For many years Wodonga & District Baptist Church has been recording their sermons in both audio and video and making them available online. Since the COVID-19 meeting restrictions, Senior Pastor David Hodgens and team, like many other churches, have been pre-recording their worship services and the congregation is encouraged to watch at the usual service time on a Sunday. Small groups are meeting online and other expressions of contact include sms, email and phone calls during the week so that the church community remains connected to one another.

One concern has been for those who do not have internet access, particularly in relation to Sunday services. This is where the local Christian radio station comes in! Albury Wodonga’s own listener-supported Christian radio station, 98.5FM The Light, is now broadcasting Wodonga Baptist’s service each Sunday at 10.30am. “This is just one of the many stories where we have seen God’s hand at work. This is a hard time for everyone, however, we continue to be encouraged by the high level of engagement and the stories we hear on a regular basis. God has his plans. We may not know what they are, but we can see he is in control” said Church Administrator, Steve Stokes.

G’day friends.   Greetings from rainy Orbost!

Much has happened since the first week of January, let me tell you some of the story.

I started the year watching the glow in the sky of an approaching fire which, in the hours that followed, narrowly missed my parents’ property where I was living and proceeded to obliterate much of the region I call home – I wasn’t really ready but was mostly willing and certainly available.

We were faced with a very present need and shortly thereafter I found myself with a mandate:  To find fire affected people, find out from them what they need and do my best to meet that need.

It’s fairly simple in words, unfortunately less so in action.  So, what have I achieved?

I have built fences, cut down fire affected trees and even rebuilt a bridge restoring primary access to a home, just in time to allow Grocon to clean up the sheds that had burnt. Oh, and drunk lots of tea.

These are all hands on, quantifiable things (except for the tea) – I’m a practical guy, I like to see what I’ve achieved – but I’m slowly learning that God sees things I don’t.

Over these months I have accumulated a total of 49 people/couples/families on my list of those I’ve sought to engage and of them have 22 ongoing relationships.

There have been evenings when I’ve sat in my 4wd on the side of the road and just prayed,

‘Lord, is that all You had for today?’

‘I’ve been out for 10 hours, driven 150kms and You’ve prompted me to stop in places that have led to 3 conversations. Jesus is that enough? Can I go home now?’

Yes.

In His eyes and economy spending time with people is time well spent even if the only thing I built was trust.

One guy whom I’ve had a dozen different interactions with since the start of February said the last time I saw him, ‘you’ll be back before then,’ speaking of a fencing job he might need a hand with. It may have taken a dozen visits and phone calls over months but he knows that sooner or later I’ll show up, ask him how he’s going and offer him a hand – and he appreciates it.

He’s not the only one who appreciates me dropping by semi-regularly. People generally seem to be getting tired and they’re lonely and COVID 19 isn’t helping.

I hadn’t spoken to this particular older lady for a number of weeks when a mutual friend called and said she was talking about leaving this world and they were worried for her. She answered my second call and spoke for over an hour. I visited the following day and she spoke for another 2 hours. She seems stable but really needed someone to talk to and again, I’ve visited or called her more than a dozen times since early February building a friendship where she’s comfortable to actually invite me in, offer me a cup of tea and just talk.

In response to the question, ‘what have I achieved?’ I could give many answers but I think the best answer is simply, ‘I have been there when people needed me,’

Lord willing, by the generosity of the Baptist family, I’ll continue to be.

Thank you!

In the middle of January his year, as part of a discussion about how to use for mission, the musical talents and gifts of church members, the Melbourne Bangjoo Church Leaders had the idea of conducting a praise school.

Since February, Byungsuk Lee has undertaken general planning, and been in charge of the proceedings and publicity to prepare the praise school. In March, he was able to promote the school of praise through various routes. 

The Praise School was aimed at children who had no experience of faith, or those who had been brought up in Christian families but were not living in faith. The intent was to make it possible for the children who participated to meet God naturally through praise and music.

The children participated in one of four Praise School programs:

Praise and dance Class for Prep

Rhythm Class for grade 1 ~ 3

Band Class for Grade 4 ~ 5

Choir Class for all children combined

Byungsuk Lee shared his excitement that he couldn't believe they could do so much in such a short time, '' but God was finally praised through the lips of the children. Hallelujah!"

Surrey Hills Baptist Children’s Centre (SHBCC) connects with over 120 families each year through its Kindergarten and Childcare programs. The Centre maintains a Christian presence in its community and describes itself as “A place of faith and early learning.” Over 250 of the children and families of the Centre attended the 2019 end of year Christmas celebration for community connection, celebration of the year and re-telling of the nativity story. The leadership of the Centre imagined a creative re-enactment of the story where parents would be spontaneously scripted into the story, given costumes and lines on the spot and engaged in the re-telling of Jesus birth, while others played musical instruments and sang well known carols throughout the reenactment. With much laughter and fun parents were given costumes and played the various roles as the story was narrated.

As the story concluded and the costumes were being packed away a mother who had played the role as the Inn Keeper approached the Centre’s Director and asked if they could speak further. The mother started, “I have been the Inn Keeper in a play that I don’t understand. Can you explain to me what I was just a part of?” The Director took one of the Children’s nativity books from the Reception display and opened it to re-tell the story of the birth of Jesus once more. As the story was read the Director spoke of her own experience of the good news of Jesus birth that the angels announced to the Shepherds. She spoke of how He had forgiven and changed her life and offered her hope. She went on to speak of how Jesus came to offer hope to all of humanity without exception and that all are welcome to join in and receive the forgiveness He offers. As the mother heard all of this she was prompted with more questions, “So it’s not a made-up story? It actually happened? Jesus really was born and lived for these reasons?” “Yes, it is a true story, an actual historical event” the Director replied. The mother asked again, “So this is what Christian faith is about? This is your faith?” “Yes” the Director replied. As the mother paused to reflect on all that she had re-enacted, heard and seen in the Children’s picture story book she had one more question, “Why has nobody ever told me this before?”  

The declaration of the good news of Jesus birth by the angels to the Shepherds in the field was good news to the ears of the Shepherds 2000 years ago and it is still good news to those who truly hear it today. Nothing has changed in the power, authority, freedom and hope of this good news message. Our culture may know of the story but we are called to be the people who carry it in ways that allow others to truly hear it and experience all of the good that this news brings.  

In the face of coronavirus meeting restrictions, Bacchus Marsh Baptist gave prayerful consideration as to how church should look for them. While they were grateful for the many online worship services being made available from other churches, in Pastor Jeremy Van Langenberg’s words, “we were concerned to maintain a sense of ‘us’ –   our local church community”.  

They began by placing all church attendees including children, youth and young adults into cluster groups. For the first time ever, everyone in the church is in a small group! So far this is working well with groups meeting digitally or by phone.

Sunday sermons are pre-recorded online in a fairly simple fashion and for those without digital access, sermon notes and orders of service are hand delivered (with careful thought to hygiene). A weekly prayer guide is also being provided for the church to pray at the same time each Wednesday.

While church finances were initially struggling in the absence of physically meeting on Sundays, in recent days more church members than ever before have signed on to direct debit giving. While these last few weeks have been challenging and stretching, Jeremy reports the church community are encouraged, thankful and in good spirits.