Last night we completed the last of our Easter Outreaches. We went into the University to feed the students who live on campus and do an Easter presentation. We cooked all day, making many dishes such as fried rice, vegetable korma, baked potatoes, stir fry and various pasta sauces. The local Brumbys bakery donated bags of bread rolls and other bakery items.
The night began with some fun and games by the university students, with Christina running one of the games. We then all went inside and we began our presentation of the gospel. Troy introduced us and then Matt gave a little blurb that went something like this: "Lady Gaga sings songs about pocking peoples faces, and Fifty Cent sings songs about coins, I sing songs about a King who sends his Son to die for all". He then sang "Amazing Love". Troy shared a very relevant message about who Jesus really is verses how Jesus has been represented. The team performed the lighthouse skit. I invited those who wanted to discuss the Christian Faith further to come and speak with us and I told them about the ALPHA course we are wanting to run.
Dinner was then served and everyone mingled and chatted. Josh had put together a loop with all the Missions videos playing so people could see what our church is all about.
We were told to cater for around 60 people. When we first arrived at the uni Troy was told they were expecting maybe around 30 people. A few of us did some head counts and the number of students was definitely around 90! We all had a great time meeting students, chatting and making some great connections. Due to the nature of the night people were quite open to speaking about their own beliefs and questions about the Christian faith were asked. It was such a fantastic night to finish everything off - although really......we have just begun!
Thank you Jesus, my saviour, my closest friend.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
It's all about JESUS - He is RISEN
John 3:16-17
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again".
This morning at 11am we held a one hour Easter Sunday service in Lyons. We began the set up from around 9:15am doing a couple of trips in the bus to transport all the things we needed for the service. The team did a great job working together to get it all set up. People started arriving and we kicked off the service! Troy greeted the church. Laura and Matt led us in worship. The team performed "The Lighthouse skit". Troy preached a fantastic message. We showed one of the video clips from the missions conference about the wells that are being built in Cambodia and Troy shared the type of church we desire to be. I explained about the ALPHA groups we are wanting to begin and how people can become connected to our church. Christina ran a game involving custard and little Easter eggs. Chloe, Christina and Sean led us all in a super hyped up kids church song. The service concluded and we all went outside for the kids Easter egg hunt and a BBQ. It was so good to find that everyone who attended the service stuck around for ages chatting and getting to know each other. All up there were 35 people at the service (not that numbers matter - but people matter to God). This number was made up of adults and children - 7 team members from Penrith, 7 of us new "Territorians" and 21 locals.
I am so excited about the future of ImagineNations Church Darwin.
Yesterday was also such a blessed day. We went into the Juvenile Detention Centre. The age range I think is from 12 to 18 I think. 27 young people, all of them boys except for one girl. We were told that 98% of the young people are Indigenous. Chloe and I gave the one female a pedicure and manicure and chatted with her for awhile. The guys in the team played sports (a sports store donated 10 different types of balls to donate) and talked with the boys. We then did a BBQ for everyone (a local butcher donated 10kg of sausages) and then did a gospel presentation to the young people and staff. We had brought in a few bibles as they have a library the young people can get books from. I wish we had brought more with us as after the presentation quite a few of the guys were taking the bibles straight away and asking if there were more!
As a gift to the staff we bought the staff a coffee machine. Gloria Jeans donated mugs and all types of coffee so we made up a hamper and topped it all off with ferrero rocher chocolates! While we were there we also were able to talk with the staff who are just lovely.
I will never forget this Easter 2010. Thank you Jesus for that very first Easter :)
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again".
This morning at 11am we held a one hour Easter Sunday service in Lyons. We began the set up from around 9:15am doing a couple of trips in the bus to transport all the things we needed for the service. The team did a great job working together to get it all set up. People started arriving and we kicked off the service! Troy greeted the church. Laura and Matt led us in worship. The team performed "The Lighthouse skit". Troy preached a fantastic message. We showed one of the video clips from the missions conference about the wells that are being built in Cambodia and Troy shared the type of church we desire to be. I explained about the ALPHA groups we are wanting to begin and how people can become connected to our church. Christina ran a game involving custard and little Easter eggs. Chloe, Christina and Sean led us all in a super hyped up kids church song. The service concluded and we all went outside for the kids Easter egg hunt and a BBQ. It was so good to find that everyone who attended the service stuck around for ages chatting and getting to know each other. All up there were 35 people at the service (not that numbers matter - but people matter to God). This number was made up of adults and children - 7 team members from Penrith, 7 of us new "Territorians" and 21 locals.
