CHURCHES WE’VE BEEN TO     - remember these are our impressions!

If you want to know more about a particular service email me at the usual address!

Esperance Anglican Church - Sunday 29th February

We’ve missed actually going to a church building for a few weeks although we have had some great family times so today I went to the church that Mary goes to.  Mary is married to Frank who took us on the most wonderful 4 wheel drive tour from Esperance and who we might be going to do a tour across the desert back to Ayers Rock and Alice Springs with.

A very traditional church- but so friendly and welcoming - after the service they do a breakfast too which was lovely.  They started it as a way for the congregations of the two different services to meet up. The message was on Jesus being tempted in the desert before he started his ministry. It was a good reminder that the devil talks into our minds through very plausible thoughts and tries to persuade us that his ideas make a lot of sense.  We need to keep on checking back with God for his guidance. Something Neil and I have needed to remember all the time with this trip and all his trips back to the UK. We have had to do a lot of checking back with God each day to be sure that we are in the right places and doing the right things.

Hillsong Church yet again - Sunday 25th January

This is beginning to feel a little bit like home - Hannah and Sarah went very happily off to the club and Josie and Michael both stayed in the main meeting with me.  There were four baby dedications and even though we didn’t know them from Adam, it was still a moving experience seeing people dedicating their children to God.  There was such a feeling of the belief in prayer and how the church would support the families; it was really great.

A different pastor gave the message which was on Mark 11:12-26 - Moving Mountains - the first part he spoke about was to do with blessing and cursing - how so often we tolerate things in our lives which we actually ought to curse. Jesus cursed the figtree for being unfruitful and we should curse things which stop us being unfruitful too. We should always want to bless people and to bring them into the kingdom but not necessarily their behaviour which will rob others of finding salvation in Christ. We should bless things which are designed by God.  There are also some things which we need to bring into our house/our Life but others that we need to drive out (Jesus drove out the moneychangers from the temple). If we allow pain and sin to take root in our Life they will rob us of the presence of God.

Secondly -we have all at time faced mountains - insurmountable problems which we live in the shadow of and which would take us all our lives to remove in our own strength. Jesus tells us to speak to the Mountain and it will move.  The Spirit of the Lord is our power. (Zach 4:6-7).  How to move mountains? (1) have faith in God - He can provide the power through His word and Spirit; (2) Be assured that the mountain will be moved - “I tell you the truth” - we need the assurance of God’s care, love, power in our Lives; (3) Speak to the Mountain - we have to tell the problem to go, command it not to have a hold on us; (4) remove the doubt from our hearts; (5) believe that I will have what I have prayed for - I have received it now and I will have it in God’s timing - keep stating Gods promises and living by His principles and then I will receive His power. Never accept what God never intended.

Hillsong Church again - Sunday 18th January 2004

Although it was quite a drive, everyone was pretty keen to go back to Hillsongs so off we went again. Josie had been so enthusiastic about the speaker that Michael decided to stay in with us this time. It was good going back a second time and knowing the worship songs a bit better this time and knowing our way around too.

The same man gave the message and this week he spoke on John 10:1-10 and how Jesus offers us an abundant life - not things but strength, wisdom, hope, peace, Life and He always makes sure that we have more than enough.  What we have to be so careful of is that the enemy doesn’t steal, kill or destroy what God has for us.  The enemy is a thief not a creator. He knocks our confidence, our innocence, our health, our relationships, our self-worth, our joy, our hope.  We need to be aware and we need to go back to Jesus so we can live our Lives to the full.  We need to “find our pasture” with Jesus (Psalm 91), to know how much He values us and to know His voice - we must not be driven by fear or the need for success but we must be led by His voice.

Good stuff - all week I’ve been really aware how important it is not to allow the devil to make footholds in our lives and our relationships, not to let him rob of us of th very best that God wants for us.

Hillsong Church, Baulkham Hills, Sydney - Sunday 11th January 2004

We tried to find this church the previous Sunday without any luck - basically because I didn’t have the full address with me and Baulkham Hills is rather larger than I thought!  So this week we were really pleased to find it. It is the main centre of the Hillsong Church we went to back in October in the city centre. They have recently built a new building which is huge - like a convention centre - all modern with lots of windows and airey spaces and the same wonderful friendly welcome that we received in the city church.  Michael, Hannah and Sarah went to the Kids club and had a great time, and Josie stayed in with me in the main service. There was the opportunity for her to go out with her own age group after the worship but she opted to stay for the main message.  Great lively worship and the same format of service as at the City - prayers of intercession and thanksgiving, news of whats going on (on video!!), and a call for giving to local needy projects. The message was given by a guy called Phil Dooley and boy was he passionate.  He spoke on the Power of Progress (Phil 1:21-26)  God wants our lives to progress and the reason Paul stayed was so that people’s lives would progress.  Our lives should be about progress and people should be able to see the difference, the development. Progress and change are different things, we often make changes but we don’t necessarily change. Progress is change with a purpose. Progress needs to be internal first and then it will show externally and is determined by what we focus on, and it comes from action BUT the enemy wants to stop our progress and we must deal with all the stuff which stops our progress. (2 Cor 2:9-11) We must not be ignorant of Satan’s devices.  We need to surround ourselves with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5) to protect ourselves from the devil and to make ourselves strong.

