Scientology Missions Around the World

Scientology Mission of Melrose

06:15, 7 November 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

The Scientology Mission of Melrose just put up their own site, a nifty alternative way to use a Blog as a website.

It's http://scientologymelrose.blogspot.com/

The mission itself is in Melrose, in what could be called "Young Hollywood". Apparently they have quite a decent team there, with a Scientology counsellor trained at the Flag Service Organization - the most rigorous training center in Scientology. They also have built themselves up a corps of Scientology Volunteer Ministers who are active in servicing the community.

Stunning Apres-Tsunami Photos

07:01, 6 November 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

I was just surfing about and again found these photos on the www.afterthetsunami.org site which Danish Scientologist Thorsten Overgaard took while there.

I think they're extremely impressive, expressive shots which capture the life and people there in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, being helped by the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

History of Psychiatry

06:44, 5 November 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Now, I know this isn't something I usually post about, but I just this past weekend saw the new DVD put out by CCHR on the history and practice of Psychiatry.

Honestly, this is something that every American needs to confront, as we're the generation source for a lot of the psychiatric babble that gets propigated around the world - especially on the preposterous use of psychotropic drugs on small children.

I really am going to have an impossible time explaining why you should get this except for the fact that viewing this incredible DVD made my stomach turn more than any horror movie I have ever seen in my life. It's tough to confront. See what I'm talking about here.

Scientology in Lafayette, Louisiana!

11:20, 4 November 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

I have a special affinity for Louisiana, after the heroic efforts of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, U.S. military, red cross, and all of the other volunteers who worked their guts out to save that area and the people in it. Here's an article I came across on ScientologyToday that hits on that:

Marie Pace, Louisiana State Senator Nick Gautreaux, and Annie Kananack Maurice, LA.

In its previous 10 years, the Church of Scientology Mission of Lafayette had gained the respect and trust of many for the help they were always willing to provided the community. But it wasn't until last year's disastrous hurricane season that local leaders realized just how important this Mission is to the people of the area.

On their web site, the Mission describes how they coordinated the efforts of Scientologists from all over the United States who rushed to the area to help.

"Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on August 29, 2005. Tremendous damage was done, particularly to the City of New Orleans, and many hundred of thousands were left homeless. Communities across the region were in desperate need of help and many others pitched in to help those most affected."

The web site goes on to describe the effect the disasters had on local infrastructure.

"Many evacuees were coming to the Lafayette and Vermillion Parish areas, taxing the resources of these communities. At the request of government officials, Marie Pace (Executive Officer of the Scientology Mission of Lafayette) brought together a team of Volunteer Ministers that stepped in and did a remarkable job for the community. Over the ensuing days Scientology Volunteer Ministers were activated within the State of Louisiana and also came to Louisiana from many parts of the United States to join Marie's team."

Tim Creswell, Vermilion Parish Office of Homeland Security/Emergency Preparedness and Marie Pace listen to a 92-year old New Orleans man as he tells how he spent two days on the roof of his home before being evacuated by helicopter.

With images of people left homeless by Katrina filling our TV screens, it became clear that the area simply was not prepared to handle this level of disaster. So helping these people find a safe and decent place to stay became the first priority for the Mission.

"During the initial phases of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers (or VMs) were responsible for setting up and completely running five shelters for hurricane evacuees, primarily from New Orleans."

Then, with local resources strained beyond their ability to cope, Hurricane Rita hit. So the Missions took on the running of four additional shelters.

This year the region was spared a repeat of last year's hardships, and towns and cities are rebuilding.

But no one is likely to forget the events of August 2005, both the tragedy, and the incredible help of people from all over the country who, like those who put on the bright yellow Volunteer Ministers t-shirts, left the comfort of their own homes and came to provide help to the people of the Gulf Coast.

Not TOO amazing that I'm most active...

03:28, 30 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

I just looked back on the home page, just to see if I was still the most active Xeeks poster, and saw to my horror that I still was! I havent' been here in 3 days! Then I saw the home page and saw the following:

Total Users: 391

Total Entries: 481

Total Comments: 99

Total Templates: 37

Last Signup: 10/30/06

With only 481 total entries and 99 total comments, I can see how I might end up as the #1 poster. Some of my friends have blogs that have over 481 entries and 99 comments. Oh, well - hopefully I can drum up some sort of interest with this one and generate some more traffic for good ol' Xeeks.

