Thanking the Lord for this Special Couple

Queensland's Sunshine Coast is stunned by the death of Allan and Kari Taylor. They lived with passion and loved unconditionally affecting the lives of thousands.

Allan is well known for his tender heart, his crazy antics and unwavering love of God. There are, and will continue to be, countless stories of his love of people, his acts of compassion, his devotion to those in need and his abilitiy to tirelessly and selflessly give of himself.

Kari is known for her preciously insightful and tender heart of worship. She simply adored Jesus and lived to communicate His unconditional love, His beauty and His Presence through her amazingly diverse creativity. She revealed His heart through the song of her life. We saw His grace in the dances she envisioned and we knew his mercy through her commitment to His message.

We pray for their children, for their families, for their friends - that they will draw strength and peace from the Lord. And we praise God that Allan and Kari are reaping the rewards of lives well lived, having stepped into the next stage of their adventures in God.

Sex predator Michael McGarry released to secret location

18/08 The Sunday Times | ONE of Western Australia's worst serial sex predators has been released into the community - his whereabouts protected - after his latest conviction was quashed on appeal. Michael McGarry's record stretches back two decades and he has been convicted of 40 crimes, PerthNow has reported.

McGarry was jailed indefinitely five years ago after a 14-year-old girl was dragged into a bush and indecently assaulted. That charge was quashed on appeal yesterday and McGarry was released from custody.

NEW INITIATIVE: CHILDREN NEED PARENTS

Are you concerned about the harmful effects of daycare on very young children and Australian society?

Do you want Government tax and other policies to help parents nurture their own children where possible

PETITION 1: STOP the Rudd govt. TAXING stay-home parents much more !!

To the Honourable the President and Members of Australia’s Senate in Parliament assembled:

The government takes more tax from single-income families where one parent stays home to care for the kids, than two-income families where the kids go to child care centres. This is unfair.

Petition 2: End unfair funding for stay-home mums (and dads)

To the Honourable the President and Members of Australia’s Senate in Parliament assembled:

The government gives much less funding to single-income families where one parent stays home to care for the kids, than two-income families where the kids go to child care centres.  Government-funded maternity leave from 2011 would give even more taxpayers’ money to two-income families. This is unfair.

READ MORE ON THE NEW CHILDREN NEED PARENTS WEBSITE

NEW WEBSITE: Christians Talk About Abortion

Christians Talk About Abortion blog is to run in conjunction with our new Radio Program…Christians TAA to be aired on Rhema FM.

It is to give further assistance for anyone who would like to make more contact with people who care about them and their circumstances.  Maybe you are seeking further help from a counsellor who just wants to listen to you, and if you want can offer kind words of healing… women standing with women.

This blog will be featuring Abortion Grief Counselling agencies, with links to their sites where there are phone numbers that you can call day and night for assistance.

Quadriplegic Christian Rossiter wins right to starve to death

New anti-drug program launched at Parliament House

Focus on the Family Australia yesterday launched an updated version of ‘How to Drug Proof Your Kids’.
The revamped program, which in its earlier version has helped thousands of parents steer their kids away from drugs, was launched at Parliament House by Labor's Bill Shorten and the Coalition's Tony Abbott.
The launch heard that:

• 70% of kids by the age of 14 have used alcohol
• One third have used marijuana by age 13
• School kids smoke 3.5 million cigarettes per week

The new version has been examined and validated by experts such as Professor John Toumbourou, head of Health Psychology at Deakin University, who spoke at the launch.

"We think the program has a very sound logic by which it can take parents through a number of steps and changes they can make that will lead their children to a healthy future," Professor Toumbourou said.

"To create a healthy environment we need to start with the family," he said.

Mr Abbott praised the program saying it was "not done in a way to engender moral panic but was about empowering parents".

‘How to Drug Proof Your Kids’ is aimed at parents of eight to 14 year-olds. Focus on the Family provides training for facilitators who once accredited can deliver the program in their local communities.

For more information please visit www.families.org.au or phone 1300 300 361.

Let him starve: court rules on quadriplegic's plea

14/08 SMH.com.au | A landmark court decision has found a Perth nursing home should follow the wishes of a quadriplegic man who wants to die and stop feeding him.

In the West Australian Supreme Court, Chief Justice Wayne Martin said the Brightwater Care Group would not be criminally responsible by ceasing nutrition and hydration through a tube to the stomach of Christian Rossiter, a 49-year-old in its care.

