Initiatives of Change - Betty Beazley, Australia

It all began the year of the Queen's Coronation. My husband Kim had been part of the Australian delegation to it. While away he was invited to a conference of Moral Re-Armament (now Initiatives of Change) in Caux, Switzerland. He went for eight days and stayed six weeks. On his return home all I could say was 'how changed he is'. I did not know that it was the philosophy of change, change in people and change in nations.

I wanted to know 'how'? And so began the morning quiet time - considering what might have gone wrong the day before, how to put it right and what for the new day. The children noticed us sitting quietly writing and asked what we were doing. 'We can do that', they said, and did so in their early years.

We continued the practice and came the year of Kim's election to Federal Minister of Education in 1972. Moving to Canberra we continued the same practice. I was thankful, for Kim was so busy with planning and work that I could not ask him about it, but the essentials would come out in the quiet time. One morning his thought was 'Every child's need must be met'. I said, 'Kim how wonderful. That covers every child, rich and poor, clever and backward, Aborigine and white'. After a while the press even seemed to have caught on and started referring to 'the needs policy'.

We are in our eighties now and our minds are not so alert and our movements limited. We continue the practice and find it sets us up for the day. They are happy days.

I should mention too that our quiet times are based on four absolutes - honesty, purity, love and unselfishness - and they provide space for God's direction.