Settling in to Ministry

We’ve been in Broome now for 2 ½ months and are thoroughly enjoying it. The weather is becoming kinder and temperatures have dropped to the 25-30 degree mark and less rain.

We are getting into the rhythm of ministry. The church has so many activities it sometimes leaves my head spinning. Whilst all of them are good things to be doing we as a church need to be ensuring that they are being done in a way that appropriately serves God and his kingdom. With so many activities crowding the calendar we are in danger of not being open or available to other ministry needs of people and the town.

After 7 weeks of house-sitting and camping in the church hall we finally moved into our own home. We are ever thankful of God’s blessing and provision, especially in this house which we have now been in for 4 weeks. Our granny flat caravan has already been home to 3 different people, and we have enjoyed many balmy evenings on our veranda with family and friends. We had our house-warming party on Easter Saturday. The 20 or so kids loved playing in the landscaped garden, and the 40+ adults enjoyed chatting on the grass, on the veranda and in the house.

Our good friends Colin and Judy have moved from Perth to Broome, and arrived the day before all our furniture did. They spent their first day in Broome unpacking all our stuff - what champions!! Colin and Judy are living with us until they find their own place. It has been a great blessing to have them with us and they are already forming their own foundations in the church and the community.

Tim’s big news is that he was selected to represent his school in the inter-school swimming carnival. I am proud to say that he is now officially the 5th fastest breaststroker in his age group in the West Kimberly! In addition to all her new friends at school, Emily has befriended a neighbour’s little girl (who is actually in the same year as Tim at School). The girls have spent every spare moment with each other, and feel happy to come and go to each others place at any time. After living in 3 houses in the last 4 years that were on busy streets, the kids are enjoying being able to ride around our quiet little cul-de-sac. We went for a walk the other day from our place through the bush and arrived at Cable Beach. The kids are also enjoying the newest member of our family – “Jelly” the cat – 3 months old and very cute (did I say that??).

We have just completed our first Easter, including a Good Friday Service (where Lachlan preached on Isaiah 53); a “Stations of the Cross” walk around the town’s Court House with the other Christian Churches (all the Christian churches in town often work together for major community events); and 3 services on Easter Sunday - a 6am dawn service which was supposed to be on Town Beach but it was raining (first time in over 25 years anyone can remember it raining on Easter Morning) - an 8am Communion Service – and a 10am family Easter Celebration.

As the honeymoon period of arriving in a new town and church comes to a slow end, we are looking forward to planning for the future. A priority for me is to be reaching out to the men and young families in our church, befriending them and encouraging them and helping them to walk closer to our Lord. I am also looking out for non-church men in the community that I can form a relationship with so that I can share the hope that I have in the Lord.

At the moment I am gearing up for the beginning of our evening services – “Sunday@5”. We are launching with a family games night this week, followed by an “Introducing God” course that will run for the next 8 weeks. This will be a great time to train our church members in how to reach out to their friends, and also to invite their friends and family to a contemporary and relaxed meal and video presentation followed by table discussion on the difference Jesus makes.

We are also looking forward to many individuals and groups who will be coming to Broome over the next few months to support the church. They include retirees who will be helping us to maintain our heritage listed church building, hall and grounds; young couples coming for a holiday but devoting their Sundays to supporting the church in music or training or other skills; and a mission team of 16 young men and women who are coming from Perth to run outreach activities for a week in July – these folk have all raised their own funds to get here and to help us out – Praise God!

Special needs of the church:

We have two items that we have a great need for at the moment. Please consider if you could help the church out in some way by providing toward these items:

· A new data projector – our old one carked it just before Easter (approx $3,400)
· A computer and furniture for our volunteer church administrator/receptionist (approx $2,000)

For Praise:

· A great Easter weekend where many visitors came to our 5 Easter events
· The encouraging responses from congregation members for the services and the sermons given.
· For Bishop David Mulready and his tireless work inside and outside our huge diocese.
· For prayer and financial supporters in our ministry here.
· For the generosity of the family who loaned us their house when we first arrived


For Prayer:

· For the church’s solidarity and unity in the Gospel.
· For musicians. (our 8am service currently uses CD’s for music)
· For our “Introducing God” course beginning in May
· For continued and new financial support for the church and both ministers
· For times of refreshment