“Help create safer communities,” begins a letter and a pamphlet I received today.

It is an “Invitation to participate in the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey.”

The survey is being undertaken to be able to better understand 4 things, namely:

• how much crime occurs,
• how much crime is reported,
• who experiences crime and
• how people are affected by crime.

The aim of the whole undertaking is to improve services to reduce crime and create safer communities.

What do we read in “The Book of Books”, the Bible?

In Exodus chapter chapter 20 we find The Ten Commandments.

Here are three of the Commandments:

• “You shall not murder.”
• “You shall not commit adultery.”
• “You shall not steal.”

And the Lord Jesus Christ says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) And the Lord Jesus Christ says also, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)

“Wir muessen das Evangelium wieder predigen. Wann machen wir das?” My translation: “We must preach the gospel again. When are we going to do that?” That’s what I heard the German chancellor Angela Merkel say some time ago.

In Romans 1:16 the Apostle Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

I like the request, “Help create safer communities.”

From the time I passed from darkness to light, from the time I had my second birthday, from the time when I began a new life in Germany at the age of 18, I endeavoured not to be ashamed of the Gospel as a missionary in Thailand for 13 years and in Kaikohe/New Zealand for almost 25 years.

Picture / Alan Collingwood