Church Matters Keeping a link with the Sydney congregation

August 2008

Living and sharing the

gospel W O R L D W I D E

CHURCH OF GOD

John McLean will be in Sydney on August

8-10th. Rod Dean will spend some time with John Friday afternoon. On the Saturday before the main service, the Pastoral Team wil l discuss their contribution to the growth of a healthy congregation. John will speak at our normal service updating us on our church’s progress in its spiritual understanding and application of our participation in God’s life through the adoption to sonship we have in Christ. On the Sunday there will be a meeting to look at whether we need to develop the process of ownership of the church’s life and strategic planning through the Appreciative Inquiry model and, if so, how.

REGIONAL CONFERENCE

An eventful and progressive trip to Papua New Guinea occurred in July. Mark Latham and Matthew Gudze visited the churches in Port Moresby and Mt Wilhelm (in the Highlands). A large new church building at Mt Wilhelm has been erected with wall frames and a metal roof. A day of busy construction work was also carried out in which the whole church community participated. Activities that day included: relocating the electrical cable to the new building; laying a concrete floor; carrying heavy stones from the river up the hill to the new building for the floor foundations and sharing a wonderful meal and refreshments. Materials for this building were generously donated by several Australian churches. The congregation at Mt Wilhelm sincerely sends their thanks and gratitude to them.

Communication is very difficult in this country that is sometimes referred to as the ‘final frontier’. At Mt Wilhelm communication by Digicel mobile phone was trialed and had some limited success. Improvements are expected in phone communication in the future so that full mobile phone communication can be made with Australia and with the scattered church brethren throughout PNG.

A second sewing machine was purchased along with some material for the Highlands church. Many lovely dresses have been made using the sewing machine purchased last year from the donations from the Sydney Women’s Ministry. With new births we had the blessing of two children this trip.

Progress has also been made on t r ans l a t i ng t he Discipleship 101 course into Pidgin English (Disaipel Bilong Bikpela God) which will be used in training and outreach not only in PNG but in countries that share similar cultures and language.

Our small tour group consisting of Gordon and Pam Emerson , N o e l e e n C a n a r d , D a v i d Coventry , Lachland Best , Joyce Churchland and Stephen Brique (tour leader) would like to thank all those who prayed for our safety and well-being on this trip and te l l you that those prayers were answered in so many ways.

First stop Cairo: Of course one can’t mention Egypt without thinking about those fabulous pyramids. Gordon said on more than one occasion – “how did they do it.” Noeleen remarked and pondered on how the ancient people were able to achieve such a high standard of workmanship and knowledge to build such a magnificent past that still challenges our minds today.

Moving on from Cairo we crossed into the stark Sinai Peninsula just like the children of Israel had, although we were in a bus (thankfully). It is still not a place to be wandering about without God, even for a day, let alone 40 years! Another amazing site we visited was Petra. Joyce, Lachy and the rest of us will tell you just how amazing this lost city of stone is.

Jerusalem: The “Garden Tomb” is truly a lovely and tranquil place to visit. One thing I do know is that once you enter into the tomb and you see the hard stone cut-away slab where the body was laid and it makes Jesus’ death seem all the more stark – lots of emotions. Then you look and take in the scene and then you see above you on the wall on the inside near the entrance a carved wooden sign that simply reads “He is not here, for he has risen” and you smile, because it says it all, and then you walk out into the sunlight! Noeleen remarked that visiting the places where Jesus lived and walked has enriched her spiritual life.

David Coventry remarked about the trip in general that visiting these places lets you grasp the time and history more and as Noeleen and Lachy said, even though you have heard and read about these places your whole life and seen them on TV, it is just incredible to think you are actually right there where it all happened! This certainly

was the case at the Sea of Ga l i l ee where we had he opportunity for a boat ride from Capernaum. As we g l ided across the smooth waters looking at the same hills and shoreline that Jesus would have seen, it put a lump in my throat – it is something else.

The crew stopped the motor and we drifted in silence for a little while and reflected, prayed, sang and imagined.

Asking the group about some of their feelings about the people of the Middle East, they responded on just how warm and friendly they found the people to be. I can say that we truly were treated with respect and warmth in all the places we visited. It was a fantastic time together — all 23 days!

