Easter in Healesville

It's my first Easter in Healesville, and things seem to have gone ok! It's hard to know what the "usual" is, and being so early in the year I haven't really got to know the people and community yet.

However, I think all went well! Good Friday was remembered with a small group of us journeying through Luke's account of Jesus' trial and crucifixion. We shared in a great morning tea of fresh hot cross buns from Beechworth Bakery.

This mornings Pam spoke in two parts, and I led the service. We had an alarm sounding somewhere outside the church which caused a bit of a distraction. We had two people visit us from Sydney today too! It was great to have people under 30!!!

I used a DVD to sing "All Hail the Power of Jesus Name" to end this mornings service - note to self: Don't try again, it didn't really work!!!

I think that the second batch of hot cross buns and Easter eggs helped people forgive me and forget the dvd!!!

During the week I handed out around 800 Easter eggs to the shop keepers in town! It was great being able to give people something and not ask for anything in return.

Sometime last night someone decided to tag the sign out the front of the church. It doesn't really worry me, as we will either clean it or replace it - no point expending energy over something like that. However it seems to worry some of the congregation more. Part of me wonders that with my intentional Easter sharing during the week, and some great advances on connecting with and serving Healesville High that distractions like graffiti can steer us away from what we are really meant to be doing. I don't want to let this minor distraction stop us from serving the community and introducing people to the Kingdom of God.

So please pray for God's Kingdom to come in Healesville! Here are some of initiatives starting soon:
- UFO's Crafe Group; a new craft morning once a month for "unfinished objects" to start on Tues 1 April (no joke!)
- Our "Fresh Friday Munch" monthly community lunch; I have a meeting this week to work out objectives etc.
- CRE in Healesville Primary; I start in term 2 with both grade 6 classes
- Breakfast program at Healesville High; I start working with a group of year 10's in term 2
- A new project with some at-risk years 9 & 10 boys at Healesville High - a funding submission has been made to the Shire of Yarra Ranges, which includes a multi-faceted partnership including Healesville Salvos!
- For my professional ethics assignment that I really need to write this week!

Meal needs identity!

Attention blog readers:

I need your help! One of the new initiatives to commence shortly in Healesville is a community lunch that will allow on of the Salvo's community social workers to connect with people from the community over a free meal. The focus is on community connections - so along with a healthy free meal, there will be opportunities for people to be connected to community services that can assist them (e.g. ER and beyond). We will set up the pool table and table tennis table at the hall to allow people to gather socially as well. At least that's the idea at this stage.

I realise I haven't worded this very well, but I hope you get the idea.

I need to start advertising soon, and I need a name for the lunch - which will be held on Fridays (once a month at this stage to get things started).

Any suggestions welcome (in fact requested!)

When to Pray for a Pastor

I read the following blog entry, and have to agree with it so thought I would re-post its ideas here. It's from Perry Noble at NewSpring Church in the USA.

When to Pray for your Pastor

Perry suggests there are three times when a pastor needs prayer:

#1 - Sunday Night/Monday Morning

If a pastor EVER feels like giving up–it’s either on Sunday night or Monday morning.

Perry says that 99% of the worlds population doesn’t really have a clue as to what pastors endure emotionally, physically and spiritually. If they are going to be under a heavy spiritual attack…it’s usually during this time. If they are going to have a sleepless night, even though they are exhausted–it will be on Sunday night.
If they are going to battle discouragement…it will be on Sunday night. Trust me on this folks…I am saying what most pastors won’t tell you (either because of insecurity or some sort of Messiah complex!)

When a pastor preaches a message he has SEVERAL adrenalin rushes–ever had one of those? Sure you have! Let’s say you are riding down the road in a car and another car runs a stop sigh and you manage to avoid a collision by mere inches.

BAM…you get an adrenalin rush that studies show it takes between four to six hours to recover from.

NOW–take under consideration that most pastors in today’s world preach more than one sermon per Sunday…and with the shots of adrenalin the body produces to keep the dude going…it completely kicks his butt–I promise. That is why it is so essential to lift him up during this time–he feels like a used washed cloth!

For me, Sunday afternoon/evenings can be tough! It's only been a few weeks but after church in the morning I can be exhausted, and not having someone to debrief with can be tough too. So, pray for me on a Sunday afternon/evening.

#2 - On Saturday Nights

If pastors are going to have a sleepless night, other than Sunday night–it’s Saturday.