SAME - SEX MARRIAGE - AN EXPERIMENT WE WILL LIVE TO REGRET

Australian Prayer Network Archives | If same-sex marriage is ever approved in Australian let me make a prediction. In about 30 years, we will be shaking our heads at yet another failed social experiment.

All the hallmarks are there. Like many other failed social experiments before it,  the same-sex marriage agenda is driven by a blinding rush of idealism filled with the best of intentions. Under the guise of multiculturalism, we allowed a laudable desire for tolerance to morph into Balkanisation, separatism and contempt for Western values. Seduced by slogans, we verge on beginning another disastrous social experiment with same-sex marriage.

Gay blood donor's complaint against Red Cross dismissed

Sandilands radio sacking may follow: expert

04/08 SMH.com.au | Kyle Sandilands' career faces further possible carnage as a media insider says his radio future may now also be uncertain. With his role as a judge on Australian Idol axed, the question remains - will his place with the Austereo network remain secure?

Branding expert and head of marketing at RMIT Michael Beverland said Sandilands' bad boy image branding might not be enough to get him out of his current career nosedive.

Tough Love for Teens

02/08 Herald Sun | THE gangland wars, with their mix of celebrity crims, standover men and public violence, have dominated the headlines.

But it's the so-called minor crimes home burglaries, street assaults and thefts from cars that most affect Victorians.

It is particularly disturbing when such crimes are committed by adolescents, whose lives seem to be spiralling out of control with no help in sight.

Today, the Sunday Herald Sun tells the story of a 15-year-old youth who recently pleaded guilty to 65 crimes, but received no conviction, no jail time and no fines.

Justice for our children

Herald Sun | TODAY this newspaper highlights the disturbing cases of seven children who were victims of domestic deaths.

They died, probably in great pain, of non-accidental injuries while supposedly in the care of their parents, a parent's partner or other adults.

Yet, because of inadequate laws, no one has been punished or held legally responsible for the deaths of these little angels.

Our legal system is struggling to cope with the domestic deaths of infants. In many cases, the law has been unable to provide the justice these children deserve.

Police, prosecutors and social workers say they are worried by an increasing number of infants killed by men who live with the mothers of the children.

Responsibility goes off the Air

31/07 Melinda Tankard Reist | DON'T humiliate kids for radio ratings.

THE lie detector incident on 2Day FM involving a 14-year-old girl who revealed she had been raped at age 12 was not a case of a radio stunt going horribly wrong as some have put it. It was horribly wrong before it even started.

Austereo's Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O had planned to interrogate a child about sex and drugs on live radio. That was ethically questionable even before the shattering disclosure.

A vulnerable girl, at risk and deserving of protection, became a media plaything. Listening to the audio of the girl's live-to-air ordeal is like witnessing a forced confession.

ANZ's prayers are answered

Business Spectator | It appears that neither HSBC nor Standard Chartered have put in bids for Royal Bank of Scotland’s Asian businesses, so ANZ is now in the box seat – and is possibly the only bidder for the whole network.

... ANZ’s raising was the first for a clear purpose – that is, investing in Shariah compliant Islamic banking in Pakistan, which is the largest part of RBS’s Asian network. Hmmm. I wonder if ANZ’s underwriters, Deutsche, UBS and JPMorgan mentioned that in their phone calls yesterday.

They probably didn’t, but in fact Islamic banking is the safest and fastest growing segment of the banking business at the moment. The RBS Pakistan web site touts that the Islamic financial services industry currently stands at $US385 billion worldwide and is growing at 15 per cent compound because of the rapid development, from a low base, of the Islamic world.

Sydney scientists make Alzheimer's breakthrough

01/06 SMH.com.au | Scientists in Sydney have discovered a way to stimulate the brain's own stem cells, which has the potential to lead to a new treatment for neurological disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

Bryce Vissel and Andrea Abdipranoto at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research identified a chemical, called activin A, that is essential for the brain's own stem cells to form new nerve cells, and to repair the brain, following neurodegeneration.

Using a mouse model, the researchers showed that, following acute nerve cell damage, the brain immediately acts to repair itself by replacing the damaged nerve cells with new cells

Training tomorrow's leaders

There is a great need in this nation to assist those students and recent graduates who demonstrate a high potential to become influential leaders for Christ across strategic areas of our nation including politics, law, media, science, education, arts and philosophy.

The Compass program, an eight-day course in Christian worldview, aims to address this need.

For more information and to register interest for 2009, please go to www.compass.org.au .

Lyle Shelton
National Chief of Staff , Australian Christian Lobby