I’m going to cop heaps for my hopelessly unchronological posting. Just go with it.
If you want to get anyone’s attention in this city, use coffee. Want to be noticed? The smell of freshly brewed coffee will do the trick. Want to make new friends? Just like, stand on the street offering free coffee to people who drive by at 7:30am on a Monday morning. If this sounds like genius outreach, that’s because it is.
Like any church that knows what’s up, St Aidan’s has invested in a decent coffee machine and knows what to do with it. This week they’re trialling the idea of handing out free, decent coffees to people who drive by the church each morning.
In Jamie’s words:
“…people were really stoked at getting free coffee… tradies and mums were lovin’ it.”
There was some initial hesitation though. Cars would drive past the first sign, and then the second, and then start slowing down as they began to think that maybe free coffee would be a good idea (i.e. maybe this is actually for real), but their wheels had taken them further than expected. We expect they’ll be back tomorrow.
The question of the morning: “Why are you doing this?”
The answer: “To say hi to people in the community and invite them to church.”
Random acts of kindness are few and far between in this world. It is a great privilege of the church to demonstrate undeserved love in this way, so foreign to the stranger, yet so natural to one saved by grace.
The senior minister of St Aidan’s, Matt Yeo then spent some time leading us in a devotional from Ephesians. We were encouraged to hear about God’s end purpose in uniting all things under Christ and the church’s role in this grand design. We considered the unity that the gospel brings: powerful enough to bridge the divide between Jew and Gentile. Even now we live amongst spiritual communities that are both diverse and yet harmonious, a unique witness not only to the world, but also to the heavenly realms.
Monday afternoon was given over to preparing for Easter seminars and assemblies later in the week. Liz H nutted out her big idea for an Easter seminar to over 100 girls at Penshurst Girls High School on Thursday, while Dale roped in a group to agree to act out an Easter drama for the kids at Connell’s Point on Wednesday.
Monday night was ladies night. Ladies bible study night. Kate led a bible study (normally taken by Moore College 4th year Liz Maher) on how to read the Old Testament post Christ, and Liz W and I tagged along for that. It was a really encouraging night for us, we loved hearing the girls’ questions and thinking on a typically misunderstood topic. They were also super lovely, our host Caroline didn’t even mind when I accidentally spilled an entire jug of water on her (can’t take me anywhere, clearly).
Meanwhile Hayley and Bo were treated to a cheese and wine night with some of the ladies from 10am, which was part social and part answering tricky questions like ‘how can we prove that God exists?’
Hurstville Grove is starting to feel familiar, now. Thank you to everyone who has welcomed us into their homes, fed us, and allowed us to take over your church building! We are deeply thankful and encouraged by the love of Christ that so quickly binds together perfect strangers.
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