Last Sunday’s services were absolutely fantastic, as we witnessed baptisms in the morning, and had our pre-Easter celebration in the evening. There were so many aspects of the services that were encouraging. As I pointed out on Sunday morning, it was encouraging to have young people being baptised prior to Easter camp rather than our usual post Easter camp baptisms (not that we value these any less). We need to acknowledge and encourage our youth pastors and the many faithful youth leaders who are seeing spiritual growth in the lives of our young people.

I also appreciated the musical drama reminding us of Satan’s continual attempts to ensnare us in his lies and deceit. The acting and dance was very professionally done, and I learnt after the service that our drama team had developed the script themselves under the leadership of Bek Reddin. This was a fantastic effort and we’d encourage the team to work on more productions for the future.

The services were a great way to prepare for Easter and the joy of remembering we have a Saviour who forgives sin and changes people’s lives! The testimonies we heard at the baptisms in the morning, and the impacting “cardboard testimonies” in the evening, remind us of the power of the gospel to transform lives no matter our circumstances in life. Our God is all-powerful and all-gracious, and He can and will, touch and change any person’s life that is willing to put their faith and trust in Him.

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are not only the foundation of Christianity but are at the very heart of God’s plan of salvation. Our faith is not based upon a set of dos and don’ts or various rules, regulations, rituals, practices or traditions. Rather it is based upon the person of Jesus Christ and His obedience and humility – coming to earth as a man to live in very humble circumstances, experiencing degrading humiliation and injustice, and then to suffer horribly by being tortured and crucified. In going through all of this, Jesus Christ secured forgiveness of sin and right standing with God for all who trust in Him.

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on Sunday was the completion of God’s plan of salvation and opened the way for us to have life beyond the grave. He was completely victorious in what he set out to do and now as Christians we rest in his work of gaining our salvation. Forgiveness of sin, holiness, acceptance, justification, righteousness, peace and rest are all ours in Christ. No wonder we celebrate Easter and the death and resurrection of our Saviour who has worked out our salvation! He is alive and so too are we in Christ!

Praise God for we shall live eternally because of Jesus,

Brian

Cebu city in the Philippines is a very busy place - more like a downtown Sydney than an Adelaide. A big difference is that it is left hand drive in the car, with no traffic lights, and no road rules. Simply put, this means first in first served when you come to an intersection. Consequently the traffic can only be described as chaotic - everyone skilfully weaves about trying to get across each intersection. In a city of 3.5 million people (who all seem to meet together at once at the same intersection) with everyone honking their horns, it definitely makes for entertaining driving! Julio has taken to getting me to sit in the front because it’s safer in the back!

In contrast to the traffic, the worship here has been an absolute delight to experience! Orphaned children and the poorest of the poor gather to give thanks to God for His rich blessings. Julio told me that people don’t often complain here, despite their circumstances. This attitude makes it difficult to understand the attitude of Christians in Australia complaining - and often about the church. At one place we sat outside to worship with about 100 people who were either orphaned children, or the very poor, living on the streets. It began to rain, but instead of running for non-existent shelter everyone remained where they were. The leader stood up, and commanded the rain to stop in Jesus name - and it did!

One of the privileges I have especially enjoyed was gaining access to Cebu City prison. I felt like a fish in a fishbowl as the prisoners all came to the front of their wired cells to look out at the western visitor. The Christian prisoners gathered to worship with hundreds of prisoners watching, and they sang with such devotion it brought tears to my eyes. I was a bit nervous when I was invited to say a few things and was introduced as Bruce Willis of Australia… unfortunately you tend to stand out here with a bald head! I met a converted gang leader, who had formerly been a notorious criminal, and was now an imprisoned Pastor. When the members of his gang escaped from prison, all the members of his gang had been shot dead by police and he was the only one to survive. As a believer in Christ, he now faithfully ministers to ‘a captive audience’. I rejoiced at being able to give him a variety of gospel tracts I’d taken into the prison.

Another impacting moment was when I was invited to visit the homes of people in one very poor area. It was humbling to be invited into the simplest of squatters’ shacks that were thoroughly clean despite their poverty. Most homes were the size of a small Australian bedroom, divided into a couple of tiny rooms to allow a small space to sleep. I didn’t ask to see the primitive toilets that I could smell. What surprised me most was how happy the Christians were - in spite of such poor conditions - as they warmly greeted me and thanked me for coming.

Remember this Sunday night (28^th) is the special “Easter comes early at EBC” service. It’s a great opportunity to invite family and friends who might not normally come to church.

God bless the poor

Thirty minutes after landing in the Philippines today (Tuesday) I learned I had a new best friend in local Adelaide MP Pat Conlon. I learned that Mr Conlon’s pre-election advertising included a picture of Sandy George and myself standing next to the EBC community bus. Sandy had written a caption for the picture thanking Pat for his assistance in helping us get the bus. It appears a local radio station picked up on the picture and caption and went to work endeavouring to make some negative story out of an MP providing ‘Baptists’ with a bus. I’ve since read the radio transcript, which appears to be a lame attempt at best, by 5AA commentators, to introduce an American style religious debate into State politics.

