Dear friends,
May peace and contentment be with you all. We’ve just completed an incredible Timor Awakening program and are preparing for our next one, Timor Awakening 10 (14 to 25 September), during which we will commemorate the 20th anniversary of INTERFET. During Timor Awakening 10 we will be opening and dedicating ‘Hampel house’ and ‘ANZAC house’ English Language School at our Veterans’ precinct at SAME.
At our VCA Gathering on 10 Aug, we will be reflecting on the goodness that’s coming from all this activity and more detailed briefing on the September programme by Michael Stone who has been instrumental in shaping this International event. We will also be giving support to an RSL commemorative delegation in September.
Our support team gather every Monday at our office at 2 Victoria Park Rd Kelvin Grove. Last Monday, we reflected how rich and diverse our services have become. Strategically, we are pleased that other organisations and practitioners are embracing the concepts of holistic health promotion and post traumatic growth, and we are increasingly being asked to give talks and presentations on what we are achieving and learning. Yesterday I was asked to brief a Gold Coast doctor, who has seen such amazing growth from one of our Timor Awakening participants that he wants to share what we are doing with the entire Gold Coast primary health network of clinicians. Every veteran who shares the growth they are experiencing contributes to our strategic objective of transforming the Veterans Health paradigm from a sickness treatment focus to a health and wellbeing focus.
TA9 in June took our program to a new level with the ‘hands-on” work we did at Same in painting and tiling a teacher accommodation block, landscaping and laying foundations for an English Language Institute, as part of the RIAK Retreat project (www.timorawakening.com/riak-retreat). We see this not only as healthy activity but also “paying it forward” for veterans who want to make a difference in the lives of others. No health and wellbeing funding we receive is being used for this work. This project, like our sponsorship of veterans children gaining hospitality qualifications at ETDA in Dili, is to be funded by veterans for veterans.
Please consider donating. Donations are tax deductible and are true acts of compassion and charity.
A few “Awakening” comments from TA 9 participants included:
As we ponder the many positive outcomes, I must continue to acknowledge and thank our two primary sponsors, Bolton Clark and RSL QLD and the many other individual sponsors who give what they can to enable this work to continue. In addition to the hundreds who’ve benefited from Timor Awakening, daily we field many other requests for support, information, resources, comments by others in the veteran community. Ongoing collaboration is improving the lot of many. But it takes time and money to do so.
If you aren’t already involved know that your support is appreciated in whatever form, but financial support is critical. Into a new financial year, we invite friends to renew their memberships and to consider making a regular monthly contribution. We have 10 donors who give from $30 to $120 and this is life blood for us to enable us to pay the underpinning unavoidable costs of insurance, fuel, phone, internet and Health and Wellbeing resources.
The pictures attached will say more than words, But underpinning this all is a message of HOPE, sandwiched between Faith and Love.
We live in hope that our lives can improve and that we can improve the lives of others. We have faith in each other and God’s divine love for us, but we do all this because we are centered in an attitude of LOVE that has forgiveness as a foundation.
May you know our love for you and may you share that love with others.
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