2013 Recap!

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What a year it has been for the English Service and Youth and Young Adults ministry! This post is going to recap the happenings at our church throughout the year, looking at the grace and mercies of God to our church and the congregation.

OUR THEME

The theme of the English Service this year was ‘Serving the Lord’. In addition to weekly sermons on the theme, we also welcomed the addition of three lay speakers who preached on a series on the gospel of Luke. The theme was challenging as we had a closer look at Jesus’ ministry as an example of what ‘Serving the Lord’ meant.

YOUTH GROUP REVAMP

This year, our Youth and Young Adults Bible Study Program continued to be run on Friday nights, where we looked at the books of Timothy 1, Timothy 2, Titus and Philemon. All these were letters written by Paul, as he addressed various workers and leaders in churches he had planted. We learnt about leadership qualities of a humble worker and how to bring to focus back to God and His word.

SHARING NIGHTS

This year we also introduced sharing nights, where a church member would share a short testimony on a topic, and then we would break of in discussion groups to delve into the topic even deeper. The topics we covered this year were; ‘Israel and the Bible-Is it relevant to us today?’, ‘Count your Blessings’, ‘Priorities’ and ‘Media, Pop Culture and Christianity’. It was great being able to look at and be challenged by issues outside of our usual Bible studies. Our last sharing night we had an EPIC wrap up filled with EPIC fun activities and EPIC sharing all around the group!

TRIVIA NIGHT

Our trivia night this year was successful in creating opportunities to bond with others, especially new comers to the church. Working in teams that had a mix of people different to the usual Bible study groups, everyone was able to have an opportunity to engage in a fun night with each other, have meaningful conversations with each other and promoting outreach by inviting friends along.

COFFEE NIGHT

The lights were dimmed and the mood was set, as many sat back, enjoyed good coffee, cakes, and the live music. Our annual coffee night was a great night to show others how God works in other people’s lives, through song, lyrics, art, food and conversation. The night also supported the work of Urban Seed, a small, Christian community development organization that serves communities experiencing disadvantage, and engages others to do the same.

CAMP

Our biennial camp was held at Marysville this year. It was a great time for us all to bond, grow, worship and learn. We delved into the book of Philippians, seeing what it had to say about ‘Shining As Stars’. Whether it was through late nights eating cup noodles with other church mates, participating in the fun activities, listening to the Bible talks or taking part in discussion groups, everyone was able to have a great time and took away heaps from the experience.

BOUNCE

Bounce night was a fantastic night to have fun with other church mates and other friends that came along too!

CONNECT TRAINING CONFERENCE

In September, some members involved in the Youth Ministry made their ways up to Mount Evelyn for Connect Training Conference where they learnt how to unpack a Bible passage and write their own Bible studies. It was an encouraging weekend meeting Christians from other churches in Melbourne while learning practical ways to teach God’s word.

CHRISTMAS NIGHT

To cap off our year, we celebrated Jesus’ birth by organizing a Christmas Celebration Night on the theme of ‘Faith’. On the Sunday beforehand, we had the opportunity to roam around our neighbourhood and sing carols / chat to our neighbours. It was a timely reminder that opportunities to outreach are literally just around the corner! On Saturday 14 of December, we had a night filled with carols, gifts, a skit, glow sticks and grace as we remembered the true meaning of Christmas and how we find faith in the coming of Christ.

And that’s 2013 in a nutshell! Indeed we are thankful to God for blessing our church so much this year! We hope you enjoyed this year as much as we did and we hope to see you soon. Have a joyous and blessed New Year!

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