Over the Christmas break we didn’t find any church we  really felt drawn to so we spent our Sundays with each other and God and had some really good times

Naararcoote Caves (!) - Sunday 14th December

Not exactly a church! but Carols by Candlelight with a difference. Some lovely traditional carols and christmas songs - even winterwonderland which seemed a little out of place with the sun streaming down outside!  also some really good more up to date “trendy” Christmas Christian songs sung by a young group - really good. We all took candles and sat on the rocks (well some people took chairs but we didn’t) and they had little candles in all the nooks and crannies. It looked really good although of course it wasn’t dark at all outside seeing as its summer over here!

Port Fairy Anglican Church - Sunday 7th December

We missed the service arriving after it had finished but decided to stay anway and spend some time quietly as a family in God’s house - a very small English village style church but it was good to find a church with the policy of keeping the doors open for anyone who might want to come in. We sat in the lady chapel and followed some of the readiings for the day and each prayed for each other - isn’t it amazing how God can speak directly to our hearts through our children’s words - short and simple yet often knocking the nail right on the head!  It was a really good time and possibly more meaningful for us as a family than sitting through a structured service.

Ballarat RC Cathedral - St Peters- Sunday 23rd November

We only got there half way through and had no idea what we were going into - it was packed!  How do catholic churches manage to fill their churches?  Quite a formal style of service but with chorus type songs - that lovely one ‘on eagle’s wings’. One thing that really struck me about this service was the varity of people there and the appearance at least of complete acceptance of each other.  When we went up for communion the lady server was lovely and made a big thing of the younger two children and giving them a real blessing - in Melbourne they had been pretty much ignored when they came up with us.  Another thing which has struck me through going to all these different places is how we expect to find God only in the places we are used to going to but how (of course I hear you say) He is actually in all these different places just waiting for us to be open enough to meet with Him.

Forrest, Victoria - Sunday 16th November

What a find this was - a real God-incidence. We had booked to see the platypus when we were told about the guest house in Forrest and that just happened to be next to the church.  Forrest is only a small community. The church is an Anglican church building but it is shared with the Uniting Church - the Sunday we were there happened to be the Uniting Church’s turn to use the building. We arrived a little bit late but were welcomed from the front as we arrived. A small congregation but so friendly.  The vicar was called Jen and she looks after seven rural churchs. She was right on the nail with her friendliness and her spirituality.  She got everyone to act out the start of the story of Ruth and talked about Esther and Hannah too. We looked at the passages again later and both Neil and I were struck again about the necessity for prayer in every occasion which was particularly relevant with a few issues for Neil back at Thorpes. We were reminded that one thing God always expects us to do wherever we are is to pray so that He can act. I know that this is hardly new but sometimes I think we all need another dig in the ribs to actually do it - even from the other side of the world.  For me it was the thought that we can make a difference to the running of the business by our prayers from here - and maybe that is more effective than any talking on the phone or emailing.  I do pray that people will see God moving and realise that God’s hand is still on the business even if Neil is in Australia.

There was a wonderful couple sitting behind - she knew all the scriptures and led the way with the drama - and prayed a wonderful prayer for our travelling too.  After the service I stood chatting to two lovely ladies called Marita and Sheila - I felt that we could have immediately set up a woman’s group together. Its amazing how much you can learn about someone when you are all prepared to be open with each other - we talked about why we liked going to our respective churchs - and agreed that the important thing for us right now was that it was relevant to our lives. I was sad to leave them. I had wondered during the service what we could give to the church - its lovely when God takes us to somewhere we can really receive from Him but what do we give? I felt that encouragement was probably the answer and the minister said to us afterwards that for her it was great to see people in the congregation who obviously knew what it was all about and were happy to contribute. She told me that she felt encouraged in her ministry! Well I never - isn’t God amazing!

Camberwell Catholic church, Melbourne - Sunday 9th November

I can’t remember the name of this church.  It is the church that our friends Josephine and Gerard Dempsey are members of. A real family church and very full.  Josephine sings in the music group and sometimes plays the guitar although not at the moment as she has her arm in a sling. Today they were welcoming some people into the start of their journey of learning about the Catholic faith.  They are sponsored by members of the congregation and were signed with the cross, then left the service for their own teaching. It seemed good to acknowledge new people’s desire to be part of the community although I wasn’t too sure why they needed to leave the service. The teaching was good - there was an acknowledgement that it was a special Sunday in the Catholic church, something to do with the Pope’s own church’s anniversary and then teaching on being one body and the sanctity of our body as being a temple of the Holy Spirit.  I didn’t know the songs but they were pretty easy to catch on to and I felt the presence of God.

