Hi Fighter,
It’s Father Dave back with you, though only very briefly today.
I’m back in the land of Oz, and glad to be back, but feeling a little off-balance!
A part of that is jet-lag, no doubt, but the other thing that has thrown me is the realisation that we’re only two weeks short of Christmas! 
You’d think I would have picked up the Yuletide warnings during my 10 days in the USA, and indeed there was no shortage of decorated trees and red and green baubles in every town I visited. But I’m afraid I just can’t associate Christmas with snow and cold weather! It wasn’t until I touched down and confronted the scorching heat of the Aussie summer that it really hit me!
Anyway … I managed to squeeze out a sermon with a Christmassy sort of theme, and I found today that it’s actually been YouTubed, and I’ll include that below, but there’s two things I want to mention to you first:
I Now Hold the Official World Record!
I received the news while I was in the US! According to the Guiness Book of World Records:
“The most consecutive boxing rounds is 120 and was achieved by David Smith (Australia) at the Holy Trinity Church Hall in Dulwich Hill, New South Wales, Australia, on 1 April 2012.”
Yes, it took more than six months for my world-record to be officially recognised, and the not-so-good news is that in that time somebody has already attempted to break it!
According to this article, Gerry Cronnelly of Ireland felt so inspired by my efforts that he decided to have a shot at 122 rounds to raise money for cancer research!
Mind you, I don’t know whether Cronnelly’s attempt was successful, and there’s a rumor going round that he fought mainly with schoolgirls and farm-animals, but since I started that rumor I’m pretty sure that it’s not true. 
Anyway, even if he did complete the rounds I’m guessing that it’s not official as yet, and that I’ll still have a few more days to bathe in the glory of being a world-record holder before I fade into the obscurity of sporting has-beens! 
Indeed, you can relive the glorious occasion with me now via this video retrospective if you’ve keen.
[imaioVideo v=1]
(and if you can’t see the video, click here)
In all truth, I see a real opportunity in Cronnelly’s attempt. Whether or not he was successful. I’m intending to challenge him to a ‘Last Man Standing’ bout!
The idea will be to box each other till only one of us is left on our feet. Of course that might take only a few rounds, but if he’s a long-distance fighter like me I reckon we might be able to achieve another world record between us – ie. for the longest boxing match!
I’ve already got the marketing cliches worked out:
- He’ll be on the floor in round 64!
- (or if that doesn’t work) His ass will be mine in round 79!
Of course I shouldn’t get ahead of myself as I haven’t made contact with Cronnelly yet, but the Parish Council informed me yesterday that I need to raise another $10,000 for the Youth Centre in 2013, so unless I can come up with a way of raising money that doesn’t involve me getting beaten up …
Pray for Israel/Palestine
The other thing I wanted to raise today was simply a call to prayer for Israel/Palestine.
I do believe that these countries are at crisis point, and I do believe that the course that these two countries take in the coming days and months will affect us all, one way or another!
I’ve written a brief article about the situation – “Crisis point for Israel/Palestine!“. You’ll find it here.
One of the things that really struck me in my travels across the US was the difficulty of accessing a balance of information regarding what is taking place in the rest of the world. Indeed, as I scanned the radio stations over and over again during my many hours of car travel, I found it difficult to find news about anything that was happening in the rest of the world! Certainly the only news I could find on Israel and Palestine was very one-sided.
I’m not suggesting that my perspective is unbiased of course, but hopefully it will provide a balance to the perspectives you may get in the mainline media, as will the other 528 articles that are published on www.israelandpalestine.org. Read and Pray!
Tidings of Comfort and Joy … NOT!
That’s the title of Sunday’s sermon, and I’ll leave you with that.
It’s 13 minutes and 37 seconds long if you have time for it.
[imaioVideo v=2]
(and if you can’t see the video, click here)
If you don’t have time for that now, let me share the latest snaps from my family album with you instead. That’s two of my lovely daughters below. Francesca is the little one, playing the part of a Christmas angel. Imogen is just looking lovely, as she always does.
(click either of the pics to go full-size)
And it’s actually my third (and eldest) daughter, Veronica, who is celebrating her birthday on Wednesday! I’ll include a birthday pic of her next week.
Until then I remain …
Your brother in the Good Fight,
Dave
www.fatherdave.org
www.fighting-fathers.com
www.israelandpalestine.org
www.how2changetheworld.com
P.S. I put together an online slide-show of my recent US trip. If you’re up to it, click here.
P.P.S. As I’m apt to remind you, if you’d like to support our work, the best way is to become a financial member at fighting-fathers.com. It only costs you $10/month but it makes all the difference at this end!
About Father Dave Smith
Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four
