Nick Willis

What an outstanding result for Nick Willis and New Zealand at the Olympics! I set my alarm and got up to watch the race. So glad I did! I thought he was going to be pipped at the post by the Frech guy but he pushed on when it counted and got the bronze. Come on!!

Last year Promise Keepers interviewed Nick about his career and his faith. Here is an extract:

How did Nick become a Christian? He says that it started when he went to the USA - he was impacted by senior students who were excellent role models of what it meant to be godly men. It inspired him to seek out God for himself.

Then he met Bruce Dishnow from Athletes in Action. “After six weeks I became a Christian. Since then Bruce has been a great mentor to me. He and his family have opened their home to me, so much so that I was best man at a family wedding - it was a real honour. Bruce has been a source of stability. He is slightly removed from the sport and College scene so he can offer an unbiased opinion to me.”

On the subject of accountability in his life, Nick feels that this is very important and he meets once or twice a week for Bible studies with Bruce. He also formed an accountability group with five guys that he met through Campus Crusade for Christ and they got together every Sunday night for a year. He believes that they grew as brothers. They agreed on a mission statement that would encompass time in the Word, their physical purity and also their emotional purity. These guys became Nick’s 3:00 am friends – he could call them at any time if he felt tempted or was facing issues. They were all at similar stages, ending college, thinking about employment, as well as girlfriends and marriage.

Olympics

How good are the Olympics!! Saturday had to be one of our greatest sports days ever. Medals galore, a decisive All Black victory in the Republic and a Warriors win!. It doesn't get much better than that!

American Presidential Race

I am finding the American Presidential race fascinating. The following are excepts from an email I receive form Relevant Magazine.

Rick Warren’s Southern California mega-church, Saddleback Church, hosted the two presumptive Presidential nominees to answer questions about faith and morality.

Questions centered on moral issues such as poverty and climate change, issues that didn’t seem to create much distance between the candidates. But things changed when Warren pressed them on the “big two”: abortion and same sex marriage.

When asked to define marriage, Obama appeared centrist. “It’s a union between a man and a woman,” he said. “For me as a Christian, it is a sacred union. God is in the mix.” Obama added that he does support civil unions for gay couples because civil rights should be afforded to others even if he doesn’t share their view. McCain played it safe and said that he would leave the decision up to individual States.

When asked when the candidates believed life began, McCain blurted out “conception” without hesitation. Obama seemed to spin things a little bit. While he said he supports Roe vs. Wade and has always been pro-choice, the goal should be to reduce the number of abortions in America.
“What I can do is say, are there ways we can work together to reduce unwanted pregnancies,” he said. Obama never answered the question.

The Saddleback Civil Forum did Obama no favors. Several pundits commented that Obama looked uncomfortable, and more than a few noted that he had trouble offering straight answers to straight questions. The reaction from many people of faith was mixed if not uninspired.
McCain occasionally rushed Warren’s questions to offer tightrope responses. His comments regarding abortion, same sex unions, and court appointees made him look like a traditional, Reaganesque Republican, something of which he is not often accused. Perhaps his true colors surfaced that night or maybe it was the typical, posturing rhetoric employed by politicians running for the land’s highest office.

Jonathan Merritt Jonathan.

Merritt is a faith and culture writer whose political thoughts have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, TIME Magazine, and The Washington Post. He is a regular contributor to RELEVANT publications and would love to connect with you at jonathanmerritt.com.

Kaira Grace

We had a bit of a surprise last week. Our baby girl came 6 weeks earlier than we expected. She is so beautiful and both her and mum are doing great.