Weekly News: 12/01/2018

Friday, December 21, 2018

Joy Delivered

It’s been said: “A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved; a joy shared is a joy doubled.”

In our Bible reading this Sunday, there is awe and wonder as two pregnant women share a festival of joy. What makes this account unique is that both women are carrying miracle babies.
• One is Mary: a virgin who is engaged, but has not slept with her fiancé.
• The other is Elizabeth: a woman past her child bearing years and well into menopause.

Both women rejoice in knowing that the sons born to them will play a special part in God’s plans for his world. This Sunday, we will lift the lid on their joy – so we might share in it too! Come and receive the joy that God delivers to us in Jesus.

As we enter these days of Christmas, I pray this blessing for you and yours:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Romans 15:13 NIV)
Pr Rolly Stahl

Bible Reading: Luke 1:35-56
Podcasts of weekly messages are available at www.paravista.org.au

Prayer Request
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 churchenquiries@paravista.org.au with your request.

As Christmas draws near we invite you and those in your home to spend time together doing a different activity each day.

On New Year’s Eve, we’ll be doing something special together as a family here at Good Shepherd. A night of worship and celebration - kicking off at 7pm. The evening will include worship (will be very different than our typical Sunday services) and then join in a night of board games, music, drinks, coffee, laughter and joy as we ring in the new year as a Church family. If you are attending please bring nibblies to share, drinks and board games.

We’ll have the play area open for smaller kids and have some other large games for bigger kids.

We are so excited to have you all there!

From the Office

Christmas Whirlwind Competition
The competition is open again on Monday 24th December at 8.30am to find the best dust blowing machine on the block. The competition will assist in giving the church grounds a bit of a dust off and the facility a bit of a spruce up.

For free entry, please bring along a petrol driven (or electric) blow vac that needs a dust out with safety equip and join the group to create an inviting appearance to our church facility for Christmas. If you don’t have a blow vac and have the time, still come along as I have a few spare. BEWARE last year an electric blower nearly took the prize.

Cobwebs will also need to be removed so if you don’t have a competitive machine maybe you can compete for the longest broom handle.

Carpet Cleaning
A team of volunteers is required on Wednesday 9th January 2019 to move chairs to allow the church carpets to be shampooed. As cleaning has not been done for two years due to building works, the whole of the complex will be cleaned in the one day.

NO LIFTING (or minimal) will be required as all the chairs are on sliders. All volunteers will be required to do is slide banks of chairs forwards and backwards. This is a lot easier with a small team. Some chairs may have to be singled out for spot cleaning.

Volunteers are required from 9am to approximately 4pm. You are not required to be here the whole day if you do not have the time and for those who have the whole day to spare a light lunch will be provided.

Please email stephen.zanker@paravista.org.au or call /text Stephen on mobile 0403 180 814 as soon as possible with your availability so Stephen can confirm with the carpet cleaners if the task is to go ahead and how many lunches to provide.

Office Closure Over Christmas
The office will be closed for an extended period to allow staff to exhaust leave. Office hours will be:-
24 Dec 9.00am to 2.00pm OPEN
25 Dec to 7th January CLOSED
Every Monday in January CLOSED
Every Tuesday in January OPEN 9.00am to 3.00pm
Wednesday to Friday, 9th to 25th January OPEN 9.00am to 12.30pm
Wednesday 30th January OPEN normal hours 9.00am to 3.00pm

For urgent contact during this time please call 8263 5087 and leave a message. Messages will be retrieved on working days over this period.

Deliver the Gift of Parking this Christmas
Please consider parking on the school oval, leaving the parks close to the entrance of the church as a gift for our visitors. These arrangements will be in place for all Christmas services. Parking signs will be in place and your assistance in following directions is appreciated.

Remember traffic flow is one way at all times entering from Montague Road and exiting through the rear gate.

Notice Board

Peter Steicke’s new book ‘Favoured’ is now available in paperback on pre-order now. Books are $20 each and will be available from this Sunday onward in between services and after the 10.30 service from Debbie Wesselingh.

“For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6

Friday, December 14, 2018

Delivered Invitation

There is something incredibly endearing and nostalgic about receiving a letter, or an invitation, in the mail. In our world of instant communication, snail mail has gone the way of the Dodo, and our mailboxes are frequently reserved only for advertisements, bills and reasons to vote for a politician. More often than not, our expectation of anything important arriving is limited. But at Christmas time, we look with great hope that news from afar (or even aclose) will turn up in our mailbox reminding us that someone is thinking about us and that we have not been forgotten or abandoned.

Is there any other better metaphor for the life of a Christian?

This week we look at the theme Delivered Invitation through the eyes of a young woman who was expectantly waiting for news from God. Little did she know her expectation would resolve in her becoming an expectant mother.

In this invitation, we find that God arrives at the exact moment He intended. Even after four hundred years of silence, of seemingly empty prayers, the Message/Invitation/Word takes on flesh and starts breathing.

The invitation of Gabriel to Mary is a reminder that God shows up when you least expect it and invites us to participate in His majestic and glorious plan through His son, Jesus Christ. But it is still an invitation. There is time for preparation and a time for a response, but truly, how can anyone really turn down an invitation from the King of Kings?

Join with me this week to experience the delivered invitation to all of us; to experience the joy of life in Jesus Christ and to live out that joy in sharing with others.

Pr Reid Matthias

Bible Reading: Luke 1:26-38, Isaiah 11:1-5
Podcasts of weekly messages are available at www.paravista.org.au

Prayer Request
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 churchenquiries@paravista.org.au with your request.

