The Hunter Region keeps on delivering. Today we went out door-knocking the neighbourhood in an effort to build bridges between Maitland Evangelical Church (MEC) and the community. Where we did have open doors, we were received warmly with most of the community receptive to a flyer and greeting at the least. Matt Stone was engaged in an almost hour-long conversation with a member of the community who was open to chatting about spiritual matters, Jesus and the church.
We spent the 2nd half of the morning setting up for MEC’s Mission focused ‘Kindle’ event. It aims to reignite, as it were, the fire for evangelism amongst the community. The oil torches were brought out, the fire pit set up, and the necessary atmospheric feature to every modern Christian event – fairy lights. The format of the event is a hybrid fruit of COVID-19 times with a 40-odd live audience and then the rest of the church tuning in through live stream with their home groups. Our mission teams’ vibe experts came out to play and flourish in their gifting.
Some of the team went with Roger Burgess, the lead pastor of MEC, to the Maitland Ministers Association to gain insight into the regional collaboration efforts and dynamics of the region.
God blessed the ‘Kindle’ event with an encouraging testimony from Julian Yin interviewed by Marion Guthrie. Hosea Luy developed and ran the night in collaboration with the MEC team. Many were very encouraged and spurred on by the talk he gave and accessible training.
Tomorrow starts early with Hosea and Julian being taken on a lycra-clad road cycling tour of Maitland by Steve from the MEC staff team. The team will then be given a masterclass on Youth ministry by Erich who’s also on the MEC team. Zaneta Neal and Marion Guthrie from our team will be joining a panel of other women sharing about True Joy found in Jesus at the evening event “Holy Guacamole”, an evangelistic women’s event.
Please pray in thanks for the Kindle event tonight and how well it was run. Please pray that the members of MEC would continue to be encouraged to evangelise and witness to their friends and family. Give thanks for the teamwork involved tonight and please pray for continued energy and unity for the college team.
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