Monday Missive – October 29th, 2012

Hi Fighter!

I do hope your week is going well. Mine has certainly had an exciting start!

Things are warming up here in Sydney, which is lovely, though it meant that I had to take plenty of water with me when I went on my Monday run.

At the moment I’m sitting in the back yard eating pizza with the kids and listening to the dog bark at some stray kittens that have found their way into our garage. It’s 7.30pm and it’s only just getting dark. Perhaps Daylight Savings does serve some purpose after all?

Anyway …

Our Fight Club was featured on the ‘Weekend Today’ TV show on Saturday and I’m excited to share the video with you. But first … something even more exciting!

The Big Fight

I hinted at this in the conclusion of the ezine last week – Holy Trinity’s own Solomon Egberime has the fight of his life coming up, and we are all buzzing about it here in Dulwich Hill.

Sol (who has now taken the alias of ‘Mr Jones’) is scheduled to fight Paul Spadafora on Saturday, December 1st, at the Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in West Virginia, USA. It’s the other side of the world but Mr Jones is packing his bags, and I’m certainly intending to be there to work his corner.

Spadafora’s stats are awesome: 46 wins, 1 draw, zero losses! He also has a significant height and reach advantage over Mr Jones. But if I was a betting man I’d be putting my money on our boy. Why? Because I know how much this means to him. I know he’ll fight as if his life depends on it!

So I’m planning on being back in the USA in about a month’s time, and I sincerely hope that I’ll be able to catch up with a good number of my many friends on the US east coast while I’m there. West Virginia is also a special place for me because of the role it had in the War Between the States, and I hope to show Mr Jones over Harpers Ferry, where John Brown met his untimely end.

Perhaps there will also be speaking opportunities? I guess that’s up to you guys. I’m not sure at this stage how long I’ll be in the US or how much territory I’ll cover, but if you think I might be passing through your town and you’d like to grab me, now is the time to let me know.

Our Latest TV Spot

A big thank you to Airlee Walsh and the team from Weekend Today.

Our segment screened on Saturday morning and at least one of our team members thinks it’s the best TV coverage we’ve had to date! (thanks Mungo).

Personally I think it’s way too me-focused. I wait for the day when some documentary maker will actually follow the development of one of our fighters – from angry young teenager to self-controlled master of the ring! I’ve suggested it to a few film-makers already. “From Zero to Hero” we could call it. I live in hope.

Anyway, I don’t want to downplay this lovely coverage and I’m deeply grateful to all our club members who participated. Our girl Kath came through very powerfully, I think. She’s a great person and a great fighter, and she’ll actually be making her amateur debut in only a few weeks (November 16th). You’ll also see glimpses of Mr Jones in the segment.

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Share Your Thoughts

Please do let me know what you think of the Weekend Today segment via the comment box below. If they are positive comments I’ll pass them on to Airlee, who put the piece together. Feel free to add your good wishes for Mr Jones too and I’ll pass them on to him.

I must say that I’ve been deeply encouraged over the last week or so to see a lot more activity on our Fighting Fathers Members’ Forum. Sincere thanks to Rob, Cibby, Tom and Ali who have been engaging in some heated but respectful political discussions, fueled no doubt by the upcoming US elections.

Certainly the most popular discussion so far was one started by Ali, entitled “Romney, a Draft Dodger, May Take Us to WWIII“. Please consider adding your wisdom to the thread. You’ll need to join our member site if you haven’t signed up already, but if not now, when?

Join the team, support the work, and enjoy the benefits.

Should Wives Submit to their Husbands?

And while I’m on the subject of sharing, I want to offer special thanks Winnie, who bravely decided to share her experience of domestic abuse and the role the church played in inadvertently sanctioning that abuse!

The immediate stimulus for Winnie’s sharing was the Anglican Diocese of Sydney’s decision to re-introduce the word submit back into the marriage liturgy. Winnie’s experience was that this sort of language had been an avenue to violence!

Read Winnie’s story here. Add your comments. Be assured that she reads the comments that people leave there (some of which have been excellent) and does respond.

You might also like to compare the latest offering from Father Keith (author of ‘A Restless Faith‘) who has just published an excellent essay on the same subject: “On Wives Submitting to their Husbands“.

OK. I need to bring this missive to a close as it’s getting late.

I can’t let you go though without wishing you a happy ‘All Saints Day‘ (or ‘All Hallows Day‘), which happens on Thursday.

I appreciate of course that ‘All Hallows Eve’ (or ‘Halloween’) plays a far more significant role for most people in my part of the world than the real celebration. Even so, ‘All Saints Day’ is a great time of year to look back at some of the great role-models in life and faith who have gone before us, and I’ll give you fair warning that I’m going to be focusing on one of history’s most memorable women of faith in my sermon this coming Sunday – the Biblical character, Ruth!

If you’re interested to hear my take on the life of this amazing woman, the service will be videocast live next Sunday morning, and this week I’m told that we’re finally going to get the sound working properly!

The broadcast starts at 9.15am, Sydney time, which works out at: