Mission

Moore Mission, Day 2

Last night we had the 7pm service here at St George North. It was a great night spending time with a truly great group of Christians. After the morning services, a team meeting and some walk up evangelism/flier drop most of us were pretty tired, so the smiling faces at Church in the Bank were really encouraging for us as a team. The stories this morning of conversations had last night were a testament to this encouragement.

Today was a much quieter day. Today we spent most of the day planning for this coming week, along with a tour of St George North. Because nothing much happened today, I thought I would let you know of some stats.

St George North is a vastly multicultural area. Looking at Census data from 2006 for the suburb of Kogarah the population sits at 11,715 people with a pretty 5,810/5,905 Male/Female split.

  • The 25 to 54 age group is the highest represented with 5,703 people.
  • 2,697 people were born in Asia, with 1,325 of them being born in China.
  • Because of this, Mandarin and Cantonese speaking homes are high in proportion with a combined 16.6%

So with a quick look at these stats, it is evident that St George North is a very multicultural area. Sadly this is not the case within the Church here. But it is something that they are spending time and energy trying to change. We have been really thankful that there are a few people on our Mission team, who can speak both Mandarin and Cantonese. Meaning that we are able to make vital contact with these groups in Kogarah.

Moore Mission, Day 1

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This morning the St George North mission kicked off with 3 services in 3 different buildings in Bexley, Bexley North and Carlton. St George North Anglican Church is a multi site church, with a total of 4 services over 4 different sites in and around Bexley.

This morning our mission team was split between these 3 different services with 3 people from the team preaching. Tonight we will all combine for a 7pm service in a bank in Kogarah.

If you are the kind if person that likes to pray, we would love it if you would pray for the beginning of our mission here in St George North. Pray for the churches we will be working with over the next week, and that this mission will only be the beginnings of a wider and longer lasting mission here in St George.

Badda Disability Centre

I really love my little sister. 20 months ago, she packed up her life and moved to Dhaka, Bangladesh to be a missionary to the Bangladeshi people and to teach primary school kids. She is a real inspiration to me personally, both as a woman and a Christian.

She works at Grace International School, and also teaches music on top of that.

Living in Bangladesh is really hard for a westerner, and even harder for a Christian. Bangladesh is primarily a Muslim country. And the differences in these beliefs have their challenges.

My sister is a volunteer in something called Badda Disability Centre. She helps in giving clothing and food to homeless children in Dhaka. It is a really a great thing that she is involved in. You should check out all the great work they do.

Moore Mission 2011

This last couple of weeks have been exciting. But first a short story.

A couple of years ago Kirsty and I stopped leading on Kiama Beach Mission. Kirsty led on it for two years, and I led for eight. Finishing up mission was both a sad and happy time. Sad to be finishing up in a ministry we had loved, with people we loved and sad at the prospect of not being able to keep in touch with the churches in Kiama. But also happy because we were getting married, and felt that the leadership had passed on to new people with fresh ideas. KBM was in safe hands.

Why would I share this story? Next week Moore College mission for 2011 begins. It has been great being able to be part of plans for a new mission. Even if there will be considerably less beach involved. The whole college is splitting up for the week to tell people from all over Sydney about Jesus. With a few other groups heading to places like Hong Kong and Port Macquarie. Personally I will be heading to St George North, around Carlton, which is near Sydney airport.

If you want too read about what is happening during the week. Ill be contributing to a combined blog over the course of the week. My posts will be the ones with less text and more fun stuff like photos, and possibly a video or two.

But if you are reading this, then I want to invite you to be part of our Moore Mission street team. We need people to spread the word that Moore College is having a mission. There are 4 basic things that you can do.

1) if you have a blog – get the word out! let people know about mooremission.wordpress.com

2) if you’re on twitter – tweet about us. if you have mission related tweets, use the hashtag #MooreMission

3) if you’re on facebook – share the love.

4) if you have family, friends, churches that would be interested in following Moore Mission 2011 – let ‘em know!

Meet Derek and Beth

One large focus of my subjects at college is the question “How can I use what I am learning to reach communities with the story of the Gospel”, meaning that just having knowledge about the gospel is useless unless it is also matched with some kind of action in sharing it with others.

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce to you some friends of ours. Their names are Derek and Beth. I’ve been friends with Derek for a few years, we served together as leaders of a men’s Bible Study a couple of years ago.

At the end of last year Derek and Beth moved from the comfortable north shore of Sydney, to Santiago, Chile. They are doing the Chile equivalent of MTS, with a focus to UNI students in Santiago, working in a church plant and some work with kids that live in an orphanage.

Anyway, they have a blog running. If you would like to know more about what they are doing, click the image below.