Family Integrity # 143 -- Select Committee meeting 9 November and what to do until then

Family Integrity # 143 -- Select Committee meeting 9 November and what to do until then

Greetings

This Thursday, 9 November, and possibly on the 16th, then on Monday and Tuesday 20 and 21 November the Select Committee reviewing the Bill to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 will meet together to finalise what they are to present to the MPs. Then they are due to report back to the MPs on November 22, 2006.

So this is what we can be doing until 22 November.

1. Remember as you contact the Prime Minister and to the Members of Parliament that this is about the Repeal of Parental Authority rather than a bill to ban smacking. For more information on the Repeal of Parental Authority go to: http://www.FamilyIntegrity.org.nz/uploaded/July06_mod_Repeal_of_PA.pdf.

What to do over the next two weeks: We really need to let the Members of Parliament know what we think. So we need to keep the pressure on them. We will all be getting very tired of writing to the PM and MPs. But we need to keep the pressure up and get our friends, family and neighbours doing this as well. Check out this page http://www.familyintegrity.org.nz/page/588565.

Email: Consider sending an email to all the MPs using this link: http://www.betterdemocracy.co.nz/email_mps.php

LETTER: A very effective way to lobby, no stamp required when sent to Parliament FAX: This costs a bit more and is time consuming but effective.

PHONING: This is much easier to do than it would seem. You just ring the MPs office and say ."Please add my name to the list of people you have who are against the Repeal of Section 59". You have to give your name of course and that is it.

VISIT: This is by far the hardest to do for some people. But this is most certainly the most effective way to lobby. We are fast running out of time for visiting our MPs. We have the next few weekends and the week of 27 November to 1 December. Then Parliament breaks up for their holidays December 14.

2. Once the Select Committee reports back to Parliament Wednesday 22 November, the final vote could happen before Christmas. There is, therefore, an urgency for us all to be writing/visiting/phoning our MPs. All MP contact details can be found at: http://www.familyintegrity.org.nz/page/588413.

Contact your MP today. Keep up the good work you are doing and see if you can get some new people involved in lobby the MPs.

Please pass this email around. Time is Short. Get the word out far and wide. Please fast and pray, be informed, and encouraged, and ACT NOW!

Blessings
Craig and Barbara Smith
4 Tawa Street
Palmerston North
New Zealand
Phone: (06) 357-4399 or (06) 354-7699
Fax: (06) 357-4399
web site: www.hef.org.nz
www.familyintegrity.org.nz

PS Information below here is from previous countdown emails. It is included here for those who have had this email forwarded to them for the first time: If you have not read these or listened to these then please do so soon.

1. Read this online book and pass it around: By Fear and Fallacy by Michael L Drake http://FamilyIntegrity.org.nz/page/873810. It is a devastating critique of the entire repeal lobby.

2. Buy these 2 DVDs and show them around: www.FamilyIntegrity.org.nz

3. If you have not already then read this article in the 19 Sept 06 Herald - "Parents should sit licence test, say experts." http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10401922 and then read this article: http://www.nzcpd.com/weekly50.htm

4. Listener Poll results: http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3463/7045.html Should smacking be: 4% Outlawed in all circumstances 96% Permitted in some circumstances, within reason.

5. CALL TO REPENTANCE AS A NATION As we get very near to the 2nd reading of Section 59 of the Crimes Act we need to remember that this is God's battle not ours. With the state of our Country it may be God's Will for this bill to be repealed. As we suffer perscusion the Church will be purified. This need not be though if we will be like the people of Nineveh, (Jonah 1:2). Let us be like the people of Nineveh in Jonah 3:5 where they believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth. In Jonah 3:8 the King said "let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry mightly to God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?" Then victory came Jonah 3:10 "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it."

We also have the example of Ethelred and Alfred the Great from History.

The battle was about to begin. Alfred went to look for his brother the King and he found him with the Priest: "Ethelred-my brother-my king," he cried, "the Danes are upon us. Their lines are formed. My men are ready. A moment's delay may lose the battle." But Ethelred said quietly: "It is the service of God. Our priest is saying prayers for us and for our men. Shall I forsake the help of God to trust in men and in weapons? It is meet that the king pray for his people." Ethelred and Alfred had success that day. Two months later King Ethelred died and Alfred became King of England. At the end of 877 after 7 years as King and many victories in battle he lost his throne, luxurious lifestyle and went many a day with nothing to eat and lived hidden in the bogs and marshes. In May 878 he gathered together a rag tag army of the farmers around him. Before going into battle he prayed with his men a prayer of repentance. They had Victory at that battle. http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=tappan&book=alfred&story=horse

So people of New Zealand let us pray prayers of repentance like King Alfred the Great and be like the people of Nineveh who cried mightly to God; yea, every one turned from his evil way. We might yet see God's hand keep Section 59 from being repealed

6. Also take the great opportunity to take those emails/letters/faxes you have sent to the MPs and turn them into letters to the Editors of newspapers and magazines. Here is a good link to help you send your letter to many different editors at once:

http://www.maxim.org.nz/letter/ This page on the Maxim

website: http://www.maxim.org.nz/changeagent/toolkit/ is a must for us all to read as we lobby the Government and Editors of papers and magazines.

7. If you have been forwarded this email and would like to be on Family Integrity's "email newsletter list" then please send an email to Family.Integrity@xtra.co.nz
and put "Count me in" in the subject line.

8. Please email barbara@hef.org.nz if you do not want to receive these emails or if you are on more than one list and would like to be taken off one or more lists. Please forward this email to everyone you think would be interested.