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DIRECTOR'S ANNUAL REPORT |
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for the Ministry Year January 2002 to December 2002 (presented at the CCG Ministries’ AGM, March 2003) We are able to reflect on the year 2002 with gratitude to God, and His people, for the support and positive encouragement received throughout the year. Once again, the issue of how Christians should relate to those of other faiths, and especially to Muslims, was a significant focus during the year. In last year’s report we referred to the world impact of the Islamic extremists terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, USA, on September 11, 2001. This past year we have had to add the October 12, Bali Bombings to the list of terrorist attacks. Indonesian and other Muslim extremists, also referred to by some as Islamists, bombed a couple of night clubs in Bali which were frequented by Westerners – especially Australians. Just over two hundred people died – 88 of them were Australians, and over 300 were injured. In Western Australia the dead included seven members the Kingsley football club team, who had arrived only the day before on an end-of-the-year celebration trip. While a number of countries were directly affected by the Bali Bombings, Australia was even more so because of the numbers, and because Bali had been a very popular holiday destination for so many Australians. Accurate information on Islam became even more pertinent and significant as a result of the Bali terrorist attacks. CCG Ministries, through our available resources and knowledge, was again able to encourage clearer understanding through our contribution of truth, balance and sensitivity. More questions were asked, and inquiries made, regarding Islam. The continuing increase of Muslims seeking refugee status and resettlement in Australia, added to the Federal authorities’ response to the Bali bombings, further raised existing general curiosity and interest regarding Islam. However, Islam was not the only focus for CCG Ministries during the past year. Numerous other issues relating to religious, cultic, occultic and fringe groups were part of the general area of our work and outreach. Following 23 years of outreach, education and service to the Churches and general community, it was clear throughout the year, that the need for our Ministry continues, and is as relevant now as ever before. OUR MINISTRY CENTRE Our Ministry Centre at 50 Carcoola Street continued to be used for a wide range of activities, including: assisting and informing inquirers; counselling family members dealing with a variety of issues; conducting seminars and classes to equip and educate Christians and churches; preparing and sending out information through emails, pamphlets, our magazine TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, and other materials; conducting a regular Bible study group; providing and using our extensive reference library, and related resource facilities; operating and updating our website and Internet presence; dealing with telephone inquires and correspondence; general ongoing research; a number of second-hand book and garage sales. During 2002 we continued to have second-hand books - especially Christian books - on permanent display, for perusal and purchase during weekdays in an area set up for that purpose. With some adjustment and utilising of the adjoining seminar the area was expanded for our special Book and Garage Sales. During a significant part of the past year, our accommodation section was used by Darren Speers who came to do some voluntary work for CCG Ministries for part of the year. As part of the arrangement Darren was our live-in caretaker for the period of his stay. Following his departure, Julie Edwards, Youth Intern at the Nollamara Church of Christ, was in need of some temporary accommodation, and stayed at our centre for a couple of months. Eric Banfield, our honorary property manager, was able to continue most basic maintenance work on our Centre building, yard and gardens, in spite of some health problems during the year. We continue to be extremely grateful for all his hard work and consistent support. An addition on the property this past year was another (smaller) shed. David van Leen kindly donated a spare garden shed. Eric Banfield and Bill Bourke (from Nollamara Church of Christ) dismantled the shed and then reassembled it. Eric then painted it and fenced off the area around it for outdoor storage space - e.g. roof tiles and set up the inside of the small shed to store gardening equipment etc - leaving our larger shed for wood and other equipment storage and with room to use it as a maintenance workshop. Some overdue electrical work was done during the year, giving us extra power points, external lighting and power in the work shed. PERSONNEL Our Board of Management team continued to guided and lead CCG Ministries during the 2002. We were led by Rob Furlong (Churches of Christ) as Chairman, and Lester Sutton (Churches of Christ) as Vice-Chairman. Glynis Turpin (Baptist) continued