It's time to think and pray about 2011!

December seems to have gone by in a rush. For the Boloco Church community there has been a lot of activity in everyone's lives and it has been great to get the Children's Centre erected - now we just have to find some continuing clear weather to paint it.

Christmas eve saw St James Boloco packed with people to celebrate the gift of Jesus and His birth. The new sound system helped the congregation sing the Christmas songs following the readings of the Old and New Testament. With this post are a few photos taken on the evening.

We look forward to a New Year of growth in our relationship with Jesus and as a community of faith.

Boloco Church Children's Holy Spirit Centre or Kid's Bible/Gospel of Jesus Cabin

It has been an exciting time at Boloco church as we have had a number of people sharing how God speaks and what He is doing in their lives. We all have been encouraged by everyone's stories and the great verse from James 4:8 - "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you", stands out.

Rain seems to have been unstoppable on the Monaro after 20 years of drought. Thank you God for the amazing rain! We were concerned this week that the little cabin that is being erected at Boloco Church would not be able to be put up in all the rain. The guys from Sydney who came to erect the cabin were delayed because of flooding in Queanbeyan and Canberra but God was gracious as the sun came out when the men arrived and it stayed fine until they completed the work at lunchtime on the 10th December.

The cabin is wonderful and will be a great resource for the children. Have put in a few photos of the construction process. We will have a working bee to paint and do some internal work on 18th December

More on Hearing God's Voice

Sunday 14th was a 12 pm service at Boloco and we adapted morning prayer for the meeting. Kate gave a message on Qualifications for Heaven. It was very special to have Peggy back from her trip to Israel and she will give a bit of an overview of what she saw and learnt there next Sunday - 24th.

One of the significant books we have been reading in the past week is Entering the Presence of God by Derek Prince. It is a wonderful book that focuses on the area of worship - something that, to date, I have had limited understanding. Derek's book says that he describes "the progression that will lead us, step by step, into the very presence of God where we may hear His voice and find rest in His arms." To hear God's voice, we need to spend time with Him - in prayer and in His Word. In the day to day challenge of life, it struck me how difficult it is to do this and to find quiet time to spend in God's presence. I know that when I can do this, many things become more clear and I am able to listen to God and more clearly receive Spirit to spirit communication. We will talk about this more next Sunday.

An exciting development is the establishment of a "worship team". We had a preliminary meeting and introductory practice at Bruce and Gill Wilson's with Andrew Shumack last week and had a strong sense of the presence of God as we played and sang. We will continue to meet and practise so that as a church we can all develop a greater sense of worshiping God.

We are on a journey of faith "the assurance of things hoped for, the substance of things not yet seen" (Hebrews 11:1). By sharing our journey together (and Gill Wilson is going to share some of her recent story next weekend) we can all grown together as the body of Christ.

Hearing God's Voice - November 7th, 2010

For many of my years as a Christian, I had no idea that you could hear His voice. It is only in the last 7 years that I have become very aware of God's voice and like any relationship, it is easier to hear a voice when you are close and have cultivated intimacy.

Over the next few weeks at Boloco church we will be looking at how to hear God's voice. This is an essential area for all Christians and as James says (James 4:8) "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you". The essential point here is that we need to spend time drawing near to him.

The presentation from the Sunday meeting can be viewed as a pdf file on the following link (simply right click on the file and open it in a new window on your web browser). The message from Sunday morning also can be listened to by going to the Listen tab of this site and then Sunday Talks.

Hearing God's Voice - Sunday Nov 7

First real post from New Zealand

Hi there Boloco church family

Posting this first blog from NZ where Kate and I are in the Marborough region after some work in Wellington. It is a short trip by ferry across Cook Strait and we have been having a couple of days break. One great thing we have done is to work on our family goals using Patrick Lencioni's book The Three Critical Questions for a Frantic Family. It is a great resource and helps to provide clarity about where to focus as a family: what makes your family unique and what is most important to have the greatest impact. We have found this really helpful in beginning to clarity what we feel God is calling us to in this next phase as we move back to the farm.

Patrick Lencioni is a Christian business consultant in the USA who has had an extraordinary impact on businesses and has used some of the principles to impact family life. I have included the link to his website which also contains some information about the model he uses:

http://www.tablegroup.com/books/frantic/


We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday and starting the next phase of our life with no more travel to work in Sydney. While here, we found this wonderful card which we have included on this first blog - it could easily also be "facing the Son and heading into the wind"


Love to all
Kate and Reuben