info@changemylife.org.au
Newcastle, NSW
The habit of reading the Bible through every year from cover to cover has provided some insights that I may not have picked up without this systematic approach. There are three groups of people that God identifies repeatedly. They are almost always mentioned together. God is intensely concerned about how His followers respond to these subgroups of humanity. I’d like to call them God’s special trio. They are the foreigners, fatherless, and widows. Foreigners, fatherless, and widows appear as a trio in 11 verses in the book of Deuteronomy. It is impossible to miss them when reading through this book. The first verse in which they are mentioned is Deuteronomy 10:18. God’s passion is clearly articulated, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.” How does God provide for them? In Deuteronomy 14:29, God calls on His people to supply food for these individuals and emphasises that by doing so, He will bless them in all the work of their hands. Each local town was expected to respond to the needs of the foreigners, fatherless and widows that lived among them. God’s blessing was tied directly to how they responded to the needs of these groups.
God was very specific in His instruction concerning the treatment of His special trio. His people were not to take advantage of them, such as depriving the foreigner and fatherless of justice or taking the cloak of a widow as a pledge (Deuteronomy 24:17). At harvest time, they were not to thoroughly harvest their farms. They were to leave olives, grapes, and wheat available for harvesting by the foreigners, fatherless, and widows (Deuteronomy 24:19, 24:20, 24:21). A tenth of the harvest was to be given to the Levites as a tithe. From this tenth, the foreigners, fatherless and widows were also to be cared for (Deuteronomy 26:12).
What intrigued me was when I came across this trio again in my reading of Psalms, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Malachi. Psalm 146:9 repeats the response of God found in Deuteronomy 10:18, “The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow.”
Many verses referring to God’s special trio come in the form of a warning... do not oppress the foreigner, fatherless and widow. Jeremiah 7:5-7 puts it this way, “ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.”
A brief survey of the Old Testament perspective on foreigners, fatherless and widows indicates that these groups are a special focus of God’s attention. He expects them to be treated well (not oppressed) and to be provided for by His people. God’s blessing of His people is directly connected to how they treat these individuals.
Let’s explore further each of the three groups, beginning with foreigners. The New International Version (NIV translation) selects the word “foreigner” to describe this group. Other translations use the word “stranger,” “immigrant,” or “sojourner.” Leviticus 19:34 (NIV) provides an insight into what God is referring to here, “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” The Hebrew word used in this passage is “haggar” which is the same root word (“guwr”) used Deuteronomy 10:18 and is best translated as sojourner. This rarely used English word means to turn aside and tarry for a definite or indefinite time. Biblically, this person was a newcomer who didn’t have rights based on birth1. A Biblical example of a sojourner is the story of Naomi and Ruth. When Naomi moved her family to Moab because of a famine in Israel, she became a sojourner in Moab. When Ruth, a Moabite, moved with Naomi back to Israel, Ruth became a sojourner. In today’s context, refugees or immigrants are familiar words that define groups of people that fit the meaning of the word sojourner (“haggar”).
From the inception of Israel, there was a mandate from God to respond with compassion to the foreigner. God shared His vision for Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12:3, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The calling of Israel to positively impact the nations surrounding them was a unique one. “Although ancient Near Eastern law codes stressed protection for the widow and orphan, only Israel's contained legislation for the resident alien.”2
In our contemporary context, foreigners, and in particular refugees, are making headlines around the world. Desperate political conditions in Syria and Libya have created a monumental humanitarian crisis. It is estimated that 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since civil war broke out in March of 2011.3 In the first six weeks of 2016, 409 individuals lost their lives at sea in their attempt to escape. European nations face unprecedented challenges as they scramble to respond compassionately to the cry for help. Joe Millman, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) stated, "There are more concurrent crises around than we've ever seen at one time."4 It is not anticipated that this intensity will decrease anytime soon.
Complicating matters further is a legitimate fear that terrorists are infiltrating the refugees as they seek asylum. It is impossible to close a blind eye to the risks while trying to respond compassionately to the millions who desperately need help. It is not the purpose of this article to debate the political landmines related to the current refugee crisis, rather to present a case for a Biblical response to this group that is part of “God’s special trio.”
The second group in God’s special trio is the fatherless. This group is close to God’s heart. As highlighted previously, the group referred to as “fatherless” appear 18 times in the Old Testament as part of the trilogy of foreigners, fatherless, and widows. The “fatherless” are mentioned an additional 23 times in the Old Testament. Perhaps the most well known passage is Psalm 68:5, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.” Psalm 27:10 sheds further light on God’s passion for the fatherless, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me.”
In the ancient Near East, the father provided the main economic support for their family. The loss of a father through death in war, accident, or disease placed the children and widow in a desperate financial situation. II Kings 4:1-7 shares the hopeless plight of a widow who had the creditors coming after her following the death of her husband. The ruthless creditor was even threatening to take her two sons as slaves in order to pay the debt. Elisha instructed her to collect vessels and pour the small amount of oil that she had into them. Miraculously the oil multiplied and all the pots were filled. She was able to sell the oil and pay off the creditor. Such highly vulnerable widows were to be cared for by God’s people. In this case, it seems that help had not come and God Himself provided a miracle to care for the widow and her children.
