26th May 2019

Today

We welcome Lawrence and Louise Hirsch from Celebrate Messiah. Lawrence is our guest speaker today. There will be a retiring offering for his ministry today and Lawrence also has a bookstall in the hall for you to browse through over morning tea.

Christian Viewpoint

Kathleen Maxwell has offered her place to run small gatherings for people to meet for coffee and dessert and hear someone speak about their faith and how it has shaped their lives. We are aiming to have our first one Saturday, June 22. The goal is that you can only come if you bring a non-churched person along! Because of space limitations we will have to sign up on a first in basis. Please pray they we are able to develop a list of potential speakers.

Men’s Breakfast

Please put July 20 in your diaries! Pastor Geoff Shepherd will be our guest speaker for the event. Geoff is a former policeman whom God called to become a pastor and this made the Melbourne news! Along with his ministry at Mill Park Baptist he is also the chaplain for the Richmond Football Club. Geoff is passionate and enthusiastic about all he does and has a great story to tell.

Youth Group

This Friday is a Small Groups night, starting with dinner at 7:00pm. Please see Andy if you need a lift.

Coming up

In June we will have a special prayer focus on Iran and the work of God that is happening there despite persecution. This will be instead of Bibles For the Persecuted which we normally do in October. In 2020 we will return to the Bible League’s fundraiser but as a June event. There are too many other things happening at the end of the year and this will help spread out the special offerings we make to various ministries. Two booklets from Elam Ministries will be available next week to help us be informed and focussed in our prayers for Iran and the work of the Gospel there.

Servanthood Roster

There are several vacancies on the new roster. Please look at the copy on the table in the foyer, and consider whether you can help, and write you name next to the date that will suit you (or we can arrange a swap!) Creche volunteers need to have registered with Safe Church to be able to help in this area. Please see Melody for more details.

Movie

A few cinemas will be showing a movie based on the life of Graham Staines called  The Least of These. He and his family were Australian missionaries in India. They made international headlines when Graham and his two young sons were murdered by Hindu fundamentalist. It would be good to support the making of their story and the godly witness his life continues to be to the world.

New Church Directory

Today, Helen Cameron will be starting to take family photos for the new Directory. It is several years since some photos were taken, so they do need to be updated, especially if you have children. Please be available to have your photos taken as there are lots to do! Afterwards, Melody will email you to confirm your listing in the Directory.

Preaching for June

Andy will preaching from Esther.

New Books

Three new books have been added to our Lending Library: Organic Outreach for churches, Organic Outreach for Families, Organic Outreach for ordinary people. These are from the ministry which ran the conference Don and Ian attended last month. It is our intention to use their model as we review and restructure our ministries and goals so that everything we do is linked in with our desire to see people come to faith in Jesus.

100 Day+ Bible Challenge

The final edition of our Bible Challenge with the preaching agenda for May and June is now available. Even if you haven’t been doing the Challenge up to this point please join us for the final two months.

Oxfam Book Fair

There are flyers on the table in the foyer advertising this event. Please see Jenni Ambridge if you have any questions.

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