Hill Songs - City - Sydney- Sunday 12th October

As we were still in Sydney and everyone enjoyed themselves so much last time we came back again. I enjoyed the worship more as I recognised the songs this time.  The younger three has a great time in their clubs making cookies amongst other things - for Hannah it was a quadruple decker biscuit!  Josie says that she didn’t enjoy the talk as much as last week. It was a different speaker - I think he is their regular pastor.  He was speaking on ‘Considering Christianity’. How important it is to consider other Christians who have gone before us and how we can learn from their examples.  He said that we should consider 6 questions when we feel that we are facing trials and tribulations - WHERE did God promise to lead His people? WHY did God’s people fail to receive their inheritance?  WHO among God’s people succeeded in the past?  WHEN did God’s people face the same challenges I am facing? WHAT would have Abraham have done in the same circumstances? HOW will my choices effect God’s people today? I think the second and last questions were particularly challenging for me..

Hill Songs - Sydney City Church - Sunday 5th October

WOW! Having been such a fan of the CDs we were determined to visit this place.  We checked out the website and discovered that they have two venues - the original one in Baulkham hills, a Sydney suburb which can seat 4,000 at each service and another one in the City.  There are courtesy buses from the main train station to both of them.  We decided to go for the city as the buses were more frequent and it was only a few minutes for us from where we are staying. So we walked up to Central Station and got on a minibus which dropped us the front door of this large warehouse looking place - from the outside that is.  Inside it is light and airy - a large foyer reception with plenty of people to ask for help, a bookshop, loos etc. We got as far as the main door and someone asked us if we were new to the church and explained the child provision facilities which were upstairs,  The children don’t come into the main meeting at all. Josie decided to stay with Neil while I took Michael, Hannah and Sarah upstairs. It was like a mini New Wine - a stage and some games going on - loud - Sarah felt a little bit overawed but there was a quiet room with beading, drawing etc. and really welcoming children’s workers. She stayed in there and I left her with Hannah in the care of one of the leaders.  They apparently then went into the main room for a time of prayer and praise and then split into cell groups based on their ages to go through material similar to what was going on downstairs.  They played games too and got given a newcomers goodie bag. At the end Sarah asked me if she could go back next week so we have slightly rearranged our plans to fit it in!

Downstairs, when I found Neil and Josie the music was LOUD - two drummers and a big band and choir - unfortunately I didn’t really know the songs but the worship was totally from the heart. Even amongst all the noise it felt that God was there. After the praise, they did church news using a video screen which was very effective and also a piece on giving with a generous heart and showing where the money goes - city missions mainly the week we were there. There was also a time of prayer. you can write prayer requests or thankyous on pieces of paper and they pray over them all together.

The speaker spoke from 2 Peter and was excellent.  He was from Virginia Beach although originally I think from Hill Songs.  He has set up a church in the middle of the armed forces area in USA. Extremely powerful message with some great examples. Josie even said that he was brilliant - quite American in the way that he wanted responses for the congregation - no opportunity to go to sleep.  Having faith is great but not enough. You must constantly add to your faith - goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, Godliness, brotherly kindness and love.  Otherwise our lives will be ineffective and we only be spectators in Life.  Two bits in particular stood out for me - the importance of self-control - our negative emotions have more than effect on us, they effect others around us and often permanently. Secondly the need for recognizing everyone as our brothers - if we say ‘Our Father’ we are acknowledging that we all have the same Father, therefore anyone who professes God as their father is my brother or sister - that doesn’t mean that they have to be my best friend but Ii must treat them with the respect and love they deserve or as the speaker put it - our Christian family is outside of any cultural differences or consequences.

Once we were reunited with out children, all newcomers were welcomed in a separate room not only with tea or coffee and biscuits but cappuccinos and cafe lattes and hot chocolates!!  Only newcomers though.  The regulars could get coffee from a mobile unit outside the church!  At a guess there were 30 newcomers and maybe a regular congregation of 800. We were served our coffees and then a member of the congregation came over to talk to us and we really felt welcome. We left with a goodie bag for grownup too!

I think we will be going back!

St James’s, New York - Sunday 28th September

This is a large church on the east side of Central Park - pretty well-off congregation.  To us it seemed fairly high church with robes, and sung liturgy but apparently by New York standards it isn’t at all.  The children struggled somewhat with the formality of it all. They do their Sunday school after the service - the adults can go to talks as well although there weren’t any the week we were there as it was the beginning of their new term.  Michael, Hannah and Sarah went to a group and enjoyed it while we had coffee although I don’t think they were spiritually challenged.  Having said that, the talk in the main service was very good - all about distinguishing the difference between our needs and our wants and how muddled up we get them.  God promised to provide for our needs and sometimes we believe our wants are our needs and feel that God is letting us down - food for thought?

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