* We filled the old St Barnabas building which allowed us to have a crying room and a separate children’s church hall.

* On 6th May, Gymea Bay School allowed us use of the hall, classroom, toilets etc.  This venue has the benefit of helping to connect with the school community, but it’s a big open space and a long way from the street and parking.

* Having the Moore students with us was a great help with all the extra jobs.

* About thirty Gymea church members attended each with a couple of visitors at each.

* The core team are meeting this Sunday to decide on details and then will meet each Sunday arvo till launch date, to build team unity & love, pray and plan. New members are still welcome.   See Graham or Tim for details.

Update from Parish Council

1. The Parish Prayer Night was so appreciated by our members that in response to a motion at the APM, Council has decided to hold them quarterly. The next one is at 7.30pm on Monday, 25th June. Future nights are planned for 12th September and 12th November.

2. We are deeply concerned about the care of our members during the current upset and will be meeting specifically to address this and see if outside assistance is possible.

3. Council noted that 80 members have left us this year and giving has dropped by 20% on last year. If this decline continues and our general gifting deficit increases, it will put pressure on our ability to retain our current ministry and staffing.

4. Wireless internet access in the halls and major electrical work at Soulies are now complete.

5. A new Trust Fund has been established to allow tax deductible support for our Parish’s work, teaching scripture in government schools—many thanks to Hayden Fox.

6. Our Building Fund to repay the mortgage needs funding urgently to keep on budget.

7. Our Mission with Moore was a wonderful united effort by the Parish -  our hope and plan is to do it again in 2014, God willing, and for an AFES mission in December 2012.

Night Church Suppers return

After an absence, 7pm church supper are back with a bang!  Instead of every fortnight as they used to be, they’ll be every week. Thanks to Paul Brigden and those on the supper team. To help with this and to provide more space at 9.30am church for prams, we’ve removed a row of chairs at the back of church.

See you all at the Celebrations next Sunday at 2.30pm!!

I’m looking forward to celebrating God’s goodness to us and  the faithfulness of so many members!!  Whilst St Tim’s building is gone (as a church) the people who were that church are continuing on with Christ and that’s worth celebrating!  Come and give thanks and remember many great years of ministry. Maybe invite someone who used to be involved?

Is there no end of conferences??

There are so many conferences  these days and they’re mostly all good.  I say “no” to dozens each year, but two I am saying “yes” to, are on in May.  On 21-22nd May, Paul will be attending the Regional Conference run by Bishop Hayward at Shoalhaven. The following week, I’ll be at a rectors annual retreat 28-30th May.  We’d treasure your prayers for both these events.

i)   Building a strong relationship between the college and parish.
ii)  For our church members to try things evangelistically we wouldn’t naturally do  -  take a risk!
iii)  Many more people than usual to hear the good news of Jesus and be saved.

I believe God has answered these prayers better than we could have expected.  I know of one young man who committed his life to Jesus last week and what rejoicing there is in heaven!   Many heard the gospel because you invited them, people chatted to them on their doorstep or on the streets, or through special events.

Here’s some of the feedback that the team from Moore have made about what they have appreciated most about their time with us:

• Q & A style evangelism – seemed natural for church members.
• Street conversations and doorknocking survey & zoning was great.
• Conversations with hosts and new friends at Gymea.
• Soulies house worked well as a team venue.
• Experiencing the Holy Spirit working through Gymea Anglican to spread the gospel.
• Hospitality of the whole church and hosts were most appreciated by all.
• Billeting was all great and a really friendly church.
• Great to have so many church members doorknocking with Moore team.
• Men’s Breakfast very well organised.
• Strong sense of church community and great to have conversations for so long after church.
• Saturday BBQ initiative with neighbours.
• Labouring together with Gymea members in your evangelism.
• Great Friday night events.
• Mixing with your seniors and for Gordon and Jean’s & others care of them.
• Lots of events made it a good full week.
• Having the gospel pack with Freddos meant people took them.
• Young people standing up for Jesus and talking about Him with friends.
• Loved Tuesday church and willingness of oldies to share their experience of Jesus
• Church members at Gymea were more involved in mission than in other churches.
• Whole “One Question theme” – use it again!
• Richard and Judy’s organising and the team leaders communication.
• The way seniors are cared for at Gymea.
• Coordination of hosting by Bob East .
• Having Graham, Paul and Richard coming to College to meet with the team helped with confidence and interest from the start.

