes along and although we still read the older books of the bible, the newer books give us a clearer picture of God's will for our lives and for the world.

For Example...
The Old Testament in Deuteronomy 21 commands us to beat disobedient children to death with rocks (wooops!) BUT we know from the teachings and example of Jesus in the New Testament that forgiveness is better than violence (Matthew 5) and that children should be protected;
'If anyone causes one of these little ones - those who believe in me- to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.' Matthew 18:6
So, whatever you find in the Old Testament, it must always be interpreted through the message of Jesus in the New Testament.

Who decided which books went into the bible then?
The Church (collectively) decided what went into the Bible together in the early centuries of Christianity. The various church institutions agreed upon the books in the middle ages. There were many books that didn't make it into the Bible. Some of these books were not reliable. Some of these books were strange (yes even stranger than some of the ones left in there). Some taught the wrong thing about Jesus or God. So while there are other gospels and epistles that are not in the bible, they are not as historically accurate or theologically strong as the books that we read in the bible today. The Church was, and still is, the best authority on the Christian tradition, theology and literature. No matter what some people (or the Da Vinci Code) says, the Bible we have is the best Bible there could have been.

In Fact, The Roman Catholic Bible includes what we call Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical books. (Wow what a mouthful!) These 'extra' books contain a few more folk stories, prophecies and historical books of the Jewish nation. Though they can be fun to read (and if you're really interested you should totally check them out), they contain no major theological information and are not included in our bibles.

But, Keep in mind that we believe the Bible is inspired by God, but it was still written by everyday people (just a long time ago). As a result, the Bible is a series of books telling the story of God's relationship with humanity, but it does not contain answers to all questions and address all topics. The Bible is not a scientific text or a global history book, it is more like an epic love letter (woooooooh!)

So here's some things to think about and comment if you are brave;
What New Testament books have you read in the past?
What New Testament books do you think you might like to read?

AND, here is an addition from the lovely Eloise Walters from Bendigo who found this awesome prayer online and wanted to share, if you haven't prayed a prayer like this to God before I encourage you to think about reading this one today;

Drunk for a Penny, Blind Drunk for a Tuppence

Have you heard any of these stories or experienced any like them?

* A girl is mourning the death of six of her family members to alcohol related causes. Meanwhile, nearby alcohol shops take advantage of the weekly incomes of sometimes entire families.

* A young man on his first night out in Melbourne is bashed and kicked by a drunken 16 year old for no apparent reason. His face hits the asphalt on a bridge causing serious damage.

* Young boys on a fishing trip are given a slab of vodka alco-pops to drink as they please. One of the boys is seriously burned by falling into the campfire while intoxicated. At the time there hadn't been any laws broken even though the boys parents didn't know anything about it.

* A woman and her children cower as her drunken partner abuses and assaults them. The Woman comes to The Salvation Army to seek help.

* The Police Commissioner in Victoria describes our alcohol culture as 'out of control', and 'transforming' (changing or mutating) with a trend towards drinking specifically to get drunk.

A pretty bleak time in Victoria when we look closely...
In William Booth's time (the guy who started The Salvation Army) London was pretty bleak too, there was a saying that said, 'drunk for a penny, blind drunk for tuppence'. (A penny was one cent and tuppence was two cents). With true stories such as the ones above featuring regularly on the news I think William Booth would find 21st Australia very familiar. The Salvation Army has always existed not just to treat the results of unsociable cultures but to tackle, creatively, its causes.

The root-cause of the many problems that come with alcohol abuse that affects lives daily is the way we think, feel and behave towards alcohol. Therefore we need to change the culture. William Booth insisted that his troops (soldiers and officers) have as much information about the problems they are tackling as possible. This is why we are looking at this problem. If we can be as educated as possible about this issue which affects almost every single Australian then we can work towards changing the negative outcomes!
Do you want to be a part of that change?

(Information sourced for this post is sourced from The Salvation Army Alcohol Culture Initiative Learning Module)

The Old Testament and The Salvation Army

Today I just want to give you some definitions to finish our time (for the moment) in the Old Testament as next week we're moving into the New Testament.

Wikipedia says: The Old Testament is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred by both Judaism and Christianity.
So the books of the Old Testament are used by both Christians and Jews but remember our Jewish friends call it the Tanahk.

