The Call of God to Man and Mice
"The word of the LORD came to Jonah son
of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its
wickedness has come up before me. (Jonah
1:1-2 NIV) We probably all know the story. Jonah
disobeyed God by running away and attempted to flee to Tashish. Notwithstanding
the story, Jonah really did not have a whale of a time! He was miserable in his
disobedience. God however, having got his attention gave him a second chance to
be obedient. As a result of doing what God originally asked of him –
proclaiming God’s word - the entire city of Nineveh repented and were saved
from destruction.
And Jesus has given you and me these instructions, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15 CSB) What does this mean for us today? You and I have been commissioned by Jesus Himself! Gossip the good news of Jesus! As God prompts, tell those in your world about Jesus in your life! Where is your world? The simple answer is that your world is where you are at right now! Your street, suburb, social club, workplace, wherever you are, that’s simply your world.
And Jesus has given you and me these instructions, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15 CSB) What does this mean for us today? You and I have been commissioned by Jesus Himself! Gossip the good news of Jesus! As God prompts, tell those in your world about Jesus in your life! Where is your world? The simple answer is that your world is where you are at right now! Your street, suburb, social club, workplace, wherever you are, that’s simply your world.
John wrote, “For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden.” (1 John 5:3 CSB) So if something God asks you to do feels like a burden, what’s wrong? Usually it’s procrastination. When we don’t act right away it becomes harder to do the longer we wait. But when we do what God says, the most refreshing freedom will come into our lives.
God doesn't call everyone to be a Jonah, a missionary, a pastor, or a Christian lay-worker, but he does call every one of us to be a faithful servant and witness for Jesus.
The fact that Jesus was maliciously
flogged and then was not ashamed to hang naked upon and die for my sinful life
on a punishing Roman cross for me, AND
to remain my friend even when for many years I denied Him, is more than I can humanly comprehend.
What is God calling you to do?
Is it to spend more time reading the bible and praying? Is it a phone call you
need to make? An action you need to take? For your sake and in obedience to
your Lord and Saviour, do it!
Barry Klaer
Pastoral are & Fellowship
Team Leader
Prayer Requests: Not included in this newsletter, but if you would like to view the current
requests, refer to the e-mail that alerted you to this Newsletter. If you have
a prayer request or wish to be covered by prayer please email churchenquiries@paravista.org.au
with your request
This week we continue in the series “You Got It! (Colossians)”.
This week’s message
is “Growing
up in Jesus”
Bible Reading: Colossians 1:24-2:10
Podcasts available at www.paravista.org.au
Staffing Changes
This week Laura Carson returns from
maternity leave to continue in her role as Children and Family Team leader.
Special thanks to Beth Einthal for very capably filling this role while Laura
has been on leave. With a new addition to their family Laura asked if her role
could be split to enable her to reduce her work time from 20 hours to 12 hours
per week. The remaining 8 hours would be used to create a support role within
the Children and Family ministry.
This new role was advertised before Easter and we are pleased to
announce that Beth Einthal has been appointed as the Children and Family
support worker. Beth’s experience in the ministry as both a volunteer and a
fill in staff person while Laura was on leave has well prepared her for this
role. Beth’s skills and gifts complement Laura’s leadership gifts and we
believe God is gifting this ministry to continue its amazing growth into the
future. Beth will begin her new role on 29th April.
Family Prayers - Good Shepherd families, we would love to get you involved
with leading the prayers in our 10:30am worship services. You would be rostered
on one Sunday a year and we would love to see and hear both adults and children
leading the congregation in their prayers. We hope this is a fun and meaningful
way for families to get involved in the service!
Kingdom Kids is now in recess for the school holidays. Please have a
look at the display in the church foyer of how Kingdom Kids celebrated Palm
Sunday and Easter, it was an amazing day!
Baby Zone is being transformed through the wonderful work of God and
an amazing team leader, Tanya Harrison! To fully utilise the amazing Baby
Beginnings resources we are in need of the below items! If you have any of
these items no longer being used at home or you would like to donate them,
please drop them into the church office or bring it on Sunday to Baby Zone!
- Small plastic watering can and toy gardening tools
- Colourful scarves for waving around (small ie. bandana size)
- A few animal puppets
- A few people puppets
- 1 set of plastic bowls (ie. Ikea ones), 1 set of plastic spoons, 1 set of plastic cups
- 1 set of large plastic toy food
- Several fake/plastic/silk flowers
- Several soft balls
- Unbreakable mirror
- 2 magnifying glasses
- 2 masking tape (thin)
- 2 clear sticky tape (thin)
- 1 pkt Blu tac
- 5 small glue sticks
- Blue and green crepe paper
- 1 pkt large paper plates
Playgroup is in recess over the school holidays.
