Last week I received this email from Ross & Lyndal Webb, some of our mission partners, who work with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Vanuatu. The email is to all of our church.

“Dear friends at HBC,

Please pass on our thanks to all in the congregations for encouraging us as 2012 gets underway with your generous gift.

We know you have many demands on your money and that your ministry in your local area is very important and bearing fruit. But thank you for branching out and including us across the ocean as another part of your ministry.

We have many things lined up for this year - a course for local translators starting next week, the national conference for local translators, a celebration of 30 years of SIL’s work here, and a New Testament dedication in May for starters. Thanks for your contribution to all these events and for helping ni-Vanuatu have a chance to know God more through His Word.

We really enjoyed visiting with many of you at the end of last year - that seems a long time ago now. Thanks for your welcome and interest in our work.

God bless you richly,

In Him,

Lyndal and Ross“

There was a nervous atmosphere in the church office on the afternoon of September 23. Throughout the working world, Friday afternoon is generally a time of the week when office frivolity is at its highest and mood its warmest, leading into the week’s end. HBC’s office is usually no exception with its renowned Friday Dance Party - but this Friday was different.

A group of 13 members of Hunter Bible Church, a couple of ring-ins and a rugged tour guide were all gathering to depart on an adventure that we expected, without knowing exactly how, would change our lives. Rightly unaware, on the dawn of this ‘AIM Mission Awareness Tour’.

The stats were impressive: 17 people, 1 minibus, 7500km to be driven through 4 states of Australia, 90 hours of travel, 11 locations to stop and pitch 6 tents over 15 nights.

Heading through the Mayf on our way out of town...

The goals were also impressive: to see the work of Australian Indigenous Ministries in six separate places across the country, to experience what life is like for the workers there, to encourage the people we met and to be encouraged, and to grow in God’s word - all of these as a team unified by Christ.

How would we cope with the lengthy confinement on the bus? Would relationships prosper or wither? How would we respond to regular nights of 6 or less hours of sleep? What shock would we face experiencing new cultures within Australia? Would the bus hold together? How could we encourage the missionaries without creating too much disturbance in their setting? How far would our phone reception extend? Would we be able to climb the rock?

Different from my memories of bus journeys for school camps past, the cool kids weren’t on the back seat (I was toward the front) and there wasn’t the missing kid who had slept through his alarm. The departing travellers were quite happy to openly plant farewell kisses and hugs on those who were seeing them off, even waving from the bus.

We were off.

On November 6 we are baptising a bunch of people who have put their trust in Jesus over the past year or so at Hunter Bible Church.  If you are interested in getting baptised then you can email Sam Hilton.  We will be running a class the week beforehand to help you think though what baptism is and why do it.  Register your interest here.

Ever find yourself wanting to pray for our missionaries, but not really sure what to pray? Check out their profiles under the ‘who we support’ section here and you can see what they’ve asked us to pray for, and pray!

Hunter ReachOut is a day-long conference happening on Saturday 29^th October 2011

“Jesus is the reason for mission. It’s his person and character, and the nature of the salvation he brings, that helps give focus and shape to mission as we seek to represent him in this world.” Come along to the conference to hear more what mission looks like and how we declare Jesus!

It’s a conference with a difference with not only Bible talks and seminars, but also heaps of time to chat with 23 different mission representatives about their work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus throughout the world! It’s sure to be a great day.

Date: Saturday 29^th October 2011

Time: 9am - 5:30pm (can attend for parts of the conference)

HBC mission partners, Rob and Jen Alley joined us at RENEW on Souper Sunday to share personal insights into their life and ministry with Australian Indigenous Ministries and to gee up unichurch for our upcoming tour to the outback.

Rob and Jen made a special effort to be with us at unichurch, traveling from Sydney for one night only. Though some unichurchers were preoccupied in the soup-cycle (thank you, your sacrifice was acceptable in our stomachs) 15 or-so were able to join us for what was a wonderful start to the quality 5-hour marathon that was Souper Sunday.

I spoke with Rob during the week to arrange what we might do at RENEW on the night. He was pretty relaxed, preferring a laid-back ‘natural’ style of gathering. Interview questions practised, he said, are not really questions at all.

Each week at RENEW we kick-off by looking at the Bible. We want to know the God we’re speaking to, so we can speak appropriately and say the right kinds of things! It’s usually easier to chat to someone you know.

Rob led us through John 4:27-38 and Matthew 9:35-38, focusing us on a point that has really been encouraging to him and Jen through challenging times. God’s good harvesting work is screaming in front of us to be done. We must remember the job as a whole and trust God in our patch with our small part.

It can be discouraging in your patch when you’re investing in seeds and burying them in the ground, when someone else is bringing home boxes of weetbix.

For some missionaries in central Australia, only a handful of people have come to trust in Jesus over 20 hard years of planting.