I am so excited about the future of ImagineNations Church Darwin.
Yesterday was also such a blessed day. We went into the Juvenile Detention Centre. The age range I think is from 12 to 18 I think. 27 young people, all of them boys except for one girl. We were told that 98% of the young people are Indigenous. Chloe and I gave the one female a pedicure and manicure and chatted with her for awhile. The guys in the team played sports (a sports store donated 10 different types of balls to donate) and talked with the boys. We then did a BBQ for everyone (a local butcher donated 10kg of sausages) and then did a gospel presentation to the young people and staff. We had brought in a few bibles as they have a library the young people can get books from. I wish we had brought more with us as after the presentation quite a few of the guys were taking the bibles straight away and asking if there were more!
As a gift to the staff we bought the staff a coffee machine. Gloria Jeans donated mugs and all types of coffee so we made up a hamper and topped it all off with ferrero rocher chocolates! While we were there we also were able to talk with the staff who are just lovely.
I will never forget this Easter 2010. Thank you Jesus for that very first Easter :)
Friday, April 2, 2010
There will only ever be one "First"!
Today was the day we held our first ever service as ImagineNations Church Darwin. We held the service in a restaurant called "Seafood on Cullen" at Cullen Bay. We began the service with complimentary coffee and dessert (YUMMO). Troy then greeted the church, Matt and Laura sang a song as an Item (Amazing love). Troy spoke a message about who Jesus is. We showed a missions video from Penrith. We had a great time meeting the locals who came along to the service. I can't express how excited I was feeling today! We still have 3 more services to go over this Easter weekend. Jesus - Be Glorified :)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Media
Today the Northern Territory Newspaper printed an article featuring Troy. Yesterday a journalist interviewed Troy over the phone and a photographer dropped in to take a picture of him with bibles in front of him. The article did seem a bit choppy. I guess that's what journalists do - pick and choose what they want in the article. All in all though i think it was a good article and good exposure for the Easter services happening this weekend.
Neighbour Day
This week in our letter box we received an advertisement stating that Sunday 28th March is "Neighbour Day". We had already been planning to organise a BBQ for our street to meet our neighbours - this was our perfect opportunity! Christina made up invitations on the computer inviting the street to our place on Sunday for a sausage sizzle. We had no idea how many would turn up so Troy just bought lots of sausages and bread rolls! The BBQ began at 12pm. The first neighbours to arrive were three elderly women who live at the top of our street. A lot of our neighbours in our street are elderly people living in Territory housing. Laura and I had met a few of them already when we went to introduce ourselves last week. Some of them are unable to leave their homes due to health issues. Anyway, while Lachie cooked the sausages (I wasn't letting Troy anywhere near the BBQ), more neighbours arrived. It was a fun and interesting afternoon. All up 18 people came to our BBQ. Of course we invited them all to come along to our Easter services.
On Friday night Christina, Lachie (up from Sydney visiting Christina), Troy, Hannah and I went to Cullen Bay to put the invitations to our Easter Services in people's letterboxes. We also prayed while we walked. Cullen Bay is a beautiful suburb, right along the waters edge! It was quite interesting to note that in this suburb a huge number of letterboxes have a "no junk mail" sign on them and also we even noticed that some houses did not even have a letter box!
Tomorrow night we will do some more letter box dropping in the suburb of Lyons. This is where our Sunday service is going to be held.
I am so excited for this coming weekend....
On Friday night Christina, Lachie (up from Sydney visiting Christina), Troy, Hannah and I went to Cullen Bay to put the invitations to our Easter Services in people's letterboxes. We also prayed while we walked. Cullen Bay is a beautiful suburb, right along the waters edge! It was quite interesting to note that in this suburb a huge number of letterboxes have a "no junk mail" sign on them and also we even noticed that some houses did not even have a letter box!