Pastors have a hard time shutting their minds off on Saturday night–we think about the message, the music, who is and is not going to be there…and about one million other things. We can literally drive ourselves crazy.

#3 - Anytime The Holy Spirit Brings Them To Mind

If you are riding down the road and your pastors name pops into your mind…pray for them. It really is that simple.

If you are in your living room and watching television and his or her name pops in your mind…pray for him or her.

If you are riding down the road and you see a dead squirrel splatted all over the place and your pastors name pops in your mind…PRAY FOR YOURSELF, you have issues!!! :-)

The Holy Spirit knows when people need prayer…and I can’t tell you the number of times He’s brought someone’s name to my mind, I’ve prayed for them and then later found out that at the exact time I prayed for them was at a time when God was doing some serious work in their lives.

So there you go! Some very wise words from Perry Noble! Pray for me!

Healesville makes a splash internationally...!

Well, after our appearance in Warcry the other week, Healesville has continued to feature in the media...this time internationally!!!

I subscribe to lots of blogs (over 70 now) form heaps of church leaders, para-church ministries, friends etc. One is the "Church Marketing Sucks" blog. They have a flickr group where different people upload church promotions they are working on for peer review. Each week, four or so entries get selected to be featured on the CMS blog.

Yep - I submitted one and it got selected on the blog this week! You can look at the logo (which I posted on this blog too!) and people's comments here.

Pretty cool! Who would have thought a small community would become known around the world (or at least for the couple of thousand CMS blog readers!).

We had our first Corps Council for 2008 during the week. There are some great plans underway, some of which include:
- community meal connecting people in Healesville
- UFO craft group (un-finished objects)
- bible study
- weekly prayer meeting
- and more but its too early to share yet!

We are about caring for people, transforming lives, making disciples, and reforming society. These new mission initiatives will be steps to help people connect with Jesus and help achieve our mission intentions. The vision is still formulating, but so far it revolves around Healesville for God!! Pray for the vision to become clear so that we do the right things.

Cafe Church Logo

Cafe Church Logo
Originally uploaded by g.mawson

First draft of logo for Cafe Church - a monthly occurance at the Salvos in Healesville. It's unique to us - no one else in town runs a 'cafe church', so we want to create an identity for it to promote it around town.

I posted it to the Church Marketing Lab group on flickr and have had some positive feedback. What do others think?

I have been told that it will attract younger people, which doesn't really reflect the age group present at cafe church. This might cause a problem it people come, and then don't enjoy it (and this was our one chance of them attending...).

Any feedback welcome!

Prayer points

Prayer points:
- A team to help to begin new initiatives here in Healesville - specifically I am needing a female (no comments, please - I know what you will be thinking (and I agree that I need a female!!!)) to commence some children's ministry.
- For me to get over this cold
- For our first Corps Council on Thursday night
- For God's vision for Healesville to be clear

Rats, mice, wasps and a cold

There was a bad smell down one end of my house the other week, which I and friends determined was coming from the roof. So, I called the pest control company. Today they came, and removed a large rats nest! There was a dead rat, and two dead mice. They had been dead for a while, so it doesn't exactly explain the smell, however, there could have been a dead rat/mouse in a wall cavity which could have been causing the smell. Never the less, the smell has gone now, and so has the nest!

While they were here, the pest company discovered that I have a large wasp nest out the front of my house! So, they removed it as well. Apparently the wasps were very aggressive, abnormally so. It was a large nest that was actually inside the brick wall of the house. Well, it is gone too now!

My cold, however, is still with me! I'm taking some cold and flu tablets, so my nose isn't running, but I am feeling a bit drained of energy. I've decided not to go to the community dinner tonight. I really don't have the energy and don't want to spread this cold around. Last night I was asleep by 7:30 on the couch, so tonight might be an early night as well!

Thank you, thank you very much

Why? Why I ask?

For some reason, several times during this mornings service I said "Thank you, thank you very much".

I can not explain why! I am not a big Elvis fan so I don't think I was trying to channel him. Made me chuckle, cause I had no idea why I was doing it!

Anyway, have had a good birthday weekend over all - apart from the chick who decided to back into my car at Eastland yesterday. Luckily she only wrecked my number plate, but its just another thing to follow up - just when you think life starts to settle down!

Need to get some sleep - into the city again tomorrow for a divisional officer's day. It's a long way from Healesville to the Rialto!