Ashburton Baptist Church is leading the way in reducing their environmental footprint and saving on power expenses. All Victorian Baptist Churches are currently invited to express their interest in a Baptcare/A Just Cause initiative for a bulk- buy of solar panels. This project was launched at our May Delegates Dinner. If your church is interested in going solar, both for cost efficiencies and as a ‘Billboard advertising Christians concern about the environment’ then check out the Churches Solar Panel Program here and view the Ashburton story below.

A new study of more than 1000 Australians has revealed that those who identify as church-going Christians see their faith as a significant factor in their day-to-day work.

The State of Work in Australia study was initiated by Reventure, a new organisation specialising in faith and work research, utilising the Barna Group, a globally recognised polling research firm.

In contrast to a secular expectation that faith a isa private set of beliefs, most of the Christians (80%) surveyed said their faith helps them to face challenges at work, and that their church (69%) helps them understand how to live out their faith in the workplace.

“This is an exciting development in the history of faith and work integration in Australia,” explains Reventure Managing Director, Dr Lindsay McMillan. “We are seeing that Christians are seeking to use the transforming power of faith in the workplace.”

However, it is not all positive. It appears that churches are not providing sufficient teaching or resources to maximise the opportunity of the workplace being a centre of spiritual expression. Only 40% of Christian workers say their churches provide teaching or resources.

This is borne out by the study’s revelation that most Christians are not open about their beliefs in the workplace, with 63% not feeling very comfortable about talking about their faith.

“We understand the challenges that Christians face in the modern workplace,” says Dr McMillan, “And many feel the pressures on their faith expression.”

The study indicated that Christians are happy to work morally (60%) and ethically (54%), but struggle with temptations (39%) and do not feel confident evangelising in the workplace (22%).

Details of the study:

• The study was conducted in April 2016 and consisted of a nationally-representative survey of 1,001 Australian employed adults with an oversample of church attenders with 321 identifying as church-going Christians.
• The study was representative of all majordenominations.
• The sample was balanced for gender and age and included fulltime (57%), part-time (33%) and 10% self-employed/independent workers.
• The sample included a representation of workplace settings including 40% professional office workers, 12% working in retail, 11% working from home, 9% in education, 6% in a healthsetting.

How is your church equipping people for mission in their work place? Baptist leaders can utilize findings such as this to inform better teaching, training and equipping of people for mission in the places they live and work. You can also contact our BUV’s Mission Catalyst team for resources and support.

Reventure specailises in faith and life research. This ‘State of Work in Australia’ study is intended tohelp Reventure increase the conversation about applying faith at work, believing this enables transformation not just of individual Christian workers, but also the organisations they work in. For more information contact Dr Lindsay McMillan, Managing Director, Reventure Ltd,  0409 186 322.

Wyndham Lodge has this week, proudly opened its doors to welcome back residents and family members to Baptcare's brand new aged care facility. 

Baptcare Chairman Philip Curtis, Ladies Auxiliary President Margo Kendal, staff member Murray Holland, resident Joyce Perry and Werribee Mayor Adele Hegedich, with Baptcare CEO Graham Dangerfield, officially re-opening Wyndham Lodge

Occupying the site of the old Werribee Hospital, Wyndham Lodge is a completely new building possessing modern designs and state of the art facilities, offering an even greater provision of care to residents. 
Along with an increase from 30 existing beds to 150 over four floors, Wyndham Lodge has catered to its residents and now offers modern, community-like facilities such as a hairdressing salon, activity spaces and lounge rooms. A landscaped internal courtyard has also been developed for residents to enjoy the outdoors and to provide natural light to all rooms. 

