My recent post on the Holiday Kid's Club got me thinking about the proportion of Chinese people in all different age groups. But first, I thought I'd have a look at the different ethnic groups that make up the area. In the chart below, I have indicated in brackets the 2 largest nationalities in each ethnic group (click on the image for a larger version):


As I've mentioned before, 15% of the South population are Chinese (in Hurstville that percentage is ridiculously lopsided!). Other significant groups are the Europeans, the Arabs, and of course the Anglo-Saxons.

Break that down into age groups and we get (note the age groups are not all the same size):


A few observations and speculations, plus some information about their religion:

• The Chinese population (red) is fairly evenly spread out amongst all the age groups under 60, hovering around 15% or so with a slightly higher percentage in the 18-29 and 40-49 brackets. But in the 60+ age group, it drops significantly, showing the relatively recent migration from the late 1980s.
• The British (orange) are weighted more heavily in the 40+ age group, and moreso the further along to the right you go. This perhaps reflect the history of early Australian settlement. The main religions in this group are Anglican (35%), Catholic (24%) and "No Religion" (13%).
  
• The Australians (yellow) are weighted more heavily in the under 18s, which might mean that Australian families have more children. The main religions in this group are Catholic (31%), Anglican (28%) and "No Religion" (12%).
• The South Eastern Europeans have a slight peak in the 30-39 and 60-69 age groups, possibly reflecting their earlier migration in the 1950s. The main religion in this group is Eastern Orthodox (85%).

From the census data, it would seem that there are lots of Christians in the area. But this report back in 2001 shows that only 5% of Anglicans and 15% of Catholics actually go to church (no info on Eastern Orthodox churches). And this report shows that church attendance in Anglican and Catholic churches have dropped by 7% and 13% respectively in the 10 years between 1991 and 2001. Admittedly, all this information is very dated and one would hope that the trend is changing. But this gives us a rough idea of the religious landscape in the South.

This obviously has implications for ministry across all the age groups, which I won't go into. But I'll simply say that for those seeking to create a multi-ethnic church which reflects the community, expect it to still be a predominately white church. The challenge will be to make sure that the culture and style of the church will not be one that only attracts white people whilst excluding the other ethnic groups.

Pray for the many nominal Christians who are under the false assumption that they are right with God that God may wake them up to their dilemma. Pray also for the churches in the South that are seeking to reach non-Chinese people that they may know how to best evangelise and disciple these people.

Two weeks ago, I preached on Joshua 22. The 2½ tribes of Israel on the East side of the Jordan had built an altar near the Jordan river. Fearing that they had turned away from God, all of the Western tribes took up arms and went to confront them.

This may seem like a rather dramatic (over)reaction. But it shows how concerned they were for holiness among the people of God. They kept each other accountable and were willing to deal with sin by confronting people directly.

If you want to find out what happened next, you'll have to go and read the passage. But the reason I mention this is because yesterday I had to put my money where my mouth is. I had on good authority that one of my girls was indulging in sinful behaviour. I dreaded having to say something, but after preaching on this passage, I knew couldn't ignore it. I fretted over it for the next few days and couldn't think of a 'good' way to do it except to 'go to war' - i.e. speak to her directly and say it like it is.

So that's what I did yesterday before church started. I expected it to go badly - she might palm it off, or get angry, or side step the issue, or...

She denied it.

What should I do? I had no first hand knowledge to confront her with. I could ask my source to come with me, but that would back her into a corner with no way out...and that could get messy. Was there another way?

I couldn't think of a solution, but God had one planned already. After church she came and spoke to me. She admitted that there was a problem in the past but in recent months have tried to deal with it. She still struggles with temptation and asked for my prayer and support.

Later that night, she also sent me a email revealing some slightly deeper issues. I was pleasantly surprised by this and grateful that she was willing to talk about it. It would be great if there was a female leader who could follow her up, but for now I will have to do.

Give thanks that she has been willing to open up and talk about some of the issues. Pray for me that I will have wisdom to know how to help her in this time and that the Holy Spirit will bring transformation in her life. Pray also that God will teach me to be more courageous when I have to have difficult conversations in the future.

Our latest prayer letter has just been sent. Coming to an inbox near you!

Came across these today, from here and here. I've highlighted a few that I thought were useful for ministry. Check out the original links because some of them have interesting pictures.

1. By 2025, China will build TEN New York-sized cities.
   
2. By 2030, China will add more new city-dwellers than the entire U.S. population.
   
3. China already consumes twice as much steel as the US, Europe and Japan combined.
   
4. If the Chinese, one day, use as much oil per person as Americans, then the world will need seven more Saudi Arabias to meet their demand.
   
5. There are already more Christians in China than Italy, and China is on track to become the largest center of Christianity in the world.
   
