Craig M about to preach to the morning congregation

Prof Rev Dr Gibson preaching at the 6pm service

Pete C preaching to the youth at the 11am service

Andy C leading the children's singing

Patrick sharing his testimony at the 6pm service

Gibbo with the ladies

The boys getting into the compost

A bunch of us got together with some parents from Ashbury Public School at the school/community gardens yesterday. It was a great morning, digging holes, concreting fence posts, moving a (small) mountain of dirt and grass, and setting up a garden bed.  The school parents seemed really happy that we’d come along to help, and that St Matts was keen to participate in the project.  And us soft college students benefitted from a bit of manual labour after our week of delicious morning teas and lunches!

It wasn't just the students - Keith got stuck into the work too!

It was fun to be part of the project for a day, and to know that we played a part in something that hundreds of school kids will work in and use. Hopefully the seeds of goodwill that we helped sow will bear fruit in the relationship the church has with the community. And, God willing, gospel seeds can be sown further down the track! (okay I’ll stop pushing that metaphor now)

The team and people from the neighbourhood - covered in dirt but happy!

Neighbour day was ace! There was coffee and a barbecue and a jumping castle and helium balloons and face painting and balloon animals. FUN! Saturday morning also happens to be the time when Erskineville Church Hall is rented out to a number of different dance and yoga groups so there were plenty of people around. I had a long chat with Vanessa, who had been raised as a Catholic but adopted an almost Buddhist worldview with some Christian overtones. She thinks that the God of the Old Testament is angry and the God of the New Testament is loving. Please pray she’ll read The Essential Jesus and pray that we can catch up again and keep talking about Christianity.

What do you get if you mix jazz with crepes and coffee? Jazz in the Graveyard! The weather turned cool this afternoon while we were setting up for the jazz night, but a few jackets and scarves later the stage was set up, the crepe batter made and the coffee machine buzzing away. People brought picnic blankets and sat amongst the tombstones chilling to the laid back tunes. One lady said, ‘You guys do community events so well’. Praise God! Please pray that she may one day come into the church and hear the greatest news of the King who laid down his life to save hers.

Some of the team have been at a patchwork day encouraging the people who attend.

Some of the team have been involved with a community helping hands program where we helped those in the community with household chores that they are unable to do themselves. This saw gutter clearing, gardening, washing curtains and dinners offered. We cleaned gutters this morning on a house that was about 4 metres high. It was scary as the ladder only just reached, but praise God that no one was injured.

Others in the team have been preparing for church in the park tomorrow.

Pray for good weather for tomorrow as the big church event of the week is outside.

Here’s a pic from a lunch earlier in the week… it was just sunny and nice :-)

Youth Group: Dave and Fletcher gave fantastic talks and Ben and James gave awesome testimonies. Pray for the kids that came along and heard the gospel. Pray for the guy that committed his life to Christ.

Pray for the us as we prepare for the Saturday and Sunday services.

• Neighbour Day @ Erskineville
• Community Garden
• Jazz in the Graveyard

Please pray for good weather. Please pray for conversations about Jesus to come up naturally. Please pray that God will work in people’s hearts. Please pray that as all of us participate in two or more of these events that God would strengthen us for his work in Newtown and Erskineville.

Sam spoke on the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. He managed to weave in the Royal Wedding and we all learnt that there will be 150 different types of canapes and that the cake will be a three tiered fruit cake. More importantly we saw that God has issued us an invitation to The Wedding Banquet and that we need to think about whether we have accepted or rejected it.

Thank God for the chance to debrief together after the night and for the chance for Geoff, Nathan and Sam to share some of their wisdom. Pray for the group to make faithful disciples who will go out and proclaim the gospel!