as Board Secretary, Peter Emmens (Anglican) as Treasurer, myself (Adrian van Leen – Churches of Christ) as Director; and Board members were: Ray Dorn (Brethren), Lorrie van Leen (Churches of Christ), George and Christine O'Neil (Churches of Christ). CCG Ministries Inc. staff and volunteers greatly appreciated the practical leadership and guidance given by our Board members throughout 2002. Since the beginning of CCG Ministries’ commencement in 1979, volunteers became, and have remained, a vital part of the Ministry. The willingness of our volunteers to serve in a wide range of tasks is greatly appreciated. We acknowledge, once again, our debt of gratitude for the valued contributions of our entire volunteer team during 2002. Our honorary property manager, Eric Banfield, again required some chest surgery during the year, following heart surgery and several lots of follow-up surgery during 2001. He and his wife, Lyndley, suffered the loss of her father during the year. We have prayed for them and wished them well both in their grief and in their health concerns. Throughout 2002 Eric has continued to do voluntary maintenance, light yard work, and some computer data entries for our financial records. Nancy Fairbairn continued assist us throughout 2002 - coming in at least two days a week to work in the library, updating subscription and support details in the computer, helping with Book and Garage Sales, cleaning the Centre, and a range of other activities. She’s willing to help in whatever areas needed. Following surgery and radium treatment for thyroid cancer in late 2001, Margery Renwick has continued to recover throughout the past year. After several months away, she was able to continue some of her work and research for CCG Ministries during 2002. We have appreciated her help, are glad of her recovery and continue to pray for her restoration to full health and strength. One of our regular volunteers, Mary Reid, travelled early in 2002 on a trip that took her to NSW, New Zealand, Canada and ultimately to Scotland. She was away for several months before returning to her regular involvement with CCG Ministries. We also continued to greatly appreciate the ongoing work and support of our other long-time regular volunteers, Mona Morey, and Eve Morgan, during 2002. In 2002 we also gained some additions to our volunteer team: Stewart Robertson, from the Nollamara Church of Christ, is skilled with computers and has been coming to work on our computer needs - from the library programme (sorting and adding books, streamlining and simplifying the programme) to redesigning and updating our website, downloading emails, and more. He made some significant improvements and been of great help in the computer area. Ros Birch, also from the Nollamara Church of Christ, has been coming in one morning a week, when available, to continue putting our library books on computer. Margaret Beavan, who had previously been part of the volunteer team, returned during 2002 to come in fortnightly and help with office typing needs and related tasks. Following my involvement in a Law and Religion class at the University of Western Australia’s Law School accepted a student placement from that class. Final year law student, Yvette Larsen, came to us for some work experience, researching ‘affinity fraud’, as well as working on court documents and details regarding Gordon Melton (testimony and cross examination etc) in the International Church of Christ/Central Christian Church court case in Singapore in 1997. Our 2002 staff team continued to consist of my wife, Lorrie, and I working full-time; and Tracy Taylor involved in some part-time work. Tracy continued her involvement in a variety of activities (from typing up articles to indexing the previous year’s TACLs to updating other information for our records and reference) - mostly on the computer. Lorrie van Leen continued to work hard throughout the year, trying to balance a wide range of tasks and responsibilities, including: general office work, answering the telephone, working with and supervising the volunteers, being acting-secretary for the Board from time to time, generally helping the Director stay on track much of the time, being the Director’s secretary, wife, and being a mother, being an only daughter, having home responsibilities and more. Lorrie has also continued to serve as an active Board member, and ensured lunches were provided for Board meetings. Lack of adequate funds has meant that Lorrie continued to provide her services voluntarily with no remuneration. This was formally acknowledged and recorded during 2002 for possible future response and action by the Board. CCG Ministries continues to owe her a significant debt of gratitude. Following her involvement in organising participation in Operation Christmas Child (shoe box gifts) at our local church, the Nollamara Church of Christ, in 2001 Lorrie again organised the appeal in 2002. The project (of a shoe box full of small gift items for children) is run by Samaritan’s Purse, and is a practical and valuable way of bringing joy, along with the real