Tomorrow night we will do some more letter box dropping in the suburb of Lyons. This is where our Sunday service is going to be held.
I am so excited for this coming weekend....
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Burnt...
Most of you would have heard by now that a week ago on Sunday, Troy was badly burnt. We had planned to have a lovely Somalian family over for lunch, a single mother with 10 children. Troy had begun to cook hamburger patties on the BBQ and realised that the new BBQ we had purchased just the day before had a tiny cup for the dripping oil. Troy tried to get the oil to go into a bigger container. In doing this a little oil splashed on his hand which hurt and caused the whole thing of oil to drop on him. The burns are to his right leg and on top of his right hand. Troy rushed straight into the shower. He (and the rest of us) did not know how badly he was burnt at first. Laura and I both phoned a health hotline to find out what we should do (apart from having him sit in the shower). They advised us to get him to the hospital. While I was feeling really scattered at this stage, Laura took control of the situation. She filled buckets with cold water and wet lots of cloths to take with us on the journey to the emergency room. I put Hannah down for her nap and knew that she would sleep for at least 2 hours. Ollie then drove the bus very quickly to the Royal Darwin Hospital. Apart from praying on the way to the hospital, I kept telling myself that Darwin Hospital has a great burns unit due to treating victims of the Bali bombings a few years ago.
Up until we got to the hospital I had not cried but when I got to the desk I started bawling my eyes out. The nurses rushed out and put him in a wheel chair. He was given a bed straight away as well as being seen to by a Doctor. At first we were assured it probably wasn't too bad, particularly as he had gotten into the shower so quickly. Another doctor then had a look and said it was not looking very good and that the burns specialist would come to look at the damage. When the burns specialist saw him, he said that it was a deep dermal burn, otherwise known as a 3rd degree burn (meaning it was burning through to the bottom layer of skin). We were told that he would need to be admitted to hospital as he needed surgery to assess the damage and clean out the dead skin. We were also given the news that Troy would most likely need a skin graft. This would mean he would be admitted to hospital for a minimum of 5 days. Of course Troy did not like the idea of being stuck in a hospital for any length of time! Since we had arrived in Darwin he had been out meeting people, sharing his faith and organising plans for the Easter outreaches. Troy said to me that if he had to stay in hospital, the rest of the team would need to step up in doing what he had been doing and that he would spend the time praying and planning from the hospital bed!
to cut a long story short, Troy had surgery on his knee and hand later that night. Thankfully he was allowed to come home the next day as the burn was not as bad as originally thought. The doctors were still talking about the need for skin grafting though on the knee. We went back to he hospital on Wednesday and they redressed the burns. The nurse told us that there was still around a 50/50 chance of the need for a skin graft. On Friday when we went back we were told that the skin is healing better than they had expected. They redressed the burns and we will go back tomorrow for another checkup. At this stage prayer is still needed! Please pray against infection (infection could land Troy in hospital for weeks, even months!), that the skin would continue to fight and heal (sometimes the healing does not keep progressing and goes backwards) and pray that the pain would not be unbearable (even though pain indicates that the nerves are not dead). Troy will need to go to the hospital every 2 days for a new dressing and to monitor the healing process.
So this past week has been an emotional, interesting, and prayer-filled week! We haven't even lived in Darwin for 3 weeks yet! I have such a resolve that we will keep advancing God's Kingdom no matter what! I try to always think eternally :)
The plans for me this week are to go along to a couple of playgroups to meet some other mums. I also want to catch up with a few contacts we have made so far.
The missions team from Penrith will be arriving on the 31st March to assist us in our Easter Outreaches around Darwin. I am so looking forward to seeing them.I was going to say it will be a "taste of home", but I wont - because Penrith is no longer home for me. My new home is the city of DARWIN!!