Just as God placed the responsibility of reflecting His passion and coming to the aid of the fatherless in the Old Testament, He clearly indicates the priority for his followers today, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress...” James 1:27.
According to the Christian Alliance for Orphans, 17.8 million children have lost both parents. These children are referred to as “double orphans.” 153 million children have lost one or both parents. These numbers do not include children living in institutions (orphanages) or on the streets. These children are known as “social orphans.”5
how two such amazing boys could be abandoned by their parents? They have such promise for the future, but desperately need a family who will love them and raise them to make a difference in the world. It is exciting to see the transformation in their lives during their short time with us.
Perhaps you have an interest in doing something closer to home. Being a foster parent is another way to make an impact for orphans. If this is not the right step for your family, perhaps you can be a support for someone who is fostering through respite care. Respite means to provide a primary caregiver with a break. By hosting a child in your home for a few hours or over the weekend, you can give the foster parent much needed rest and as a result not only help the child but also help the foster parent do their job better. The same need is also present for single parents and their children.
The final group of God’s special trio we will examine further is referred to as “widows.” In the Old Testament, widows and orphans are typically grouped together. One event precipitated the status of widow and orphan in a moment, the death of the husband/father. At that moment, the future of the wife (now a widow) and children (now orphans) became very uncertain.
Jesus draws our attention to a broader ministry to widows in Luke 4:25-26, “But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the day of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarapheth, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.” Elijah’s interaction with the widow of Zarapheth resulted in God’s miraculous preservation of the widow’s life and that of her son. The provision was for their basic need of food. God miraculously supplied oil and flour until the famine ended. In these verses, Jesus emphasizes that there were many widows in Israel. The story of the widow of Zarapheth additionally points out that God’s care extended beyond the borders of Israel.
The plight of widows does not escape God’s notice, and it should not escape our notice either. Some women become widows while they still have children living at home, others become widows because they outlive their spouse who has died of old age. On average, women out live men by 7 to 10 years. If a man marries a woman that is a few years younger, then the time spent in widowhood can be even longer. The loss of a spouse, having to care for a home alone, and feeling uncertain financially, all can create a very distressing situation. Ideally, children or other family members will rise to the occasion and provide the support needed. However, that should not be assumed. There are many ways that you can respond
with compassion and love. Inviting them to your home for a meal, helping them organise their finances, mowing their yard, doing odd jobs/repairs around their house, preparing food for them, adopting them as a “grandparent” for your children, taking them on family outings with you, etc. There may be physical needs, but we also should be in tune with the emotional needs. Local churches and community groups should provide social and spiritual opportunities for these individuals to interact with others who are facing a similar stage in their life. Beyond our immediate friendship circles, we should be reaching out to widows in the wider community as well.
Our society has impacted another group that has many similarities to widows: single mums. This group is created by two cultural dynamics: divorce and unwed pregnancies both of which result in children being raised without a mother and father in the home. Single mums represent a significant portion of society. In the United States, The Washington Post made this observation, “Single motherhood has grown so common in America that demographers now believe half of all children will live with a single mum at some point before the age of 18.”6
In this article, we have explored God’s special trio: foreigners, fatherless, and widows. What burden has God placed on your heart? What action will you take? What tangible ministry will you engage in? Without question, these groups are ones that Jesus highlights in Matthew 25:40, “Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Our actions of compassion toward foreigners, orphans, and widows will truly make an impact for eternity!
Dr Tom Evans
I have been a Christian for the last four years and have been baptised for two years. I am currently serving in the Australian Defence Force and this is my 10th year of service. I always wanted to join the Australian Defence Force. I got an offer to join the Royal Australian Air Force as an airfield defence guard. I got stuck into beers and alcohol which was numbing the stress that I went through. I’d been in the military for a few years but in 2012 when my son was about three months old, my partner and I separated. At this point the substance abuse got even worse. I found out that I was posted to Afghanistan and I obviously said yes because that’s the reason for being in the defence force. Luckily our relationship mended and we ended up getting back together just before I deployed. I served seven months in Afghanistan. After returning I had a lot questions. Why do bad things happen to good people? Is there really a God? I saw Islam over there at its worst. What’s the point of life? Are we born just to die? I came back seeing the negative side of the world and got straight back into alcohol again. I saw my relationship starting to decline again with my family so I decided to quit drinking.
Before I went to Afghanistan, I went to my Dad’s house and he gave me the Holy Bible. He asked for me to take it over to Afghanistan. I didn’t think anything of it and when I got home I just threw it into the corner of my room. I ended up taking the Bible with me because I had heard stories about soldiers taking bullets and the Bible stopping the bullets. I tried reading it once, got nothing out of it. But I still carried it with me everywhere.
