BERRY
If you think of the perfect quiet country village, surrounded by trees and beautiful rolling hills, then you’re basically thinking of Berry. About 2000 people call Berry home, most of them elderly ex-Sydney-siders keen to live out their retirement years in peace. Our attendance at church on Sunday brought down their average age by about 20 years! Thank God for the chance for Ben to preach a cracking sermon on “Jesus is our Perfect Acceptance” from the parable of the Prodigal Son, and for Sarah to encourage locals with her testimony.
Today our team spent a great morning with the local Anglican Rector, Neil, learning from his experience of serving Christ in a rural region. Very different to our team’s (mostly) city experience! I think we all learned a lot about perseverance and innovation. Though rural ministry is often slow, patient work, it was encouraging to see how God has used His little church here to engage the community with the good news of Jesus.
Looking ahead: We are keen to get into some public schools tomorrow with 4x classes and 2x Easter Assemblies. Pray the kids will have fun, engage, and most of all understand that Jesus is the Super Saviour who saves!
NOWRA
“Can you pray that my family will soon have a house to live in?”
“Can you pray that my parents will start talking to each other again?”
These are two of the prayer requests that our Nowra Team gathered today at school. It was a challenging day for the team, being confronted with the brokenness of our world. A lot of these children are from tough backgrounds and broken families. So it was brilliant to be able to share the good news of Jesus with them! Please pray that many of them will come to find their identity in Christ, and to know his deep love for them. Thank God for the chance to chat to school parents via the pop-up cafe (pic below).
KANGAROO VALLEY
Kangaroo Valley is one of those places where 10% of the population are Christian. Mission goal complete!! So clearly the church can simply sit back and relax with a coffee and a scotch finger, right? NOT SO! There are still over 900 locals who need Jesus, so the team have been working hard with the local Christians to reach the lost. They have been busy with kids clubs, potluck dinners, testimonies, chatting with locals on the streets, etc!
Praise God for the opportunities they have had to talk about Jesus. Please pray for the Anglicare Fundraiser tomorrow (where Lauren is swimming laps!) and for energy to keep carrying on for Christ.
