Firebrandz Worship Night - God's Will

January 29, 2014

Speaker: John Duiker

The first Firebrandz Set Free Worship Night for 2014 was filled with singing to Akekho Ofana Nojesu and receiving our spiritual cookie from our speaker, John Duiker.

John spoke of the importance of conforming to the will of God and living in His will. In giving our lives to Jesus, we have to keep surrendering to Him, keep walking in the light, and not hold back. We cannot profess God with our lips and deny Him in our lives, said John, and that God is with us wherever we are, we just have to turn to Him.

This Month's Special:

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, 

plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with HOPE. 

- Jeremiah 29:11 

On Sunday Luxuries and Moving Days

By Pat Pagulayan

Being able to come to the Moving Day last Sunday, January 19, has been a humbling experience and a huge blessing for me. Doing shift-work usually means having to work on weekends, and having a Sunday off is considered a luxury. Might I say, last Sunday was definitely a luxury well-spent.

I have heard quite a lot about what occurs during Moving Day, but none of what I’ve heard reflects the magnitude of the time, effort, and dedication that is being put into making these Moving Days even possible. From renting a van, picking up items from houses, organising the cars, gathering people and directing them, to the non-stop ringing of phones, flipping through different addresses, determining the routes to be taken, deciding which items go to which family, and a whole lot more going on in the background that I’m not even aware of. The list goes on and on; and regardless of how thorough I describe the events that occurred prior to us even leaving the church, it doesn’t do justice to the extent of what needed to be done on that day. It was even more difficult last Sunday as we had to do it without the help of Man with a Van, a removalist company that volunteers their time and resources in helping deliver these goods to the refugees’ homes.

As I stand there in the middle of the chaos, I got reminded of how amazing God has provided for this cause. He not only gathered strangers (well, majority of us only met that day), but He has also found a way to appeal to people’s hearts to donate their mattresses, couches, and other household items. I honestly never thought they’d be able to fill up a van and a trailer to the brim! Although we “first-timers” were like headless chickens running around, not knowing what to do, we were able to effectively work together, under the guidance of the people who know what they were doing. All of these material and human resources combined, we were able to successfully deliver mattresses, couches, clothing, kitchen items, etc. to 12 families!

And oh my, are these families grateful! They would let us in their humble abodes, offering us whatever food or drink they have (one family even gave us cordial to drink from wine glasses!). They’re very welcoming and hospitable. They delight on whatever we had to give them, even if at times, it may not be enough. Their gratefulness humbled me. There they were, thankful with what they could receive, while I whinge about mundane things. There they were, grateful that 6 of them would no longer be sharing a single electric fan on these 40°C hot summer days because we’ve given them more fans, while I complain that the air conditioner in my unit is not cool enough. This Sunday, God taught me to be mindful of the many blessings that He has showered upon me, and that maybe, it’s time to give back.

Indeed, a Sunday day-off is a luxury to me, but it is not a luxury for me to have, but a luxury for me to give. And by the looks of it, that Sunday is the first of many more Sundays to come.

Ambitious

By Jack Chui

Last Tuesday at our first STAY cell group for the year I asked the few members that were able to come (young adults seem to take long holidays over Christmas/NY...) what they would like to do for our ministries in 2014. It was an opportunity to hear and take on board a new way of doing things that would be better than my own way - because it can seem that I have asserted my own way of doing things as the seemingly sole leader of STAY. Now that we have an army of willing members, we can do so much more than just me leading everything. So below, I'll summarise our ministries and our aims for 2014 - and includes some other items which I had not brought up on Tuesday.

STAY Cell Group (Fellowship, Discipleship)
*IMPORTANT* - we are trying a new start time of 6:30pm - 8:30pm to better fit the working schedule.

The format for cell groups will remain before but with a few additions:

• 6:30pm - 7:00pm -- Open sharing / Check in + a song or 2 in praise & worship leading into Opening prayer
• 7:00pm - 8:00pm -- Alternating weeks of bible sharing and topic. The topic can be a video teaching with sharing afterwards
• 8:00pm - 8:30pm -- Closing prayer with more intercessory prayers, annoucements and pack up

I'll need to encourage the members to take turns to lead/facilitate especially when the group needs to be split up for the middle sharing section. Nothing discussed about period dinners or about male/female split of sharing now and then.

