Seeking Asylum in Australia

One of the hot issues of today, and one touched on by Tim Costello on Monday evening, is the issue of those people seeking asylum as refugees in Australia. The whole matter seems to lose perspective in what, I percieve, is an immature political debate. Here are some realities to get people looking at this issue, less from a fear perspective, and more from a constructive perspective...

• Australia does not have a problem with illegal immigrants. There are two reasons for this: seeking asylum is not illegal, and our border control is one of the best in the world.
• Australia does not have a problem with boat people. More than 95% of people that arrive seeking asylum do so by plane!
• Australia is not being flooded with people seeking asylum. Compared to countries such as the US and those in Western Europe that have land borders we have a very small number of people seeking our help.
• Australia has demonstrated great hypocrisy in demanding that offshore processing sites are signatories to the refugee convention, as we do not uphold the refugee convention ourselves, despite being signatories. For example, we are obliged under the convention to process people that land in Australia here as expediently as possible, but have instead sent them away.
• More than 90% of people that Australia detains while processing their asylum requests end up being affirmed as refugees and settled in Australia. However, our current system of slow detention in unhelpful conditions is leading to many mental health issues. In the end, our slow, poor treatment of these refugees lands us with a large mental health bill that we would be rid of if we treated them humanely and processed claims on-shore and quickly.

The irony of the current debate is that both sides of politics may be forced into expedient on-shore processing by accident - because they are both blocking each other's offshore policies. The costs of offshore processing would be more than enough to establish a good system of processing in Australia - which would also keep the jobs related to processing within Australia, so would provide greater economic benefit.

We need, as a country, to rid ourselves of the irrational fear of refugees or general vulnerability and embrace mature discussion on this issue.

Business

In the past we've been accused of letting business get in the way of ministry. Sadly, a reality of our current world is that statutory and regulatory requirements mean that a degree of concentration and intentionality is given to business practice.

Yesterday, Brad and Nathan attended the Divisional Business Day. These are held three times a year to bring officers and network directors in The Salvation Army up to speed with things that they need to be kept abreast of in the business/ legal world.

In coming months some significant things will impact our operations. Some of you would be aware of the Work Health Safety rules publicised through the Messenger Press this week. Because we are already a best practice centre, some of the impact described by other churches and charities in the paper will not be issues for us.

As well as this we are waiting for a decision from Fair Work Australia about the wage case claim made by the Australian Services Union on behalf of the social and community services sector. This could have a major impact on our service delivery, or at least our capacity to employ people in that sector.

In the meantime, please pray for us as we continue to attempt to be faithful stewards of the business, money, and people that God has placed in our care.

Doris (Dot) Spencer

It is with sadness that we pass on the news that (Doris) Dot Spencer has been promoted to glory.

Dot was originally from the Colonel Light Gardens Corps and transferred to Glenelg in 1997. She became part of Marion Corps as we amalgamated last year. Dot was much loved by the people who knew her through the Corps.

Dot's funeral will be led by Major Laurie Venables. It will be held at Simplicity Funerals, Black Forest, on Tuesday November 15 at 10 am.

Walk Together, Talk Together

50 years ago, the men's fellowship groups from a variety of churches in Marion and Brighton got together for the first "Walk Together, Talk Together". This annual, ecumenical, men's night celebrated its half centenary last night at Holdfast Baptist Church, Somerton Campus.

Around 20 men from our church joined the celebrations. There were a few highlights, one of which was the guest speaker Rev Tim Costello, current CEO of World Vision Australia. Having approximately 280 men singing "Bread of Heaven" together was also something to be heard to be believed. And as is often the case with these events - there was a great meal.

The night highlighted our unity as Christians. It showed the importance of men being able to meet together (as was also discussed by the guest speaker). It demonstrated the capacity of the church to put together great events. It also highlighted how good our church is at serving - the ladies in the kitchen and hall were from Holdfast Baptist Church and Marion Salvos with their families!

Congratulations

Congratulations to Felix and Esther Chandrakumar on the birth of Olivia. Prayers and blessings on this special family, including older sister Felicia.

Update on National Schools Chaplaincy Program

Many of you would recall earlier posts on the High Court challenge to the federal funding of school chaplains. The High Court heart the case in August but is yet to deliver its decision.

However, 75,000 Australians signed the petition that was sent to the federal government at the time, supporting chaplaincy and the continued funding programme. In response, last month, the Gillard government confrimed its commitment to chaplains, and our children, by announcing continued support for the current chaplains and additional funding for 1000 more schools across the country.

This is great news. It is worth us also considering how we can support our chaplains. You might like to log on to the Schools Ministry Group website http://www.smg.asn.au/ to read about schools ministry in South Australia and the ways that you can support and pray for those that help our kids.

Ascot Park Thrift Shop

Today we received approval for the expansion of the Thrift Shop at Ascot Park. While the shop has done very well under the leadership of Wendy and Tryntje, we are limited by our very small floor space and the hours we can currently operate.

Recently, a new business plan was written for the shop to include relocation to the neighbouring premises, the employment of a supervisor and the inclusion of a conversation/ mission/ prayer/ reading area to truly make the shop a mission centre.

It is hoped that we will move next door by the end of the month. Today we have advertised for a supervisor, who, when employed, will report to Greg Varidel, our current shop manager at Seacombe Gardens. This position will be part funded by The Salvation Army South Australia Division to help us establish the new and improved shop. It is viewed by the Division as an investment - once our shop is running smoothly it will support itself and our Glenelg campus ministries.

As a bonus, we have been able to obtain some extra shop fittings from a recently closed thrift shop. It seems that God is pulling this together for us nicely!