meaning of the Christmas message, to children around the world. Again, as in the previous year, the responses were most encouraging. The collection of boxes was completed by the end of October and handed over to Samaritan’s Purse for distribution in time for Christmas. In March 2002, Darren Speers joined the staff team for period in a voluntary capacity, following the completion of his theological degree at Trinity Theological College (after having earlier gained a degree in psychology). He lived on the premises and functioned as part-time caretaker. He sought part-time outside work to provide support for his time with us. When he was able, he spent several days a week doing research, a variety of library related tasks, some writing and word processing. Towards the latter part of the year, Darren moved out and on to other things. While he was with us, we appreciated his contribution to the work of CCG Ministries. We have wished him well for his future. The year 2002 was no exception when it came to being another busy and active a year for me as Director. Age and health have had their effect in the past year and at times slowed me down. This was particularly so with having to put up with kidney stone problems – on and off, for some eight months. This included a spell of chronic pain whilst on a ministry visit to Myanmar (Burma) in November. The result of the pain and some long, rough road trips, I had to cut short my trip by four days. Fortunately, I was able to re-arrange my flights and return home earlier than initially planned. But arriving back with a head cold and still some kidney stone troubles left me weary and run down. I continued to be involved in speaking commitment preparation, presentation, and travelling, around Western Australia; a trip to South Australia; visiting Singapore and Myanmar (Burma), during 2002. One new area of speaking involvement came with a presentation to a group of law students, from a Law and Religion class at the University of Western Australia’s Law School. My responsibilities during 2002 included ongoing general research, investigation of new groups and issues, reading, and related library work and use of the Internet, plus writing for various publications, including recommencing a regular column in the monthly Christian paper, CHALLENGE, editing and writing most of the articles for our magazine, TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, as well as numerous speaking and teaching commitments, including a weekly half-hour radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM. Throughout 2002 preparation of information and materials; consultation with students and others; legal consultation; providing help and information for other organisations as well as churches, families and individuals; answering inquiries; counselling, and some other administrative work all continued, as in the past, to be further aspects of my role and activities as Director. COUNSELLING AND INQUIRIES During 2002 we have continued to receive a wide range of inquiries dealing with a variety of religious, and semi-religious, personalities, practices, programmes and groups. Inquiries have come through personal visits, telephone calls, emails and correspondence. These inquiries resulted in some personal counselling, as well as sharing and sending out information in both printed and electronic forms. In February 2002 the XIX Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Months earlier some of the media had already dubbed them the ‘Mormon Olympics’. The Winter Olympics provided the Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - LDS) with significant media coverage, which ultimately helped the continuation of their increased worldwide activities. They have continued their PR efforts to present a Christian image of themselves, and their ongoing temple building programme. For the second year running, the Jehovah's Witnesses have come under media and public scrutiny, along with the Roman Catholic Church (predominantly), over accusations of child abuse and cover-up. We published a special issue of TAKE A CLOSER LOOK (TACL), August/September 2002, dealing with the disturbing issue of child abuse. General inquiries and requests for help and information continued to be received about Islam; New Age spirituality, groups, activities; the occult generally, and more specifically, witchcraft, and in particular teenage witchcraft; and an additional wide variety of cultic and extreme Christian fringe groups, as well as various main world religions. As in previous years, requests for help and information throughout 2002 came from around Australia, Asia, and elsewhere. Many inquirers were referred to us by churches, friends and relatives who were aware of our Ministry, or who had themselves been previously helped by us. The volume of email inquiries continued to increase this past year, as did the number of visitors to our Internet website. Some inquirers were referred to us by various groups and agencies, including the media, welfare agencies, consumer groups, government departments, police, lawyers, community