Bulletin Announcements – 10 April 2016
- School break is here. Sunday school will have holiday programs for 10, 17 and 24 April. We encourage Year 5 and 6 children to join the service during these weeks. Term 2 Sunday school will start on 1 May. Play Group will start 26 April.
- Come to Equip 2016 and turn your ordinary Saturday into an eXtraordinary one! Equip is an annual Christian conference for women of all ages. Held on Saturday 28th May 2016 at Rosehill Gardens Event Centre, this year’s theme is “Freed” – as Christians we have been freed by Jesus, but what does Christian freedom look like? If you would like to come along, Ladies’ Fellowship is organising a group from WSCCC to attend this valuable conference together, so please see Jocelyn Lin or Alice Cheng for more details. ‘Rego’ and full payment of $59 will be taken on Sunday 17th April.
- NEXT SUNDAY: Phil & Irene Nicholson will be returning to Taiwan to continue serving with OMF. Irene will be continuing to train other missionaries in her role as the International Leader of Pre-home Assignment Workshop course as well as mobilising new workers for Taiwan. Phil will working with the local churches in leadership training and work with the TW OMF office to mobilise the local Taiwanese people. If you would like to say goodbye to them, they will be at the 9am English Service in Strathfield and also Croydon Park @ 10 on April 17th. They will be recommissioned as WSCCC missionaries in during these services.
- Short Term Mission to Taiwan – Ever wondered what our missionaries do? Or pondered if you are called to be one? Here is your chance to experience it first hand and see what God is doing through our missionaries in Taiwan. GMC is sending a 10-person short term mission team to Taiwan in early December. The trip will be for 3 weeks, covering Puxin, Donggang & Taipei where our missionaries serve. You can learn more details at the Taiwan STM Information Afternoon on 24 April 2016, 3:30pm at WSCCC Strathfield Hall. If you are interested to join the team, please let a GMC or pastoral team member know. Expressions of interest will close on 15 May.
- For the coming Combined Service on 29 May at Trinity Grammar School, we have planned to form a special choral and band/orchestral group from all congregations. If you are interested in joining this group, please contact Ruth Choong of CP@10, Pastor Andrew Bardsley or Jonathan Chow of Strathfield 9, Ley Wan Tio of Strathfield Mandarin, and William Sit of the Cantonese congregation.
Ariel writes – a weekly Scriptural devotion:
“God… made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…” (Ephesians 2:5 NIV)
Such strange words and foreign concepts. What do I mean? Well, someone who isn’t a Christian might ask; “What transgressions? Which laws did I break? And dead? But I’m alive aren’t I? Oh, and why “even”? Am I not good enough for this god just the way I am?” And whether they ask these questions curiously or indignantly, I think we sometimes forget just how foreign, weird, and outrageous the good news of Jesus can be. We live in a society that doesn’t feel it transgresses; breaks God’s laws. We live amongst people whose mantra is “Be True To Yourself” and everything will be okay. We live in a culture that doesn’t feel spiritually “dead”. We live amongst a people who are just trying to “feel more alive”. Yet, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection challenges those assumptions. It says; “You can’t be true to yourself unless you’re true to God first.” It says; “You can’t feel more alive unless you’re spiritually alive in God.” And that’s why Jesus is good news; he makes us true and alive to God at the same time.
from pastor Ariel