Rob and Jen run mission awareness tours. They’re passionate about opening people’s eyes to the harvest field - in our own nation - and encouraging workers who are already slaving out in the blazing sun. They pick tourists up on a bus, drive to remote communities and show them the field. It’s an amazing two weeks of tight fellowship, real encouragement, rugged adventure, indescribable creation, solid time in Scripture, getting uncomfortable, feeling tired, eating unknown items, spotting kangaroos… experiencing God’s enormity and responding in prayer: “Your Kingdom Come”.

Then they get back in the bus and go home.

It’s hard for Rob and Jen to see the fruit of their ministry - most of it is in the lives of the people getting off the bus. A couple of their tours planned for this year have been cancelled because numbers haven’t been there. Unfortunately, it’s much harder to encourage people before they get on the bus.

At RENEW we prayed for them. What an encouragement that Rob would choose to share these verses at a time like this. They are considering their future - what God might like them to do in the coming years. We were all really challenged with our job in the field too - seeing that the work is there to be done.

HBC is going on a tour of our Indigenous harvest-field from September 23-October 3 with Rob and Jen. What an opportunity! Spots are filling up, and we’re praying that the trip will be a sell-out so that hearts are stirred for the glory of God in Australia. If you’re interested, email kelly@hunterbiblechurch.org

It’s not hard to see from the Bible that Christians should care for the needy. Jesus healed the sick, preached the good news to the poor, and told us how we treat ‘the least of these’ is equivalent to how we regard Jesus. If we’re called to be like Jesus, then we should be acting in love to those in need in our community.

Members of unichurch meet each week at 6pm on a Sunday for RENEW Prayer. I often describe RENEW as happening before church, but I’m reminded that RENEW is church. It’s so central to what the church, God’s people, do. We pray because we are fellow-workers with God in the world! We pray that God will use us, his people, to change the hearts of Novocastrians (and all peoples of the world) by his word.

One of the marvelous joys of meeting for RENEW is hearing the stories of how God answers these prayers. Each week we hear of friends, family, housemates and strangers who are engaging with the gospel through our relationships with them. If you need to be reminded of the benefits of prayer, come to RENEW and praise God for his work.

One such place we can see this work being done is the family of Dene and Rachel Hughes.

A couple of weeks ago at RENEW we caught up with our friends and their boys, Eliott and Simeon, via Skype. What a story! Up ’til last year these guys were working among us in Newcastle at the uni with the FOCUS International Christian Student group. The family were quite enjoying their time here: aware of the work they could see God doing, and really appreciating life in Newcastle. A time of noticeable growth and blessing is reason to thank God, but never to necessarily settle. God had different plans for the Hughes. Now 2011 for them is a year of training and preparing to move to Japan! They’ll be involved with Christian student work over there from 2012.

Many personal friends of the family came to RENEW that night, it was a pleasure to experience shared joy in catching up. In typical Hughes fashion, their 6 months of training in Melbourne has included lessons learned from the Bible, growth in the family, enjoyment from their surroundings (bike rides, coffee, markets) and some interesting variations on the English language from Simeon’s developing tongue.

Dene and Rachel shared some points that we can raise with God:

• Rachel’s computer died and they’ve been planning on doing lots of digital stuff over the next six months. Pray they can replace it and/or get by ok.
• Pray for somewhere to live in Brisbane or somewhere to house-stay
• They’d love to get some quality time with their family in Brisbane before they leave
• Deputation - that the boys would be settled while they’re moving around

• The country is in shock and there’s been intense suffering and despair
  • Dene has heard of lots of opportunities for conversations in Japan
  • Pray that the Christians there might have lots of opportunities to tell people about the hope they have in Jesus

Another wonderful story to share is with the Harrisons - also leaving our gathering here in Newcastle! One of them will be joining us at unichurch’s RENEW Prayer session this week, their last weekend with us before leaving for Melbourne. Be there, GP Theatre at 6pm.

What are life dinners?

Simple really.  We are praying that groups of people will gather friends and family together for a meal or social event that is explicitly geared towards introducing people to Jesus.  We will provide a speaker to doa short 5 minute talk and who can answer questions and you do the rest.

Some ideas:

• cheese, wine and lamb night
• nachos and mexican beer
• coffee and dessert
• backyard bbq with fire pit
• tapas
• winter soup night
• high tea
• cup cakes (those fancy ones)
• mystery beer night

Don’t start with a big program.  Don’t suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin.  Start personally and start in your home.  I dare you.  I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ.  Do what I am going to suggest.  Begin by opening your home for community… you don’t need a big program.  You don’t have to convince your session or board.  All you have to do is open your home and begin.  And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home.

Big Questions is starting this week at Women’s Bible Study. There’s still time to invite your friends!