advisory and library information services. We continued to exchange information with other organisations and individuals around Australia, in Britain, and in the United States during 2002. In 2002, again, as in previous years, new groups and issues (also known groups either not in our files or previously included within other groups/files), not all necessarily cultic in nature, have been brought to our attention, or had inquiries made about them, and new files, or sub files, opened for them. A number of these were legitimate Christian groups either newly commenced, or newly brought to our attention for good reasons, or simply because little was known about them. These include groups and issues such as (sub-files within broader categories are indicated as [sf]:
Each year we endeavour to record and list the various groups about which we receive inquiries, and also the frequency of such inquiries. Sometimes the volume of inquiries and other pressures lead to failure to record details of all inquiries, but we are able to gain a fair approximation of the groups/issues, and the number of inquiries made - through personal visits, telephone calls, correspondence and email. The following indicative listing (actually a little short of the true total number of inquiries, and therefore not a complete and exhaustive listing) categorises groups/topics according to the approximate number of inquiries received during 2002: 1 - 10 TO BE ADDED IN SOON Please note that the preceding listing of groups, topics and people are indicative of the wide and diverse range of inquiries received by CCG Ministries. We emphasise that our listing does NOT mean that we consider or classify every group, topic or person mentioned as cultic, occultic or extreme. While the preceding listing shows something of the great diversity of inquiries received by CCG Ministries, it does not reveal the amount of time in dealing with inquiries - either initially when first received, or when we endeavour to find accurate information enabling us to give appropriate responses. A good number of these inquiries require research and investigation before we can give any helpful reply or pass on any information. In some instances we have not been able to respond as adequately as we might have liked, because we were unable to find out a great deal, if anything, about some groups, issues, practices or personalities. However, even in such instances a file is opened with the hope that perhaps at some later stage, we might be able to find and add important and helpful information to such files. This work, along with our general ongoing research, with the addition of information forwarded to us from around the world, keeps us adding to our large collection of files, and enables us to be better informed. We were encouraged, during 2002, to learn that our advice, and the information we shared with people during crisis intervention, had been helpful to them. One of our major aims is to assist and empower people to cope and more adequately deal with the situations brought about by cultic, and similar, involvement. Though our resources, and especially time, continued to be stretched to the limit (and sometimes beyond), we endeavoured to help some find reconciliation, and others to discover a new faith and freedom from manipulation and controlling personalities and groups. THE WRITTEN WORD We published seven issues of our (normally bi-monthly) magazine, TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, in 2002. This made up for the five issues we were only able to publish 2001. With our November 2002 special New Age focus edition of TACL we changed its format and presentation from an A4 sized format to A5 format. We also decided to change our mailing of the magazine, which has increased some of our basic postage costs but has made handling and mailing simpler. Positive comments were received regarding the change in size format. We have continued to receive some positive commendations regarding the magazine’s overall content, as well as in regard to specific articles. In 2002 we again received requests from individuals and churches to reprint some material from TACL. Quite a number pastors and church leaders have expressed giving reading and thinking priorities to our magazine over much of the other materials they receive in the mail. Our supporters and prayer partners (Partners In Ministry) were kept informed on Ministry issues during the year, through the publication of four (March, June, August, November) separate issues of our supporters' news letter, PIM UPDATE. THE SPOKEN WORD A very significant part of our Ministries’ preventative education programme in 2002, continued to include speaking commitments such as lectures, talks, sermons and seminars. Almost all of these speaking engagements were carried out by me as Director, at numerous venues - churches, youth groups, community groups, colleges and seminaries, high schools, and others - involving me in travelling around the Perth metropolitan area, W.A. country centres, and overseas in my teaching/speaking role. The following list of