In 2013 when I came back, I quit drinking. I knew my family was going to fall apart again and I didn’t want that. My girlfriend at the time, Lana (who is my wife now), went through a change. I remember her coming out of her room one day and saying she had tried reading the Bible. She then went to bed and had a dream. After she woke up, she could understand the parables in the Bible. She told me that she was really interested in reading the Bible, so I asked my Dad, who at that time was a recently converted Christian, for advice. He pointed towards starting with the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So she began studying the Bible. I didn’t really take too much notice of it but those events were definitely in the back of my mind.
Not too long after that, I got posted down to Williamtown, New South Wales. Because I had quit drinking alcohol, I took up surfing. I had this large hole in my life that alcohol filled so I decided to buy a surfboard. I started filling my life with other things but it all just wasn’t enough. I remember going to my Dad’s place for Christmas lunch and one of his friends Blake Penland came. I remember standing there for an hour straight listening to him talk to Lana. The one thing that struck me about that conversation was how happy Blake was. I just couldn’t get around the fact that he was so happy. Prior to leaving, Blake invited us to go to church. Blake’s invitation stuck with us. The first time we tried to go to church we all got sick. We then decided to go again, but the Friday night prior to going to Wallsend Church, I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to go. That night I went to sleep and I had this dream where I was at ‘point A’ and my family was at ‘point B’, and I was running to try and save them while the whole world was falling apart on either side of me. I would run and just as I got within arm’s reach to save them, the dream would restart. I would be back at the start again and I would just keep running. The dream repeated over and over again. I’d never been so fearful in my life because the one thing that I’m very protective of is my family. I just laid there on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. I said “God if you’re real then I need help right now. Right now, I need help”. This peace came over me and I just fell straight back to sleep. I remember waking up early in the morning and the first thing that came to my mind was a book and a Bible verse. I thought, “This is crazy” and so I just blew it off and went back to sleep. I then woke up again and everyone was getting ready to go to church and I remember thinking, “What was that Bible verse that came into my mind?”. So we went to Wallsend Church and we were in the carpark when Lana said to me “Why were you looking through the Bible this morning? You’ve never done that.”
And then it just hit me and I remembered. Ecclesiastes 3:6-11. Keep in mind that at that time I had all these thoughts like, “Why am I here? Am I born just to die? Why do good things happen to bad people? Why is the world so messed up?” So this verse really hit me.
Ecclesiastes 3:6-11 says:
"A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war an da time for peace. What do people really get from all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
I just remember a tear rolling down my face. I hopped out of the car and started walking towards the church. My family followed and we walked in and sat down and I read those Bible verses over and over again. We went home after the service and I began to go over everything. How could this possibly happen? How could all the questions that I had be answered through a dream? How could this be possible? I started doubting everything and trying to find a way to make it seem like it was all a coincidence. I sat on the couch, contemplating how this had all happened. I didn’t tell anyone what had happened. I was just flicking through the Bible and went to the start of the Bible. My Dad had written something there all those years back before Afghanistan. It said:
"Dear Jesse, this book is full of stories of other people’s lives that have long since gone but are still relevant today. If you are wise you can learn from other people’s mistakes and find the true meaning of life. What is life really all about? Are we born just to die? Why do bad things happen? Why is the world so messed up? How will it all end? I hope and pray one day you can find relevant information in this book and your eyes will be opened to what is gone in the past and what will happen in the future. It is all in this book. When you are ready, just ask God to lead and it will happen.”
From there I called my Dad up and I was like, “Hey, this just happened.” He said, “Yeah, that happens man.” It’s been a journey since, but the one thing that I had was peace. Even when I was at rock bottom, one thing stayed true, I had peace through everything. I feel like I am a better person now, although I am still struggling with things and still working through them. The person that I was back then; there’s meaning through that. The experiences that I’ve gone through (and there are a fair few of them), they can be used to help other people. I think everything has a purpose. To truly take somebody for who they are, no matter how broken they are, that’s something different. That’s the true Character of God. No matter what you’ve done, He can fix you and He can make you new.
Jesse Stanfield
TOURISM IS AN EXPLODING INDUSTRY.
With each passing year, the affordability and ease of travel along with an ever-growing appetite for tourism increases. In 2016, the estimated global economic impact of tourism exceeded 7.5 trillion US dollars. In 2005, 528 million tourists landed on foreign soil to enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of a distant, yet reasonably accessible culture. In 2015, this number doubled to 1.19 billion international tourists worldwide. And the appeal is well justified. The benefits to personal health and wellbeing are well documented and widely attested. But rather than presenting a vague impetus for sightseeing, let’s have a look at some specific benefits of exploring the world.
1 – Provides Perspective
No matter where you live, your heritage, your age or your interests, gaining perspective is of universal benefit. Perspective is the exercise of embodying the experience of another. It’s purposefully attempting to view the world from a viewpoint other than your own. As you encounter people, places and practices different to your own, you will share in their way of life. Suspending your own understanding of the world and contemplating that of another - this is an act of humility and respect. Gaining perspective is vital to understanding the lived experience of others, living in community and contributing to society.
