A couple of weeks ago at ‘Where in the World‘, we had a great time hearing from different members of our church, and their recent experiences in short term mission, serving in Kenya, Bolivia and Vanuatu. As I listened to Pete Witt share about he and Liz’s time in Vanuatu, I was reminded of just how many people it takes to keep missionaries on the field.

Over Christmas last year, I had the opportunity to go and visit a friend Deb, who’s working with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea. She works at the Ukarumpa base, which is around the size of a small country town. I don’t know about you, but when I think Bible translation, I think of it requiring people who can learn the local language, put it into written form, teach literacy, and translate.

But Bible translation, takes a whole lot more people than that. Based in Ukarumpa, there are teachers, child care workers, doctors, nurses, physios, admin staff, mechanics, house parents, bus drivers, pilots, aircraft mechanics, pharmacists, maintenance staff, shop staff, guest house staff, finance/accounting staff, builders, personal assistants, secretaries, managers, IT (and that’s just in PNG, and just what I can think of off the top of my head, so there’s probably a lot I’ve missed out!) as well as the linguists, translation personnel, literacy specialists, language surveyors, editors, printers etc.

So maybe you’ve thought you’re not a preacher, or a church planter, so mission isn’t for you. But there’s a whole lot more people than that needed in the work of mission.

Why don’t you check out the Positions Vacant page to see some of the people needed by Wycliffe, or talk to Sam Hilton or myself.

I had lunch with an old friend today.  As usually he has shown me my apathy in evangelism.  As we walked down the street he mourned that there are so many people going to hell and churches/ Christians just don’t seem to care.  They are not willing to do anything different to reach the unbelieving world and so there are whole streets in Newcastle with not one Christian living in them.  A great reminder of the brutal facts!

One way you can get on board with Jesus mission to the world is invite a friend to Life to the Full. I am praying stacks of people come and stacks of people become Christians

Sam

Kate Wicks did MTS with us in 2005 and 2006, and is now studying at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. Here’s her latest newsletter, telling us about her recent college mission trip to the Northern Territory…

update-on-kate-nt

You can check out what these missionaries have been up to…

Robert and Jen Alley

Kingsley and Veronica Box

Ross and Lyndal Webb

George Whitefield has passed into obscurity. But in his day, he was famous; perhaps England’s greatest ever preacher. He spoke about Jesus to hundreds of thousands, and their lives were transformed for the better. He began a social revolution.

At his funeral, many listed his achievements and impact on their lives. His fellow Christian preacher John Wesley highlighted his deep love for others.

© National Portrait Gallery, London

‘…he had a heart susceptible of the most generous and the most tender friendship…this was the most distinguishing part of his character. How few have we known of so kind a temper, of such large and flowing affections! Was it not principally by this, that the hearts of others were so strangely drawn and knit to him? Can anything but love beget love? This shone in his very countenance, and continually breathed in all his words, whether in public or private.’

John Wesley should know. This gifted man had treated Whitefield shamefully at times; undermining and slandering him, and even publicly opposing him. But Whitefield responded with grace and forgiveness. He expended himself preaching for Wesley, whilst publicly supporting and privately praising him.

Whitefield knew how difficult it can be to forgive someone who has hurt us deeply. But he knew love produces forgiveness. He had experienced God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus. My prayer this week is that our countenances might shine with love, producing love in others. That we might be like Whitefield, as he was like our beloved Christ.

Jesus teaches us at least 4 things about forgiveness (1 John 1:8-2:3; Luke 17:1-4)

1. Sin matters. Any sin matters; because it affects our relationship with God and others. It leads others to sin, by either copying or retaliating against the sinner. Our mistake is to excuse and justify our retaliation by viewing ourselves as mere victims. Bitterness, anger, slander and gossip are always sins. We need to guard against it, by examining ourselves and confessing our sin to each other.

2. We need to Rebuke others; to gently expose their sin to them so they have the chance to repent. Our mistake is to be harsh and judgmental, thinking we are better. We need to graciously and humbly remember we are all sinners, with the same evil desires within.

3. We need to Repent. This means changing rather than merely expressing remorse. Our mistake is to see other’s sins more clearly than our own, whilst justifying our own behaviour based on circumstances, or feeling misunderstood or mistreated, or… And so we refuse to change. We must constantly examine ourselves to see how we are wronging others, stop doing it, say sorry and seek to change. We may also need to make restitution.