However, since Jesus cherishes and builds his church, his bride, his body (Matt 13:16), Jesus will never let his church disappear.  But it is always the responsibility of one generation as it ages to faithfully and passionately pass on the gospel to the next, and to lead the next to faith in Jesus.

That is why children’s ministry at home and at church is so important.  Parents, especially dad’s, are charged with this wonderful and major responsibility.  And that’s why we put so  much of our financial and ministry resources into our youth and children’s ministries.

But are we as strategic and focused in our praying and giving when it comes to the next generation of pastors, evangelists and missionaries?    “God will always provide”, people say and “someone will always turn up”.   But what part do we play in this?  I want to encourage all our members to be praying for and focused on helping to raise the next generation of mission leaders.   Is its importance reflected in our prayers and giving and plans?  It was a priority for Jesus because his second “Lord’s Prayer” was “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

3 wonderful opportunities are coming to our Parish and the Shire this year in which you and I can partner with our Lord in raising up new leaders who will train and go into all the world.  Shire to the World (Thurs 31st May), Michael Cassidy (here on Sunday 1st July) and Mission Minded Conference (29th Sept).  From among our church family which has been so enriched and blessed and well taught, who does the Lord want to train and go for the sake of his world wide mission?

PS.  Don’t forget the Diploma of Theology course running at Miranda  on Monday nights! Come and join me as we study what the Bible and prayer books teach about “worship”.

War inevitably strips away the trite and trivial and exposes realities of life.  One such “war story” emerged from the Pacific campaign in WW2.  The 3 key players are Jake DeShazer, Mitsuo Fuchida, and Peggy Corvel.

Jake DeShazer was a member of Doolittle’s Raiders who made the extraordinary bombing raids on Japan following Pearl Harbour.  Fuchida was the legendary “top gun” pilot who led the 183 Japanese planes in their attack on Pearl Harbour.  And Peggy – well I’ll come to her.

After Pearl Harbour, the Americans felt they had to hit back quickly at Japan, but they had no bombers that could carry sufficient fuel to fly to Japan and return.  So Doolittle’s Raiders decided to do the job and ditch over enemy territory.  After Jake DeShazer’s plane came down, he was quickly captured and spent 3½ years as POW of Imperial Japan, much of it in solitary confinement … tortured and starved by his captors.

His fellow prisoner, Bob Meder, urged him to trust God who was in control.  DeShazer rejected Meder’s counsel, even though Meder maintained his quiet faith & peace as he was slowly starved to death.  But over time, Jake was intrigued about what could give Meder hope and peace in the midst of such brutality.  Surprisingly the Japanese offered Jake DeSahzer a Bible.  He read it ravenously over the next 3 weeks in solitary confinement, where he’d been denied any reading material to pass the time.  DeShazer records that on 8^th June 1944 (after 2 years as a POW) after reading Romans 10:9 he asked God to take command of his life.  He wrote, “My heart was filled with joy” and astonishingly, “I wouldn’t have traded places with anyone.”

Jake decided that if God enabled him to survive the war, then he had been saved for God or a purpose.  He decided he would attend Bible College and return to Japan as a missionary offering God’s peace & forgiveness to the Japanese.  Unlike many wartime promises made to God, DeShazer kept his promise.  In Dec 1948, Jake and his wife, with their 5 children, sailed for Japan to begin what was to be decades of Christian mission to the Japanese.  Tens of thousands of Japanese flocked to listen to the man who had been so brutalised by his captors.  They were stunned how  God had replaced bitterness in DeShazer with forgiveness and love for his torturers.

Jake also wrote a tract called “I was a prisoner of Japan” and a copy reached Mitsuo Fuchida, the hero of Pearl Harbour.  Following the end of the war Fuchida was ravaged by guilt and memories of the deaths he’d experienced.  He withdrew from society seeking an answer.  He determined to write a book on “peace” called “No More Pearl Harbours!”   But Fuchida also despaired, as he could find no principle, no source of peace in the Japanese religions or world philosophies that he studied.

