Hello St Barnabas, my name is Anna and I’m here visiting as part of the Newcastle Mission Team. I’ve been asked to write something for this blog and I’ve decided to tell the story of how I came to know Christ, as I hope it will be encouraging to people. Like a lot of people I know, I grew up in a Christian family, and had a lot of love and support in the faith. Because of this, I had a great foundation for my walk with Christ.
Add Comment Ten Soul-Winners serving alongside Barneys I was really excited to have the privilege to come to Barneys for NTE (National Training Event) mission for the second year in a row. Last year was such an encouragement, and this year I would be able to share in the encouragement and training with some of the people with whom I have been doing ministry this past year.
Last Saturday was the first ever Macarthur Men's Conference, which I attended. Christian brothers from all over the Macarthur area joined together to look into God's words, pray, praise His awesome name and be encouraged.
Buildings are only as good as their foundations. Friends of mine were living in the apartment
block which collapsed when the Lane Cove Tunnel diggers undermined the foundations. One of them was in the flat when it happened. What a terrifying experience! The side of the building just disappeared in front of her. The foundations were gone and the building collapsed. What makes a community a community? Is it the people or is it just the area you live in. Every community is different. People often criticize that we don‘t know our neighbors any more. My mum; still tells me stories of how ―back in the 50‘s‖ (way back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) she was great friends with her neighbors and everyone knew each other, my mum has fond memories of playing with the boy next door and pushing him into the rose bush.
All sorts of people ask on lots of occasions, ―Why God?‖ Some ask in times of pain and difficulty, ―Why God are you doing this or allowing this?‖. For them, Why God?‘ Is a deeply emotional issue. Others ask the more intellectual question, ―Why would you accept there is a God at all?‖ The last two years have seen a plethora of books by atheists, most notably Richard Dawkins, ―The God Delusion‖ seeking to persuade us that God is dead and only the gullible still fall for that old story. And many others sim ply have questions that they wish to know the answer to, Why God?‘
Hooray for primary school pupil free days! On Monday 29 July, while the school teach-ers were doing staff development, we were holding a pupil free day between 9am and 3pm. These days give us a chance to provide a service to our community in caring for the kids. We had 23 kids and 7 leaders. We had loud and active games.
Over the past month, a six part Christianity Explained course has been run by Simon Hingston at 11am and 7pm on Mondays. “This is a course that goes over what is most important to know about Christianity – it is about the core of Christianity” said Simon.
I grew up in a Christian family. I went to church and I was taught about Jesus and his death on the cross for me and I was involved in lots of different groups in church from a young age.
When I was about 18 I started dating someone I knew a Christian girl shouldn't date but I didn't care. The more we saw of each other the less I cared about being a Christian and more about living only for what felt good at that moment. I made a very clear and very conscious choice to turn my back on God and ignore him. That was my life for almost 5 years. |