meeting venues does not indicate the full nature of the speaking engagements. Neither time (involved in travel or preparation, or actual speaking time) nor the topic is listed. In some cases the actual speaking time was 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour, but in most cases 1 1/2 to 2 or even 3 hours was the actual presentation time. Some sessions may vary between 3-8 hours, possibly involving a whole morning or afternoon, or a whole day. Sometimes, colleges and schools want one or two period sessions, others want a series of all-morning or all-day lectures as part of special module or programme. Hence there is a variety of time involved at different colleges. The numbers given after some listed venues indicate the number of specific occasions (generally on different days) on which I spoke at that venue. The mention of the denomination and venue could include speaking at church services, study groups, men’s, women’s or youth groups. Unless otherwise indicated, groups mentioned are in Western Australia. The opportunity of sharing with different individuals and Christian groups continued to be an enriching experience and a privileged opportunity through 2002. Denomination/Church:- Anglican St Andrews Anglican Cathedral (Sing) Baptist Denmark Baptist Church (Fri-Sun); Toungoo Baptist Church (Myanmar); Trinity Baptist Church (Myanmar); Trinity (Karen) Baptist Church (Myanmar). Brethren Pasir Ris Mission Church (Sing) Church of Singapore Marine Parade Church of Singapore Churches of Christ Bassendean Church of Christ [2x]; Binningup Church of Christ; Kingsley Church of Christ [2x]; Nollamara Church of Christ [6x]; Scarborough Church of Christ; Victor Harbor Church of Christ (Fri-Sun) South Aust.). Evangelical Free Church Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church (Sing) Foursquare Churches Highway Foursquare Church, Beechboro; Vineyard Fellowship Living Water Vineyard Church Westminster Presbyterian Maida Vale [4x]. Other:- Bago PALE (Pastors and Leaders) Conference (Myanmar) [4 days]; Overseas Christian Fellowship (OCF) Camp meeting; Singapore Youth For Christ. Educational:- Carey Baptist College; Harvest West (AOG) College (all morning session); St Mark’s Anglican Community School [2x]; St Stephens School; University of Western Australia’s Law School; W.A. Bible College course on cults (semester programme); Winthrop Baptist College. CCG Ministries Training Institute Courses:- WEDNESDAY EVENING STUDY GROUP: During 2002 we continued our informal Bible study group on Wednesday evenings in the Banfield Seminar Room at our Ministry Centre, 50 Carcoola Street, Nollamara. This informal study programme was open to all. For the first part of the year we continued to explore Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and then studied the Old Testament book of Daniel. There was no formal charge (as with seminars) but a freewill donation was accepted for the evening. Supper was provided. The evenings commence at 7.30 pm and lasted for about 2 hours. FRIDAY FRIENDS and SATURDAY SEMINARS: A number of courses and seminars were scheduled through 2002 but insufficient registrations meant we were unable to run these programmes. This was a disappointment for us (having planned and prepared the programmes) and for those who did express interest. RADIO TEACHING MINISTRY Commenced in August 1999, my series of 25-minutes weekly Take A Closer Look teaching radio programmes on 98.5 Sonshine FM, continued throughout 2002. We commenced the year’s programmes with a ten-part series entitled: The “I’s” of God – dealing with attributes of God (all commencing with the letter ‘I’); this was followed by a series encouraging Christian growth through the lives and testimonies of past Followers in the Master’s Footsteps - with programmes on the lives of Polycarp (early church leader and martyr) , George Washington Carver (known as the ‘Peanut man’), Gladys Aylward (‘The Small Woman’ – missionary to China), Walter Scott (the great author), John Flynn (founder of the Flying Doctor service), Fred McKay (pioneer patrol padre to outback), Mary Jones (and her Bible), William Wilberforce (great reformer), John Newton (Amazing Grace) and Elizabeth Fry (the prison reformer). This series was followed by a series of Take A Closer Look teaching programmes on ALTERNATIVES - examining mostly New Age alternative concepts and practices – including: Feng Shui, Reiki, reincarnation, alternative healing practices, aromatherapy, meditation, TM, and a Christian meditation alternative. This was followed by the second Followers in the Master’s Footsteps series – William Carey, David Livingstone, Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, The Cambridge Seven, Damien of Moloka’i – (all missionaries); George Muller (founder of orphanages); D L Moody, Gypsy Smith – (preachers); Fanny Crosby – (blind prolific hymn writer); Jonathan Goforth (missionary); Ira D Sankey (singer, musician/composer). This was followed by four programmes focussing on Christmas and featuring a variety of Christmas hymns and songs. Some critical responses were received