2 – Reduces Stress
Routine is a necessary and useful structure which governs our daily lives. Without it, our minds would struggle to perform and focus. However, the constant everyday stressors and anxieties have an inhibiting effect on the mind as your subconscious attempts to build coping and protective mechanisms to mitigate potential burnout. While you take a shower, your mind is busy working on your next project. While you fuel up your car, you’re also creating a mental shopping list. Routine helps maximise your daily output, but this comes at a cost. A reprieve from this constant treadmill can reinvigorate the senses. When you travel, your mind is free from the daily and can engage entirely with the present. When you travel, everything you encounter is new to the senses and they are forced to pay attention and observe. The more vibrant and distant your wanderings are from your daily routine, the stronger these effects on the mind. New, vivid experiences force the mind to focus on and absorb the present and forget about the stressors.
3 – Inspires Creativity
As we live life and gradually mature, we tend to select for patterns of thought and behaviour that we find useful and eliminate those that are less so. Over time, we establish preferred patterns of thinking, and this is a very beneficial and efficient cognitive function. When you are asked to produce something, it’s useful to draw from your experience a pattern or set of rules that may help you produce a predictable outcome. However, when the thing you want to gain lies outside of your accumulated wisdom, and all the mental scripts you run produce only predictable outcomes, then you need a leap of creativity. Placing yourself in completely new surroundings facilitates such leaps of creativity. Even the mundane objects and sights become inspirations which ignite and form new patterns of thinking. Remove yourself physically from your familiar environment and observe your thinking change in unexpected and refreshing ways.
4 – Facilitates Personal Growth
On a personal level, we are constantly attempting to make sense of the world around us. We construct arguments which respond to and reconcile the challenging moments in our lives. However, often times our arguments and presuppositions are culturally informed. When we travel, we witness how various cultures encounter the challenges of life in ways different to our own. Our preconceived notions are often violently disturbed and as we compare and contrast cultural practices, we arrive at a deeper understanding of our own behaviours and cultural practices, which once gained can never be lost.
5 – Creates Experiences of a Lifetime
There is little in life more precious than enjoying a meal with new friends from a different culture and participating momentarily in their way of life. This sharing of experience is truly meaningful as it elevates the daily customs and rituals, and reveals their value and beauty. These experiences and connections last a lifetime. They represent the spirit of humanity as expressed in community and relationships with one another.
Traveling is a good thing. But when you do travel, don’t just visit the natural sights, beaches and waterfalls. Nature is amazing and in our fast-paced, technology-driven world, an escape into nature is duly prescribed. However, when you travel to other nations and cultures, spend time with people, study their history, listen to their stories and learn their songs. By immersing yourself in their way of life, you will return refreshed, invigorated, creatively inspired and with a heightened sensitivity and respect for all humanity. Bon voyage!
Maddy Voinea
Happy Hands is a community art program focusing on letting your kids develop their fun and creative side. Carolin Schmitz is the founder and director of Happy Hands. She says, “Happy Hands is a place where parents can bring their children to experience messy crafts, fun and sensory play. They are all the things that parents are not too keen on doing at home because, let’s face it, it leaves a big mess, right?” Happy Hands is true to their motto ‘The mess stays with us!’ Which is exactly what every parent wants to hear.
In 2011 the first branch of Happy Hands opened in Nunawading, Victoria where it was established as a non-profit community program. Children aged 1-5 years and their parents enjoy a comfortable, vibrant space where they can interact together and get creative.
Carolin says, “I have a creative background and I’ve been involved in children’s ministries for quite a long time. At the time it was just for the church that I was involved in and we ran that class for 3-4 weeks, word got around that there was an affordable quality art class running. Someone from the local newspaper contacted me and said ‘We’ve heard about this art program, we would love to come and do a story’. We ended up running two sessions at this site and started a waiting list!” Happy Hands has continued to grow, now with 16 sites across Victoria, Queensland and more recently New South Wales.
Happy Hands is a very practical hands-on program that is designed to build self-confidence in children by exploring new things. Carolin explains, “We create a fun, nurturing space where we are encouraging the process of making something and not worrying about the perfect end result. It gives the children the freedom and imagination to be able to come up with their own interpretation of things.” The sessions run for 1.5 hours and are very structured, understanding that children this age have a short attention span and respond well to structure.
“We live in a technology world and you often see children with their iPads or with their iPhones being out of touch with things around them. We are really intentional about creating these environments where children are encouraged to experience, feel, create, paint and glue,” says Carolin. This program demonstrates that children can have fun without technology.
There are a lot of benefits for parents attending Happy Hands as well. In addition to seeing your child engaged in hands-on creative activities, there’s plenty of opportunity to meet other parents, make friendships and be part of a supportive community. “We are creating a space where mums can meet other mums, where there is a community feel, a space where people can feel that they belong, but also a place where parents can spend special bonding time with their child each week.”
Most Happy Hands teams are run by volunteers, which means the program is affordable for any family. Where a swimming lesson would cost around $15 to $25 for half an hour, your child can enjoy a whole 1.5 creative hours for only $8.80, which includes a healthy morning tea! The Happy Hands team are committed to making their program accessible to anyone. For more information visit happyhandsart.com.au.
