7 April 2008

Dear Friends,

I have been overwhelmed by the response to my email last month which sought people’s adoption stories, happy or sad. I have now received over 50 accounts from all over Australia – relinquishing mums, adopted children and adoptive parents. Thank you – and thank you to those who passed on my email to others.

Of course, my problem now is that I cannot possibly fit all the responses into my 4500 word resource paper. Even after severe editing it is far too long, so I have handed it over to independent censors. Please pray for them – it is very hard to cut something which you feel is making an important point.

Several stories brought tears to my eyes, like this one:

“In 1980 I was a naive young Christian girl travelling overseas when I met a nice but non-Christian guy – and ended up pregnant. He said he would support me if I had an abortion. That was the end of our relationship. “I knew I would not be able to cope raising the child, but I found a Christian adoption agency. From profiles of married couples on their waiting list I chose a doctor and nurse who I believed would best love and care for my son. I then moved back to Australia, but my son was constantly in my thoughts and prayers. “A few years ago the adoption laws changed in the country of his birth and I was able to seek information – but to my great distress, I learned that my son had died of a rare form of cancer the year before. “However his adoptive parents sent me a CD of the presentation given at his funeral, including photos and details of his considerable achievements despite his long illness which had begun in his teens. I realised how well his adoptive parents had looked after him and how difficult it would have been for me to do so. God indeed knew best. “But the real healing came at the end of the presentation. My son said: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).’ I knew that my son is with the Lord. One day I will see him again. God is good.”

There is something else for which I would value your prayers and help. Despite applying for Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit on 19-20 April, with what I kidded myself was a most impressive nomination form about my vision for the nation’s future, I missed out. In contrast, prominent Aussie atheist commentator Phillip Adams wasn’t nominated, didn’t apply – yet received an invitation (how curious!).

However our Victorian state officer for Festival of Light Australia, Pastor Peter Stevens, has received a consolation prize: an invitation to Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s mini-summit for her electorate of Lalor in Werribee, Victoria, near Peter’s home. Please pray for Peter!

And there is a role for you too. Our Prime Minister has invited all of us second best and not-so-bright brains who missed out on his summit to send up to 500 words as a submission on our ideas to improve the nation.

Click on http://www.australia2020.gov.au/submissions/index.cfm#online and follow the instructions for your chance to have your say on one or more of the ten topics, including issues relating to health, education and family life.

I can think of many ways in which encouraging alternatives to abortion and promoting carefully considered marriage over shacking up could improve national health and education outcomes. No doubt you have plenty of ideas too.

Cynics have said to me: “What’s the point? The summit’s merely a public relations exercise and the government will throw your submission in the bin, just as it did to your nomination form.”

True – but you’ll never never know if you never never go (and send your submission). Rodney Croome is already out there, drumming up hundreds of submissions to argue that same-sex “marriage” is a must. Is there no one who will challenge this deeply flawed view?

God bless!

ROS

Mrs Roslyn Phillips, B Sc Dip Ed

National Research Officer, Festival of Light Australia

Website http://www.fol.org.au

Related Articles:

• Greece: can you believe this/them?
• Syria February 2012: Two Perspectives
• EGYPT: THE GROSS INSECURITY OF THE DHIMMI
• Female Circumcision in the Maldives, the Islamic Movement and Islamophobia
• Australia Day message

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.