by a couple of Reiki practitioners (before they heard all 3 programmes on the subject). Very positive responses have been received by a number of people – including on the easy listening style used in the programmes. RESOURCES AND SUPPORT The Library Registered and listed with the National Library of Australia in Canberra, our unique and extensive reference library is one of the Ministry’s major resources. Purchased and donated books were part of the additions to the library made during 2002, as were articles and periodicals. Sorting, thinning out and adding to our articles files is an ongoing activity, as is the sorting and computer listing of books already on the shelves and those yet to be shelved. While the library resources have been used for research and the like by CCG Ministries’ staff and volunteers, there have also been others who have used the library. Use of the library by those other than immediate CCG Ministries staff and volunteers is an area of potential that needs more promotion in the future. Book and Garage Sales Three major Second-Hand Book and Garage Sales were held during 2002. Each raised around $700 in additional funds, as well as increasing contact and involvement with more people; and providing opportunities for us to assist others in their ministry and service efforts. Apart from helping students, pastors and others with bargain-priced books for their studies and personal libraries, we also donated books to Rotary International for distribution and use in the Philippines and the Solomon Islands, and to Challenge Literature for distribution in Fiji, as well as supplying Bibles to be sent to Africa. We have continued to maintain availability of the second-hand books, especially the Christian books, between formal Book and Garage Sales. A number of people, from both metropolitan and country churches, have availed themselves of this, and have picked up some excellent bargains. EQUIPMENT The computer problems and frustrations of 2001, which cost us many hours of lost time and productivity, continued on into 2002. Following various consultations and carefully examining alternative options, we launched Project Replacement and began to pool some available finances to purchase three new computer systems, including the Microsoft XP operating systems and Office XP for our various tasks. We then had to go through the learning curve of dealing with new, and very different, programmes and also compatibility problems between the old and new systems and programmes, and the like. We were greatly helped through some of these teething troubles by Allan Browne (from Allen Browne's Database and Training – formerly from 98.5 Sonshine FM.) and Stewart Robertson. The upgrades have significantly enabled us to overcome the problems we had and to move on more effectively with our workloads and activities. IN THE NEWS/MEDIA Early in 2002, I, as Director, was interviewed and photographed for an article on our Ministry by The Australian national newspaper for possible inclusion in a planned series on ‘interesting lives/personalities’ or something of that nature. The local journalist, Colleen Egan, has been in touch with us over various stories since she commenced journalism and thought that our Ministry more than qualified for what the Sydney bosses were looking. The SUNDAY TIMES carried some of our comments in response to a front page story on Magistrate Michael King’s promotion and use of TM in courtroom sentencing. We were consulted on a number of issues by the GEELONG ADVERTISER (Victoria) and had comments in relation to witchcraft published in stories. Late in the year I was interviewed on local ABC Radio by Ion Cameron regarding voodoo dolls that had been sold as novelty items for teens by a leading fashion chain. 2002 saw the recommencement of a regular column in the Christian monthly paper, CHALLENGE. The first article, in a series on Alternatives, appeared in July. Brief articles on: Alternatives (general); Feng Shui; Reflexology; Reiki (3 parts) were published in 2002. OTHER At the beginning of 2001, Lorrie and I, in CCG Ministries’ name began a bread run, collecting bread and related foods from a bakery in Karrinyup on Tuesday and Friday evenings. This was distributed to CCG Ministries volunteers, and needy families through the Nollamara and Kingsley Churches of Christ, periodically the Aboriginal Evangelical Church in Balga, some other students and young people and a migrant refugee family. We regarded this as a practical part of our Ministry and a way of helping some of our volunteers and others. After one year of doing this, two nights a week, Kingsley Church of Christ took over the Friday evening collection and handled their own distribution. We continued the Tuesday collection and bagged bread and buns in plastic bags for hygiene and freshness. At the conclusion of two years of this practical ministry we felt unable to continue into a third year and so ceased this activity at the conclusion of 2002. FINANCIAL & RELATED MATTERS Whilst we weathered the stormy turmoil surrounding the effects of the previously introduced