Humble yourselves, therefore,
under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Cast all your anxiety on him
because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 NIV
When
confronted by a major challenge, or a series of smaller ones, we wonder, “I
don’t know what to do? How will I get
through this? How on earth will I
cope?”
Dread and
fear start to invade our souls, and we find ourselves feeling anxious and
overwhelmed: “If it all depends on me – and I’ve got nothing – then I’m really
sunk.”
What happens
next depends on whether I focus on my futility - or God’s ability.
No matter
what we’re facing, we can always turn to God for help. In Psalms, I recently came across this gem
from a person looking back to how God helped:
Unless the LORD had given me
help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:17-19
When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:17-19
God wants
you to talk to him. And God wants to
help you. He may not pluck you from the difficulty; but he will give you
wisdom, strength, and courage to get through the difficulty.
When we
turn to God and invite him into whatever situation we’re facing, our souls will
find rest.
Letting
go of the problem and casting it on God is always a better way forward than
struggling on our own without him.
Pr Rolly
Stahl
This Sunday at Good Shepherd
This
week’s message is “Growing” as we continue
the series ‘Our story in God’s story’
Bible Readings: Ephesians 2:1-10;
John 15:1-8, 16
Forms
All
families with kids attending Kingdom Kids need to please fill out a Child
Registration Form to attend programs this year. It is a green form available on
the sign in desk and provides us with important contact details, photographic
consent and safety/care information. Please fill one out per family and return
to Kathy Liebig or Beth Einthal in person or via our pigeon holes,
alternatively you can scan and email them to kliebig@paravista.org.au
Playgroup
Playgroup
is on this Wednesday from 9:30-11:30am. There is free play, a craft activity,
fruit time and story/music time. Playgroup is looking for a new coordinator to
be part of a great team of people! Please prayerfully consider if this might be
you and contact Beth for more information on 8263 5087 or
beth.einthal@paravista.org.au
Beth Einthal
Children and Family Team Leader
Prayer
requests
Prayer
requests are not included in the weekly news. If you would like to view the
current requests refer to the email that alerted you to this weekly news. If
you have a prayer request please email churchequiries@paravista.org.au with your request.
Ash Wednesday Service
5th March 7.30pm
Our Ash Wednesday service is a great opportunity to pause, reflect and
begin preparing ourselves spiritually to celebrate what Jesus did for us when
he died on the cross and rose again at the first Easter. The Ash Wednesday
service will include the imposition of ashes and Holy Communion. We will also
begin our new sermon series for Lent called ‘Choices on the way.’
New Logo Launch for
Good Shepherd
This Sunday in both services Pastor Noel will be presenting the new logo
for Good Shepherd which will form an integral part of the design work for our
new website and phone app. Come along see and how the five key words of Good
Shepherd’s story of acceptance, love, hope, serving and growing have been used
to develop our new logo.
Para Vista Lutheran
Women's Fellowship
1pm on Tuesday, March 4th beginning with Bible Study. There will be a
trading table. Margie Seidel has organised a quiz for us so we'll need our
thinking caps on. We close with devotion led by a member followed by afternoon
tea. All most welcome
Women@PV – Aspire to
Care
Friday 14th March @ 7:30pm
We have all heard about overseas missions and are pleased to announce
this rare opportunity to personally hear from our special guest, Jayasingh
Rajiah
Come along and be encouraged by hearing his stories about Bethany Home. Learn
how this small organisation is achieving big things in the Hilliar Perak
district of Malaysia for children and adults who have a variety of
disabilities; through their care for these people and their families and wider
community, through education and training.
Coffee and chat time to precede Jayasingh’s presentation.
Admission: $5.00 per person or $2.00 per student.
All Welcome
Cebu Mission
Fundraising News
Thank you so much to all who supported our Fundraising for Cebu Mission last year. We were able to raise $7500 from all our events, which was very much appreciated by the mission.
This year, we pray that you will support us again. Our Project is to raise money to help the people of Inayawan Rubbish dump area, to fix cracks in the school building which happened from the earthquake, to fix up the surrounds of the building, to renovate the Medical Clinic and to be able to purchase some land at the back to develop a Basketball/Volleyball court to involve the Youth. Also Friedrich and Nancy hope to be able to build an office on site. If you are on Face Book, don't forget to have a look at the International Gospel Centre page where you will find stories and photos of what is happening in Cebu.
We welcome Rex Post to our Team and we pray that he will be blessed as he helps with the raising of funds for the Mission. We have room for one more member on the team, so if you feel you would like to join us, please contact Joan McCarthy on 8262 7429 or via email: joanrmc@bigpond.com or speak to me after service.
Thank you so much to all who supported our Fundraising for Cebu Mission last year. We were able to raise $7500 from all our events, which was very much appreciated by the mission.