Then, Fuchida met a Japanese soldier, one who had been treated very differently as a POW in the USA.  This lieutenant told Fuchida how a 20 year old named Peggy Corvel brought food and magazines to the Japanese prisoners.  She even nursed them when they were sick.  When asked “why”, Peggy’s reply was “because the Japanese had killed my parents”.  Peggy’s parents had been missionaries in the Phillippines.  They had been wrongly accused and executed for spying.  After her initial bitterness, Peggy too came to mirror her parents’ love and forgiveness for their enemies.   Peggy showed this forgiveness in the way she cared for the Japanese POW’s.

When Fuchida heard this and read Jake’s tract, he believed he had found the power for peace and forgiveness of guilt he had been searching for.  The leader of the Pearl Harbour attack, this devotee of Adolf Hitler, accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.  For many years after this, Fuchida joined his former enemy, Jake De Shazer, in preaching the way of eternal peace and forgiveness in post war Japan.    And Fuchida’s book?  He eventually wrote it entitled, “From Pearl Harbour to the Cross.”

Thank you to those who have increased or renewed your giving  to repay the church mortgage.  Giving has grown to $24,000 in March.  However, our General Church giving has dropped to $9,000 behind budget.  This is 22% behind last years giving for the same period.

This will make replacement of our p/t pastoral care or youth staff very difficult, and will threaten our existing ministries & staffing unless it can be returned to budget.   Thank you for your concern and commitment to this and our ministries.  Please pray about this issue.

Our Faithful Leaders

If there is one word that has struck me about our youth leaders over the past two months it is faithful. They are faithful in organisation. Things have mostly run smoothly and it is been due to the faithfulness of the team in getting things done from organising sandwiches to running chalk chases to packing up and cleaning up.

They are faithful in the message. I have confidence that God’s word is delivered with all the faithfulness and ability that the leaders can muster. I love the fact that the focus on fun and relationships does not distract from the message of the gospel but rather enhances it. However, I am even more encouraged by the clear focus on the faithful proclamation of God’s word through their speech and actions. They are faithful in godliness; they claim to be Christians and act like Christians. Finally, they are faithful in love; from what I can see they love each other and their crew.

Of course not everything is perfect; each team is made up of sinners saved by God and issues arise. But I have been enormously encouraged by the faithfulness of the leaders and ask that you continue to keep the leaders and the crew in your prayers as we continue to share God’s word and reach out to Gymea and beyond with the gospel. We can only do this with the Lord’s help.

As Psalm 127:1-2 puts it:
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. 2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for He grants sleep to those He loves.

Attendance at Easter Sunday 9.30 church was higher than last year and “enhanced” by the never to be repeated, “singular” event involving whipped cream and pies!  Thanks for being such a good sport Stephen!   The Rock-on team have provided superb ministry again this year, with special thanks to Tim for his leadership and to Tracy McCall for her daily crafts.

(The resurrection of Jesus was the never to be repeated, “singular” event – get it? – Ed)

On Maundy Thursday night at 7pm we’ll share in an hour around the table remembering with thanks what it cost Jesus to set us free as God’s children.

On Good Friday, we’ll celebrate why it’s not just Good but Great Friday – we’ll celebrate Jesus victory on the cross “It is finished!” he shouted..  Not “I’m finished” but “my mission is finished. The battle has been fought and won!”.

On Easter Sunday,  we will lift our sights to see afresh the Risen Jesus, alive in 33AD and alive and active in 2012.  Don’t miss a minute of our time together.   Please pray too for many of our younger members ministering and participating in Katoomba Easter Convention.

Answer: Ultimately, sin is at the heart of suffering. Since sin has entered the world, the world is not working properly. The creation does not work perfectly, in the way it is designed and so we periodically suffer natural disasters in which innocent people suffer. Not only that, but people fail to treat each other properly, which means that good people suffer as well as bad people. Good people also suffer when they follow God and others dislike them for it.

God has resolved the problem of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, the final day of resolution, when sin will be wiped out of existence, has not arrived yet because God is being patient with us and is waiting until we realise that we have sinned and that we need to turn away from sin and back to God.