Introducing Interserve Development!
We have a new company within Interserve Australia dedicated to aid and development. It is called ‘Interserve Development Limited’.
Since Interserve started, benevolent work (helping people in need) has been an important part of our ministry. It is a part of our vision and purpose statements:
Lives and communities transformed through encounter with Jesus Christ.
Making Jesus known through wholistic ministry, in partnership with the global church. among the most marginalised people of Asia and the Arab world.
We are currently transitioning to a new legal structure that will allow us to continue the work we’re doing and to administer it more effectively.
Up until now we have been an incorporated association registered in Victoria and our legal name was Interserve Australia Inc. We administered our overseas aid and development work through our Overseas Aid Fund (donations to this fund are tax deductible).
We are now in the process of creating a new structure with two nationally registered companies. The parent company will be known as Interserve Australia Limited, and will oversee all of our work.
The subsidiary company Interserve Development Limited will administer the benevolent part of our work such as overseas development and the benevolent work CultureConnect does in Australia. Interserve Development will have PBI status (Public Benevolent Institution) and will retain the Overseas Aid Fund. All donations to Interserve Development will be tax deductible. Our non-tax-deductible work will operate through Interserve Australia Limited.
These background administrative changes will help Interserve better recruit, prepare, place and support people to serve the peoples of Asia and the Arab world. There are other benefits too. It will allow us to keep some tax concessions that lower our costs and make donations stretch further. It will also make it simpler for us to comply with new regulatory requirements and better manage tax-deductible giving.
From now on you may notice some small changes in our material and in our correspondence to you. We’ll keep you informed of any changes that affect you.
If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].
Image courtesy IMB Photo Library (imb.org).
Introducing Tangible Love
Intangible gifts that make a tangible difference to people who need it most.
We believe that the most important things in life aren’t things. Being treated with dignity. Having support with mental health. Earning a livelihood. Growing up as part of a family.
TangibleLove.org.au is a place where you can buy a gift or contribute to a project so that people in need can achieve those intangible things we all need to flourish.
Each gift in the catalogue supports one or more projects that are working for these outcomes, fuelled by the love of local Christians, Interserve volunteers and generous donors (like you!).
Interserve workers are motivated by God’s love for them and for the whole world. These gifts and projects combine your love with theirs to make a tangible difference for people who need it most.
Check it out! Take a look, explore and let us know what you think. (And maybe it will help with your Christmas shopping!)
We hope you like Tangible Love. And if you do, we hope you’ll help spread the word.
Tangible Love is an initiative of Interserve Australia.Â
And the nominees are…
And the nominees are … Interserve authors!
SparkLit announced the shortlist for the Australian Christian Book of the Year. Congratulations to Dr Bernie Power on Challenging Islamic Traditions: Searching QuestionsAbout the Hadith from a Christian Perspective and to co-authors Andrew Schachtel, Choon-Hwa Lim and Michael K. Wilson on Changing Lanes, Crossing Cultures.
The award recognises and encourages excellence in Australian Christian writing. Entries are judged with an eye to the work’s original nature, literary style, design and contribution made to the Australian situation and market.
These are high calibre books with the potential to change how you look at mission. Recommended reading!
About Challenging Islamic Traditions
The Hadith are Islam’s most influential texts after the Qur’an. They outline in detail what the Qur’an often leaves unsaid. The Hadith are a foundation for Islamic law and theology and a key to understanding the worldview of Islam and why many Muslims do the things they do. This book subjects the Hadith to a critical analysis from a biblical perspective. In a scholarly and respectful way, it exposes significant inconsistencies within these ancient documents and highlights potential problems with the Muslim-Christian interface.
Challenging Islamic Traditions can be ordered from William Carey Library.
About Changing Lanes, Crossing Cultures
With over a quarter of Australia’s population coming from approximately 200 different overseas countries, no one could doubt that we’re now a very multi-ethnic country. Several million of these people have made Australia home, but they often have very little contact with Christians, and minimal understanding of the gospel. This book is about helping Christians and churches to understand the WHY, WHAT, HOW and WHEN of vibrant cross-cultural ministries, and to get involved.
Changing Lanes, Crossing Cultures can be ordered from Interserve Australia.
The 2017 Australian Christian Book of the Year will be announced during the 2017 SparkLit Awards Night on Thursday evening 17 August at St Alfred’s Anglican Church, Blackburn North in Melbourne. For further information and tickets, visit sparklit.org.
Vivienne Stacey Scholarship
Vivienne Stacey studied English at University College London then spent some years as a teacher before joining Interserve in 1954. When she learned that the United Bible Training Centre (UBTC) in Gujranwala trained Pakistani women for their witness among Muslims, she requested that as her place of ministry. From the very beginning of her mission career she was committed to equipping local people to engage in ministry among Muslims in their own context.
Established to honour this innovative pioneer, the Vivienne Stacey Scholarship is for equipping Christian women scholar-practitioners from Middle East, Africa and Asia to engage with the Muslim world. It follows Vivienne’s heart to see women, including those coming from a Muslim background, trained, equipped and engaged in ministry.
Soon after her arrival in Pakistan, Vivienne and Esther John became firm friends. Esther was born in a Muslim family but had become a follower of Jesus through seeing the love of Jesus lived out in her Christian school and through the study of scripture. She went to UBTC in 1957 from where she and Vivienne visited homes in the surrounding villages, sharing the story of Jesus. Esther went on to minister in other parts of Pakistan; she was murdered in 1960, becoming the first of many martyrs that Vivienne knew.
Vivienne was a much-loved friend, mentor and example. She worked with the Community Development Team from Multan Christian Women’s hospital, training them in outreach and setting assignments individually tailored to areas where each member of the team needed to grow. Vivienne challenged them to find ways of integrating what they learned into their work. The full impact of her commitment to that little community development team was immeasurable.
Vivienne encouraged many to scholarly practice – in Interserve and other organisations, in local churches in the countries where she worked, and right across the globe. She formed a study group in Pakistan that gave many their first foot into research and writing on significant ministry issues for working among Muslims.
Ida Glasser, now Director of the Centre for Muslim Christian Studies in Oxford, wrote about her experience of Vivienne’s support as she pursued her PhD:
The great thing Vivienne did for me was to take me out for lunch when I was struggling towards my PhD, and then to ask whether money might help. She then (probably through a trust of which she was senior trustee) provided enough to pay Crosslinks for I think half my time for 3 months, so that I could break the back of the writing up. I might never have completed it otherwise. Another time, after a conference in Holland, she treated me to a day in Amsterdam – took me on a canal trip and gave me a good dinner – things I’d never have done for myself, or been able to afford.
The Scholarship does not just provide financial support. It is also committed to providing mentoring, both individually and as part of a learning cohort; to investing in the development of the whole person as they pursue their studies.
The Vivienne Stacey Scholarship Fund was launched during the When Women Speak… colloquium on 25 September 2015. It is actively seeking partnership with academic institutions in Asia and the Middle East, and in the West, as it builds capacity to support these women. Please join us in supporting the fund. You can do this through your local Interserve Office, marking your gift ‘Vivienne Stacey Scholarship’, or by clicking on ‘donate’ at www.whenwomenspeak.net For further information contact [email protected] or [email protected]