Marta Rutkowska
I remember a story as a kid about a road sign in Canada that says, “Be careful which rut you choose because you are going to be following it for the next several hundred miles.” Ruts are like that. They take a week or too to form and then you follow them for years, sometimes right into adulthood. Good habits can take us to really interesting places and bad habits can hold us back from achieving our best. Just think about the habits that you have at the moment. Do these habits serve you well, or are they holding you back from the pursuit of success?
For example, you might have habits around how you use money and what you do with money. I have been challenging my children to have good habits with money like investing 10% (which you never touch) in order to create long-term wealth, putting aside another 10% for generous purposes (like Biblical tithing or supporting great charities), putting 10% away for rainy-day savings and living on the remaining 70%. This 70% is more than enough money to invest in your quality of life, your relationships and connecting with others. These money habits might mean letting go of some desirable material things. But you would be pursuing those things which would build long-term wealth while still enabling connection with family and friends. Because in the end, it’s not the amount of stuff you collect that really matters. It’s the relationships you nourish.
When you get home, are you in the habit of talking to your partner? Do you sit down over a hot drink in the winter? Do you really unwind, connect with each other, to nurture each other’s story and to champion each other’s causes? Have you done that for each other? And you do that for your kids too. Life isn’t about what you collect. It’s about who you invest in and where you invest your energy and your focus. Make this a daily habit or ritual and notice how good it feels to connect in this way.
What about your thought habits? There are many things that could hold us back from success, but a crucial one is the silent chatter that happens inside our head. What’s the story you are constantly telling yourself? Is it a story that’s affirming or destroying? Is it a story that builds you up or puts you down? Is it a story that builds up those around you or does it tear them down? Building good mental habits will give you so much more in return. Imagine seeing your partner across the room and your first thought is to say, “Hey honey!” and your eyes and face light up and they respond by smiling back at you? Beautiful thoughts take you to beautiful places.
Be careful what habits you choose because it’s going to take you a long time to change those habits. How do we make our default way of thinking one which is filled with kindness, generosity, gratitude and love? One of the practical ways to make that happen is to get out a pen and a piece of paper and to start writing down your daily gratitudes. Write down what you love and appreciate about your husband or wife. “The thing I love or appreciate about my wife is how she relates to others around her and always creates a beautiful space...” Now just keep writing until you have 30, 40, 50, 100 ways in which you can express your gratitude or appreciation for your partner. What will happen when you start writing them down. They will shift the psychology of your thinking so that instead of your default being negativity all the time, your default now can be filled with thoughts of love, tenderness and connection.
This will work in any area of your life just by tweaking the question you ask yourself. Ask yourself how will implementing a wealth creation plan lead to long-term happiness and success? Or how will this course enable me to achieve my goals? Or how will being fit and healthy bring me greater joy and pleasure? For each write at least 50 to 100 answers to shift your psychology and start building better habits. The right thinking will lead to better habits that will get you a great life.
Pr Neil Thompson - Life Coach and Minister
Hi, I’m Alisha. I live on the southern end of the Gold Coast with my wonderful husband Dan, and our gorgeous little boy Leo.
My love of fitness began in high school with a Les Mills pump class. Ever since I’ve had a gym membership and have been lifting weights, because I love feeling strong and capable.
Over the years I’ve learnt A LOT from personal experience and various trainers and experts around different approaches to fitness. I will forever be a student, however I’ve come to believe fitness is not the be-all and end-all of being healthy. It actually starts with how you feel about yourself, and how you feed your body.
As a child, my parents owned a local health food store, and we had a huge veggie garden. I was brought up mostly vegan for the first 10 years of my life, but when my mum remarried, we started eating meat and sweets during my high school years.
Looking back, as a teenager, I always had issues with bloating and abdominal pain. It wasn’t until my early twenties as it continued to worsen, I had a sneaking suspicion I could be allergic to wheat, gluten or yeast. A blood test confirmed I had a moderate intolerance to gluten. Although this confirmed my suspicion, I didn’t eliminate these things immediately or completely from my diet and I reaped the painful consequences. I continued to experience the symptoms but also began to get an eczema-type rash around my eyes.
Finally, I saw a naturopath who tested me for Candida (gut yeast infection), and confirming it, put me on a strict protocol for one month.
I’ve realised weight gain and weight loss has more to do with the stress in my life, and the foods in my stomach than how much cardio I’m doing.
This was the best thing I ever did, because it forced me to eliminate the things that were hurting my body, allowed me to break the cycle and develop new habits in my eating.
I learnt a lot about different ways to sweeten foods naturally and developed a love of making raw vegan desserts!
I started to incorporate more organic produce, and less processed foods into my diet and started to believe and embrace the idea that my body is my temple.
I was also curiously convinced by the health principles in the Bible (that are backed up by modern science) that our bodies were designed to thrive on a plant-based diet.