4. We need to forgive others; graciously, wholeheartedly, continuously. Our mistake is to never really forgive, always demanding the offender do something more to earn their way back into our graces (!). We make our forgiveness conditional, or temporary, bringing up past failures. Forgiveness means we put the past behind and move forward in unity as reconciled people, equally loved by God.

It may help, when you are receiving or giving forgiveness, to ask yourself if you feel like they’re sincere. If you don’t then you need to express this. But if you do, then we are to forget what has been done, and make a fresh start; sometimes over and over again just like God does with us through Jesus.

Here’s the latest update from Katie in the Middle East…

katie-newsletter-web-version

What is baptism?

Firstly, baptism expresses the response of a convert (1 Peter 3:21).  When a person get baptised they are making a pledge to God, to trust him and identify with Christ and his people.  It is the external expression of someone’s faith in Christ.

Secondly, baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality that God has already achieved in someone’s life - inward cleansing and remission of sins (Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 6:11; Eph 5:25-27), Spirit-wrought regeneration and new life (Titus 3:5), and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as God’s seal testifying and guaranteeing that one will be kept safe in Christ forever (1 Cor 12:13; Eph 1:13-14).

Why get baptised?

Well firstly it needs to be said that baptism is not necessary for salvation.

Secondly, we must recognise that baptism is commanded by Jesus and is closely tied with conversion in the book of Acts.  It is an appropriate expression of our faith in Christ.

Thirdly, baptism is often a water-shed moment in the life of a Christian because it gives you the opportunity to outwardly express your faith in Christ and testify to what God has already done in you.

Do we baptise babies or adults?

As a church we do not have a theological preference for either.  However the following paper written by Andrew Heard on Baptism is helpful to weigh the arguments - Baptism paper by Andrew Heard

Want to get baptised?

We are hoping to baptise people at Hunter Bible Church on 25th Octocber 2009.  We are not sure how it will be done yet but if you want to explore baptism with us then fill in the form here.

Here’s the latest update from Eryn-May, on what the future holds, and attached below it is some of the faces of Bolivia…

Hola Amigos

What’s Past
Well it has been a busy few weeks since I arrived back in the land of Oz and I haven’t even had a chance to catch up with you all yet.
Please find attached a copy of my final Bolivian letter.  Now it is a little bigger then normal, so sorry about that.  But I hope that you will have a chance to read it and get to know some of the people that have been in my life for the past year.  (You know maybe if you read it out aloud with a cup of tea in your hand you could pretend that I was there telling you the stories in person and that might just be better then a real live catch up!!)

What’s next
Well planning for the future has never been a strong point of mine but that is what I am trying to do now.  There were a number of different experiences in Bolivia that have helped me to see what a benefit further training in the bible would be.  So that has caused me to pray about and look into the slightly scary option of Bible college (scary b/c I am not much of an academic really).  I would appreciate your prayer as I think this through and any words of wisdom are welcome as well.  (The SMBC 2010 application is sitting next to my bed as I write this to you).

My immediate and more concrete plans for the rest of the year are to take up a teaching position in a tiny town called Jilkminggan in the Northern Territory.  I will be living in Mataranka, starting in mid August and finishing up in December.  I know it is a long way away and it may seem crazy to be heading off again so soon after just getting back.  But it is also a great opportunity to help out a school that really needs teachers, get experience in teaching in the Territory and get back on my feet financially abit (before possibly starting college).  Please pray as I try to be wise in making decisions.

Thanks for your support and I hope to hear about what’s happening with you and how I can be praying for you.
Love and soon to be Crocodiles
ezmay

faces-of-bolivia

A highlight of the FIEC conference last week was sitting down with other maturity pastors to figure out how to do our job of promoting Christian maturity among our people.  Here’s a few things about small groups we agreed on:

• small groups are vital in church
• All 5 Ms need to be expressed within groups.  Which means things like fellowship, caring, evangelism, mission, training, prayer need to happen there.
• As church grows, studies will usually become shorter and simpler, to allow for other important activities and also cater for people with lower literacy skills.
• ‘leaders of leaders’ will need to emerge to allow us to set up more groups without loads more paid staff
• communication must always be improving between staff and group leaders.  Paul Beeston from CCEC even posts a password-protected internet video each week!  Something I’d like to try…

I’m looking forward to discussing some of these ideas with our group leaders at the next ‘Growth Group Leaders Prep night’ on Sept 30.

Richard