Wheatbelt Fellowship News
Sunday, 06 May 2012 08:38 AM
The first months of this year have been very hectic and yet they have been weeks and months of blessing.
Services have begun again in Wongan Hills, now the 2nd and 4th Sundays each month. Likewise the Wheatbelt Christian Fellowship (WCF) continues to service the Dalwallinu Baptist Church through my preaching there the 1st and 3rd Sundays each month.
As my recovery from surgery continues I am on the verge of going from two to three days a week as I march gradually towards a full return to work. It is a challenge to keep within those days and allow my body and mind time to recover further so a full return to work can be accomplished sooner rather than later. We praise and thank the Lord for the recovery so far!
Florence and I were able to get away for a much needed holiday after the stress of illness last year. We did this for the whole of March as we explored the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas in South Australia. Beautiful parts of God's creation to go and visit! It was great to have had colleagues Fred and Helen Vanderbom come and take up our work while we were away. Fred is a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia. They really got involved in both centres of our work (Wongan Hills and Dalwallinu) and very generously provided us with an objective assessment of this outreach. We thank them very much for the passionate way in which they joined us in this mission.
While away over East, the local YouthCARE team completed final organization for the first of this year's Family Festivals in the local park. All went very well on Saturday, March 24th and almost $2,000 was raised for local chaplaincy. We thank the Lord for such a great team who are so passionate and committed to this work of supporting both chaplaincy and Scripture teaching at the schools in the shire.
On my return from holidays we were swept up in the final organization for the Rotary bi-annual auction which was a great event which after expenses raised $12,044 for the work of the local club. While I had been elected as the next president of the club and was due to take over in July 2012, upon arrival home we discovered the current president had taken up a new job and I was asked to become acting president until the official changeover date. After prayer and a lot of consideration, I have accepted this request and took up this position on Monday, April 23rd. This is a great honour and privilege through which we hope to glorify God in this community.
After a year's absence due to illness, it was a delight to enter the classrooms of the local Wongan Hills District School and teach Scripture lessons to grades 2 and 3. I have a fantastic assistant and two fabulous teachers who are very supportive of this work. I look forward to bringing the Gospel to some 40 children as I also teach them important Christian values.
As I type this newsletter, I am soon off to Dalwallinu for the second sermon on our new series on Genesis. The theme of that series is 'My Relational God'. As we trace the history of God's people from Adam and Eve through the lives of the patriarchs, we are discovering that God is not just an 'it' or 'power' or 'the force'. That He does not require of us just mere belief in his existence, which after all Satan himself does. Our journey through Genesis is discovering that God is a personal being and is relational - He is the 'US' of the opening chapters of Genesis - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God desires a personal relationship and through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, He has enabled us to once more walk with Him as sons and daughters. Soon I will begin to post the audio files for this series on this website so you may follow us on this journey wherever you are.
After this morning's service in Dalwallinu I will be straight off to Perth to catch a flight to Sydney for the tri-annual synod of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia. Having missed the annual minister's and wives' conferences these past two years, it will be good catching up with colleagues as we discuss important matters. I will be leaving the Synod on Thursday to travel north to Brisbane to catch up with my father who on that day turns 90 years old! This will be the first time I will have seen him since the cruise in February 2011 when my back problem became acute. A real blessing indeed.
So as you can see there is much to be thankful for. We praise the Lord for His continuing faithfulness and provisions and all the developments in this mission these past few months.
May He continue to bless and keep you all also in your walk with Him.
Blessings in Christ
Pastor Geoff
Sunday, May 6th 2012
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To contact us please use the following link pastor@wheatbeltchristianfellowship.org