These days, I rarely have anything containing refined sugar, I try to avoid all gluten and wheat, and eat mostly plant foods. I eat a lot of fresh organic produce that I source from local farmers & markets, make as much food from scratch as I can, and experiment all the time with new recipes and ways to create healthy, tasty & nutritious food.
I work out regularly, but I’ve learnt to train smarter not necessarily harder. I’ve realised weight gain and weight loss has more to do with the stress in my life, and the foods in my stomach than how much cardio I’m doing.
My experience is unique, as is yours, and there are so many ways to incorporate holistic health into your life starting now.
I believe in Living Abundantly. I believe health and fitness is not just about looking good on the outside, but feeling good on the inside.
I’m passionate about serving and empowering women to transform their lives and learn to live abundantly! However it’s not possible unless you’re healthy from the inside out, starting with our mindset. I love providing solutions for detoxing the body, forming clean eating habits, and exercising intelligently. But most of all, I LOVE helping women transform and refocus their thinking from self- loathing to self-care and value, and from a focus on calories and weight to true happiness, health and nutrition.
It’s so important to develop a healthy relationship with food. Doing so is intricately connected to realising the truth – we are truly unique and beautiful individuals right now, who are worth the effort it takes to live abundantly.
I take a holistic approach to health and fitness, and integrate not only food and exercise habits, but consider lifestyle habits, hormonal influences and relational impacts on health. I personally advocate for a plant-based, whole foods diet due to the extensive research on its benefits for the human body, as well as my personal experience with this approach.
To me, nothing is more fulfilling than guiding women to invest in themselves and their health, and in return seeing them live a life they never thought possible.
Alisha Christie
According to the latest seasonal update from the Department of Primary Resources, the drought remains wide spread across all of New South Wales. 99.9% of the state is in drought conditions and 33.5% is classified as being in intense drought. The western area of New South Wales is particularly affected with prolonged drought conditions. Due to high temperatures and evaporation, much of the rainfall in January and February was ineffective and the rainfall forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology for the coming months are not promising. In short, our farmers are really struggling particularly out west and they need all the support they can get.
However, these communities are not forgotten. All over the state, individuals, community groups and churches are reaching out a helping hand delivering food supplies to desperate farmers.
Farmers who are usually too proud to accept handouts are gratefully taking them and recommending others who are struggling.
Coonamble Adventist Church has been running a food pantry for the past two years and
‘Unprecedented’ is a word we are hearing from farmers to describe this drought. Farmers who are usually too proud to accept handouts are gratefully taking them and recommending others who are struggling. A fly over the farms reveals nothing but dust. Most have reduced their stock to core breeding and below. Crop farmers aren’t sowing and have come off the back of failed crops in the past two years.
On Australia Day 2019, Vicki was recognized due to her service to drought-stricken farmers and received the ‘Community Citizen of the Year’ award. Vicki said she “could see hard working people doing it tough, and also observed many would never ask for help”. Thanks to the support of Sanitarium through food donations, Adventist Community Services and the local CWA, Vicki is able to continue visiting and servicing over 40 farms in the area.
Similar food delivery initiatives are supporting farmers in other towns as well. In Narrabri, Pastor Keith Stockwell asks his church members to help stock parcels each week and delivers them to drought affected farmers, thanks to the support of the local retirement village and Sanitarium.
In Lightning Ridge, Beulah James from the Adventist Church delivers food parcels to up to 30 farmers covering distances of hundreds of kilometres. She also organised a social evening to lift the spirits of the local families. Our Aussie farmers are resilient, and even now, Beulah says “they are hopeful and optimistic” that the rains will come.
Let’s support our community out west. These foodbanks across the state are run by volunteers, funded by private donations and need resources to continue to help their community. Donations of food, finances and even vehicles would help them be more effective in their work. If you would like to get involved and support drought affected farmers, please contact Change My Life.
Only 30 years old, Keaton’s accomplishments far surpass the best of us. He has a master’s degree, he was associate lecturer in mathematics at the University of Newcastle, he won an academic award in the science faculty at Avondale College, he once raised over $6,000 for ADRA Tanzania by riding his pushbike from London to Paris and he enjoys all kinds of sport from table tennis, to basketball, snowboarding, and bungee jumping. Keaton has travelled the world, is married and has a baby girl on the way. But for those of us that work with Keaton, his life is a miracle and an inspiration. Why? Because Keaton is legally blind.
Whatever disability you are struggling with, every individual is sacred and beautiful to God and your unique limitations don’t need to make your life miserable. They can be the very thing by which you inspire others, give hope to those who are hurting and ultimately be a testament to the power on God.
Since the age of 16, Keaton has had less than 10% vision. Diagnosed at the age of 5, Keaton inherited a genetic condition which causes degeneration or damage to the optic nerve (Optic Atrophy). From a very young age, he knew that he would eventually go blind. Today, Keaton enjoys a full and successful life, but he finds it interesting how people react to him doing the simplest of things.
People don’t expect much of a legally blind person and they are surprised and amazed at just about anything I do.
“Some of my work mates have commented that it’s incredible that I can play table tennis. No one finds it amazing that anyone else can play.”