Up until we got to the hospital I had not cried but when I got to the desk I started bawling my eyes out. The nurses rushed out and put him in a wheel chair. He was given a bed straight away as well as being seen to by a Doctor. At first we were assured it probably wasn't too bad, particularly as he had gotten into the shower so quickly. Another doctor then had a look and said it was not looking very good and that the burns specialist would come to look at the damage. When the burns specialist saw him, he said that it was a deep dermal burn, otherwise known as a 3rd degree burn (meaning it was burning through to the bottom layer of skin). We were told that he would need to be admitted to hospital as he needed surgery to assess the damage and clean out the dead skin. We were also given the news that Troy would most likely need a skin graft. This would mean he would be admitted to hospital for a minimum of 5 days. Of course Troy did not like the idea of being stuck in a hospital for any length of time! Since we had arrived in Darwin he had been out meeting people, sharing his faith and organising plans for the Easter outreaches. Troy said to me that if he had to stay in hospital, the rest of the team would need to step up in doing what he had been doing and that he would spend the time praying and planning from the hospital bed!
to cut a long story short, Troy had surgery on his knee and hand later that night. Thankfully he was allowed to come home the next day as the burn was not as bad as originally thought. The doctors were still talking about the need for skin grafting though on the knee. We went back to he hospital on Wednesday and they redressed the burns. The nurse told us that there was still around a 50/50 chance of the need for a skin graft. On Friday when we went back we were told that the skin is healing better than they had expected. They redressed the burns and we will go back tomorrow for another checkup. At this stage prayer is still needed! Please pray against infection (infection could land Troy in hospital for weeks, even months!), that the skin would continue to fight and heal (sometimes the healing does not keep progressing and goes backwards) and pray that the pain would not be unbearable (even though pain indicates that the nerves are not dead). Troy will need to go to the hospital every 2 days for a new dressing and to monitor the healing process.
So this past week has been an emotional, interesting, and prayer-filled week! We haven't even lived in Darwin for 3 weeks yet! I have such a resolve that we will keep advancing God's Kingdom no matter what! I try to always think eternally :)
The plans for me this week are to go along to a couple of playgroups to meet some other mums. I also want to catch up with a few contacts we have made so far.
The missions team from Penrith will be arriving on the 31st March to assist us in our Easter Outreaches around Darwin. I am so looking forward to seeing them.I was going to say it will be a "taste of home", but I wont - because Penrith is no longer home for me. My new home is the city of DARWIN!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
I live in Darwin
Sooo, we are finally here! We arrived Wednesday night and stayed at a motel for the night. In the morning we went to the Real Estate office to get the keys to the house and went straight there. The house is EXCELLENT. I love it and I don't think i will want to move out when our lease expires in 12 months. Laura, Ollie and Marley arrived in Darwin on Thursday night after driving the church bus from Penrith for 4 days. The house is almost all sorted which is great. Darwin is hot and sticky at the moment - but that wasn't a surprise to me! Have already met some fantastic people here who are really friendly.
.....I think I'm gonna love it here. IM HOME!!!!!!
.....I think I'm gonna love it here. IM HOME!!!!!!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Our Farewell Service
We had our farewell service at church on Sunday. Was a great day! Our church family are all so lovely and generous and thoughtful and kind!
The church prayed for the team and we were presented with a Darwin Survival kit. It contained a box full of deodorant LOL, a box of tiny crocodile lollies, a mascot (crocodile) called Charles and solar powered fan hats.So that we don't forget where we came from we were also given a box of Penrith memorabilia. It contained Penrith souvenir spoons, fridge magnets with pictures of Penrith on them, Penrith Keyrings and the funniest thing was a Penrith Snowglobe!!! Who would have known that you can buy Penrith Snowglobes!!! Was such a beautiful send off for us and the rest of the team.
After the morning service we had lunch at the Ming Chinese restaurant in Panthers. 23 years ago Ps Jack and Carol began their church services in the Woodriff Room at Panthers. We were able to go have a look at the room and take photos. It was very special having Ps Tom Messer and also Ps Tom Renard their with us.
I think my next time I blog will be when we arrive on Darwin soil! Till then.....