6. Chinese are far more likely to believe in evolution than Americans.
   
7. Chinese internet users are five times as likely to have blogs as Americans.
   
8. China has 150% more soldiers than America does, plus a high tech 'Kill Weapon' the U.S. can't deal with.
   
9. China still hasn't rid itself of Europe's medieval plague.
   
10. 40% of Chinese small businesses went bust or almost went bust during the world financial crisis.
    
11. China executes three times as many people as the rest of the world COMBINED... and uses mobile execution vans for efficiency.
    
12. China averages 274 protests PER DAY.
    
13. When you buy Chinese stocks, you are basically financing the Chinese government. Eight of Shanghai's top ten stocks are state-controlled arms of the government.
    
14. 50% of counterfeit goods come from China. (not surprisingly)
    
15. The majority of Chinese drink polluted water.
    
16. Chinese GDP could overtake the U.S. as soon as the early 2020s.
    
17. Chinese men outnumber women by 39 million -- over ten times the population of Los Angeles.
    
18. China has the world's biggest mall... but it's been 99% empty since 2005.
    
19. Nearly 10,000 Chinese citizens each year are sucked into unsanctioned 'black jails'.
    
20. If he spent his ENTIRE YEARLY INCOME on housing, the average Beijing resident could buy 10 square feet of residential property.
    
21. Home resales have increased 350% in the past three years.
    
22. China's economy grew by 11.9% in the past year and its GDP chart 'has gone vertical':
    
23. China has more pigs than the next 43 pork producing countries combined.
    
24. Chinese consume 3 million cigarettes every minute.
    
25. 80% of US toys are made in China.
    
26. Shanghai built 1,500 miles of road in the past decade. That's three Manhattan's worth of streets.
    
27. China is planning a train system that will link London to Beijing in two days, traveling 200mph.
    
28. China's enormous Gobi Desert is the size of Peru and expanding 1,400 square miles per year due to water source depletion, over-foresting, and over-grazing. That's 60 Manhattans every year.
    
29. Sizzling is an understatement for some Chinese property markets -- home prices in Haikou have jumped 54% in the past year.
    
30. Beijing held the most expensive Olympics ever at a cost of $40 billion. This summer's Shanghai Expo costs even more -- $45 billion.
    
31. There are 292 individual languages still spoken in China. This is even more than the 175 languages spoken in the world's melting pot, America.

Pray that God will do a mighty work in China. Pray that the Christians will be grounded in the gospel and be fervent in evangelism, despite the government's stance on religious freedom. Pray also for the government that God may humble them to acknowledge him as he did with Nebuchadnezzar.

Coming up in 3 weeks, I am partnering with Grace Chinese Christian Church Kogarah and Word of Life to run a holiday kids club. We are hoping to have at least 100 primary school kids come along to have fun, play games, sing songs, make crafts, and most importantly, hear about Jesus.

If you know people in the area who have young children, send them along! See this website for details.

This has prompted me to look at the number of primary-aged children (which I'll define as age 5-11) in the South (click on the graph for a larger version):


There are over 18,000 primary-aged kids in the South, and 17% of those are from a Chinese background. It shouldn't be too hard to get 100 kids along, right?

Pray for us as we prepare for this kids club, especially as neither church has organised something like this before. Pray that God will bring many children and their parents into contact with us so that they can meet Jesus.

I have made some significant updates to my posts on the language spoken at home and the proficiency of spoken English. I've added maps to show where Cantonese and Mandarin speakers live so that you know where to find them.

I also combined my post earlier today with an older post on the Chinese population in Hurstville.

Rather than putting all this information in 3 new posts, I feel that they belong better with those older posts. So check them out!

I enjoy playing board games, particularly games originating from Europe. They are very different to games like Monopoly and Risk, and far more enjoyable. These games are often not found in mainstream toy stores but only in specialised game stores. Their popularity has really picked up (at least amongst my group of friends) in the last few years.

So as a way to try and meet new people in the area, I started a weekly board games club a few months ago. So far it has been attended by all Christian friends, with 2-3 regulars each week, and a few others here and there. I recently created a static website with details of where and when we meet. I'd really like to create some flyers, but my design skills (or lackthereof) leaves much to be desired.

Whilst it's fun, it's not achieving my main purpose of meeting new people. So several times I've considered whether I should decrease the frequency, or even cancel the group altogether. But each time I think that, I get an email from a stranger who found out about us and shows some interest. But each time their interest has failed to turn into action.

This week I got another email from a someone who might come in 2 weeks' time. Hopefully this time we will actually get to meet.

Pray that God will use this board games club to make contact with people in the area. Pray also that I will have the wisdom to know how to promote this club, and the humility to know when/if I should close it.