Alpha

Panida’s Testimony

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I come from a little village in a part of Thailand called Chaiyaphum. I grew up in the Buddhist faith. I came to Australia in 2011 after I married John.

In 2015 I came to Little Lambs with my children. This was my first contact with church. I met Verity there. She invited me to the Nourish women’s group and I went for a while. I know Verity and the women in the Nourish group were praying for me a lot. However, I wasn’t really thinking about God at all until this year when I began to have some trouble in my life. I had bad dreams nearly every night. It was so bad it made me grumpy and gave me headaches. I felt very low. I tried reading the Buddhist holy book to make me feel better but nothing changed. One day I watched a video of people talking about God healing people. I began reading the Thai Bible that I got from the Nourish group. I said to myself, “I’m going to believe only in God and put everything else down”. I prayed, “I am going to believe you God, please help me”. During the night I heard God speaking to me clearly for the first time. He was showing me my sins. Soon after that I saw Jesus in a dream. He was standing by my bed and was speaking to me in Thai. He touched my shoulders with warm hands and said, “Repent of your sins”. I woke up and I could feel the warmth of his hands on my shoulders. I didn’t know how to repent of my sins, so I called Verity and asked her to help me and she prayed with me.

I don’t have bad dreams anymore and the problems I had before are getting better. I started coming to church and I went on the Alpha Course. This was very helpful and made me want to learn more. I also go to the Connect women’s group. I am very happy to be part of the church. Everyone is very friendly; it’s like a family.

I can feel the Holy Spirit touching me. It’s so amazing. You can’t explain how happy it makes you feel. It’s like you are experiencing true love with God. It’s a feeling you can’t put into words. The Holy Spirit helps me to be connected with God and makes my faith grow.

Blessings,

Panida

Alpha: Kat’s Testimony

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Kat’s Testimony

Alpha, 2018

When I first started Alpha I was very sceptical about everything: God, Jesus and Christianity as a whole. I was very set in the way of that in order to believe, I had to have hard evidence. I had to see it to believe it. I also desperately wanted to have an experience like I felt that everyone else was.

Alpha for me was one of the best experiences I ever had. I met people with similar questions to me and felt like I was not alone but part of a family. Being part of Alpha completely changed me and doing it in a group was wonderful because we had different questions and different views.

On Alpha I found my own path and started my own personal journey. I gave my life to Jesus and since then have started the most wonderful journey with God. I was blessed with a real experience with the Holy Spirit. My life changed for the better and I just know now, how real God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are and am so grateful they are in my life.

I truly recommend this course for anyone with question and who wants to develop a better relationship with our Lord. Alpha for me was the first stepping stone into my own personal journey with God and Jesus.

St Nic’s Snapshot: Alpha

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This week’s St Nic’s Snapshot is from our Alpha Holy Spirit Day that we hosted on Saturday July 23rd. It was a time to learn and experience more of the Holy Spirit.

I feel so refreshed!

Our participants and hosts were blessed by the wonderful hospitality of all the volunteers who helped make this day possible. Thank you.

Today has meant a lot to me.

To know more about Alpha or the Holy Spirit please visit our Alpha page or contact our minister Jamie.

 

The Good Gift of Power at Pentecost

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You can move a car by pushing it or you can turn the ignition key and harness the power of the engine. It will travel for longer and with a great deal less personal effort from A to B if there is sufficient fuel. Using fuel and the car’s engine, is using the car as it was designed to be. It’s the same with being a Christian called to be Jesus’ witnesses. We can attempt to live out the Christian life in our own limited power (this will result in failure) or we can welcome God’s design for the Christian and the necessity of being clothed with power by the Holy Spirit.

In Luke 24:49 Jesus asks the disciples to wait in Jerusalem in order to receive what the Father has promised, clothing in power. This power is in Greek the same root word from which we get dynamite! It is the same word that describes Jesus in Luke 4 as he returns from his trials in the wilderness and begins His public ministry: Luke 4:14 ‘Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.’ Furthermore, it is something promised by the Father through the prophets as Peter later points out in his address to the cords on Pentecost in Jerusalem. Here, he begins to literally fulfil the call to witness to Jesus (Acts 2:16ff).

