Chugging along and working in a factory!

Tree Planting on sunny days

We're grateful that we could have a wonderful little tree planting day using the new ground the council has given us. Many church people came and mingled with the locals. This is an important step as we build up for our big party in mid July.

Harvest Team in Labuan Square 

We had six in our team last week. We were very warmly received and got to pray for lots of people. In early June, we're going to bring guitars and sing some Maori worship songs with the folks at Labuan Square as many of them have a dormant faith which can be rekindled.

Pizza Nights

We've had a little miracle. I was tired and I wanted to quit the Friday Pizza Nights, but instead God brought a new leader along and also Christine did the teaching, really well. I learned that God will provide what we need as we step out in obedience and love our neighbours.

New Work

As Christine finished teaching, I have taken a job in a local chicken processing factory cleaning crates 9 hours a day for 2 or 3 days per week. I have been praying and worshipping God at the top of my voice because no one can hear me over the noise and I've been building relationship my fellow workers.

Paul & Karen away

While senior pastor Paul Hills is away on holidays, I am responsible for Bethel Christian Fellowship. This means adapting to the lockdown and growing in leadership, facilitating Sunday services and prayer meetings. Recently, the prophetic folk amongst us have begun saying we are going to grow as a church and that God is going to provide what we need. I am so privileged to be a significant part of what God is doing here in Corio!

If you're interested, here's a video of a Zoom Church Online last Sunday. 

Celebrating TWO YEARS of Little Miracles Home Group Corio

Historic excerpt below

Harvest Team - Review says "More Please"

Harvest Team Website

Feedback from the team indicates the format is really good and people want to keep doing it! So I have launched a website to help facilitate evangelists throughout Geelong and the Lord helped me see a lot of my value will be in facilitating others and that I don't have to worry too much about the actual ministry to unbelievers on the ground. My priority will be bringing others together and nurturing them in Evangelism.

Tree Planting Festival?

New Area to Plant

The City of Greater Geelong has blessed us with high-level permission to continue planting in Rosewall Reserve and then extend to other areas nearby. The Lord has put on my heart to host a Community Tree Planting Festival in the next school holidays. I've received personal help from senior council 'gofers' regarding obtaining a permit. Part of the challenge is to facilitate an event that is 'bigger than me'. All my work up to this point requires me to 'do everything' but we won't be able to expand if I don't learn to get others working smoothly with me to host community events. So please pray for this.

Playgroup - We've outgrown our room!

17-18 people are turning up for Playgroup now so we've moved into the larger room at church. One of the blessings is that we are getting Christians from several different churches in the area. So this playgroup has become a vehicle for UNITY IN THE LOCAL CHURCH! Praise God :)

Karen Fundraising Dinner

Because of our friendship with the local Karen community, I've been asked to speak briefly at their fundraising dinner on Sat 29 May. What an honour! It will help with unity in the church, too.

On a personal note

I have been doing some work washing dishes in an Italian Restaurant to keep the funds rolling in and to humble myself. Washing dishes professionally is humbling, trust me. Christine has resigned from her teaching job and is ready for a change. Please pray for God's ways for her. She just bought a kayak which she has wanted for ages so, celebrate with her :) 

Church life is so good

At Bethel Christian Fellowship I'm surrounded by loving mature Christians who love to pray and are praying for the Kingdom of God to come in Power in Corio. We are working as a team and loving each other in humility and the fear of God. It is such a wonderful season. 

Excerpt from our first blog post in April 2019

Little Miracles Home Group launches next Sunday 28 April, at 6pm.

Where and Who?
We are in Rosewall Neighbourhood Centre Corio, Geelong, a very disadvantaged area with 21% unemployment. We have our Public Liability Insurance and we are ready to go.

Each Sunday will be:

• 6pm Dinner - Rice and stew/curry - Free, healthy, simple and yummy - to get to know people and LISTEN to their story.
• 7pm Discussion & Teaching - We look at the teachings of Jesus and how to live better and discuss together. This involves dynamic sharing.
• 7:45-8:30 Prayer - One on one or in small groups, we pray for God's kingdom to come in people's lives bringing healing and renewal.

Is it a church?

Churches attract Christians but Jesus called sinners to repentance. We don't want to create a church, but a hospital for the soul where people come to be healed and born again, and Christians come to serve the needy. We believe it is time to experiment with different forms of church, time to reinvent mission, outreach and service. We fill a niche where people come to be healed, not to be comfortable. 

Over the two years, you can see the purpose is the same but the methods have evolved to better fit the lives of those we live with. I shared the good news of our anniversary on Geelong Christian Radio 96Three in an interview. This is to help the Christians of Geelong to focus on outreach; encouraging them to love their neighbours. 

Thank YOU 

I really appreciate you being there. Feel free to drop me a line. Angus & Christine

Easter Outreach Party

Easter Outreach Party in our Street

Yesterday we hosted a fabulous street party. About 50 attended and the gospel was presented in an atmosphere of unity and joy. It really was a wonderful event. We didn't baptise anyone, but people seemed to sit under the word of God peacefully. This short video gives you a taste. 

