Introducing our book club
As part of this community, I want to create space for us to explore different topics together. One of the ways is to dig deeper into topics using books and podcasts. From now on, on Mondays and Fridays, I will give you the opportunity to dive deeper with me by learning from others.
Our first book
The first book we will be exploring is A Lot with a Little by Tim Costello.
Most Australians know of Rev Tim Costello. Tim has been many things in his life - a baptist minister, a lawyer, the CEO of World Vision Australia, the Mayor of St Kilda, the founder of Urban Seed and of course the older brother of our former federal treasurer.
Tim is currently the Executive Director of Micah Australia (a Christian poverty alleviation advocacy coalition), and is also involved with the Centre for Public Christianity, The Community Council of Australia and is the spokesperson for the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
Tim has spent his life figuring out what it means to live out faith and family and how to best engage with local and international communities. His recent (2018) autobiography explores a number of themes which are relevant to us in this learning community and I look forward to hearing how his life experiences mirror or challenge yours.
We will read a couple of chapters a week for the first couple of weeks and then go back to one chapter a week as we pass his childhood and go deeper into his adult life. Each week, on Monday I will invite you to share what has impacted you and on Friday I will summarise our learning and share my reflections. We will begin Nov 2.
Competition:
The book is available in most places you can buy books, but for one lucky reader, I have a brand new free copy!
All you need to do is share a post from, or a link to this learning community with your friends on social media and you will go in the running. Don’t forget to tag The Walk Humbly Initiative when you share it!
In the meantime:
Ordering, or waiting for the library to get the book, receiving and starting to read can take a while, so in the meantime, we are going to start with a podcast.
Sami Shah - the comedian and radio presenter - has just finished doing a series of 5 podcasts as part of Radio National’s Earshot program on racism in Australia. And I would like to suggest we start with that!
You can find the first episode here: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/what-is-racism-sami-shah-lets-talk-about-race/13473542
Or on your favourite podcast player.
It’s not necessarily an easy topic - but it’s an important one - that impacts how we do cross-cultural service and volunteering and how we love our Australian neighbours well. Living as “the other” in another land for the last 7 years has really helped me to see my own unconscious biases and prejudices and racism in society and I think it’s something that we don't talk about enough. Luckily, when I was trying to figure out how to approach it, this podcast came along. It's a podcast by an Australian comedian though - so be prepared for swearing and satire.
So come back on Monday prepared to share what stood out to you from the podcast.