Little
Lambs Playgroup is looking for a new coordinator. There is an amazing team of
ladies who run the playgroup together; we are looking for someone to oversee
and coordinate this team! Please consider if this might be you?
Beth Einthal (Relief Children and Family
Ministry)
Step Up 2013
Step Up is
generally aimed at children in grade 5 who are interested or have a desire to
participate in Holy Communion.
Our planned dates are:
Our planned dates are:
Sunday 5 May – Step Up
lunch following the 10.30am service.
Fridays 10,
17, 24, 31 May – probably at 7:30pm
Possible
dates for Step Up to receive Holy Communion: Sunday 9 June or 23 June.
All sessions
will be held in the Good Shepherd Primary School. Mary Jo Zwar is our Step Up
facilitator – and she is fabulous. We ask at least one parent to attend
each session with their child.
To register,
please notify our church office (8263 5087 or churchenquiries@paravista.org.au) with names
(child and parent/s) as well as contact information (email and phone).
ALIVE!175
This year the Lutheran Church of Australia
will be celebrating 175 years of God’s blessing on Lutherans in Australia and
New Zealand.
On Sunday 21st April these
celebrations will begin with a worship service to open our General Convention
at 10am at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. This will be followed by a lunch
provided for $5.00.
ALIVE!175 will commence at 2pm on Sunday, 21st
April, after the worship service (10am) and lunch. Through a combination of
live performances and multi-media presentations, you'll travel through our
Lutheran history in Australia, celebrate how God is working in our church in
the present, and look with hope to how he will lead us into the future.
While our regular Sunday worship services
will occur as normal at Para Vista you are encouraged to attend the opening
worship service at 10am. It will certainly be an amazing experience to worship
with so many other people. You are also welcome to attend just the ALIVE!175
presentation in the afternoon from 2pm. More Information can be found online @ http://www.lca.org.au/
To help the organisers plan we ask that you
register for this event. You can do this by emailing churchenquiries@paravista.org.au ASAP or writing “Alive 175” on your welcome
card indicating how many will be attending and if you will be going for the
whole time or just the afternoon presentation.
Alpha 2013
The Alpha course is where
participants can discover who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. Following the presentations by Nicky Gumbel,
participants can ask questions and search for answers in a small group with
others.
God touched many hearts and
lives through last year’s Alpha course here at Good Shepherd. This year we are hoping to run Alpha on a
series of Sunday nights: 14th April to 7th July; plus a
day where we explore the Holy Spirit (Saturday 1st June). We would like to kick off each Sunday evening
around 5:30pm with a meal.
For that to be possible, we
need the gifts and help of others. So we
are asking whether members and friends of our Good Shepherd family can serve in
the following areas:
- Helping with set up or pack up
- Catering or food preparation
- Creche
- Small group leaders
- Prayer team
- Music or sound
Please consider and pray about
being involved.
If you have any questions or
would like to join in this adventure, please contact any of the Alpha Team:
Debbie and Cees Wesselingh, Merv and Ros Thiele, Lindsay Freund.
Notice Board
Note of thanks
From Ray and Terri Zweck
for all the good wishes on the occasion of their 40th Wedding
Anniversary.
Notice to LLL
Depositors
Our congregation has
received a “Notice to LLL Depositors” advising that the interest rate on LLL
interest bearing Savings Accounts will be 4.00% from 1 June 2013. This notice
has been placed on the church notice board for your information.
Barmera Parish
Dried Apricots Missions Fund Raising
Each 500gm bag is
sold for $10.50. The apricots are grown without any sprays, but do have Sulphur
preservative. They come straight from the grower so have not been
rehydrated as have those which are commercially available
in Supermarkets. MORE apricot, LESS water for your money, so
good value.
Except for a quite
small amount retained for maintenance, the Funds raised this year will be
forwarded through the Lutheran Board for Missions to Projects we have already
supported in Cambodia and to the Mango Tree Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled
in Tonga, via NazCare Australia Inc.
Apricots are now available from the church office. Call in during
office hours 9am – 3.45pm Monday to Friday. Orders: phone 8263 5087 or via email: churchenquiries@paravista.org.au
Pantry Volunteers needed
Lutheran Community
Care provides community services
on behalf of the Lutheran Church in SA and NT through a
range of programs.
We are in need of volunteers to work in the
Blair Athol pantry on weekday mornings.
Duties will
include unpacking donations, packing cupboards and bagging items.