“Society does not really value people with disabilities. Doctors pre-screen unborn babies to test for certain disabilities and parents are encouraged to abort if something is picked up. People with disabilities are not expected to achieve anything and people are often surprised when they do.”
However, as a Christian, Keaton has pondered some tough questions because of his condition. If God is good and He loves us, why do some people have disabilities? Unlike many of us when we come down with the mildest ailment, Keaton’s disability does not stop him from enjoying life. This is surprising even to himself! Far from taking credit for overcoming this enormous obstacle, Keaton says it’s God that gives him strength. When talking about his accomplishments he says, “For most people, it doesn’t make sense, but with God anything is possible and I am proof of that.”
When searching for answers, Keaton researched all the examples of people with disablities in the Bible. The lessons he drew from these stories gave his experience meaning. In John chapter 9 Jesus meets a blind man and his disciples ask, “Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” There was a common assumption in those days that if you had a disability, you were being punished. Jesus responds, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The apostle Paul also mentions an infirmity that he struggled with, but after praying for healing God answers, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” After studying these stories, Keaton realised how his life is a walking testament to the power of God.
“I now find myself in a situation where I can just live my life doing normal things, things I enjoy and in doing so display the power of God. When God uses a broken person, it is the ultimate display of his power, because it becomes so much more obvious that it is God’s strength and not their own. Just me living my life becomes a witness, I am so lucky and so blessed.”
The thing I love the most about entrepreneurship is the freedom to create your own rules. Nobody is standing around with a clipboard marking off the hours you work or counting whether you’ve reached your four week quota of holidays. As an entrepreneur, you can decide to not work weekends. You can decide to spend two uninterrupted hours with your family each day. You can decide to only sell vegan food or not to sell vegan food. You can run a corporation of 23 employees without renting facilities. You really can do whatever you want. But this flexibility also leaves business owners with a challenge. What are you going to do with this freedom? Will you design a business for your own financial and personal gain, or will you build a business that also impacts the lives of others?
I like to ask small business owners I coach these three questions to consider. Firstly, what are your non-negotiables? What are the things that you are just not willing to compromise on? Secondly, what is your definition of success? Forget about what the world is telling you is “success”, what is success to you? And, lastly, I ask them what their motivation is for starting their own business.
Non-Negotiables
When I started my floristry business I decided that I wouldn’t do Saturday weddings. I am a Seventh-day Adventist and we observe the Sabbath from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. This naturally became my non-negotiable. I wanted to design a business that meant I didn’t have to work on Saturdays. When I was setting out to build my wedding business I didn’t realise the extent to which Saturday weddings were the big money- makers. I was turning down 50% of all the enquiries that were coming in. There were times when I really wondered whether I could create a profitable business in the wedding industry. But I was determined to make it work and through determination, I began to be blessed with clients who were spending between $6000 to $8000 on their flowers during the week. It was unheard of for week day weddings. It is really amazing what happens when you decide not to compromise on your values.
I challenge all entrepreneurs now to think about what their non-negotiables are. We so often get caught up in what we think is the “normal” way of running a business and we don’t step back and design our businesses to suit our own personal needs and values. Your non-negotiables may look very different to mine, but I think it’s a great idea to identify what’s important to you and design your business around these things. If you put your life and values first, then your business second, the blessings will come.
Your own definition of success
The other thing I find entrepreneurs doing is comparing their success against the success of others. I find this to be the most discouraging and debilitating practice in business. If we compare our success to others, we will always feel dissatisfied, unsuccessful and unfulfilled. I think the best thing an entrepreneur or business owner can do for their business is to write down their own definition of success and use this as their only measure of success.
When I started my wedding business, I had just come from a stressful, full-time teaching job. I quit my job and started a business with the intention to have more time in my schedule. I wanted to work less but still maintain my teaching wage. I had no idea what other people in the wedding industry were making and, quite frankly, I didn’t care. All I knew is that I only wanted to do two to four weddings a month, while replacing my teaching wage.
It didn’t take me long to realise that other wedding businesses were doing several weddings every weekend. They’d spend their entire weekend racing from one event to the next, to the next. I was really impressed with their efforts, but this was just not for me. Success to me was running a business I loved, while living a life I loved, all at the same time. Success was replacing my teaching wage and having time to volunteer for my church and contribute to my community. This may not be a success to someone else, but for me, this was enough. I put my blinders on, didn’t focus on what others were doing and strived towards my own definition of success.