Press takes a Fancy to New London Church

03:22, 30 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Just trolling around, I've found a ton of press on the new Church of Scientology of London. Namely:

From Yahoo! UK News:

Several hundred Scientologists braved the driving rain to listen to an address by Scientology leader David Miscavige.

He said: "This day will go down in history. Of all the foreign lands where LRH lived and worked, he called England home.

"This is the city wherein he first defined the human spirit as an immortal being possessed of capabilities beyond anything predicted and so arrived at the axiomatic truths on which the whole of Scientology is founded."

I thought that was pretty nifty. Most of the press I found thought it was pretty wild that 3,000 people would just come out in the rain to see a building open. I would have to agree!

Most active?

07:41, 26 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Wow - I just saw I'm the most active user on Xeeks! Didn't think I was posting that often! Jeepers! Hope someone's reading this blog, then!

New Scientology Volunteer Ministers Website

07:05, 26 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers just put up a new website at www.volunteerministers.org.

The site makes it much eaiser to find out about the Volunteer Ministers, but really, I think, shows how big and productive this group has become. They are now the largest independent relief force in the world!

I definitely get from this the communication that Mr. David Miscavige said in his speech on Volunteer Ministers, "So when it comes to helping those in most desperate need, we not only know we can help, we are doing something about it."

OK, it is Faster though.

09:52, 24 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Okay, something I will say is that in Konqueror, with all of the TinyMCE formatting turned off, posting on this blog is pretty damned fast. I didn't think that my last post actually saved, because it happend so fast!

Posting from Konqueror on Xeeks

09:50, 24 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Man - I tried to do this post from a new Konqueror install on Fedora Core 5, but no matter what browser identification I choose, it gives me no buttons at all. Gyp! I was going to post this nifty photo from the Grand Opening of the Church of Scientology of London, but unfortunately, rich text seems to be limted to other blogs for now, in other browsers. Not this one!

Scientologists in London Open Huge New Church Building

03:58, 23 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Scientologists in London opened their new Church of Scientology building in London yesterday, with about 3 to 4 thousand people attending the event. Mr. David Miscavige was the keynote speaker, along with a representative of the Lord Mayor, the Chief of Police, and others.

It's Growing! Scientology Blogs All Over the World!

11:23, 10 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

JetteroHeller has been keeping a number of Scientology blogs in his Scientology Kaboodle page, and somehow this page has not erupted and exploded yet in a fireball of flying HTML tags and Web2.0 chunklets. My blog was included in there as well, of course.

Now with all of the neat blogs in there, though, have a look at the cool way to display them all:

Scientology Blogs

I know that Kaboodle was originally meant for items for sale, and displaying such, but it works great for this too!

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Spread Peace, in face of North Korean Hysteria

04:08, 9 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence.

With everything we have going on in the news right now, attempting to make things look like the best plan is to be apathetic and just wait for George Bush to start another war, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have the opposite look -- getting people to be more causative over their lives.

In 1976, L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion, wrote an essay titled,

â€œReligious Influence in Society,â€ in which he launched the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program and described the role of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in these terms:

â€œ...a Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.

â€œA Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.

â€œHow does a Volunteer Minister accomplish these miracles? Basically, he uses the technology of Scientology to change conditions for the betterâ€”for himself, his family, his groups, friends, associates and for mankind.â€

This is something also articulated by Mr. David Miscavige, when he spoke of the heroics of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers at Ground Zero in the wake of 9/11. The real value they were providing there, quite in addition to the physical lives saved and people helped, was a restoring of calm to the area so that people could get on with what they needed to do.

That's not just mysticism or just "a bunch of nice people". Scientology Volunteers are trained in how to get the job done in such circumstances, which anyone can also learn how to do regardless of your religion.

Scientology in Nigeria - Dianetics learned by a 9-year-old Girl!

10:52, 8 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Age Not a Barrier When It Comes to Helping with Dianetics Therapy

This was a nifty story found on ScientologyToday about a girl who learned Dianetics at the ripe old age of 9!

When 9 year-old Zainab came face-to-face with crime in her home city of Lagos, Nigeria, she learned first hand the harsh reality that millions of her neighbors have experienced. But despite her youth, Zainab knew enough of Dianetics technology that she was prepared to help her family when they needed it the most, which made her -- and them -- very happy indeed.

