Sep 06 2009
Pastor’s Notes
What a joy it is to be together in the Lord’s House as we come to worship and to celebrate at the Table today. I am reminded of David’s psalm “My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. ?Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar.” So as we come to worship, come with an open heart to bless the God of our salvation and with open hands to receive His blessing.
And HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to all the Dads!!!
It is good to have Margie back home again, though we are still rattling around in an empty house. Hopefully our furniture will arrive during the course of the next ten days. It will be good to be surrounded by familiar things again – especially my books! Thank you to everyone who have loaned us furniture, heaters, blankets etc.
We are gearing up for the OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD Shoebox appeal and I would really encourage you to be part of that. There will be boxes available after church. You may also make a donation instead. The boxes are distributed to children in the poorer East Asia countries. The idea is to fill the boxes with a variety of simple gifts that will bring delight to a child. Please don’t include items that can leak (including toothpaste), no food or lollies, no used, damaged or breakable items or anything which might harm a child. You should not include any gambling related items , or anything of a religious, racial or political nature. Anne Sutherland also has some bags for children to put in “gifts”. Please place an elastic band to close the box and use a label to indicate the child’s gender and age. The boxes must be returned by the end of September.
I was thinking about this special project as I pondered and prayed about this short series of sermons on vision. I can just imagine the “holy discontent” that drove someone to start this project. Perhaps on a Christmas holiday in Thailand, seeing children unaware and unblessed by the greatest event that this world has ever known – the Gift of the Christ Child. A heart stirred and a dream was born. And then this person put their heart and soul into it – mobilizing a similar passion in the hearts of so many others, planning processes to overcome the formidable logistics, and ultimately seeing the delight on the face of a child who is blessed from far away by unknown people.
Holy Discontent is a beginning of vision. Not being satisfied with things as they are, finding the heart stirred and dreams being born. Dreams are good but most of them disappear like the early morning mist. We must a have a commitment to the vision. We must own the dream. Jesus spoke of the difference between the shepherd who owned the sheep and the hireling shepherd. The owner has a passion and is prepared to die for his sheep. When it comes to developing our dreams and visions we need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to die for them.
On Thursday September 24th Jane Cook, Ministry Liaison and Human Resources Co-ordinator in the Synod Office and Emma Humphries who is a representative from our insurers AON will be at Merredin UCA from 8.30am to 11.30am to conduct a workshop on the OSH Survey conducted amongst the UCA churches a few months ago. From what I understand they will be dealing with the three aspects of the Safe Church concept – Called to Care (all those at the risk of harm, injury and abuse), Privacy Policy in the UCA and Risk Management. All are welcome and we need someone to co-ordinate tea for about 60 people from the Great Eastern Region. Please contact me if you would like to help.
Matthew Smith and I will be away at the Synod Meeting of the UCA Western Australia in Perth over the weekend of September 18-20. Please include this meeting and the preparation for it in your prayers. Matthew and Beth will also be anticipating the arrival of their baby at around that time.
Finally then, you will see that I have included two families on our prayer list for prayers this week – the Arthur’s and the Auld’s. We just want to ask our great God to bless them. Each week we will include two families (in alphabetical order) and we will be specifically praying for them at the Wednesday evening prayer time. I will call each family to see if there are specific needs.
Shalom, and rejoice in the God of your salvation.
No responses yet