It's all a matter of emphasis

I read it once and paused. Hang on a moment, what? Another read. What? Third time through. Oh! I get it now.

It seems these days that every time I open a Koorong catalogue, more and more advertising paraphernalia seems to fall out. The one that caught my attention this afternoon was for the Crossway Conference (which as far as I can tell by the brochure has no location.) Now I'm not thinking of going. But even if I was thinking about it, I especially wasn't going during the first two attempts at reading the introduction sentence in the biography of the headline speaker Gene Appel;

Gene is recognised by many as a gifted leader with a passion for following Christ and a sensitivity for hurting people.

It's all a matter of emphasis, I suppose.

Now while I have your attention I don't know if you can imagine what its like to have a child with a penchant for choking on things and turning blue. I'm certain it's not the most pleasant experience for a parent. My little 12 month old niece Eleora had to get airlifted from the middle of the Northern Territory to Darwin and then to Sydney for heart surgery a few months back. Basically her own heart was choking her and she needed urgent treatment. Praise God she's now been fixed up good.

The reason my sister and her family were in the middle of the NT is because my brother in law is in the airforce. After initially offering full financial support, the defense force with no notice told my sister and brother in law that they would no longer meet their accommodation or car hire expenses. Stuck in a foreign state with two kids, one of whom was awaiting serious surgery, it was a great stress. Some Christian brothers and sisters who live a few suburbs from the hospital offered accommodation, but to have a sick child and be living under someone else's roof could be cause for even more stress. But God's graciousness was abounding as my brother in law phoned at just the right time to get put up in Ronald McDonald House for as long as they needed (which ended up being about 2 weeks). From memory I was told about 25 families request a place at RMH each week and only a handful of rooms are available.

To say thanks for the wonderful support they received, my sister and brother in law are walking 330km from Tindle (the airforce base near Katherine) to Darwin, raising money for Ronald McDonald House Charities. You can read more about the walk here. Or if you can spare a few buckeroos you can follow the instructions through the site linked above or my sisters personal support page here.

I think in many ways it is testament to my sister and brother in law's trust in Jesus that they are not just satisfied to accept the gracious gift of Macca's House as if it were somehow a right, nor to simply forget about the benefit they received there once they'd left, but rather do the hard work (and hard walk) of raising funds so other families can receive the care they did.

Perhaps you might consider going without your next trip to McDonalds in order to give $10 to Ronald McDonald House?

Here's my niece in a cute hat that is really just holding the tubes that enable her to breathe;