Westserve

Weekend Speaking Report

The weekend speaking opportunity in Coonabarabran was a great time.
The occasion was the annual weekend away for Lightning Ridge Community Church (Anglican). Rick & Danielle Maude pastor the congregation, and it was also a great chance to catch up with them and their rapidly growing family.
There was about 33 adults and a bunch of kids on the weekend, and the title of the talks was “What is it our church needs the most”. Gary’s answers to that question were a tad off the mark, and in reality, the answer I addressed was that we needed a deeper, richer understanding of God, and that is best expressed in our prayer life. So fundamentally, I was speaking on prayer.

Lightning Ridge is a pretty extraordinary place. It is probably best known for the opal mining activity around the town, but a semi-permanent population of around 8,000 now calls the town home. But that figure needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as anecdotally, the population fluctuates wildly over th3e course of the year, and it seems whenever the ATO wants to know, the population of the town mysteriously reduces by several thousand!
On the church front, Rick and Danielle have to cope with a congregation that dwindles by half in the summer months, on top of the fact that many people who do connect with the church, only stay in the town for short periods of time.

A tough place to minister the gospel and build a church.

But I have to say that the people I met on the weekend were just great! From many and varied backgrounds, they seemed keen to learn from the Word, and I was accepted in the group very quickly.
I was particularly impressed by their willingness to really think through how to apply the Bible to their life.

Please join me in praying for the work of the gospel in the Ridge, and the people who form the church there. Pray for:

• wisdom in working out how to share Jesus with the town.
• more godly men and women with ministry gifts to move there.
• for patience, energy and a dependence on God for Rick, Danielle and the rest of the church.
• and pray that they would get to know God in a deeper, richer way through prayer and the Word.