Meet N Eat Christmas Dinner

105 guests all wanted to shake the jolly red man’s hand at the Meet N Greet Christmas dinner last Monday provided by volunteers at Good Shepherd. This ministry has grown bonds of generosity and provided healing to many over the past year. More than 2700 meals have been provided to the lonely and those looking for a community that accepts them as they are. This is truly Jesus’ love at work.

Please prayerfully consider how you can help grow this ministry in 2019.

As Christmas draws near we invite you and those in your home to spend time together doing a different activity each day.

Maranatha Health

Maranatha Health believes that all people have the right to live healthy lives with access to excellent care when they need it. We are an Australian and Ugandan not-for-profit organisation committed to healing the sick, empowering poor communities and making an impact that lasts long into the future. This Christmas, on 16th December Maranatha Health are setting up a stall at GSPV. We are giving you the opportunity to share 'Gifts of Life' this Christmas. At the stall you can make a tax-deductible donation (via cash or credit card) to our life-changing work in Uganda and we will give you a Maranatha Health gift card to pass on to your friends and family. We will also be selling delicious Christmas cupcakes for $2, and there will be someone available to chat with you about volunteering opportunities at MH. Come and say hello! If you would like to order your Christmas cards earlier to be sent out to you this week visit https://maranathahealth.org/give/christmas

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”).”

Matthew 1:23

Friday, December 7, 2018

Delivered into Light

Waiting, waiting, waiting – few of us enjoy it!

But maybe there is something about the waiting that stops us feeling entitled? Perhaps it breaks our need to be in constant control. Maybe waiting helps us find value in something more important that meeting our desires, and to realise that we are not masters of our own destiny.

Could it be that waiting is vital for growing patience and the capacity to bear with others? Perhaps waiting helps us to find greater satisfaction in the fulfilment of a hope or dream. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a hope fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12 NIV)

This Sunday we consider Israel’s waiting for God to fulfil his promises to Abraham and David. Reading through the Old Testament, we find people who keep turning away from God and ending up in trouble. Yet God keeps reminding them that a son of David would usher in a new covenant that would ultimately bring God’s light to the nations.

Sometimes it takes God a long time to move quickly. In Luke chapter one, we find an old priest going about his duties in the temple. He and his wife had prayed and waited decades for a child, but nothing happened.

An angel appears with an announcement: the old priest and his old wife are going to have their first child – a son who will be the royal herald for God’s promised Messiah. Their son would prepare the way for the Lord and his salvation.

At the child’s naming, the priest prophesies:
Because of God’s tender mercy,
the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79 NLT)

Come along and celebrate that Jesus delivers us into light.

Pr Rolly Stahl

Bible Reading: Luke 1:57-58, 67-70, 76-79 NLT
Podcasts of weekly messages are available at www.paravista.org.au

Prayer Request
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 churchenquiries@paravista.org.au with your request.

Graduation Blessing
There will be a blessing at the end of the 10.30am service on Sunday 9th December, for all who are graduating from a course/stage/study/University/High School/Primary School. At the end of the service when we call the graduates forward, please come forward and receive your blessing as you move into the next phase of your life!

Experience Christmas Volunteers Needed!
We are looking for people to be involved – please chat to Chelsea Schiller 0447 225 517 chelsea.schiller@paravista.org.au if you’d like to be involved in any way.

Meet N Eat Christmas Dinner
Excitement is building as the Christmas invitations have gone out for the Meet N Eat Christmas Dinner. The generosity of 20 kitchen staff has been shared over the past 12 months, and guess what?!!

Broken people who feel loved are sharing in the work load while new formed friendships are creating bonds of generosity towards each other that were never before encountered. An inner healing is happening as they serve and listen to each other, whether it be a quiet horror story shared or one of good news that is proclaimed with joy. The 'chatter' and 'buzz' of Jesus being presented to community who now call Good Shepherd home because they felt His presence here is a light we can all share in.

How?

Please keep this ministry and team in your prayers as they present Jesus to the world in a practical way.

Good Shepherd Social Club
Our 2019 year commences on Thursday 31st January, 1.-3.30pm in the Church Hall.

We welcome anyone that would be interested in coming to a free one-off introduction on any Thursday afternoon.

Activities include meeting other members, playing different card games or carpet bowls and enjoying coffee and a chat.

If you wish to join after your free one off visit then the weekly fee is $3.00 per person.

Please contact Tom Curnow - President on 72254593 or 0400 258 410 or Mike Hancock -Vice President on 0403375474 for any enquiries.

From the Office

Church Security
The Good Shepherd facility has been the target of vandals, unlawful access and graffiti over the past four weeks. As there is a cost to repairing the damage, I am requesting that all members take an active part in assisting to prevent further attacks to the facility. If you are passing the facility after hours, please take note of any activity or perhaps drive through the car park to deter any person that is not a member of the community. If you do see something do not put yourself in danger but report it as soon as possible. If you do not go past on a regular basis all I ask is that you pray for our community and the protection of our assets both physical and human. Stephen - Admin Manager.

Car Parking at the Church
Members are reminded that the church car park is not a secure parking area and should take the following precautions when parking.

1. Hide possessions or any valuable items out of sight such as a phone or wallet– better still take any valuable possessions with you.
2. Close all windows and the sunroof, if you have one.
3. Ensure the boot is secure.
4. Lock your doors.
5. Ensure your security system (if fitted) has been activated.

Notice Board

“Light shines on the righteous

and joy on the upright in heart”

Psalm 97:11