This year, we pray that you will support us again. Our Project is to raise money to help the people of Inayawan Rubbish dump area, to fix cracks in the school building which happened from the earthquake, to fix up the surrounds of the building, to renovate the Medical Clinic and to be able to purchase some land at the back to develop a Basketball/Volleyball court to involve the Youth. Also Friedrich and Nancy hope to be able to build an office on site. If you are on Face Book, don't forget to have a look at the International Gospel Centre page where you will find stories and photos of what is happening in Cebu.
We welcome Rex Post to our Team and we pray that he will be blessed as he helps with the raising of funds for the Mission. We have room for one more member on the team, so if you feel you would like to join us, please contact Joan McCarthy on 8262 7429 or via email: joanrmc@bigpond.com or speak to me after service.
We would also like one more Chocolate Seller....if you work in an office or a suitable place where you are allowed to display a box of chocolates, please contact Joan.
Wishing Well
The fundraising team have available a Wishing Well for hire, which can be
used for Weddings, Christenings, 18th or 21st Birthday
parties. It is a secure locked box and the $50 hire fee goes to Cebu Mission. For
more information or to make a booking, contact the Church office or Linda Dulay
on 0423 067 398.
Pancake Day
Sunday 9th March, fresh pancakes will be served after both morning services. Just $1 each, which includes either Maple syrup or sugar and lemon juice. All monies raised go to the 'Inayawan Project' in Cebu.
Watch this space for more details re our Major Fundraiser on Saturday August 31st! Put that date in your diary.
Pancake Day
Sunday 9th March, fresh pancakes will be served after both morning services. Just $1 each, which includes either Maple syrup or sugar and lemon juice. All monies raised go to the 'Inayawan Project' in Cebu.
Watch this space for more details re our Major Fundraiser on Saturday August 31st! Put that date in your diary.
From the Office
In service
announcements
As part of our
congregational communication strategy we include selected announcements in our
worship services. We appreciate that some people find this disruptive and to
minimise this we seek to keep our announcements to a minimum. At the same time
we also understand that ministry teams are passionate about having their
ministries and events promoted as much as possible. This creates quite a
challenge to decide what is included and what is left out.
As a rule of thumb
the announcement needs to be relevant for a large section of our congregation.
We tend to avoid announcing ministries that happen on a regular basis
preferring to promote these through the weekly news and the before and after
service slides. This can be arranged by emailing Sooty Lor (slor@paravista.org.au). In saying this if there is something
special happening at a particular meeting we would consider including it in the
in service announcements.
To have an event
considered for the announcements they need to be emailed to Pastor Noel (nkluge@paravista.org.au) at least two weeks before the Sunday you
want them announced. Please avoid asking one of the pastors to make an
announcement a couple of minutes before a service begins. It can create a
rather awkward situation if the pastor has to decline the request due to an
already high number of announcements.
It is important to
note that while an announcement can raise awareness of an event or ministry,
the best way to attract people to something is through a personal invitation.
Encouraging your team members to personally invite people will have a far
greater impact than an announcement.
Noticeboard
Want to get into the
bible in 2014?
Every Tuesday morning from 9:30-11:30 our church is host to BSF (Bible
Study Fellowship) an interdenominational group which holds classes around the world.
This year we will get into the book of Matthew, discovering how relevant it is
to our lives today. About 50-60 women come to share in small groups what they
have learnt from readings during the week and then receive
teaching on the following week’s passage. Children (babies to school age)
are wonderfully nurtured and cared for in their own age appropriate classes.
We currently have about 4 women from our Good Shepherd community involved
and would love to welcome more... if you are keen to find out more, feel free to
drop by on a Tuesday morning or contact Sonia Hulme on 7122 2903 for more
information.
Serving the Community
Tracey Cooper is the
Christian Pastoral Support Worker at one of our local primary schools – East
Para Primary School (12 Caroona Ave, Para Hills) She is looking for
church volunteers to come along and help out at a School Working Bee on Saturday March 22nd,
9am - 12pm. One of the tasks is
tidying up the school gardens.
Tracey writes: “If
you have people in your congregation that may want to support East Para in this
way can you please let me know.”
Email: tracey.cooper995@schools.sa.edu.au
Mob: 0448 838 634
Foster Care
Information Session
Are you able to provide foster care to a
child? Come along to a Foster Carer Information Session on Wednesday 9th
April 2014, from 6.30-8.30 at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Gate entrance on Seventh
Street, Gawler. Meet a carer and hear what it is really like to open your
home to a child or young person in need. Light refreshments will be provided.
For further information and to RSVP, call 8337 8787 or visit our website: http://www.fostercare.lccare.org.au
“If we
all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back”