Tree Planting coming soon

The council have now prepared two new areas for autumn planting in Rosewall Reserve. So these school holidays we will host a weeding event and two tree planting events. This is a great way to meet new people and build relationships of trust by doing solid work for the community together.

Playgroup

Playgroup is so much fun and it's a great way to express God's love for 'the least of these' as we serve refugee families from Myanmar. We've had a really successful Term 1 and now we're on a break. A 'toy-drive' with our church means we have lots of toys for Term 2. We had 20 in total a few weeks ago.

"Harvest Team" Street Outreach

We have completed our pilot project going out and having training. We had 4 reflective training sessions including a live Zoom meeting with the Gideons crew. We did street witnessing in Labuan Square, Geelong Waterfront, Ocean Grove and Corio Village. We had 5-6 participants at each session and spoke to about 15 people per session. We had about 5 people make commitments for Christ or recommit to Him but we didn't manage to follow up these folks.

Having completed the pilot, we're now reviewing the program in prayer and reflection. While I sense the Father's heart calling us to 'go out to preach the gospel', I am conscious of the cost versus the return of this method. While we're only witnessing to 5 or so people each, it takes most of the day and it is very demanding emotionally, this is partly because we don't know them. We have to somehow create a trusting, open relationship in moments, which is virtually impossible. The ongoing relational approach we use in Little Miracles seems to yield a better return on investment.

Family Pizza Nights

These have been really wonderful. We get about 14 each week and I have been pushing the children a bit harder. "If you want dinner, you have to do the quiz". I do some teaching about Jesus and then hand them a quiz about the teaching. During dinner we watch the Youth Alpha and several really get into it.

Video: Doing quiz before dinner.

Time for Worship?

I'm wondering if we need another format to take those who are more interested in following God forward in their discipleship. Please pray for God's wisdom and the gift of obedience as we wander forward.

Rest Time of the Easter Holidays

For the first time in ages, I'm feeling tired and I need a break. I've taken advantage of the Easter Holidays and cancelled all my groups for two weeks. My only engagement is preaching this Sunday on Weakness and Strength. Last week I preached on Gideon. Here's a video if you're interested. Christine is also tired, but she is keeping on working teaching English in the prisons nearby. We may need to modify or 'prune' our output next term so I would value your prayer support.

Thank You for standing with Christine and me as we seek to bring the kingdom of God in power in Corio. We couldn't do it without you.

Should you like to help us financially, that would be great as we are facing some unexpected challenges at present.  BSB: 013259 ACC: 248826009

 

Street Outreach Begins!

Family Pizza Nights - Baptisms are coming!

God challenged me to get the corrugated iron baptismal from church and put it on the nature strip and teach the children in the street about baptism. I did this for two weeks before a Covid Lockdown limited us to five visitors. During this time we held two smaller events to focus on what baptism means. Two different kids came to each event. Big family pizza nights are back now and we will be gearing up for a big Easter Event in the street when we'll baptise a few kids on Easter Sunday.

Praise God for Harvest Team!

I'm so thrilled to have just launched this new group. We meet every Thursday at 1pm to go out and share the gospel on the street one week and to meet on Zoom for reflection (training) the next week. We are doing this for 8 weeks then we'll begin adjusting things.

Playgroup is rocking

It is a real honour to host playgroup for refugees from Myanmar every Monday. We are helping the kids learn English, socialise, learn through play and learn about following God. We are getting 10 or so weekly now.

National Day of Prayer & Fasting

Paul Hills and I hosted a massive event at Corio Christian Centre for the National Day of Prayer & Fasting. We had such a good time with over 40 people from 10 different churches!

Tree Planting

Council is slowing moving towards another section of land for us to use in this autumn season. And our 70 trees are particularly healthy given the mild summer and the respect the locals have for them means less vandalism.

Linking with Intercessors

I'm so grateful for YOU praying for Christine and I as we work in this missional manner. We are seeing lots of miracles and this is because PEOPLE ARE PRAYING. This partnership is critical and I'd love to pray for you or help you in any way I can. I'm also grateful that I've been able to do some good teaching sermons at Bethel. 

Bless you and thanks :)

Angus & Christine

Now we're getting busy!

Vital statistics for January

- Christians engaged: I am not keeping this statistic any more

- Pre-Christians engaged: 153 This number now includes the outreach figures from Bethel Christian Fellowship, too.

- Miracles reported: I'm no longer keeping this number as it is too difficult.

Church Unity Dinner

20 Leaders from 4 local churches came together for dinner, fellowship and prayer. There was such joy in the room and people mixed and prayed from different churches. A foretaste of heaven!

Satanic Graffiti - We're using it for good!
Our wonderful Christmas mural on our fence saying 'Give your heart to Jesus' was attacked by vandals who left this Satanic graffiti and more. The council have removed it and I've painted over the fence to prepare for an Easter message. However, we've turned this into a great opportunity for teaching at our weekly Youth Group. Showing them the graffiti was a great way to demonstrate the evil of Satan which sets the stage for teaching about the heart of man and our need for a saviour! How convenient!

