Saturday, January 31, 2009

A message of forgiveness ...

We were deeply touched by these words, spoken at the funeral service of Halatau Naitoko yesterday:

"My blood has been shed and that blood is crying out for forgiveness.

"Let that message reach out to the Minister of Police, the Police Commissioner and all the government officials - even the beloved policeman who fired that shot."


Those of us who have chosen to follow Christ know that his blood was shed for the forgiveness of everyone. Halatau's family is demonstrating the true meaning of the word grace. We pray that in the days an weeks that come, they will truly experience the peace that passes human understanding. Kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui; Arohanui.

6 comments:

Barnsley Bill said...

Let us also pray that they are related to Brendan Sheehan.

A terrible tragedy, for the family and the cop.

Barnsley Bill said...

that should have read. NOT related to BS

Inventory2 said...

You'd be spot on there BB - I'm sure the family's attitude will do wonders for the morale of the officer involved who must be deeply traumatised as well. It was interesting to see a distant family member who is a police officer in full dress uniform acting as a pallbearer - a very visible sign of forgiveness and reconciliation.

LaFemme said...

Despite everything that TVNZ and Lisa Glass did to stirr up racial tensions over this terrible tragedy, this family has behaved with grace and mana.

Inventory2 said...

Absolutely LaFemme - contrast this, as BB alluded to with the media feeding frenzy over the Muliaga family. Brenden Sheehan's absence is a godsend.

Madeleine said...

I spotted your comment on HalfDone. Apologies for missing you off the Christian blog rankings - I run searches over Tumeke's stats looking for "christian" "theology" "religion" etc, but had not thought to use "Church" otherwise I would have spotted you as another openly Christian blog.

Going forward your blog will be included.

Madeleine :-)