Blimey! Gong's In Good Book!
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday March 3, 2004
BLIMEY! The blokes who put out the Aussie Bible want to raise a few bucks so they're giving the Internet a go. And guess what? They've gone down to the Gong to get the software program and they're stoked with it. Fair dinkum!
Translation: The Bible Society NSW - which last year published The Aussie Bible - Well, Bits of It Anyway - has updated the software needed to keep in touch with its donors, and has used Wollongong Internet company Internetrix, for the task.
The brief was to provide software for the society's roughly 100,000 supporters that would keep their details confidential, provide a record of what they donated and to which projects, and provide an ability to accurately target direct mail campaigns.
``We have been very happy with what Internetrix has done and, with a bit of luck, it will enable us to raise more money," Martin Johnson, Bible Society NSW spokesman, said.
Internetrix managing director Geoff McQueen said the society had chosen one of the firm's five main software products, Affinity, and customised it for its own needs.
``It's about making better use of the information they already have," he said.
He said the idea was similar to more complex systems used by banks, which were able to target direct mailouts for products such as life insurance to customers who fitted the appropriate profile.
The society is one of the oldest organisations in NSW and was created by an Act of Parliament in 1817 on the instigation of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
Originally called the NSW Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, it grew out of the world society, founded in London on March 7, 1804 by anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce, which celebrates its 200th anniversary on Sunday.
The society supplies Bibles in dozens of languages - including Australian old bush vernacular - and promotes Christian prayer, Bible reading and ownership.
The Aussie Bible, written by broadcaster Kel Richards and published last year, is a 90-page story of Jesus' life taken from the Gospels and intended as ``an evangelistic tool" for those who would not otherwise read the Bible.
Published in August last year, at just $5.95, it has sold 65,000 copies and is in its third print run.
THE ANNUNCIATION - AUSSIE-STYLE
WHEN Libby was six months gone, God sent the same angel, this Gabriel bloke, to a backblocks town called Nazareth, in the Galilee shire, to a nice young girl who was engaged to the local carpenter, Joe Davidson. Her name was Mary.
The angel said to her, ``G'day Mary. You are a pretty special sheila. God has his eye on you."
Mary went weak at the knees, and wondered what was going on.
But the angel said to her, ``Don't panic, don't chuck a wobbly. God thinks you're okay. You're about to become pregnant, and you'll have a son, and you're to call him Jesus.
``He will be a very big wheel, and will be called the Son of God Most High.
``God will give him the throne of his father, your ancestor King David, and he will be in charge of the whole show forever."
``But how?" asked Mary. ``Joe and I have done the right thing, we've never well, you know...I mean to say, I'm still a virgin."
- Source: The Aussie Bible - Well, Bits of It Anyway
THE FEEDING OF THE 5000 - AUSSIE-STYLE
WHEN Jesus came ashore he saw this enormous mob, and felt sorry for them because they were like a bunch of aimless sheep with no-one to keep on eye on them.
He started talking to them, and gave them the good oil on a whole lot of things.
Late in the arvo his team came to him and said: ``This is dry mallee country, and it's getting pretty late. Let the mob pop off so they can buy some tucker from local properties or townships."
Jesus answered: ``You feed them." They protested: ``Do you want us to spend 200 smackers to buy enough bread for this lot?"
He said: ``Well how much bread is here? Go and check."
They did so and said, ``Five little pannikin loaves of damper and a couple of fish."
Jesus ordered them all to sit down, in groups, on the cattle grass.
The team ran around like kelpies and got them into groups of hundreds and fifties. Meanwhile, he took the damper and fish, looked up to heaven, thanked God for the food, and broke the damper into bits, giving the bits to his team to share out. He did the same with the fish.
And everyone in the mob tucked in to the bread and fish until they couldn't eat any more. Then they picked up the scraps - a dozen baskets full!
There were about 5000 blokes in that mob.
© 2004 Illawarra Mercury