Not just an encounter, but on-going…

This is not just a one off. The scriptures testify that the Holy Spirit’s work and presence in us makes all the difference. As we trust in Jesus it is the Holy Spirit who helps us know and experience the love of God assuring us that we are his children (Romans 8:16). We often see this is the main thing that happens on the Holy Spirit day in our Alpha course. Likewise, it is the spirit who enables good fruit to grow in our lives reflecting the character of Jesus: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to be effective witnesses through transforming our own lives; equipping us to witness in our actions and words to Jesus- risen from the dead, saviour of the world.

We recognise this is an ongoing need. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled and continue to be filled with the Spirit. Consequently, in each Eucharist we pray ‘Renew us by your Holy Spirit,’ and conclude with a heartfelt prayer ‘send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory.’

Clothe us in power…

On Saturday, as part of the prayer movement ‘Thy Kingdom come’ encouraged by Archbishop Justin Welby, we waited upon the Lord for 8 hours, looking to pray in His kingdom in differing areas and across a number of issues . However, we were waiting especially for the Lord to clothe us as a church with His power to be effective witnesses here to the South West of Australia.
This past week in Alpha it was a delight for us to see someone come to that place of trust in Jesus and commit themselves to follow Him. That wonderful moment happened in part through the ongoing witness of Christians in her family and the witness of this church to her. Alpha has helped her think it through further and come to a decision. How beautiful is that? It is a literal fulfilment of what Jesus asks of us and enables us to do through the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:45-49).

Lord, may your kingdom continue to come in us and through us. Holy Spirit, clothe us with power that we might be your witnesses to the ends of the earth, even the South West of Australia.

Amen.

My First Alpha Evening: “The chocolate was an added bonus.”

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The comments above were made by participants of the Alpha course, after attending the first session at St Nicholas last week.

Alpha is an introduction to the Christian Faith. It is for those on the fringes of faith or who are not really sure what they believe. It’s also a great refresher course for anyone who’s been a Christian for a while but would like to learn more. Alpha provides an opportunity to explore some of the big questions of life. A typical evening involves food, a video presentation, and a group discussion.

Each week focuses on a different question. The topic for discussion for the first evening was ‘Who is Jesus?’ Some of the questions we will be exploring in the next few weeks are: Why did Jesus die? How can I have faith? Why and how do I pray?

It’s not too late to join us! If your curiosity has been stirred, please do contact the office via the website, or come along to the Wednesday dinner at the church building at 5.45pm followed by the Alpha course at 6.45pm. You will be very welcome!

By Verity Murray

Encountering Jesus now?

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Last week, Paul wrote about the truth of God’s presence in our suffering. Jesus drank the cup of betrayal, rejection, physical torture, abandonment, tasting for a moment a profound separation with His Father. He did so for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2).

One of the hardest things for the disciples at the time of Jesus Passion was losing him. His promises of being with them seemed to die on the cross. Where was he now? Many people ask that question in the face of suffering and understandably so. The Psalms articulate the same question many times.

After rising from death Jesus appeared to a number of witnesses in the time between the Passover and Pentecost. See Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; He appeared to Simon, James, the apostles and then a crowd of 500 people at one time.

Jesus said he would not leave us or forsake us. He fulfils that promise through the Holy Spirit, the one who walks alongside us, comforts advises, guides (John 14-16 references this).

In returning to the heavens Jesus opened the way for the Holy Spirit to come and to make His presence, Immanuel, known to them and us. Learning to welcome the Holy Spirit of Jesus is welcoming His presence into our lives. We can live, literally, inspired lives!

As we now celebrate the resurrection, and look forward to the celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we are running another Alpha course beginning May 2nd. Alpha allows us to explore honestly the basics of the Christian faith and enables opportunities for encounters with the Holy Spirit. We share a meal from 5:45 pm and the course will start around 6:45 pm.

Will you be joining us?