Contact: Audene
08 8269 9300
Your help is still urgently needed ...LCC is still in the midst of Food Parcels+ Lenten
Appeal and needs your help to support South Australian families doing it tough.
The Food Parcels+ Appeal provides more than just a hand out through a parcel -
it allows the staff and volunteers to provide support and care to individuals
and families until they can make it on their own. So far through your donations we have been
able to provide over 570 Food Parcels+ to those in need. This is not far from
our goal of 700 Food Parcels+. If you
have not already done so could you help by making a donation to support our
goal. The support we provide during the period following the holidays is just
as important as the support given before so that we can continue to work with
families in need through financial counselling, personal counselling and
emergency relief amongst more of the many services we offer across our sites.
To donate to the Lutheran
Community Care Food Parcels+ Lenten Appeal,
visit our website www.lccare.org.au or call our staff on 08
8269 9333. You can also fill out the Lutheran Community Care insert from the
March edition of Together magazine. All donations $2 and over are tax
deductible.
Remembrance
Book for Dr Semmler's Farewell
2013 marks
the celebration of 175 years of the presence of Lutherans in Australia; it also
marks the end of an era.
Dr Mike Semmler, President of the LCA since 2000 is retiring at the end of the General Convention of Synod. During a special celebration on Tuesday, 23 April 2013, Dr Semmler will be presented with a Remembrance Book containing letters from people who wish to express their appreciation to him for his time as President. Anybody who would like to have a letter included in this book is most welcome to contribute.
Dr Mike Semmler, President of the LCA since 2000 is retiring at the end of the General Convention of Synod. During a special celebration on Tuesday, 23 April 2013, Dr Semmler will be presented with a Remembrance Book containing letters from people who wish to express their appreciation to him for his time as President. Anybody who would like to have a letter included in this book is most welcome to contribute.
There are a
few stipulations about the letters:
·
Could they be on A4 paper
·
If they are posted we would be grateful if the
letters aren’t folded
·
Could emailed letters please be scanned and
forwarded as an attachment (ie not as part of email text; we would like to
include signatures. Letters as part of email text may have to be reformatted)
·
Could they reach the LCA National Office by
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Please post
letters to: Larissa Helbig Assistant to the President Lutheran Church of
Australia
197 Archer
Street NORTH ADELAIDE SA 5006 or email letters to: larissa.helbig@lca.org.au
WANTED Cleaner for Lutheran Archives. 3 hours per
week during the day, preferably on Wednesdays.
Contact Archivist
Lyall Kupke, 8340 4009.
Lutheran Church
of Australia, SA/NT District Job Opportunity DIRECTOR FOR CHAPLAINCY MINISTRIES
Up to Fulltime Position (negotiable) Commencing July 1, 2013
The LCA, SA/NT District has a created a new Department for
Chaplaincy Ministries to support and grow chaplaincy ministries in the
District.
We are seeking a suitably qualified person to fill the position
of Director.
Contact Kate Hampel 8267 5211 Email: Kate.Hampel@sa.lca.org.au for the position description
Applications
close Friday 17th May, 2013
RADIO
Listen to FACE
TO FACE
14th
April Bicycle
For Two Richard
Fox
Riding a bike over hills,
through valleys and on long winding roads can sound a bit like the journey of
life. Like a bike ride, the
journey of life has moments of wonder, amazement and sheer terror. These moments form stories in our lives and help to make us who
we are today. Join Richard Fox as he
shares a personal story about his dad that really touched his life.
21st
April O
My God Noel
Due
Waltzing Matilda, the
well-known and unofficial anthem of Australia, tells of an interesting part of
Australian history. We sing it today even though we may not even know the
original meaning. Noel Due will be talking about another connection with our
past, the phrase, OMG. What does it really mean?
28th
April Smashing
Plates Interview
Be inspired and encouraged by someone’s personal
journey to overcome a painful childhood. Part 1
Check out the video version
of the interview on www.facetoface.org.au
MOBILE You may now also access the Face
to Face mobile website through your mobile device.
TELEVISION - ON MAIN STREET, a half hour talk show tackling socially
relevant issues
11:30pm Saturday (AEDT) on the Australian Christian Channel AUSTAR DIGITAL 182.
FREE WORSHIP SERVICE DVDs And/Or CDs
If circumstances should prevent you or someone
you know from attending church, please order FREE LCA Worship Service DVDs /CDs
by contacting Lutheran Media. FREECALL 1800 353 350 or luthmedia@lca.org.au
Jesus is the only life insurance you can
collect after death.
Church Web site: www.paravista.org.au