GEMS OF THE MIDDLE EAST Tour Report (Stephen Brique)

PNG TRIP REPORT JULY 2008

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http://sydney.wcgw

eb.org

Nelson David Gudze was born 4.30 pm Tuesday 29th July in Gympie,

weighing 6.5lbs. First child to Jenna and Aaron Gudze and first grandchild to delighted grandparents Ian and Rosie Gudze and Peter and Annette Long. Mother and baby are doing well. Congratulations from all of us. David Arkinstall received a Sir Roden Cutler Charity Recognition Award on Tuesday 22nd July. David was nominated because the Evans Community Options wanted to recognise “the huge and wonderful job you provide as a Carer.”

David has cared for Merilyn who very early in their marriage — well over 40 years ago — was diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia. What is F r i e d r e i c h ' s A t a x i a ? Friedreich's Ataxia is a slowly progressive disorder of the nervous system and muscles. The disorder, named for the physician who first identified it in the early 1860's results in inability to coordinate voluntary

muscle movements (ataxia). This condition is caused by degeneration of nerve tissue in the spinal cord and of nerves that extend to peripheral areas such as the arms and legs. That ataxia affects upper and lower limbs, and the head and neck. There is also a particular loss of the sensations of touch and pressure in the arms and legs. Unlike some neurological diseases, Friedreich's Ataxia does not affect mental capacity. At the same time David has continued maintaining sheep on his properties. The Bathurst church has the privilege of holding services in their home. This hasn’t always been easy and David is the first to down play his efforts with this. But we, as his spiritual family, have benefited from this life time example of footwashing and also from the courage and faith of Merilyn who, despite failing health, continues to serve the church through distributing newsletters, sermon notes and information from the church. Thembi Ncube was baptised on Sunday July 27th. Thembi grew up in the church in Botswana and is currently working as a surgeon at Auburn Hospital. In the future Thembi would like to take a team of doctors on a short term mission to give something back to the people of Botswana. We, as a worldwide church family, are all excited to share this commitment to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

The Sydney congregation has committed $1,000 to pay for 1,000 printed copies

of Discipleship 101 in Urdu. This will initially be distributed to every family in the Alpha Church in Faisalabad to provide a basic biblical belief system for members and ministers. There are about 1,200 to 1,500 in attendance with 28 congregations. In the future it is hoped that Foundations of Faith can supplement this.

Recently Muquaddam Zia and Mohan Jayasekera spent 6 days in Perth discussing our future partnership with the Alpha Church in Faisalabad. On July 30th Rod Matthews and Mohan met in Lahore Pakistan, to begin consolidating this partnership with Alpha Church. They will then fly on to Nepal as detailed in the last Newsletter. They leave Nepal on August 12th.

Please pray for their protection and for wisdom in our developing relationships that God’s will is done.

Socials Sun Aug 31 - Bike Ride Neville Rowe Thu Sep 11 - Seniors' Bus Trip Jim Thomas Sun Sep 14 - Soccer Homebush Neville Rowe Sun Sep 21 - Camden House Alex McKenzie

Our Habitat house was built in a Fijian village. We along with men from the village built a 2 room timber clad house with a back section consisting of bathroom and kitchen (back section to be completed after we left). The vil lage women provided us with lunch and morning and afternoon tea. The vertical frame and floor joists were in place when we arrived. With a bit of effort the frame was made more or less square. So there was much painting, hammering, some bricklaying etc and even some local culture of going to see a local Rugby game.

On the first evening there was a formal kava ceremony for us.

On our last evening there was a special thankyou evening for us held in the new house, which was specially decorated for the occasion. There was much food, kava if one wanted and music.

Even though it’s a relatively small project in the overall scheme of things, it’s was a worthwhile project and much appreciated by the locals. The recipient family, in the village, has a good sturdy house.

Julie Raffell with Habitat in Fiji

Jeff Moscrop received a Doctor of Philosophy (in Electrical Engineering) on Thursday 17th of July from the University of Wollongong. The main area of study was control systems and the thesis title was "Modelling, Analysis and Control of Linear Feed Axes in Precision Machine Tools". Jeff works as a full-time Research Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering. His current focus is on the development of "Superconducting Fault Current Limiters." Jeff attends the W ol longong congregation with his wife Natalie and young son Nathan. This achievement represents years of dedicated research, overcoming various challenges. Congratulations from all of us.

Hot August Night Bushdance Saturday 16 August. Starting at 6.00pm Featuring Ambushed Bush Band with communal & partner dancing. Dinner & dessert available Entry $10 / single (under 16 free).

Sports Picnic Sunday 17 August. Starting time 11.00 am Marsden Park. Sports include: Touch Football………...Soccer…………...Volleyball.