GST, and the ongoing general economic uncertainty, 2002 was not a very ‘prosperous’ year for our Ministry. Our TACL magazine subscriptions received some $900 more than the previous year; fees for legal work brought in almost $1500 more than the year before; but contributions from speaking engagements were down over $2500 on 2001. Overall our general fund support was down over $700 on the previous year and (in spite of cut back efforts) our overall general expenses were up on 2001 by about $6000. A major expense for the year came with purchasing and upgrading our computer systems – which should not be a repeated expense for quite a few years ahead. Throughout 2002 we were able to maintain payment commitments on our Building Fund loans, and were able to reduce some of the capital from these loans. We also receive a substantial private interest free loan for the Building Fund in early 2002, but the donor found it necessary to withdraw it again later in the year - much earlier than anticipated. We have appreciated the continuing availability of private interest free loans from four of our donors. We continue to be thankful to God and his people for the financial support received through the year. Some of our supporters have been regular, faithful and generous in their support during 2002. THE FUTURE Some earlier difficulties have been overcome during 2002, and there have been many positive developments – but we need increased resources – both financial and personnel wise. We need to begin training a replacement for me, as Director, to continue this Ministry, if it is truly God’s work. A number of significant challenges face us in 2003. We need to realistically consider my health and future (see further the Post Script at the end), as we look to the future of CCG Ministries. I believe Concerned Christians Growth Ministries Inc. HAS a vital future, in 2003 and beyond. Post-modern thinking, a redefinition of ‘tolerance’ and a wide range of other factors, including the continuing growth of a number of cultic and extreme religious groups, makes it clear that we have a contribution to make. How, and how effectively, we make that contribution, both in the Christian and general communities, will depend on a number of factors. These include:
o especially in property and yard cleaning and maintenance; o entering library data on our computers; o desktop publishing and graphics; o booksale sorting, maintenance and management of our second-hand book and garage sales (excellent opportunity for a retired book-loving individual or couple;
Some positive opportunities and developments are already beginning for 2003. We need to work together so that the coming year to maximise these so 2003 will not only be better and less draining for us, and the rest of staff and volunteer team, but be more effective in crisis intervention, preventative education, outreach, and pro-active initiatives. We acknowledge, with gratitude, God’s faithfulness, provision and protection throughout 2002. We also, once again, thank all those who have provided us with support and encouragement through the past year. We look forward with anticipation to 2003 and all it will hold for us. We move forward into this new year with a confident hope and assurance in God’s will and power. (March 2003 Postscript: Health problems affecting me in late 2002 continued to spill over into 2003, and though this report is the Annual Report for the past year, future issues need to take further health difficulties into consideration. During January I began to have some disturbing turns – seemingly related to balance, light-headedness and veering to the right. This led to visits to the doctor plus blood tests, a CT scan, and cardiac stress test. The stress test revealed that (heart wise) I was in reasonably good shape. The CT scan was a different story. It revealed that I had had a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) or lacunar stroke – a mild stroke. I had not been aware of having had it, and it revealed no noticeable side-effects. My GP did not think the turns were directly related to the TIA. Then in late January came a bad case of shingles (herpes zoster) around my left eye. Another trip to the doctor, antibiotics, and a trip to the eye specialist to make sure my actual eye was not damaged or in danger of serious damage. For days I had badly swollen eyelids, swollen nose and sores around my eye and on my nose. This made it impossible to wear glasses and therefore I was unable to read or do any work for almost a fortnight. Still to come (at the time of the AGM) is assessment by the neurology department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in late March. As a result of all of this found it necessary to take leave-of-absence from active involvement as an Elder at our local church. I have also been working with Lorrie to re-examine and moderate my workload at CCG Ministries, including doing some work from home instead of at the office all the time. In His Grace and Mercy W.A. van Leen, Director. March 2003 |
Copyright © CCG Ministries -
W.A. van Leen, Director.