This pic was from a made up game called paintionary (a modified version of pictionary via paint program)

Also today…

Zoe took the opportunity this afternoon to make some dinners for the people in the area who we are helping out on Saturday. We are going to be helping in practical ways around the house tomorrow… and these dinners will be given to those we help.

please continue to pray for good weather on Sunday for Church in the Park…

thanks :-)

Inspired by neighbour day and St Matts’ enthusiasm to be visible and active in the community, Guan’s idea was simple: approach members of the community in public places around Ashbury, and ask them if they would agree to have their photo taken with our sign, reading: I’m your neighbour. We’d explain we were from the local church, and we wanted to show a slideshow of the photos at the free movie night in the church grounds this Sunday. We’d also hopefully break through the awkwardness barrier, and would be able to have some chats to people about the church and what they thought about Jesus.

The team had some great conversations at Croydon Park shops (the closest strip of shops to the church).

Jon and Guan talked to a hairdresser named Toni for about 40 minutes. Toni has a strong Catholic background, but was really keen to learn more about Jesus, and even seemed interested in coming along to a women’s Bible study at the church.

Tim and Keith had a long chat with a Lebanese woman, who had migrated to Australia with her Australian husband. She had hoped to meet lots of “Australians” (we think she probably meant Anglo Australians) but hadn’t really met any, so was really happy to talk to Tim and Keith! They assured her she would meet heaps of people at church and gave her a copy of the Essential Jesus. She was keen for people from the church to come and visit her again.

Please pray for the people we’ve met doing this project, that their interest would go beyond having their photo taken, to coming and learning more about Jesus at St Matts. Pray that the people at St Matts would be encouraged to get out, meet and talk to the people in their community, and show them that being someone’s neighbour involves more than just living next door to them.

This morning, Amanda, Chenny and I went with Darren, SAC’s youth worker, to Diocesan Girl’s School. DGS is Hong Kong’s top girl’s public high school and most of these girls at DGS will end up in prominent and professional positions in Hong Kong’s society. What is amazing is that the Headmaster of DGS, Mrs Lau, is a committed Christian who is passionate and unashamedly promoting Christianity in the life and curriculum of DGS. Every morning at DGS there is assembly where the girls sing hymns and a short bible talk is given. SAC has a great relationship with DGS and has the opportunity to come into DGS to give bible talks every Fridays. The girls also study religious studies and go on evangelistic camps as part of their course work. Today Amanda gave a short talk on the passover with the disciples (Luke 22:7-23). Overall we were very impressed with girl’s singing and Mrs Lau leadership and vision to see her girls know Christ before they entered a materialistic and success driven world that is Hong Kong.

On Wednesday night Brett Hall and I led a growth group on The Overview of the Bible. Using pictures we got the group to layout the overall story line of salvation of the bible and looked at key verses. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet the members of SAC at a more personal level. The group really appreciated having a bigger picture of the bible, understanding how different books of the bible fit within the larger story line and a simple framework to explain the gospel. It seem from the group that biblical theology is still something new for the churches in Hong Kong.

On Wednesday the team spent the day at Crossroads (www.crossroads.org.hk) Crossroads is a non-profit corporation which takes Hong Kong superseded goods and redistributes them to people in need locally and internationally, which include orphans, the elderly, the handicapped, poor, refugees and disaster victims.

Our time at crossroads included a slum simulation experience, which involved stepping into the shoes of a family living in the slums who made paper bags to survive. This was a moving experience as we were forced to experience the pressures and plight of slum life. We were educated on the complexity of poverty, throwing money at people is not going to solve the problem, there are other social, political and educational factors that keep people in poverty. We were all challenged to act in compassion to the poor as we got out to fulfil the great commission.

In the afternoon the team also had the chance to help with the packing and moving of goods in the stores houses. Some of the team members help construct a crazy double bunk bed!

Islam Seminar: Thank God for the people that turned up to hear about how to love our Muslim neighbours. Pray that those who heard will be able to use what they learnt to serve and love them.

Debrief time

Pray for youth group tonight and all the services this weekend and tomorrow’s men’s breakfast.

Evening service banners that we helped make.

Yesterday afternoon some of the team had afternoon tea with a local seniors group. Sam and John gave their testimonies. The advice from a long-time minister who spoke at the event: “Trust in the Lord, when you make mistakes, know He forgives you.”

Pray that the Word we have planted would spread and grow. Pray for some team members who have been a little bit sick the last few days. Pray that we’d finish the mission strongly.