The Winding Road of Preparation

We had our first mission meeting last week. 99% attendance and the other 1% was extremely apologetic - a pretty good start

One of the things that strikes me each time we start preparing for mission is the number of apparently meaningless things which seem to occupy our time at the start. For example - what do we call mission, a kids club or a kids mission. We're all so keen to do mission that the work leading up to the week seems torturous. But that's mission I guess. While bringing people to know and trust Jesus is important and exciting it often doesn't happen without hard work and planning.

So it is to planning we go. Posters and flyers will soon be shooting off the presses and out the north west of NSW. The drama is being written, or at least thought through. The talks are being planned and written. The craft is being... well its being dreamt up. Trying to keep our eye on the prize will help with motivation. So will prayer. We'd love if you could pray for the following things this coming week:

• For rain to fall on the rural parts of NSW, including the community of Tambar Springs;


• Please pray that advertising for the week will reach the kids of the community and they will be able to come for the week;


• Please pray for the provision of appropriate transport for the week;


• Praise God for the great first meeting we had; and


• Please pray that we will remain a team focussed on our mission to bring Jesus to the kids of Tambar Springs.

Prayer

In Exodus we are told the story of God's sustaining power.

For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD

While Moses held his hands up in prayer to the Lord the Israelites continue to defeat the Amalekites. But as soon as his hands fall and his prayer is broken they begin to lose.

So too do we depend on the sustaining power of the Lord to prepare and run mission.

Each week we will publish prayer points for mission. We would love for you to bring us before the Lord in prayer.

Here are this week's prayer points:

• For Stephen Mugridge as he begins preparing the infants and primary talks. Particularly pray that he would choose good biblical accounts which develop our overall theme of prayer.
• For our first meeting on Tuesday 24 April 2007. Please pray that we are able to map out the way forward.
• For Ed David as he prepares the mission's budget and considers how we can cut our costs from last year.
• For the Australian rural community, especially the Tambar Springs community as they battle with drought. Please pray that God would send rain.

Choice

Matthew 27:15-17 describes the following account:

Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"

They choose Barrabas.

It's clearly the wrong decision. Faced with a peace loving teacher who only seeks to challenge the thinking of a nation, the people of Israel choose a muderous rebel.

Our reaction as twentieth century readers is to cry foul, to be struck with astonishment at the foolishness which had gripped the Jewish people of the time.

But here's the thing - making bad choices isn't resticted to the past. We make them all the time - Sunrise or the Today Show, Iemma or Debnam, Scruch or fold.

The God of the bible challenges us that the biggest choice we must make is whether we choose to follow Jesus.

This year our mission will be built on the theme of CHOICE. Our talks, drama, memory verses and craft will centre on this theme of choice. Hopefully many of the kids will want to choose Jesus.

Act 2:12 says:

"...everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved"

A little bit about Tambar Springs, NSW Australia

Tambar Springs is located in north west New South Wales Australia.

While the exact population of Tambar Springs at this moment is unknown many estimate it is in the range of 80 - 110.

There are a number of members of the community who live in town but the majority of community members actually live away from the town centre on rural properties.

The current popular visiting places are:

• The General Store


• The Pub (not surprisingly)


• The Church

The only active church is found at St Marks Tambar Springs, part of a parish that also includes the nearby towns of Premer and Mullaley. The current vicar is John Chalker.

This town is part of the beautiful Australian outback.

"Yarrandoo" (copyright - pdc 2006)

In the beginning...

Welcome to the Tambar Springs 2007 Mission Blog!

This blog will give you an idea of what we are doing for this year's mission to the NSW country town of Tambar Springs and why we are doing it.

For starters here is something on our motivation:

"For while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

This blog came into being at 8:03am on Monday 16 April 2007. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I will update it so that anyone interested can stay in touch with what is happening as we plan for mission.