What could be better than heaven?

Yesterday at Kirkplace we celebrated our first Hope Sunday! This is one of five 'Gospel Sundays' we are celebrating throughout the year to mark the great moments when God acted (or will act) in Jesus to save and heal the world. At Christmas we celebrate that in Jesus God became flesh (Jn 1.14) and dwelt among us. At Easter we celebrate Jesus' death for sins (Good Friday) and glorious resurrection (Easter Sunday). At Pentecost we celebrate how Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit to dwell with us. On Hope Sunday we celebrate the wonderful promise that 'Christ will come again in glory'!

A couple of months ago, we were planning for a sermon series at Kirkplace on John 14-16, looking at the Holy Spirit. Steve asked me to dig around and find any good songs on the Holy Spirit to go with the sermons. There wasn’t much in our regular song list, so I dug around in a couple of hymn books. One in particular stood out - O Breath of Life. The words were really appropriate for where we were at at Kirplace - we are longing for revival in Kogarah, but we know it has to start with God’s work in us. These words really focused on the Spirit’s renewing work in us so that we, as his church, can be a light to our world. So I wrote a new melody and arrangement to the words and we sung it across the series at Kirkplace. It was a favourite straight away. So when Steve was preparing to speak on the Spirit at Ancon (Sydney Uni’s EU annual convention) he suggested that we should teach it there. Well - it went a bit nuts! It became a theme for the 600 students there - their prayer for God’s Spirit to come “sweeping through them” and bring revival.

Kirkplace loves a good cuppa!

Me and Fiona Hodge ) ran a Fairtrade Information Stand in the Kogarah Library Foyer. It was run as part of Fairtrade Fortnight (2-17 May), raising awareness about fairtrade across Australia and New Zealand.

We think the tea and coffee we drink at Kirkplace tastes even better because it is fairtrade. Let’s face it, God has been so generous to us, and we have so much - its great to be able to share what we have with others.

Why did we do it?

Over the last month or 2 - especially as we have just had Easter, i have been looking again at what Jesus did in coming to earth, living, dying on the cross and then living again! It has been really exciting and encouraging to think again through the many layers of Jesus death and resurrection. I think I sometimes fall into this ridiculous trap of "Oh yeah i know this stuff" But this last couple of months between Sundays@kirkplace, Growth Groups, Thrive, and a fantastic book im reading (will blog when ive finished it) I have been reminded of what an amazing, beautiful, incredible gift Jesus is to me and the rest of the world! BUT nothing has hit my gut quite as hard as what happened yesterday.

My housemate and I are both S.R.E teachers and yesterday she was teaching a yr2 class about the Resurrection. She had one girl in particular who she observed as she was talking about Mary coming to the tomb and finding it empty, was wide eyed and obviously moved by Mary's distress, and then REALLY excited as she realised (along with Mary) that the tomb was empty because Jesus was alive!

Here are some words that immediately come to mind when thinking about my first term as a METRO trainee at Kirkplace:

(In no particular order)

Rewarding
Hectic
Learning
Growth
Blur
Practical
Stretching
Confronting
Challenging
Coffee