 Wyndham Lodge exterior

Over the coming weeks and months, Wyndham Lodge will become home to 150 people, and provide more than 150 local jobs.
The new modern design allows for ‘ageing in place’, with all rooms including amenities such as a ceiling hoist. This addition will permit most residents to remain in their own rooms without needing to move around as their needs change.
The residential aged care facility was built on a strong foundation of community spirit and a culture of care. Throughout the building process, 30 beds continued to be in operation in the adjacent Bill Featherstone House, allowing for the culture and deep community base of Wyndham Lodge to be preserved and carried on. Baptcare will now focus on the complete refurbishment of Bill Featherstone House, with plans to operate the 30 beds for ambulant clients with a diagnosis of dementia. This will be a program centred on a social model of care, where activities of daily living are incorporated into the care program and where our engagement programs are much more specific to the needs of these clients. This work will commence later this year. 
Existing staff members at Wyndham Lodge have been undergoing training and upskilling in preparation for the opening of the new facility. This process will empower them to become staff leaders, ensuring the current culture at Wyndham Lodge is carried over and sustained into the future. 
“Staff understand that care goes beyond physical health,” said Baptcare’s Chief Executive, Graham Dangerfield. “Baptcare has ensured community involvement remains at the forefront of Wyndham Lodge,” he said. 
“The residential aged care facility was originally run and funded largely by the Werribee community. Much of the success Wyndham Lodge has today is a result of local organisations, and I am thrilled that Baptcare has been able to provide the capital and the people resources to bring this local community dream into a reality.
The many generous people who tirelessly fundraised for Wyndham Lodge, particularly the Ladies’ Auxiliary, have had family members and close friends take up residence at our aged care facility. “It is amazing to think that I am now going to be calling this place home,” said Faye Stuyoff, an existing resident of Wyndham Lodge.  

Faye Stoios and Joyce Perry

“I am sure there will be other locals who will be in the same position – whether they have been heavily involved in the auxiliary like me or have just supported its fundraising efforts – they can all feel they have contributed to what is already a great local place to call home.”

To mark the opening of Wyndham Lodge, Baptcare will be running Open Days from Thursday 21st July to Sunday 24th July, starting at 10.00am and concluding at 3.00pm. A band and refreshments will be provided. To book a tour please visit: https://www.baptcare.org.au/wyndham-open-day or just turn up.

Photos courtesy of Janusz Molinski
 

By Mi Doh Htoo

This year, the BUV, held their second Ignite Multicultural Youth and Young Adults Conference. It was really different from last year’s conference, with the Ignite Committee making some changes to make it even better!

My highlights:
I had the opportunity to meet new faces from other church communities. It was really cool that Gang Nam Baptist Church came all the way from Korea! They prepared so many performances, and made the effort to get to know us, even though it costs a lot to travel to Australia! They shared their different talents with us, and shared their hearts too. I was so happy to have met them and we are keen to welcome them back any time!

Mi Doh

The food was excellent! The Werribee Karen Baptist Church, and Bentleigh Baptist Church provided us yummy traditional food!

This conference is so good for young people to attend and learn so many things. The conference is multicultural and combines churches from diverse backgrounds. We got to know each other through our small group activities, working together as a team, and also doing group challenges. I also loved worshipping and celebrating together as sons and daughters of God.

Each night we had a keynote speaker who gave us a message to encourage us young people. After the speaker shared, we would have a group discussion and share our story and how we were encouraged. This was really good because some of the people can’t speak English well, but we tried to understand each other.

We also attended a workshop, which I thought might be a bit boring – but it wasn’t!

I hope the workshops will help young people gain more skills and knowledge and also develop in their spiritual health.

A few organisations came to share about what they’re doing like the Hope Project, Surrender, Whitley College, Praxis, Global Interaction, and Daily Rice. It’s good to show young people ways to study and develop in their faith. I myself am studying at Praxis and this has helped me a lot in my wellbeing and faith.

What I learned:
I learned so many things that I can’t explain it all. I learned how much teamwork, cooperation and communication are important to our lives. Our small group facilitators, Sam and Rachel, did great in helping those who can’t speak English well and helping us understand and connect with each other.

The other thing I learned was how to love Jesus better. I know some people try to be cool and nice but if they don’t live in Christ like ways, nothing will happen. Also we need Christ in our lives; he is the one who can help us. Sometimes we fail but we have the Holy Spirit to encourage and help us.

  Sam Chan

One of the keynote speakers, Sam Chan, spoke about how different it is between 1^st and 2^nd generations in how we show love. We had a small group discussion afterwards about our cultural backgrounds, and we shared how differently our parents show their love to us, and vice versa. Some Karen people are shy to say they love their parents or parents are shy to say that they love their children. Some other cultural groups were different. We came away with questions such as, how can we help our parents and how can we love our parents better? I hope that the talk will help all us young people love our parents better.

I want to encourage young people who have not attended the Ignite Conference to come along next year! Bring along your friends and church community with you. I want to encourage you to come and build on your communication skills to help for the future, and for your community. We came and learned so much and connected with people from other cultural backgrounds. We need lots of young people to be leaders who care about their communities. My last encouragement is to come and share your own stories, and your own culture!

Thanks so to the BUV for this conference! I look forward to seeing you all next year again at Ignite 2017!

Mi Doh Htoo is a member of Werribee Baptist Church who attended our recent Ignite2016! Conference