Indonesian Girls Learn Scientology Assists

02:33, 8 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Young students learn to help one another using Scientology Assists.

Natural disaster may be a way of life in Indonesia, where devastation from torrential rains and earthquakes are commonplace, but the Scientology Disaster Relief Team has brought real help to the people of this island nation - something I think is a totally honourable endeavour.

While the whole world watched in shock in December 2004 as the estimates of the dead in this Island country approached 10% of the pre-tsunami population, a team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers raced to the disaster zone in Sumatra to help the survivors put their lives back together again.

Training tens of thousands on the simple techniques contained in the Scientology Handbook, by L. Ron Hubbard, the volunteers, who came from Australia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, brought help to hundreds of thousands in Medan and Banda Aceh. Many stayed on for months after the disaster was over and when they returned to their homes they left behind a team of dedicated Indonesian volunteers to carry on the work they had begun.

In 2004, Mr. David Miscavige briefed some of the world's most influential people at the Celebrity Centre Gala, on the effects the Scientology Volunteer Ministers have been having, and the real help they can provide. This is just another example of their effective help being used to train others so they can help each other, and thus bring sanity and more productivity and calm to a nation.

Botswana Volunteer Ministers

08:53, 7 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

News spreads pretty fast in the VM world.

I heard about the actions of the Scientology Volunteer Minsiters on e-mail, on Digg, and then on one other Scientologist's blog, so figured I'd ask around and see if I could find out anything else about this occurence in Botswana.

Scientology Volunteers and Botswana Firefighters Repel Fire in Gabarone Â» Netscape.com

Scientology Volunteer Ministers happened to be in an abandoned section of Gabarone, Botswana when a pretty massive fire broke out . As they were the only ones in a position to help, they pitched in and worked side-by-side with the Gabarone Fire Dept, braving the flames and putting out a massive fire.

Tours like this one were first announced in 2004, shortly after Mr. David Miscavige's landmark speech This is Scientology detailing what Scientology is and does. These tours are now in Fiji, Taiwan, Africa, Brazil, Europe and Russia, and are bringing Scientology and effective solutions to those in each of these areas.

Kaohsiung - Scientology in Taiwan

05:45, 6 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Probably one of the fastest-growing areas of Scientology in the East is Taiwan, where the island is now literally peppered with Scientology missions, and a main Scientology mission located in Kaohsiung. Further expansion is planned for Taiwan, with announcement by church management of the Kaohsiung office soon to be home to a full Scientology Church organization, encompassing all of the social betterment functions that a full church can provide.

One of these is the Church's anti-drug campaign, recently featured in Scientology Today:

The Church of Scientology of Taiwan, Working to Protect the Next Generation from the Scourge of Drugs On any given week you will find Scientologists working with youth throughout Taiwan to educate them on the truth about drugs, giving them the information they need to make sane choices about their future...

(full story >>)

Fijians helped by Scientologists through Communication

08:13, 3 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

They were joined by a troupe of native Fijian traditional dancers, symbolizing the commitment to a new era of mutual cooperation and trust.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour has been working with community leaders in Fiji to forge understanding and tolerance between the two disparate cultures inhabiting the islands: the predominant culture of native Fijians and the Indo-Fijian minority that comprises more than 38% of the population.
ref: ScientologyToday, news section, and section on Mr. David Miscavige.

07:00, 2 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

In 1976, L. Ron Hubbard wrote an essay titled, “Religious Influence in Society,” in which he described the Scientology Volunteer Ministers movement in the following terms:

A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.

“A Scientology Volunteer Minister fulfills the definition of religion in this increasingly cynical and hopeless world.”

This is entirely why one would want to post such stories like this one on the state of India, and why it would be important to get as many Scientology Volunteer ministers trained as could be possible.

Hindi Scientology Books Introduced at Book Fair in Delhi

04:05, 1 October 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

With thousands of books sold during the 9 days of the Delhi Book Fair that just ended, and new distributorships on the horizon, the launch of books by L. Ron Hubbard in the Hindi language was a major accomplishment.

This is a major step for Scientology, as this will allow the many Hindi-speaking people in India, who do not also speak English, to be able to experience Scientology books.

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