Hayden Andrews (the author of CBD-Search) and his wife Emily have finally set a date and have their tickets... "We are off to Bangkok, Thailand!"

You will remember that Emily and I (Hayden) have been planning to move to Bangkok for some time. This does not seem such a big step for me as I previously lived in Bangkok in 2003. Emily, on the other hand, apart from our trip to my home country, New Zealand, has never lived far away from her family in the UK.

We go, trusting in God, and believing that he will keep us, lead us and provide for us as we step out in his name and eagerly desire to serve him. We plan to live in Raamkhamhaeng, Bangkok for the next while until we have established ourselves and have learnt the language and culture. We believe this is very important, especially as we have a heart to reach the the villages of Thailand and the underprivileged in society.

You can read more about our dreams, hopes and plans on our personal blog at HayEmX.blogspot.com. Don't forget to visit our blog regularly to find out more about what we are up to.

We have known God's provision before, but even so, I am nervous moving to Thailand permanently as we do not have the finances to last there very long. Emily has been offered a job teaching two to three-year-olds at an international school, which will provide us with about a third of our required income. My dream is to carry on attempting to provide us with an income from my work on the Internet (including CBD-Search) until July, to see if we can provide an income from my work where ever we are and whatever we are doing for God.

If you would like to help support us in what we believe is God's will for our life, we do not ask for your donations, but ask that you consider purchasing products and services at CBD-Search. This way, we will both benefit. If enough of our current subscribers were to purchase $10 of product and service from CBD-Search per year, we would meet the budget for what we require to live in Bangkok, at very little cost to each of our subscribers. And for $10 per year, you can certainly buy yourself a whole lot of benefit at CBD-Search.

The best thing I think you can do on CBD-Search, is to submit your banners to the site to further advertise your resources. These are displayed such a low cost, but provide advertising for you throughout our website. You can also purchase additional keywords for your resources which will help visitors to our website find your particular resource. We are now sending out regular newsletters each month, and you will have read that we want this newsletter to be about our subscribers and what they are doing, and not about us. Therefore, you are more than welcome to submit your articles for inclusion both in our blogs and in our monthly newsletters, again at minimal cost.

We have also created a yearly auction so that any of our subscribers can bid for sponsorship at CBD-Search. This auction w ill run during April, and you are all more than welcome to place a bid.

All of these services, and more, can be discovered by logging in to CBD-Search and exploring through the menu. Again, if you only choose to purchase $10 worth of services from us each year, you'll be helping us out in a big way.

Thank you so much for the way in which you have all supported us since we created CBD-Search, by submitting your resources, your banners, and sending us so many lovely e-mails supporting us in our dream. We are hugely grateful already, and pray God's richest blessings on all that you do in his name.

HayEmX.blogspot.com
www.heydan.f2s.com
www.cbd-search.com
www.heydan.co.uk
poetry-bin.blogspot.com

Hayden Andrews
Hayden and Emily Andrews

HeyDan Development, the creator of CBD-Search, is now available to help keep the content of your website up-to-date for a small fee.

Hayden Andrews, the owner of HeyDan Development, and his wife are soon to move to Thailand to live, minister and serve God. As a way of providing an income while living in Thailand, Hayden is making himself available to keep the content of your site updated and current, for a small cost.

Many people have created their own website but then find the time and effort involved keeping the site up-to-date on a regular basis is just too much. Hayden is therefore offering a service to update your website's content, on your instruction, leaving your website structure and design as it is.

This relationship will operate in such a way that you, the customer, will provide Hayden with textual update instructions via email, and Hayden will apply these changes at the earliest possible opportunity on your behalf. While in Thailand, Hayden and Emily are focused on serving God and providing a basic income through their own skills, instead of trying to generate a large profit. Hayden would therefore prefer to provide you with an approximate number of hours per month for a mutually agreed monthly fee.

This is not an opportunity to be missed! As well as ensuring that your website remains current and up-to-date, you will be supporting a couple serving God in Thailand. If this opportunity is of interest to you, then please get in contact with Hayden today.

