That’s what people have been asking me so, let me summarise:

* 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.

We had 3 specific prayers goals for this Mission with Moore:

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.

It has been said that “the church is only one generation away from extinction”.  And there is sobering truth in this, isn’t there?

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”.

I know little of war, real war.  Although my dad served for 5 years in PNG and the Middle East, with the 2^nd 1^st Survey Regiment during WW2, he spoke very little of what war was like.   What he did talk about were the good times, the mateship, as we poured over his war photos, taken with a smuggled camera. Dad eventually died of a heart attack at 60 and I wish we had been able to talk more of what the war had meant to him – after all it took the best years of his life and had shaped him forever.

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.”

Church Finances

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.

We had a lot of new visitors this Easter which is very encouraging for our efforts to pray, invite and letter box drop.

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)

Have you ever thought that Christmas makes no sense without Easter? The Easter events are why Jesus was born.  Mary rejoiced at the news of Jesus’ conception that “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”.  She needed saving just as we all do.  God came as our Saviour to die the death we deserve but want to avoid.  Jesus took our place “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many”.

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.

Have you ever thought that Christmas makes no sense without Easter? The Easter events are why Jesus was born.  Mary rejoiced at the news of Jesus’ conception that “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”.  She needed saving just as we all do.  God came as our Saviour to die the death we deserve but want to avoid.  Jesus took our place “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many”.

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.

Welcome to those visiting us for Rescue Sunday!

While Easter is a time for Christians to celebrate what Jesus has done and for all  our community to relax and refresh with family and holidays, our Emergency Service are often stretched and stressed by increased work load, reduced staff and their own family pressures.   Today we stop and pray for them and say a huge “thank you”.  We owe a debt of thanks to the volunteers and paid staff.  Often it’s not until things go wrong and we need their help personally that we appreciate just what a great job they do, day in and day out..

It’s a great pleasure for us that Mayor Carol Provan is sharing in our Rescue Sunday.  She and the team at Sutherland Shire Council serve us tirelessly and for that we give thanks to God and pray for them.

What ever God calls us to as Christians, he calls us to love, especially to love his family.  By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one for another John 13  We cannot love God unless we love his children.  “Love me, then love my kids” is the call of Jesus.  I’ve been very encouraged by the depth of love and care that members show day in and day out.  Let’s keep committed to loving one another for Christ’s sake for this always pleases our Father in heaven.  Here’s some more ways we can exercise love:

Prayer

God says “devote yourselves to prayer”.  We pray for those we love and for what matters most to us.  Please pray for those confirmed last week that they would grow in Christ and find their part to serve in our ministries: Ashley Schulz, Emma Brunker, Sarah Jackson, Mitchell Botskor, Tyson McCall, Georgina Glossop, Georgia Stanton,  Michelle Sulinggo, Michael Sulinggo, Aaron Smith.

Helping the Beilharz move

Tim and Ros and their family are moving to 128 Gymea Bay Road on Saturday 31st March and they’d love our help.  They have served our church so faithfully and lived frugally and sacrificially as Tim has completed his Bible College studies.   We can meet at their current unit at 8am 13/44-48 The Grand Parade Sutherland or later in the morning at their new address.

Giving to help those in need

Our link missionaries, the Watson family, are facing very difficult times as they have had to move back to the Shire for most of this year to enable Natalie to be treated for an aggressive breast cancer.   Both she and her husband Jim are unable to work here as Natalie undergoes severe chemo and ray treatment, and as Jim cares for Nat and their 4 children.    The added costs for them are significant including extra flights to and from Kunnunurra, preschool fees and school expenses, medical costs, acquiring and maintaining a motor vehicle etc.

Their mission BCA are raising $5000 and our church has initiated an open target of $5000 but more support will be needed throughout the year.    I can think of no more deserving or worthy family for us to support and I urge all our members to give what they can now and in the months ahead.  Just place your gifts in an envelope marked “the Watsons” and  place your gifts in the normal collection bag.  Electronic transfers are also possible  to our general account but  clearly mark it “for the Watsons”.

Our Food Bank

Has already been very helpful in providing emergency food for people in need.  Even in a wealthy area like the Shire there are people living in dire circumstances.  Especially helpful gifts of canned or packaged food and those that are instant meals, canned fish, pastas, tea & coffee, tinned vegies.  These can be left at our office or on Sundays in the foyer.

Reaching out for Christ at Easter and our Mission With Moore

The most loving thing we can do for any person is to help a person come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.  Nothing is more important or better than this.  So please pray and plan to get involved and have a go.  If you’re in a LIFE group or ministry team, talk now with your leader about what you’re planning or just talk to one of our team leaders or pastors about how you can share your faith.

Well what a 12 months of highs and lows it’s been!  Nothing has happened that should cause us to doubt that God is in control and he is working for the good of his people here.  He has promised that He is (Rom 8:28)doing this and He’s proved that by giving the Lord Jesus to live and die for us (Rom 8:32).

When we think of highlights we often think of major events, and there were many of these – Shire wide youth outreach, marriage enrichment and parenting initiatives, introduction of Mychurch, launch of Soul Revival Jesus Movement, our “get real” Easter campaign with John Chapman, the visits of President Hengebe from ECPG and Pastor Habimana from Katoke, baptism at the Beach, the EQUIP and OXYGEN conferences, Shire to the World Regional Prayer Night, large numbers of visitors at our Christmas events, music leader’s workshops and our memorable Anniversary on 15^th Jan, and our recent Parish Prayer Night  – just to name a few.

But of course it’s the weekly sacrificial ministry and love of God’s people that is always the “highlight” for me in any year in the life of a church.  It’s members reading their Bibles and saying their prayers, and meeting weekly in church and in home LIFE groups to “spur one another on to love and good works, all the more as we see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:25).

And there has been pain too – the pain of ongoing fall out from past issues; the grief as beloved brothers and sisters “go to glory”; and the upset of division and leaving.  Satan is always active when and where God our Father is most active, and of course you and I are sinful people.  Despite our best intentions we will cause each other grief and for where I have contributed to this I’m deeply sorry. I’ve been moved to study again the Christian’s basic calling in Ephesians 4.  It’s so real and relevant as we gather each week as broken and yet forgiven, God-empowered people. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, forbearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (v2).

I thank God for those who love and lead us in paid and unpaid ministries, especially our wardens, Parish Council, staff and LIFE group pastors.  I also wish to publicly thank God for and acknowledge my wife Jane (she is more than just the brains and the good looks of the Crew team, as you’ve no doubt worked out).

Looking Forward

Jesus proclaims that through all this … “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).   I still consider this such a privilege that God calls us to partner with Him in his rescue mission and building His community – don’t you agree!  We are “fishers of men” (and women and children) with Him.  And praise God we’ve seen new ones entering his kingdom this past year.

I believe if we want to see where God is working most and be “part of the action”, the local church is where it’s at.  This is what excites me, gets me out of bed each morning and keeps me going.   (an extract from Graham’s Report to our APM  8th March 2012)