What does it mean to be intentionally open to God and others?

Glenn and Liz have recently relocated to another area of Thailand. Here, Liz shares of their intentional openness in the new location. 

"Before we left Ban Luang, Glenn and I decided that as soon as we arrived in our new home, we would be very intentional to stop what we were doing when we had people pop in to check us out, or if the neighbours were willing to chat. Glenn made many trips to the local hardware and paint shop, and also goes to the morning market every day to buy some curry for our lunch and to chat with the sellers. 

We live on a busy street, so we spend a lot of time sitting out the front greeting people as they ride or walk pass curiously looking in to see what the new “Farang” (Westerner) family are doing. When we found out our neighbour had just had an operation, we took her a meal. A week or so later the same neighbour returned our plastic container with a local Thai dish in it for us to try. As we sat on our front step she said to me, “We used to have a Farang live just over there” (pointing out towards some houses). “He never spoke to us, he would just stare. I’m happy that you can talk with me.”  

We pray for God to sustain us in our openness in this community as we seek to become trusted and accepted. We pray for willingness to step out of our comfort zone and perseverance to sustain relationships even through cultural differences and challenges. We ask for God to use this time to shine His light and love into the hearts of the people in our community."

This story was first published by Global Interaction – Mar 19

To all of the Supporters of the Drought Relief Camp

It is with the heartiest of THANK YOUS that we contact you. Thank you for the support you gave to allow 25 children/youth from the Condobolin region to come on Camp at Mill Valley Ranch and enjoy all the adventures we had in store for them!

The Camp took place on January 27 to February 1 (a little later than we first planned, but a more suitable date for the Condobolin families). Our Staff and Volunteers drove up to Condobolin with mini buses to collect the children/youth and bring them down to the Ranch.

The majority of the children/youth had –

• never been to Victoria
• never seen skyscrapers or a large city
• never been to the beach and
• had never done many of the adventure activities we had in store for them.

It was an amazing experience for them. And an amazing experience for our staff and volunteers to watch their joy and excitement as they tried so many new experiences and had enormous fun.

The children/youth participated in horse riding, horsemanship experiences, canoeing, crate climb, bush hike, initiative challenges and team games, all at the Ranch. But they also had a wonderful afternoon at Gumbuya World and a day trip to Philip Island Adventure Resort and to the beach.

So from the staff and volunteers of Mill Valley Ranch – thank you for helping this camp be such a great success!

From our Board of Directors –

On behalf of the Board of Baptist Camping Victoria, I would like to express our gratitude to you for the support you offered Mill Valley Ranch in the recent Drought Relief project.

It is at the heart of our ministry to "Love our neighbour as ourselves” and to reach out to those in need. Thank you for partnering with us this January 2019.

Jan Smoley – Board Member

We have had numerous requests from families in that region to run this camp again. And now that the Condobolin community are more familiar with Mill Valley Ranch, I believe this is a growing community project that we could continue to support into the future.

Please let us know if you are interested in providing sponsorship funds again in the future, to allow more children and youth from remote drought impacted communities to have a great camp experience.

Some photos of the Camp are attached for you to enjoy.

Many blessings
Sue Ellis
Manager

The International Women's Day is celebrated around the world on 8th of March and is a day to reflect on how far we have come and how far we still have to go to truly achieve gender equality. This year's theme is #BalanceforBetter and we've invited women leaders here at the BUV to share with you their thoughts to better the balance and better the world.

Week 1: You can't be what you can't see
By Kimberly Smith
Generations & Emerging Leaders Pastor
 

The Sydney Opera House’s “All About Women” campaign released a video with the hashtag “Seeing is believing”. In it, 3 girls reflected on what they wanted to be when they grew up. Their thoughts? A helicopter doctor, a marine biologist and an author. When asked to list their inspirations, or the people whose work they knew of in their field of interest, all of them listed males. One of the girls said, “I don’t think it’s a job a woman would be interested in.” completely oblivious to the paradoxical nature of her comment. Although she wanted to be a helicopter doctor, what she’d observed told her that females, as a general rule, wouldn’t.

They were then each given the opportunity to meet a woman who was employed in each of those fields. One of them exclaimed “I didn’t know women could do this for a job!” Another swooned, “Now I’ve met a girl one, like, it’s just a dream!” The power of those encounters to radically alter the trajectory of dreaming and pursuit for those young girls was palpable.

You can’t be what you can’t see.

The reality for girls considering certain spheres of study or career engagement is that they look amongst the elite (or at least those with profile or prominence) and don’t see people like them. As the balance slowly continues to correct, many girls will process a sense of interest, passion and even gifting or calling to expressions of ministry or career engagement in the void of exposure to female role models or examples.

In light of this, restoring the balance looks like championing women publicly. It looks like sharing their stories and sharing the platform. It requires intentionality to affirm gifts, skills, capacities and areas of speciality in younger women as being open for them to explore even if they haven’t yet seen a woman operating in that space. When there are no females present within your context it’s looking outside to see who could be invited in to demonstrate to the broader group the potential for women to be active in those areas of leadership, communication, serving or decision-making. It’s about women boldly holding their place and living out their calling with a mindfulness to who is watching; who is needing to see.

As I move around the state and connect with Generational ministries in our churches I see this theme strongly valued and increasingly demonstrated. Amongst our Generations Pastors and Leaders there is a strong awareness of the fact that a well-developed and articulated desire to see young women flourish in ministry and leadership must be supported by demonstration of this in action. I love being invited to preach into ministries where they are yet to develop female preachers or to lead into spaces where my very presence as a woman in leadership might unlock or empower a young woman to embrace what God is already stirring in their heart.

The video ends, “When I’m older, those little girls will have someone to look up to … because that someone is going to be me.

This Lent, Common Grace and Bible Society Australia invite us to rediscover Jesus's profound teachings veiled in everyday stories. As we come together, we're praying for ears to hear these teachings of Jesus afresh, to let them get past our defences and under our skin, as they transform us to make things right in this world.

The Lost Sheep & Lost Coin- A Lent Teaching from Dr Kate Harrison Brennan

Dr Kate Harrison Brennan launches our Lent series exploring the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin that demonstrate God's relentless pursuit of each of His children. This video is part of Common Grace's 2019 Lent Series exploring the Parables of Jesus and their subversive nature that call us to seek justice, with mercy and humility.

What difference does one lost coin really make? 

Why would anyone go to great effort to find one small coin when you already have plenty? Why would anyone make a sacrifice to find one insignificant thing that doesn’t seem worth the expense?

In today’s video teaching, Dr Kate Harrison Brennan, CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries, reflects on the peculiar concepts in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In these parables Jesus tells two stories which simply don’t seem to make any sense. In each story the central character goes to great lengths to search for something which most people would not think possible to find, or frankly, even worth the effort. 

As we come face to face with the cost paid to give us life, we are challenged to live out the same love for the lost and the marginalised: truly respecting their inherent worth and dignity as people who have been found against all odds. Just like us.

This series has been produced by Common Grace and Bible Society Australia.

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