Bruce Staley

Recently my wife emphatically reflected out loud,  "We are spoilt!" I wholeheartedly agreed. We were sitting at table following our evening meal. The past three years had been difficult. My recovery from heart bypass surgery hadn't been all plain sailing.  However, we had received wonderful support throughout. It had come from all quarters, the medical professionals, family and friends. My wife went on to ask, "Why us?" I thought afterwards I could have responded with, "Why not us?" However, I didn't but responded with the thought that we had been spoilt so that we could spoil others. I had in mind the passage in Ephesians where the Apostle Paul writes, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us." Ephesians 1:7‭-‬8 NIV In difficult times we had experienced the lavishness of the riches of God grace and we in turn could help others experience s

During his teenage years Peter faced the tragedy of the untimely death of a close friend. This event led Peter to lose all sense of trust, belief and faith in God, and thus began a long absence from church. Several other very unpleasant events along the way and Peter began to struggle with life. Peter was employed in a variety of jobs including railway driver, builder, picker, boiler attendant and work in a blacksmith shop. The urge to wander took Peter into the Australian outback where he travelled for nine years with his faithful four-legged companion, Molly. Molly's faithfulness was displayed when she sat beside an old sick koala for three days before it quietly passed away. Peter was in a remote part of the bush when the battery in his vehicle died. It was three weeks, completely stranded, miles from anywhere, when help arrived from an unexpected source. There was no modern communication technology available. However, a kindly Aboriginal man on discovering Peter's predicame