Friends of Refugees Outreach (Service/Ministry)

Normal schedule of activities to remain over a 5 week Sunday afternoon cycle:

• 1st Sunday -- Detention Centre Visit
• 2nd Sunday -- Rest
• 3rd Sunday -- Refugee House Visits
• 4th Sunday -- Moving Day
• 5th Sunday -- Rest

Moving Day will continue as long as there is a need for large material items to be given to the new settlers but his may with the reduction of refugees entering Australia wind down such that the larger charities can meet the needs.

In addition or replacement if needs be to the above, we wish to start English tuition/classes for the refugees nearer to their homes. We tried this once including employment services at St. Augustine's but it did not get off the ground after a reasonable first week. This will require learning materials development but also more consistent support that is weekly rather than monthly for the English learning to be of best use. To meet this I am thinking of garnering the support of the local parishes in the areas where the refugees live to find more laborers for the vineyard.

Firebrandz Worship (Worship, Evangelisation, Discipleship)

Monthly Wednesday evening Worship nights will remain as is with the format to be led by the Spirit. This has in the past included P&W followed by a talk or testimony. To enhance the worship the following 2 ministries will be set up:

• Choir - Firebrandz/STAY will start a choir to ultimately play for Firebrandz worship nights and also at Sunday masses at St. Augustine's. This has kicked off before even writing this with the debut to be on Sunday 12th January to fill in for the regular musicians taking a break after Advent.
• Dance - A new initiative to bring a little known ministry of liturgical dance back into action. Starting practice after Choir practice becomes less regular, this ministry will help lift the Firebrandz worship nights.

Communications / Marketing (Evangelisation)

We have started several channels of communication over the last 6 months so here is a list with their initial strategies:

• Email - the formal channel for annoucement of events/ministry
• Website/Blog - the official website to store information which can be shared to the public. I wish to promote more sharing of reflections/events to be written by different people
• Facebook Group - secondary to the website but allows members to share online material
• Whatsapp - for quick more personal-wide messaging

Did not talk about adverstising or maintaining existing notices in bulletins or on the AOY website.

Pray for STAY (Corporate Intercessory Prayer)

This was not discussed on Tuesday but was a monthly gathering over Skype for the leaders to intercede for STAY and its members along with other personal intentions. After a prayer session on Wednesday night, it was decided to make this a more regular opportunity because the spiritual growth and fruits of STAY and its related ministries all stem from prayer.

PRAY for STAY will now be open to anyone who wishes to dial in and pray, every Monday evening over Skype with the possibility of improvement such as meeting in person and praying in the park.

STAY & Firebrandz Retreats (Fellowship, Discipleship)

Father Victor the parish priest of St. Augustine's has offered to lead a retreat for STAY and we are looking to take this opportunity with a retreat over the weekend during Lent or Easter season. My tentative date for this is late May as there is also plans for a Firebrandz retreat around November 2014 and so space the retreats apart. A team will need to be formed organise such one off events.

Helping in Mass / Church BBQs (Service)

To give back to the wider community, it is desired to have more young people participate and help in mass. The Firebrandz choir is the start of this and there are some helping out as readers and Eucharistic ministers. The aim is that one and no more than 2 Sunday's a month, the STAY group will bless with Sunday mass with its aid by serving in the mass.

Another service to the church which STAY used to support was BBQ lunches after morning mass. We did not host any BBQ's last year but it is something the group can do to build the parish community by gathering people after mass over food. My plans for this would be to host 2 and no more than 3 such BBQ's. The dates we have used in the past is Pentecost Sunday (early June) and St. Augustine's Feast Day (nearest Sunday in late August). A BBQ early on in the year to welcome people to STAY/St. Augustine's or a BBQ during Advent to celebrate the year could be options for the 3rd BBQ.

-- END LIST --

That is a lot to do... and at times it seems daunting to me when I see everything that we do and are going to do all laid out like this. I also forgot to ask whether there was anything else we can do...

But lets remember Matthew 9:37-38

"Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."