The church prayed for the team and we were presented with a Darwin Survival kit. It contained a box full of deodorant LOL, a box of tiny crocodile lollies, a mascot (crocodile) called Charles and solar powered fan hats.So that we don't forget where we came from we were also given a box of Penrith memorabilia. It contained Penrith souvenir spoons, fridge magnets with pictures of Penrith on them, Penrith Keyrings and the funniest thing was a Penrith Snowglobe!!! Who would have known that you can buy Penrith Snowglobes!!! Was such a beautiful send off for us and the rest of the team.
After the morning service we had lunch at the Ming Chinese restaurant in Panthers. 23 years ago Ps Jack and Carol began their church services in the Woodriff Room at Panthers. We were able to go have a look at the room and take photos. It was very special having Ps Tom Messer and also Ps Tom Renard their with us.
I think my next time I blog will be when we arrive on Darwin soil! Till then.....
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Planning for the first Missions Trip team for Darwin!
Tonight after conference we met with a faith filled team from our church. This team is going to be the first missions trip team to the first ImagineNations church plant! They will fly up and assist in our Easter outreach services we have planned. Each of the team members have varying gifts and talents to contribute. The team is being led by Stu and with him is Brendan, Matt, Josh, Emily & Chloe. I am so excited that we will be seeing them in less than a month after we depart Penrith. To keep costs down for the team, they are going to be staying at home base with us. Some will probably camp in our backyard!
This will be the first of many missions teams who will come and support the work in Darwin. We are also looking forward to having a missions team come later in the year all the way from Mt Zion Church in Yuma, Arizona! There are plans for a team from Calvary Assembly of God in Hawaii to also come sometime in 2011. So grateful we are not doing this church plant on our own! All for God's Glory.
This will be the first of many missions teams who will come and support the work in Darwin. We are also looking forward to having a missions team come later in the year all the way from Mt Zion Church in Yuma, Arizona! There are plans for a team from Calvary Assembly of God in Hawaii to also come sometime in 2011. So grateful we are not doing this church plant on our own! All for God's Glory.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
One week till we are "Territorians"!
Sorry it's been a long time since I last blogged - I will try to update more frequently from now on!
This week at church we are having our Missions Conference - "ImagineNations Conference 2010". I am just loving it! All of the messages we have been hearing have been brilliant, inspiring and life changing! I really want this passion that i burning in my heart for missions at the moment to stay with me throughout the whole year. I want to bring that passion with me to Darwin.
.....Speaking of DARWIN....... this time next week we will be spending our first night in our new home city! We fly out of Sydney airport at 2pm and arrive at Darwin airport at 5pm (6:30pm Sydney time). We will spend our first night in a hotel and the next morning we will sign the lease and receive the keys to what will be our home for at least the next twelve months. It will be a full house as we will be living with Laura, Ollie and their baby Marley, as well as Christina! The house has a good layout though and im sure it will be just fine.
For the past two weeks we have been living at my parents house because our furniture has been packed into a container and is now waiting for us in Darwin.
Ollie, Laura and Marley are driving the church 12 seater bus up to Darwin so they are leaving sooner then us, on Monday morning. Hopefully they will arrive sometime on Friday!
Ohhhhhhhhhh, it's getting sooooooo close!!!!!
This week at church we are having our Missions Conference - "ImagineNations Conference 2010". I am just loving it! All of the messages we have been hearing have been brilliant, inspiring and life changing! I really want this passion that i burning in my heart for missions at the moment to stay with me throughout the whole year. I want to bring that passion with me to Darwin.
.....Speaking of DARWIN....... this time next week we will be spending our first night in our new home city! We fly out of Sydney airport at 2pm and arrive at Darwin airport at 5pm (6:30pm Sydney time). We will spend our first night in a hotel and the next morning we will sign the lease and receive the keys to what will be our home for at least the next twelve months. It will be a full house as we will be living with Laura, Ollie and their baby Marley, as well as Christina! The house has a good layout though and im sure it will be just fine.
For the past two weeks we have been living at my parents house because our furniture has been packed into a container and is now waiting for us in Darwin.
Ollie, Laura and Marley are driving the church 12 seater bus up to Darwin so they are leaving sooner then us, on Monday morning. Hopefully they will arrive sometime on Friday!
Ohhhhhhhhhh, it's getting sooooooo close!!!!!
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