A motivation that’s more than money
And that leads me to the last thing I think all entrepreneurs should consider: the motivation behind their business. For me, my motivation was time - to make an impact on the world. I knew that my business wouldn’t necessarily be the thing that made an impact on people’s lives, but I dreamt of a business that would give me time to volunteer for organisations that I believed were making an impact on the world. The motivation of time became the driving force behind why I did business. I truly believe that passion, not money, fuels drive and success. Money might be a driving force for a little while, but it won’t be lasting. True business satisfaction only comes when the ultimate outcome of your business is fulfilling that soul-deep desire to make a difference in the world. If you’re an entrepreneur, I challenge you to think about how the resources you produce in your business could make an impact on your community or the world at large. If you want a deeply satisfying business and life, the best thing you can do is to dig deep and figure out, not what you can get from your business, but what your business can give to the world. Then, let this deep desire become the driving force behind what you do. Building something from the ground up is hard. Entrepreneurship is hard. But I think the bottom line is this: it’s your business, so why not pave your own path? Use the freedom and flexibility that you have to not compromise on your values and to design a business that works in perfectly with your own lifestyle ambitions. You’re on this planet for a reason. Whatever your dream, whatever fires you up, whatever satisfies your deep desire for more, do that! You can do whatever you want, that is the beauty of entrepreneurship. But most importantly, why not create something that can ultimately make a difference in the lives of others? That’s where you’ll find true life and business satisfaction. Remember: your business, your rules!
Emma Lemke
Entrepreneur · Business Consultant · Florist
Emma is helping creatives build businesses that help them achieve their life dreams and make real money.
Introducing Bec Peterson
Bec is a Lake Macquarie resident and mother of 2 and she shared with us her decision to eat better and take ownership of her family’s health. She loves experimenting in the kitchen with healthy raw deserts and today she shared with us 2 raw deserts - Apple Crumble and Cherry Ripes. The Change My Life team at the photo shoot found them delicious!
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am a wife and a mother to a 6 year old girl and an 11 month old boy, and every other day I am a photographer.
Prior to children, I thought I was conscious of my health and actually considered myself to be a relatively healthy person. I lead a fairly active lifestyle and maintained enough physical fitness to lead scuba divers every weekend and swim 1-2kms a few times a week. However, I would require 10+ hours of sleep each night to feel refreshed and to be honest, my logic was, “If you ate less and exercised more, then that meant you were probably pretty healthy.” After my first child, I became more sedentary and slowly began to gain weight as I became less active.
What’s the most important thing for you?
The most important thing in my life is my family. First and foremost is my husband, because without him we could not have had our children, and with him, I hope to raise them to want to have a positive impact on the people and world around them.
So what started you on your health jouney?
My health journey began only 3 years ago. Maybe a year after having our daughter, my husband and I became so focussed on work that we got stuck in a really unhealthy cycle and we really let our physical and mental health deteriorate, but we never even noticed it happening. We often ordered take away because “That’s all we had time for,” and sadly we never even gave it a second thought. When we did actually have time to be together as a family, we would go to the movies and eat junk food, or stay home to watch movies and eat junk food because that’s all we had the energy for and we blamed our fatigue on a restless child and long working hours.
Often I would catch my husband snoring, even though he wasn’t sleeping or he would fall asleep mid-conversation. I knew he was unhealthy and I had no idea what to do about it. I would get so frustrated and yell at him to start exercising because he was gaining so much weight that I actually thought he would have a heart attack, or maybe not wake up one day (he would stop breathing for long periods while he was sleeping). I never thought that I could be at fault by preparing the wrong types of meals for him.
Then one day something just clicked and I decided to make the commitment to be a better wife and mother by taking care of my family’s health.
What are some of the daily challenges to eating healthy?
Strangely enough, I found the biggest challenge to eating healthy was the people we surrounded ourselves with. Like all things in life, when you surround yourself with like minded people, it’s easier to remain focused, but when you surround yourself with people who don’t hold the same values as you, it makes any change more challenging and you find it easy to make excuses and slip back into old habits.
Another challenge I found was brand influence. So many foods are branded as healthier options. I had no issues feeding my child a yoghurt that was packed with refined sugars each day, simply because the packaging made it look and sound healthy. It wasn’t until I learnt to read the ingredients that I realised just how toxic many packaged foods are.
What does it feel like to fuel your body with good healthy food?
It’s a feeling that can’t really be described until you’ve felt it for yourself. I thought I knew what it felt like to feel good, but in reality I had no idea! My family and I are not perfect and we still eat unhealthy from time to time, but my body really feels the repercussions. With a clean diet, I find I have so much more mental clarity and energy to work, play with my kids and also fit in a bit of regular exercise. My husband and I even ran the Raw Challenge and Spartan Race together which was something I never ever imagined we would do, especially since he was having issues recovering from the knee surgery he’d had 12 months prior to our lifestyle change! But the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that my daughter’s eczema finally cleared up and she actually began sleeping through the night. It was so amazing to see a kid that was used to eating packaged foods, actually enjoy spending time in the kitchen making and enjoying healthy, nutritious meals and treats.
How do you find the commitment to staying healthy?
There are still times when I get extremely busy between work and being a mother, so if I haven’t properly prepared meals and snacks for the week or for when we go away, it becomes rather easy to consume unhealthy foods simply because they are so quick, convenient and cheap. Although, these days it is easier to access a larger range of healthier options, it’s unfortunate that they are also generally so much more expensive, so being prepared really is key. Also sharing tasty, nutritious alternatives that I have made with my family and friends, and then watching them enjoy it really gives me great joy.