My Commissioning as Assistant Pastor of Bethel Christian Fellowship

Many lovely Christian friends came to support with me and Christine as we were commissioned. Here is the video of the event. It is such an honour to be officially recognised in this position.

Youth Group

We've decided to open our house every Friday and provide fun events, cooking dinner, friendship and teaching about Jesus! Please pray as we grow. We're currently getting about 14 per night, but I think God wants to grow this as we focus on an Easter outreach event.

Playgroup

Our Playgroup started again at church and we had 11 last week all from Myanmar. This is great to serve 'the least of these' as these guys don't have much English, education or cultural power. Praise God for this Christian Playgroup. Please pray as we may apply for a grant for this, too.

Jesus at the Door

I feel God wants me to lead Christians in North Geelong to follow the outreach strategy of Jesus at the Door. I'm leading an advance group to explore this very soon. Please pray for this.

Thank You

We couldn't do this without the strong and effective prayer support of YOU. So thank you so much. It looks like the year ahead will be fabulous :)

 

What a fabulous year!

Vital statistics for December

- Christians engaged: 296

- Pre-Christians engaged: 258

- Miracles reported: 20 - YTD: 223

Christmas Outreach Party

The local kids and families helped prepare for the party in the weeks beforehand by painting a massive mural on our fence: "Give your heart to Jesus. Christmas Party 19 Dec 4-8pm." We saw the local 13 yo drug dealer bring some mates and come for prayer. Several teenagers listened intently to the gospel message. One teenager brought her band and we had a jam. It was such a special event with so many little miracles. Several kids put up their hands to follow Jesus. Here is a video of the event. So many Bethel folks came and even funded the event. A lot of people were reached by flyers and posters. 

Nativity 

I also taught several groups of kids the nativity which we were given by local Christians. We were asked to put the nativity scene into the local Rosewall Neighbourhood Centre

Prayer Walks

Before the Christmas Outreach, we had two prayer walks around the area with the Bethel Crew to claim the ground for Jesus.

Playgroup

We met for three Mondays in December with between 9 & 12 Karen mums and kids coming and it was so lovely. Playgroup with English lessons built in as the Karen adults are generally poor at English. And we had prayer times each week. It was a lovely sense of the presence of God. Such a lovely ministry. 

On the Radio

I did a recording on 96three with Danni Synnot to inspire the Christians here. It went really well. It was before the party to help Christians think about reaching out. I hope to do a follow up one. 

What a Fabulous Year!

2020 was an amazing year for me in that I grew more in ministry and was honoured and recognised more in ministry than ever before. I was able to help Bethel move services online and began leading properly at Bethel even just as "Safe Church Officer." Little Miracles received a grant from the City of Greater Geelong for Tree Planting and we have grown from just a tiny presence in Corio to have a regular group of around 15-20 non-Christians coming to our events. We have grown more effective as a ministry couple and we are seeing more little miracles than we can count.

2021

I will continue to publish this blog because it helps me take stock and perhaps people will learn and benefit from it one day as really the church is hopeless when it comes to evangelism and we really need to learn. This might guide and inspire some people one day. Here is my family Christmas Lunch with the mural in the background. Christine was inside at the time. Happy New Year to YOU and may you BE FRUITFUL in your love.

Too many miracles to count them all!

Vital statistics for November
- Christians engaged: 104
- Pre-Christians engaged: 38
- Miracles reported: 11 - YTD: 203

Are we starting a Youth Group?

We sense God wanting us to host a Family Pizza Night here 'every Friday' to give the local kids somewhere safe, educational and Christian in which to grow. So we have run the last two Fridays. And it was great. 17 the fist night and 11 the second (but the weather was awful). It seems to be a very fruitful method so we'll continue next year.

Christmas Events

I'm getting the 'youth group' to host the Christmas Party for the locals. This means we will paint our fence with a message about Jesus. We have also been asked to install a Nativity Scene at Rosewall Community Centre so I'll get the kids to wrangle that too.

Play Group off and racing!

The first day we had 2 leaders, 3 adults and 3 kids. The second week we had 3 leaders, 5 adults and 7 kids! And I'm thrilled they are all Karen Refugee families. This means we are serving the poor and the weak as Jesus did and taught! Not the washed middle classes. The parents are enthusiastic about joining in with the songs and the prayer time was rich with the presence of God. 

Tree Planting

Despite the great news from October, the COGG are dragging their feet. I don't have the time or energy now to push anymore this year. But the trees are growing really well in this lovely warm summer weather! And the vandals are holding off as we have tidied up a lot and that stops them because they see we care more than they do.

More and more at Bethel

I am getting more and more involved with Bethel and as this year draws to a close, I want to make some big changes for next year in the way I keep records of ministry, report the efforts, share the ministry efforts. I will make decisions in December and begin afresh in January/February with some new formats and numbers. In the light of this, if you are reading this, could you please drop me a line to tell me what you value about this blog? One problem is I'm seeing too many miracles to count them all!

Thank you to my Prayer Team

I am so grateful for the strong, loving and committed Prayer Warriors around the world who have my back. Good friends who have walked with me and Christine before. Thank you. We are seeing revival coming because of you.