Ever heard of Progressive Revelation before? It's the idea that God has revealed Himself over a period of time rather than all at once. So in the Old Testament God is starting to reveal himself piece by piece, moment by moment and by the New Testament when Jesus comes along there is more and more of the nature of God revealed. Interesting thing to think about when we think that God continues to reveal more and more of Himself today even. Google it if you want to know more.

Relating to that point is the Prophecies of Christ. Remember how we mentioned in this post  that there are some books of the bible which are the Prophetic books? Well there were a lot of prophecies or predictions about Jesus or the Son of God coming to the Earth. These prophecies make the Old Testament really important for when we read the New Testament because they validate Jesus. Again, if you want more info Google it or try reading Isaiah and Jeremiah. They are sometimes hard to read because of the language they use and it sounds a bit like someone is telling you about a dream they had but if you power through it God will help you understand.

If you want to find out more about what The Salvation Army believes about the Old Testament ask your Corps Officer for a copy of The Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine and read Chapter 1A. It's a book that looks a bit like a bible and parts of it can be boring but if you are looking at becoming a Senior Soldier of The Salvation Army it's really important to know a lot of what's in it.

Another much funner way to get into the Old Testament is to watch the 1999 animation The Prince of Egypt this week. Or see if there is a local production of the stage-show Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat on near you, maybe you could suggest to your drama teacher that you do it as a musical at school? Here's a bit of a teaser on YouTube if you go here.


Hilarious Fun!***

P.S Did you know that the Broadway Musical Guys and Dolls was based on The Salvation Army?! That's Old, next week we will be looking at the New!

Aussie Drinking Culture

Hi Guys,

Just received some very interesting information that The Salvation Army Australia (both the Southern and Eastern Territories) put out in regards to Australia's Alcohol Culture that I thought some of you might be interested in. It's called The Salvation Army Alcohol Culture Initiative Learning Module. So over the next few weeks, along with some of the Corps Cadets info I'm going to put up some of this info too. I think you guys will be startled with some of the facts and it might also help explain some of the funny things we do in The Salvation Army such as no drinking etc...

As many of you might know one of the greatest issues that The Salvation Army has to contend with is alcohol harm. The Salvation Army has what is called 'mission intentions' and they are;

 The Salvation Army Australia Southern Territory Mission Resources Website

So as you can see when we want to reform society, care for people and transform lives alcohol harm becomes a major concern for us as Salvationists. I think when we work appropriately with alcohol harm we can 'make disciples' as well! So as young Salvationists it's important for us to be educated about alcohol harm and to work hard and smart against it in our communities. As our Commissioner Raymond Finger (the big boss) says, 'The harm is great, but it does not have to be like this.'

The Salvation Army Australian Southern Territory Annual Report, 2011

So what do you think of when you think of the Australian alcohol culture?

How do you think we got there? And does it have to remain the same forever?

Here's some current information about Australia and alcohol;
* Alcohol is the most widely used 'psychoactive' (mind altering) drug in Australia (National Alcohol Strategy)
* Just under one in ten drinkers do so at risky levels that can cause both short and long-term harm to themselves. (Australia's Health 2010)
* Over 450,000 children (13.2 percent) live in places where they are at risk of exposure to binge drinking by at least one adult. (Drug use in the Family: impacts and implications for children)
* More underage drinkers (14-17 year olds, that's you guys) in Australia are being admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems and the numbers are on the rise. (Toumbourou, 2009)
* Alcohol-related harm costs Australian taxpayers around $36 BILLION a year, this is roughly twice as much as they thought. (The Range and Magnitude of Alcohol's Harm to Others)
* In 2007 the majority of Australians (60.8%) over 14 years old drank more than the recommended rates and we are now know there are even higher levels of risk at even lower levels of consumption of alcohol. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008)
* Alcohol companies are allowed to advertise electronically to children during sporting events.
* Because some laws are inconsistent virtually any amount of alcohol can be provided to children of pretty much any age, in homes, without parents knowledge or consent in Victoria.

Some pretty heavy stuff but a lot to think about...

I'll give you some more info next week and some scenarios as well that I'm sure you've heard about, if not been involved in yourselves...

Think about it, pray about it! ***