The Joy of Easter

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. - Romans 15:5-6

Hello friends,

Easter arrived early this year which has meant the first few months of the year have been packed full of excitement. The beginning of the new school year saw the combined churches of Broome launch the Christian Religious Education in Schools program across the three state primary schools. Every child in these schools receives a half hour Christian religion lesson every fortnight. This year Lachlan has taken on 17 classes each fortnight, and is struggling to remember the names of his 430 students. The Broome churches outreach into the schools is welcomed by the students and teachers of the schools alike. Each Easter and Christmas the religion teachers are invited to run an assembly, where we put on a play that vividly portrays the season’s message. This year’s Easter play saw Lachlan (a.k.a. Stinky Pete) get slimmed with spaghetti, jelly, & porridge each time he did something wrong. Eventually he gave over his mucky clothes to Jesus who took them to the cross, dealing with the penalty of sin forever. The kids (and Lachlan) had a ball and some were heard to say afterwards to Tim and Emily – “Your dad really deserved that”.

Lachlan’s role with the Children’s Ministry at Church has changed in 2008. While he continues to lead the JAFFA Kids Club on Fridays he has taken an overseers role with the Sunday School. Bec still loves teaching the Juniors and the Knights (the older kids). They are a fantastic group of kids, whose energy and enthusiasm for learning is a huge encouragement as she often feels out of her depth as a children’s teacher and clings to the promise that with Christ all things are possible!

Bible Study groups in our church continue to be an important part of our regular activities. Bec runs a ladies group on Wednesday morning which is growing both numerically and spiritually. Now averaging 7 - 9 attendees, they have just begun a series on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. This is keeping Bec on her toes as the group probes the depths of her theological knowledge. Our Thursday night group remains strong. We have 11 regular members and many visitors who are either passing through Broome for a day; week; or month. We have just completed a 40 day Lenten studies booklet written by our former Bishop – Tony Nichols. Bec has also enjoyed the opportunity to be meeting with some women one-on-one for prayer and encouragement.

Preaching this year has been a source of joy for Lachlan. The long hours in preparation have been rewarding as many have responded to God’s word revealed in his sermons. All the recent sermons at Broome Anglican Church are on our podcast site: http://broomeanglicanchurch.podomatic.com/ so why not tune in now and then?

Also, for those interested in what we are up to, our church calendar is available for all to see at calendar.google.com - sign in and search for “Broome Anglican Church”.

This year has seen the arrival of a number of new individuals and families to our church. One family has come from Mt. Isa, another from Darwin. Individuals have arrived from Tasmania, Perth and South West W.A. There has also been a number of local individuals and families joining our church family. It is a constant reminder that Broome can be a difficult place to settle into; so we need to be outward looking and loving to enfold those who are seeking a new home. Already we have had a number of visitors travelling through town. We are certain that there will be many more to follow as the year cools down.

The Church continues to reach out to the Indigenous in our community and beyond. The Bread Run feeds many hungry souls offering bread, prayer and bible excerpts. This year we also hope to run a monthly church service at a local community by an invitation from its elder. The ministry team has also committed to travelling to Derby (220km each way) once per month to support an Indigenous pastor who runs a church from our Anglican building in that town.
An embryonic plan of our church this year is to seriously consider and implement how we can more effectively reach out to our community with the love of Christ – do we continue to concentrate on being an attractional church, expecting people to come to us, or do we go out to where people are at, brining Jesus to them in a “fresh expression” of church?

Bec’s GLAM (Girls Ladies and Mums) monthly events continue to provide a bridge between pre-evangelism and evangelism, often providing opportunities to gossip the gospel. This month they are having a SFM (Serious Female Maintenance) session – including face masks (no boys, not the type you use when sanding something) whilst Bec helps them to ponder through 1 Peter 1:24-25 what brings true contentment, and what truly lasts.

At the end of April we have planned an ANZAC camp over a long weekend at 80 mile beach for people from the West Kimberley and Pilbara regions (an area of around 400,000 square kilometres). We currently have 60 people registered to attend and have arranged for 8 students and lecturers from Trinity Theological College Perth to come and teach us about evangelism and run kids activities during those sessions.

Other events that we have encountered in the last 3 months have included offering support to a Christian Aboriginal couple struggling with alcohol addiction; supporting a couple who arrived from Darwin with nothing, helping them get on their feet and leading one of them to recommit their life to the Lord; supporting a parishioner whose mother fell ill with Alzheimer’s and thus needed to move back to her home town to be a carer for her; attending to aging and sick parishioners; forming links with other churches and community groups including the new nursing home facility; weddings, baptisms and funerals; outreaching to tourist and locals and praising God when he sent - amongst the many tourists - 3 local families and two local individual to church at Easter, who have since become “regular” at our church events; a visit from Bishop Stephen Hale from Melbourne who consulted with us on our Church vision and mission; a trip to Perth for Bec’s Graduate Diploma in Theology graduation; and a trip to Perth and Geraldton for Bec to attend Diocesan Council and a Trinity Women’s conference.

Our other exciting news is that Bec and I have been invited by our Bishop David and Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen to attend the Inaugural worldwide GAFCON conference in Israel in June this year. This conference will seek to give a direction for the future of the Global Anglican Church. For more information please see: http://www.gafcon.org/ . Please be praying for this conference.

As a family we are doing well. Tim and Emily are busy with swimming, guitar, trumpet, recorder, and piano; as well as ballet and hip hop dancing; and also JAFFA and Sunday School; and when they get the time they are also at school. Both of them have been selected to represent their school in the West Kimberley Interschool Swimming Carnival. Bec is enjoying some enforced recreation by attending a TAFE art course this year, as well as being Lachlan’s greatest supporter in ministry.

Our position here in Broome continues to be 100% financially supported by the generosity of individuals and churches throughout Australia. Due to the itinerant nature of Broome, it does not appear that the Associate Minister’s position here will be financially independent of this outside support in the foreseeable future. We praise God that he has raised up partners to support us prayerfully and financially, and ask that they and others may be able to continue to do so into the future.

We have booked to come to Sydney and Melbourne at the end on July till beginning of August and would love to come and speak with churches, bible study and individuals about the work that we are doing in Broome and the ongoing support that is required. Please make contact with us if we would be able to come and visit you during this time.

May God bless you

Lachlan, Bec, Tim & Emily