Hayden is also available for other Web and Internet related work. If you are interested, please contact HeyDan Development for more information.

More information on what Hayden and Emily are up to can be found at their personal Blog site (HayEmX.blogspot.com)

Hayden Andrews
HeyDan Development

I am a born again Christian working in North Devon Youth Offending Team in the UK. England and Wales has seen a transformation of its Youth Justice systems over the last 10 years with a widespread re-introduction of Restorative Justice (RJ) techniques with many of these principles now enshrined in legislation. The principle aim of the Youth Justice system is to prevent offending behaviour by young people, whilst slightly more helpfully the aim of Restorative outcomes is to meet the 3R's of Responsibility, Reparation and Re-integration in order to get justice for victims and offenders alike.

I first came across these changes in 1997 when I started writing and developing youth justice policies and procedures for the West Midlands Police Force as part of a Government pilot of its plans for the Youth Justice system. At this time restorative justice was pretty well hidden within the legislation and to an 'outsider' not really visible. I then attended a conference hosted by Sir Charles Pollard, Chief Constable of the Thames Valley Police Force and key proponent of the use of Restorative techniques. As I watched him talk with open fervour and excitement, I couldn't help but connect him with an evangelical preacher. He clearly believed wholeheartedly in this system and would not be satisfied until we all did the same. Unfortunately as a fairly cynical Police Officer this approach didn't win me over but actually created a barrier which persisted in me until I was sent on a training course to become an RJ Facilitator. The trainer was Tony Walker, another Police officer from Thames Valley. What immediately surprised me was that although he was as cynical as me about the justice system we were currently operating, he also had that bright eyed fervour for a style of justice he clearly believed in. As the course progressed I heard talk of apologies, repentance, forgiveness, mercy and of harm repaired and I was struck with how closely this matched my own Christian beliefs. It was also clear that when people experienced this style of justice they also became 'believers' and I too left as a 'convert'.

Since then, I have left the Police to work full time with a Youth Offending Team. I have also become a Restorative Justice trainer and have now led hundreds of people to believe in the power of RJ to repair harm and transform people's lives. Over the last year or so I have become increasingly concerned that whilst I saw Christians worldwide encouraging their criminal justice systems to move away from punitive justice and towards a more restorative and biblical system, many appear to have lost sight of the principal of "removing the log from your own eye before dealing with the speck in your brothers" as stated in Matthew 7v5, and they have neglected the unresolved harm going on in their own Churches.

I have been involved in church life for more than 30 years and regardless of creed or denomination I have seen Christians hurt and upset by the actions of other Christians. I know from talking to other Christians that this is not just a localised problem but a common occurrence in our churches. Sadly the response to this is often nothing and much of the harm remains unresolved. This certainly hurts the church in the way that it functions and how Christians are perceived. How must the non believers view the church when they meet so many Christians disillusioned with Church life? What about the offender who can be forgiven by the person he has assaulted but sees no forgiveness in the church? Or the victim who can forgive the person who burgles them but 'cannot' be hurt by the actions of a Christian who refuses to accept responsibility?

My heart is to see the principles and techniques of restorative justice being returned to action in the communities they were originally designed for, the Christian Church. This requires three things to happen:

1. A return to the teaching of the restorative Biblical principles of church life.
2. A reflection on church leadership and discipline and how they should be applied in our post modern society.
3. The training of church members and leaders in facilitation skills so that they can mediate in the most intransigent or difficult cases.

To this end I have set up a website and company called Matt 5-9, the name taken from Matthew 5 verse 9 where Jesus states "Blessed are the\ Peacemakers for they will be called Sons of God". This site hopes to provide inspiration for those who would seek to be those peacemakers, whether as independent facilitators or through an involvement in church leadership.

I believe that if the Church wants to see people turn to it for answers it has to be seen as the type of community which Christ designed and exemplified in the Bible and which are attractive places for people to live in. Our criminal justice systems seem to be learning the lessons, when will our churches?

Matt Wilcox
Matt 5-9