The Micah Mandate – Seeking Justice for the globally marginalised

During May 2006, Micah Network will be hosting a series of events in Australia and New Zealand featuring Vinoth Ramachandra, Karin Ramachandra and Leonardo Alvarez.

The visit of this group is being facilitated by Micah Network, a global network of nearly 300 Christian relief, development and justice organisations. Micah Network’s Australian members include Advocacy and Relief for Children, Baptist World Aid Australia, Interserve Australia, OPENdoor Mission Australia, Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor, TEAR Australia, Urban Neighbours of Hope and World Vision Australia. Micah Network’s associate members include a number of individuals, theological colleges such as the Bible College of Victoria and individual churches including St Hillarys Anglican Church Kew. For the Australian part of the visit, a committee is being formed for each state to coordinate events.

Vinoth Ramachandra lives in Sri Lanka with his Danish wife Karin. He is Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement (Asia) for IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students). He is the author of The Recovery of Mission (1996), Gods That Fail (1996), Faiths in Conflict? (1999) and The Message of Mission (co-authored with Howard Peskett, 2003). He is involved with various groups in Sri Lanka that seek to empower the poor and bring reconciliation to a war-torn island. He has been a visiting lecturer in theological colleges in Sri Lanka, India, England and Canada. He also serves on theological commissions, both ecumenical and evangelical, but feels a special calling to equip lay Christians to relate biblical truths and values to their work and everyday world. Vinoth and Karin share a love for walking, omnivorous reading, films, music and bird-watching, while Vinoth used to be passionate about cricket before it became too commercialized and politicized! If you’d like to read an article by Vinoth, download his paper on Globalisation and the Biblical World View, from the Micah Network website.

Karin was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. From a fairly ‘pagan’ background she had a dramatic conversion to Christ at the age of nineteen, which included the healing of mental disturbances. The next several years found her in different forms of Christian social work ?with drug addicts in Denmark and Holland, Cambodian refugees on the Thai-Cambodian border and foreign prisoners in Bangkok’s gaols. These were mostly, but not exclusively, with Youth With a Mission (YWAM). She also helped start and run a children’s home in Thailand to protect children from prostitution and factory slavery.

Leonardo is a Chilean singer/songwriter and pastor. He has written and performed all of the songs on the CD. “El Camino”, which is part of “Music for Integral Mission”, a project of the “Del Camino Network for Integral Mission in Latin America”. The CD produced has 10 songs arranged in a variety of latin musical styles (tropical, ballads, worship and nova trova and more). It represents a challenge for the local church to respond to all needs of it’s community in love and action. Leonardo says, “All of the songs have their own story, taken from the life of the communities and people we have known and learned from along the way. During his time in Australia and New Zealand, Leonardo will be sharing his music with theological colleges, churches and small groups. He will also be leading some workshops with Christian songwriters on the theme of integral mission, at which he will share the inspiration for his music, perform some of his songs, and invite others to share their music. It is also expected that at one or more of these, the musicians will meet for an afternoon, then perform together at an evening concert.