In response I’d like to clarify a few things to our church family in case anyone has got the wrong idea. Firstly, we as a leadership do not endorse any political party or individual. Secondly, I believe it is entirely appropriate for me to publicly thank any MP, on behalf of EBC, for their assistance to us as a church serving the local community. Thirdly, I trust God with the outcome, of what appears to be an attempt by the media to criticise an MP during an election, for supporting a local church, this may in turn have cast EBC and myself in a negative light. God is big enough to use even this to allow us to become better known in our community. (I’m beginning to feel like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor!)

Fourthly, it never ceases to amaze me how desperate the media can be to create a story out of nothing! Finally please be aware we are in a spiritual battle and Satan will always directly oppose God’s work that is having an impact. Pray!

Now to what I really want to write to you about - the Philippines (politics always gets in the way)! Having arrived in Cebu it appears to have a reasonable sized middle class, as demonstrated by the number and type of vehicles on the roads. However there is also an obvious majority of poor people, evidenced by the myriad of meagre road side stalls and basic, small, tin roofed homes.

As we drove around I was surprised to see a number of buildings belonging to churches and Christian organisations with their advertising boldly proclaiming their beliefs. In contrast, one thing I noticed by its absence, were no idols, temples or offerings on street corners, which is very unusual for an Asian country. This is a ‘Christian’ country with great opportunities to serve the poor and share the gospel. Please pray as I continue exploring…

Time to catch another Jeepney,

Brian.

This weekend please remember to partner in prayer with Dave Vaughan and Grant Zippel as they serve as Chaplains at the Clipsal. The team that prayed for the event, as we walked around the track, had quite an enjoyable prayer-walk with them on Monday - in spite of the inclement weather. It was great to meet a number of their contacts, including Jason the CEO of Clipsal, who thanked us all for praying for the event. The positive response of the Clipsal organisers to the prayer team was a great reflection of the respect and credibility Dave has built up over a number of years. Praise God for intentional and Godly influence of this kind! - That’s making an Impact!

This Monday, Julio and I are heading off to the Philippines for 2 weeks. While we are there we will be visiting: an orphanage, two churches, a hospital, a home-based Sunday school, a children’s feeding-program and the House of Hope drug rehabilitation centre.

The purpose of the trip is to determine if this is where God is leading us as a church - to partner with these Filipino ministries. We have so many skills and abilities in ministries here that could also be utilised in partnership abroad. We obviously have a natural association with the Philippines already, with a large number of our congregation having a Filipino background. It is exciting to think we may be able to establish a long-term overseas ministry relationship that would enable us to send teams to visit these ministries on short-term mission trips. This in turn would benefit both us and our Filipino partners – in providing assistance to them and exposure and training opportunities for our people.

Your prayer support as we seek God’s guidance is essential, to ensure we keep in step with God’s Spirit and are identifying the right country, regional locations and the right ministries.

Look forward to seeing you this Sunday

The animal farm visited the church grounds this week as a small number of farm animals were brought in to allow a group of children and their mums to pat the animals. I thought this was a brilliant idea by the Little Royals committee. Not so much because it gives children exposure to farm animals they might not otherwise get, but more importantly because it allowed for a connection of unchurched families with Christians from church.

I heard that just over 40 families were represented at this small farming expose, which is a fantastic result for a small event. I am very excited about things like this because it helps to establish CONNECTION with people and connection can lead to CONVERSATION and conversation can lead to COMMUNICATION and communication can mean an opportunity to present the good news of the gospel, little by little, in a respectful and gentle way. Congratulations Little Royals organisers on creating an opportunity to connect with the unchurched!

This event also reminded me that as a church we need to be focusing on areas of strength in our attempt to create opportunities to connect with others and with so many young families in the church this is certainly one obvious area of strength.

I think we need to acknowledge, celebrate and pray for these steps of connection with the community because they can be few and far between and let’s face it; it’s hard to get unchurched people to attend anything to do with church. Our challenge is to demonstrate, to a highly sceptical community, that we are not wacky (well most of us aren’t) and we enjoy doing normal things. Let us together look for opportunities to get connected, in order that we might build friendships - and as a result share our Christian faith in a relaxed and informal but highly effective manner.

All of this sits well with our current sermon and study series on Jesus attitude of acceptance towards people. The gospels demonstrate that Jesus met and accepted people right where they were in life and it was into these ‘ordinary’ circumstances he demonstrated acceptance, love and eternal hope.

Remember to pray for Dave Vaughan and Grant Zippel as they are involved in Motorsport chaplaincy at the upcoming Clipsal, another great opportunity to connect with and support people in the community.

Celebrating community connection