Shalom,
Jamie

Life is All About Relationships…

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Life is all about relationships: the different kinds of relationships that we have and those who those relationships are with. Some relationships are good, some not so good, some are temporary, and others are lifelong. A loss of a relationship, whether through death or some other ending, can force us to consider what and particularly who, we prioritise in our lives.

This week has been a tough one for many of us as we say goodbye to two of our beloved sisters in Christ. Our community has been challenged to reflect on what’s really important; we have been confronted with the frail and mortal nature of our humanity.

For some it may arouse some challenging questions: Where am I going? What is my purpose? Why am I here? What is it all for?

Alpha is an opportunity to explore these questions. It’s not so much of a course as it is a journey- and one here at St Nicholas that we would love to invite you on.

If you would like to know more, please feel free to watch the video or click on the link to our Alpha page. Please contact Jamie to register your interest, we would love to journey with you.

Focus on Prayer

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It has been a fruit filled few weeks within the life of our community here at St Nicholas. On Saturday 3rd June we organized the church building with a number of prayer stations to help us join in with the global ‘Thy Kingdom come’ prayer initiative. I would like to thank all of you who came along and took time to join me in prayer and especially Verity Murray and Karen Dennison for setting up such excellent resources.  We will run this kind of prayer opportunity again, come and join in next time if you missed the opportunity.  Last Saturday morning we had our Alpha Holy Spirit sessions. It was  lovely to see God meet people where they were and through the Holy Spirit assure them of His love and presence. Thank you to all involved in making this happen.

It was my privilege on Sunday to take Jan Jarvis and Margaret Thompson with me to train up leaders in prayer ministry at All Saint’s Donnybrook. Once again the Lord blessed those involved and we look forward to praying with people attending the Alpha courses to be run this year from All Saints.

Please ensure you have a copy of the June Prayer focus and intercede with me for God’s kingdom to come in and through us here at St Nicholas.

Shalom

Jamie

Our Father in heaven

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We are now in our season of Easter, an exciting time leading to Pentecost and the out pouring of the Holy Spirit.  During this time we are holding our Alpha Courses beginning on Wednesday 26th April @6pm and Friday 28th April @9.30am.  People can register by email (stnicholasminster@gmail.com) or by filling out the registration form and placing in the box near the entrance of the church.  Also during this Easter time, following on from the prayer course we will be joining the Diocese in praying the Lord’s Prayer in the form of prayer stations. This Sunday you will notice the first of our stations – ‘Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name’.  This is an invitation for you to connect with God as the perfect father.  At this station, I invite you to sit before the portrait and images and consider what it means for God to be the perfect Father.  The Lord’s Prayer invites us to speak directly to God as Father, and we are invited to be a part of His family.

Yours in Christ

Karen

 

Op Shop & Little Lambs an Expression of God's Love

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In our Minster parish blessing one another and our community is the first part of our  framework for life together . One of the most obvious ways in which we do this is through our Op shop and Little Lambs ministries. I do not have the stats on numbers readily to hand however it is clear that each week we provide for several hundred people in one way or another. Talking with Judith Bryce I estimated that we shift close to a metric tonne of clothes to the seafarers and prison over a year! This does not include  all that is actually bought at our op shop.

These services to our community are  only possible through  dedicated teams of volunteers led by Judy Bletchynden ( Op shop)and Jennifer Monahan ( Little Lambs).  Through the Op shop and Little Lambs, we are seeking to first be good news to our community.

However, this is not the best we can offer our community. The best we can offer our community is an introduction to Jesus. Ultimately it is for each person to decide if they want to explore or pursue a relationship with Jesus. However, we are encouraged by Jesus himself to go and make the invitation and to show the kingdom of God in our lives, in our actions , and in signs, wonders, and words. We cannot do this if we ourselves are not engaged in that transformative relationship  secured increasingly in God’s love for us. Alpha has helped us with this. Serving in Op shop and Little Lambs is an expression of it.

So once again I want to record my thanks to all who are involved in these ministries.  May you be blessed as you have blessed others.

Shalom

Jamie